Shinseiki Evangelion

Since so many people have requested this over the years and as there's a new system in place I'm adding my 2009 review for this series which was originally posted on my blog here on MAL. The 2007 one was written in response to the obtuse fans that were here at the time, and it will remain after the review as removing it completely would serve no purpose.

It's also a reminder to me of something important.

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Neon Genesis Evangelion is one of the most debated animes in history. Some would argue that there are numerous hidden messages in the show, while others argue that it simply ... plays up to a certain puerile idealogy of the world. Whatever the case may be, NGE established itself as the hot topic in anime for well over a decade.

NGE first saw the light of day as a manga by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, and was published in Shonen Ace magazine from February 1994. It's purpose was to raise awareness and public interest in the anime version that was to be released in October of the following year.

The anime was directed by the famous Hideaki Anno, and is hailed by many fans as his masterpiece (although there are numerous people who disagree with this point of view).

Animation

The animation in NGE is actually very well done considering the time it was made (and the fact that Gainax was running out of cash). The colour palette used for the show was decidely bright in many ways, and at the time it contrasted well with the serious tone of the story.

The characters were well designed for the most part, but the real breakthrough in terms of design were the EVA units and the Angels. NGE pushed the boundaries of mecha design in anime to a new level, something which no other show of the time could achieve. It also wasn't afraid to show an enemy who had no visible relation to humans - something that was a rarity in those days (although Anno had used a similar technique in Top wo Nerae).

The animation in the show is generally very fluid, and although there are some notable flaws, they don't actually impede on the enjoyment of the show.

Sound

The sound in NGE is very good in general. The VAs in the japanese version are very good, and are able to deliver a greater depth of emotion than their american counterparts. The effects used are also quite good but never really stood out as much, partly because of the overwhelming visuals, and partly because they were generally stock effects. The music is generally good throughout the show, with a mixture of classical and other styles scattered here and there.

One of the most memorable things about the music in NGE is the theme tune. Anno had originally wanted to use Borodin's Polovetsian Dances as the theme music for each episode, but was overruled by TV Tokyo, who felt that this would confuse and alienate the audience. Instead he settled on what has become one of the most played anime theme tunes in history - A Cruel Angel's Thesis, which was performed by Takahashi Yoko.

Characters

This is the area where NGE failed as an anime. Prior to making NGE, Hideaki Anno had suffered from depression for a while, and the characters in NGE were created in such a manner as to reflect his struggle against mental illness. Each of the characters is flawed in different ways, something that was unusual in anime at the time. Given Anno's talent as a director, this should have led to some interesting, and highly original, character development. Unfortunately the show failed in this area because of one key factor - Ikari Shinji.

For many people like myself, the main issue we have with the show isn't the story, or the animation, or the sound. It's the characters, and in particular, Ikari Shinji. In creating him, Anno and the rest of the production team lost focus on the other characters. Shinji is not your typical hero in that he isn't, courageous, or handsome, or intelligent. In fact, Shinji consider's himself to be worthless. The issue I have is that the show focuses far too much on Shinji, almost to the extent where the other characters were simply plot devices for his devlopment, and not enough on the characters around him.

That's not to say Shinji is a bad character. He's not. The problem is that one can only stomach so much unjustified self pity (which unfortunately most of it was in his case), before wanting to slap some sense into the person in question. It's been pointed out to me that Shinji wanted to kill himself because he thought he was worthless, and that he should be pitied because of the bad hand he was dealt. I'm sorry but that argument doesn't wash with me. If someone truly wants to kill themselves then they will, so Shinji didn't really want to die. In addition to that, I know quite a few people who have been dealt the worst hands possible, yet they do not whine and complain about it (and many of these people did consider themselves to be useless/worthless at one time or another - yet they suffered in silence for the most part). What Shinji wanted was for people to pity him and tell him he wasn't worthless, and while this is not necessarily a bad thing, it was over-used in NGE (to the point where I wanted to put him out of his misery - and not because I pitied him). The fact that Shinji's character has a tendency to ram his sense of worthlessness into the faces of the other characters is what put me off, as that type of behaviour is usually for attention rather than a cry for help, and because of the show's focus on Shinji, you can imagine how much I wanted to hit him afterwards. It wasn't that I didn't understand, it was just that they failed to depict him as an object of pity, and instead he came across as a whining, self pitying, attention seeking, and generally loathesome person.

