Where do the angels come from?

Question

The plot of NGE starts with the first angel "Sachiel". But where do the angels who are attacking the earth come from?

Also where were all angels before they came to Japan/Tokyo? And why do all angels go to Japan?

Answer 1

Purely within what we see in the NGE TV series, the Angels came from "Adam", the first Angel on Earth. They came from something similar to the geofront (the black moon) that they call the "white moon". Episode 21 goes into the history of Nerv and there's some more exposition in episode 23 when Ristuko tells Misato and Shinji and shows them the tank filled with Rei clones.

Basically, the "eggs" and "souls" of the Angels were with Adam in the white moon. Lilith's arrival on the planet was kind of an accident (episode 24: "false successors from the black moon." and "true successors from the lost white moon."). At some point, something happened with Adam and Lilith and Adam ended up getting a lance through the back which put Adam in suspended animation. This yielded the way for Lilith to populate the planet with what resulted in animals and eventually homo sapiens. During the Katsuragi expedition (episode 21), scientists woke up Adam and eventually caused 2nd impact and that started the chain of events which started the Angel attacks.

More info was revealed in an NGE2 special file called the Classified information ("Classified" because within the game, these files were revealed through "hacking" the magi).

Using some of the extra resources, there's some more detailed theories about the Origin of the Angels, but in general, the basic idea is outlined above based on the TV series and EoE. Though the origin theory page contains some possible explanations on where the Angels were between 2nd impact and when Sachiel first appeared in 2015.

Beyond the question of how the other Angels were created, is the question of how they went from being created by Adam to where they first appeared in the year 2015. If the Angels were present in the "White Moon" of Adam in Antarctica when Second Impact occurred on September 13th, 2000...how did they reach the areas where they were first encountered? Were the embryos or seeds of the Angels "scattered" across the globe from Antarctica in the explosion of Second Impact?

• Sandalphon's first appearance is perhaps the most tantalizing, because Nerv actually discovers it before it starts attacking: Sandalphon is first discovered while in an embryo or cocoon-like immature state...deep inside the magma of an active volcano. Why it would first appear there of all places is unrevealed. Further, this raises the question: were all of the other Angels also hidden in other unaccessible parts of the world (volcanoes, deep ocean floor, etc.) "maturing" in a pupal state, before they attacked in 2015?
• Sahaquiel is the first of two Angels to appear in orbit (the second being Arael). However, it seems unlikely that Second Impact simply blew Sahaquiel's egg into orbit- Sandalphon emerged from its cocoon in Episode 10 at full adult size. Assuming Sahaquiel to be the same, it seems impossible that an object so huge could go undetected in Earth orbit for so long, while Sahaquiel was in a pupal state.
• Since it is never revealed where any of the Angels directly come from (except Sandalphon), Sahaquiel's cocoon was probably somewhere else on the Earth, perhaps in the desolate southern Indian Ocean near Antarctica, over which it was first discovered, and from where it could have launched itself into orbit undetected.
• Tabris, better known by his human name Kaworu Nagisa, represents a special case, and much has been discussed or speculated about his nature. All that is known for certain is that Seele sent Kaworu to Nerv, and that Kaworu serves as a "vessel" for the soul of Adam. How Seele acquired Kaworu is unknown. It has even been theorized that Kaworu was created by Seele (by inserting Adam's soul) and thus the last "naturally occurring" Angel was Armisael (this is of course unconfirmed).

Additionally, in the Evangelion Proposal, a set of documents created in 1993 that contains proposal and promotional material for the TV series.

Angels were originally meant to be creations of the First Ancestral Race, lying dormant in various secluded locations on Earth and the Moon. Rather than being scattered all over the world by Second Impact, they may have been purposefully hidden deep underground or underwater, escaping detection until they matured and began on their way.

Sachiel is actually designated the 3rd Angel. Adam being the first and also the progenitor of the rest of the Angels, except Lilith who had tne 2nd Angel designation but didn't come from Adam.

Not all the Angels attacked Tokyo-3, Gaghiel attacked the UN fleet out in the Pacific Ocean. And according to the classified info:

Two Seeds of Life are not needed on one planet, and, therefore, one of them is excluded. As recorded in the Secret Dead Sea Scrolls, Adam-based life took part in a contest of survival, putting the stakes on their own existence. Some of them were trying to access Lilith and reset all life, some of them had nothing in mind, and some were trying to recover their progenitor Adam. The Angels — Adam-based life — became active under their respective tactics for survival and success.

See also: - Angels