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The opening of this anime is full of references. I've caught all of them
except this one. What is the meaning of this and in which language is it
written?

[![last scene of Neon Genesis Evangelion
OP](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Eem5f.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Eem5f.jpg)


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neon-genesis-evangelion
What is written in the last scene of the Neon Genesis Evangelion opening?


It's an image of what is referred to in the show as the [Dead Sea
Scrolls](http://wiki.evageeks.org/Dead_Sea_Scrolls), or specifically the
Secret Dead Sea Scrolls, which are the blueprint that SEELE use to implement
the Human Instrumentality Project.

That said, the inscription looks suspiciously more like impressionistically-
drawn kanji than any of the Aramaic or Hebrew I can find on Google. For
example, the first two characters bear a pretty close resemblance to 天使, or
"angel".


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As already mentioned in [ConMan's
answer](https://anime.stackexchange.com/a/39191/2516), it's an image of [Dead
Sea Scrolls](http://wiki.evageeks.org/Dead_Sea_Scrolls), or specifically the
Secret Dead Sea Scrolls in the show.

Dead Sea Scrolls were [real
things](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Sea_Scrolls), and they were written
mostly in Hebrew, and some in Aramaic. However, the shown text doesn't have
any similarities to both of them. Although some of the characters look like
Japanese characters (e.g. 天,丸,乙,せ,き), they were not written in Japanese either
(it doesn't have any meaning).

Researching this further, it seems **it's written in some kind of[ _Angelic
Script_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celestial_Alphabet)**. Some of the
real-world examples are Celestial (previous link),
[Malachim](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malachim) ( _angels_ , or
_messengers_ ), and [Transitus
Fluvii](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transitus_Fluvii) (or _Passage Du
Fleuve_ ). Note the similarities: the shape, and **dots at the end of the
strokes**.

> [![angelic
> script](https://i.stack.imgur.com/tjNP8l.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/tjNP8.jpg)
>
> Image courtesy of [CirqueDeTruth on AboveTopSecret
> forum](http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread1066233/pg2#pid19311848)

Considering the similarity, and also the script's reference to _Angel_ (this
series has many references to _Angel_ , nonetheless), it seems to be written
in _Angelic Script_. However, there are no same characters with any of these,
so it might be just another Angelic Script created specifically for this
series, (or _Japanese characters written in Angelic Script_ , who knows).
Hence, **the meaning is also not yet known**.

\--

Reference: [Japanese Yahoo!
Answers](http://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q1128369141)
for mentioning 天使文字【てんしもじ】 ( _tenshi moji_ , or _Angelic Script_ )


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