As for the other characters, in particular Rei and Asuka, they did get a certain amount of development throughout the series. Unfortunately though, their characters, as well as the rest of the cast, were overshadowed by the mammoth amount of development given to Shinji.

Story

I actually quite enjoyed the concept behind NGE, as it made a nice change of pace. I did, however, have some issues with the convenient deus ex machina of Unit 01, as well as a number of other "coincidences" that were scattered throughout the series.

The story itself isn't all that original, and it has clearly borrowed elements from other sci-fi stories. What made the story seem to be original was the inclusion of psuedo-religious and psuedo-philosophical concepts, as well as the inclusion of "Fruedian" psychology. These formed core elements of the story, so what would have been a standard "save the earth" scenario became a dive into the psyche of the characters. The basic plot is borrowed directly from Space Battleship Yamamoto, and the idea of "young" people protecting the earth was used by Anno himself in Top wo Nerae.

Unfortunately the story breaks down in several places. Anno tried to make a show that merged all perspectives into one single view, and while he managed to achieve this in some measure, he failed because he focused too much on Shinji, to the extent that no other options were ever considered.

Here's what I mean. NERV is a quasi militaristic outfit, and as such, would generally have backup options available to them. The convenient deus ex machina I mentioned earlier effectively removes all chance for anyone else to come to the fore - except for Shinji that is. If the viewer is to believe that an organisation such as NERV was supposed to protect the earth, then they would at the very least, look for other options, especially considering Shinji's character flaws. This would effectively mean that they would have at least some combat veterans or trained soldiers who could handle the EVA units. The use of teenagers as the leads in the show was simply so that it would appeal to the teenage audience.

Another area where the story breaks down is in it's use of religious symbology. Many fans believe that what is shown in NGE is taken directly from religious beliefs, in particular Kabbalism, Judaism and Christianity. While the names used in the show may be true to those religions though, in many cases the manner in which the reference is used is actually based on Anno's own definition, rather than the religious viewpoint (something for which Anno has been heavily criticised).

In truth, The religious symbology used in the show was only really used to give the series an edge over other "giant robot" anime (i.e. Macross, Gundam, etc), and all of the various interpretations since have been ascribed to it by the viewers rather than the creators (something which is very well documented).

One big plot hole that I noticed, and one that should have been obvious to most people as well, was Shinji's isolationist attitude, and Gendou's reaction to it. It's obvious to any who've watched the series that Gendou feels little sympathy towards Shinji, however due to that convenient plot device using Unit 01 I mentioned earlier, Gendou needs Shinji to pilot the EVA unit. So, what you effectively have is the leader of a militaristic organisation who feels little for others, and a teenager with supposed mental instabilities. This being the case, why wasn't Gendou forcibly dosing Shinji with meds to make him more compliant? If your purpose is to protect the earth and it's people from attack by extremely powerful beings, and you're basically a selfish person with your own agenda, then conscience or paternal instincts don't come into it, you simply do what's necessary, no matter what anyone else says.

It's interesting that the whole "psychology" angle is only really supposed to apply to Shinji, isn't it? Characters like Gendou have been "toned down" because their actions would have drawn too much attention to themselves, another convenient plot device.

Enjoyment

Neon Genesis Evangelion is a tough show to rate. According to Anno, if you're a normal, well rounded person then you won't learn anything from the show. While this may be true in some cases, the things that one can learn from the show are juvenile at best. Many of the older fans of NGE have a tendency to view the show through the rose tinted lenses of nostalgia, and while this is not a bad thing, it inhibits the ability to view the show objectively. Many of the younger fans, on the other hand, are fiercely loyal to the show, and have a tendency to react harshly to any criticism of the show. The unfortunate side effect of this is that the show has gained a certain notoriety that it could have done without, and many people who watch the show for the first time, do so with certain preconceived notions already embedded in their heads.

NGE is one of those shows that could have been great. Unfortunately the glaring flaws in the plot, coupled with the lack of develpment amongst the other characters in comparison to Shinji meant that I, at least, only found the show to be mediocre. NGE was a let down for me as I am a big fan of Top wo Nerae, the show that is effectively the older sibling to NGE (and is considered by quite a few people to be the superior show).

I'm not going to suggest anyone watches the show, as that is a decision you should make for yourself. Likewise the choice of whether you love it or hate it is something that only you can decide. The only thing I can say about the show is that, when watching it, be as objective as you can.

NGE is no Top wo Nerae by any measure, but it is a classic. Unfortunately, it really isn't Anno's best work, and the rebuild is making the same errors all over again.

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And here's the review that originally graced this page. It's a bit bilious and lowbrow, but it served it's purpose - which contrary to what you may think wasn't to simply to upset the "hardcore" fans.

Okay, I'm REALLY going to upset a lot of you out there with this review.

Neon Genesis Evangelion is one of the most mediocre animes I have EVER seen.

I watched this when it first came out, and I wasn't overly impressed with it to say the least.

The story is okay. The idea of earth being assaulted by unknown, quasi-supernatural/technological beings is one that has been handed down through the years, the most famous example being The War of the Worlds (which wins hands down by the way).

The animation was actually one of the few plus points for this anime. The art style and use of colour made this attractive to many when it was first released. The sound was also of a high standard, and the catchy J-pop intro jingle was forcibly lodged into many peoples craniums.

Now we get to the good part - the characters.

Ayanami Rei was okay as a character, but what on earth possesses everyone to raise Ikari Shinji to almost godlike status? The guy is biggest loser in anime (with the exception of Makoto for School Days - Nice Boat), and one of the biggest losers I have even seen in ANY story since Thomas Covenant. I honestly found myself wishing he was a real person so I could smack some sense into him. I've heard it mentioned that he is the most realistic character in the anime, and I have to wonder what planet the people who say such things were born on. I mean honestly.

Okay, rant over, here's why this character is THE MAIN REASON why this anime was mediocre. NERV is a military organisation whose SOLE objective is the protection of the planet, by whatever means. This being the case, WHY THE HELL is Ikari Shinji the main focus of the story? He doesn't want to pilot an EVA, and doesn't want to fight. Any self respecting organisation WOULD HAVE FOUND SOMEONE MORE WILLING AND MORE ABLE to do the job. There's such a fuss over how special Shinji is, but surely with 6 billion people on the planet there would be someone better equipped for the job.

But I understand the anime only had so much budget so they couldn't really conduct a global search.

The most believable character is Asuka Langley Soryu, as her reaction to Shinji's ineptitude and cowardice is similar to that of any reasonable person.

I'm not going to mention enjoyment as I've already made it clear that this was mediocre at best.

This wasn't Hideaki Anno's best work by far. Top wo Nerae (Gunbuster), was a far superior sci-fi anime, and the characters were MUCH more believable. The story for Top wo Nerae beats Neon Genesis Evangelion hands down.

As for his other works, watch Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou (KareKano or His & Her Circumstances). Hideaki Anno proved his talent with this anime, and Top wo Nerae, so I can only assume he was suffering from dementia when Evangelion was written.

A suggestion if I may, to end this rant. If you want emotion, trauma, passion, a great story, and all the rest, then watch some of the following animes:

Fullmetal Alchemist
Barefoot Gen
Flanders no Inu (movie)
Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid
NHK ni Youkoso!
Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou
Top wo Nerae
Grave of the Fireflies
Mushishi
Chrno Crusade

There's a lot more that fit the bill. Watch them, then re-watch evangelion and see if it has the same feeling it did before (I would advise removal of the fluffy pink clouds of nostalgia in your head before rewatching).

Some of you are probably wondering why I wrote this review if I dislike the show so much. The reason is simple. I'm sick to death of seeing the show aired on the various channels that show anime, and I'm even more fed up with the fact that newcomers to anime are indoctrinated by magazines and other people into liking this piece of tripe, especially when there are far superior animes out there that rarely get mentioned anywhere.

I'm going to end this review here. I'm not going to tell you all not to watch this. I just hope that this review makes you consider what actually IS good in anime.

I hope I haven't upset you all too much.

Mod Edit: This review may contain spoilers.
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People have been fighting over the merits of Neon Genesis Evangelion since its conception, engaging in an endless bloody war to decide whether or not the series is a masterpiece or overly-pretentious filth. Writing a review for Evangelion is pretty much just adding fuel to the fire, giving one side or another some extra ammo with which to demolish the opinions of the opposition. For that reason, I've decided to do something different with my Evangelion review. I'm actually going to write two reviews, one heralding Evangelion as a masterpiece and the other condemning it as mediocre bilge. I've ... put my full effort into both of them, trying to make each compelling. I believe that both reviews get down to the essence of why people either love or hate the show, and the goal is to let anyone pondering whether they should pick up this giant of the medium to really understand what they're getting into and whether or not it sounds appealing to them.

Without further ado, I present Neon Genesis Evangelion: Critic & Fanboy.

**The following review will explain why Neon Genesis Evangelion is overrated garbage.**

Neon Genesis Evangelion is one of the most popular anime of all time. It's shaped the entire medium for decades, inspiring countless other shows through its characters, story, and ideas. Many people have called it the "greatest anime ever made" and a "triumph". Its protagonist, Shiji Ikari, has been on the top of many character lists, and its ending is infamous. Most times when someone starts criticizing Evangelion they are promptly told that they just "don't understand what it's trying to achieve". Well, let me begin by saying this: I understand exactly what Evangelion was trying to achieve, I just think that it executes this attempt very poorly. Evangelion is a mecha show, yes, but it's really about the internal struggles of the characters: most noticeably depression, fear of rejection, and sense of self. It's attempting to criticize the anime crowd by telling them that they're filling their lives with hollow escapism as a substitute for meaningful human interaction, but it's also just trying to tell people in general that they have value as an individual and whatnot. But before we get into how it fails in this regard, let's talk about the more superficial stuff. Let's talk about the plot.

See, Evangelion seems to have the idea that if it's "meaningful" enough it doesn't matter if it doesn't have a well put-together story. If it discusses important ideas, its story can be a mess. Well, half of this is true: the story IS a mess. The premise assumes that only 14-year-old children can pilot giant robots. Why? Never touched on. Okay, so any 14-year-old in the world will do, right? Nope, it has to be the guy who's spearheading the whole project's son, who is also conveniently unwilling to do it. Why not find someone more willing and trained? Well, because his synchronization rates are off the charts, of course. Sounds like an awful lot of insanely contrived nonsense to me. To top it off, Shinji's dad hates him to make sure he has issues with opening up, although this is never explained either. It seems like if the fate of the world was going to be entrusted to my son, I would want to, you know, make sure he was emotionally stable even if I didn't like him. After setting off this ridiculous premise the show devolves into bland monster-of-the-week with minimal development for about half of its run, throws in some totally meaningless religious symbolism, bends the world around Shinji's problems more than SAO bends around Kirito, and then proceeds to turn all of its characters into tools for its single-minded purpose before ending with a slideshow of photographs of lamps and concept art with dialogue over top.

See, here's the thing. If I wanted someone to explain to me the philosophy behind the hedgehog's dilemma or to tell me that I needed to open up to other human beings, I could just consult wikepedia or go see a therapist. The reason I'm watching a TV show instead is because by using a story with elements that get me invested and characters that I can relate to it allows me to understand what I could have learned at face-value anywhere. I learn because I care. Evangelion, however, forgets this. It seems to think that if it just spews enough philosophy at the viewer that that will do the trick. Why should I care what the show is telling me? Because here's the thing: the ending isn't gibberish. It does mean something, it means something very specific. But it still fails completely because it fails to convey that in a way that engages the audience or demonstrates it through the use of a story. It abandons the story and gets all up in your face instead, and this ruins the impact and renders everything its saying unimportant.

Well then, what does the show accomplish? Sure, it has some nice action sequences, but these come at the expense of a lack of budget later in the show. The soundtrack is pretty standard, with some of the pieces even being pretty blatant ripoffs from other places (one person once showed me how one of the battle themes is nigh identical to a 007 song), and all we're really left with to convey what the show is trying to convey is the characters.

The characters from Evangelion get a lot of praise. Many consider them to be the greatest cast of all time. Shinji Ikari, wonder boy, has been tugged around as the epitome of male protagonists, and others like Asuka and Rei laid down the foundations for their archetypes. Let's talk about all three, one at a time.

Rei - Rei is a failed experiment. She was originally created by Anno (the director) as a way to demonstrate to the Otaku fanbase that their best girls and waifus were actually just emotionless unresponsive dolls that would never provide them with anything real. The sentiment is one thing, but the fact of the matter is it doesn't matter what Anno wanted to convey, what matters is the result of what he created. Rei actually became the very thing she was created to destroy, and was one of the most popular waifus ever made. She reinforced the idea she was meant to take down. Rei is an absolute disaster.

Asuka - Asuka is very nearly the origin of the tsundere. The trope may have existed before her, but she defined it and made it popular. The problem is, Asuka really isn't that well-written. It doesn't matter what ideas she was used to expressed, the fact of the matter is that the consistency of her character is weak and by the end she, along with many other characters, has been converted into a tool to be used by Anno to make his points. She ceases to feel like a person of her own, and exists only to reinforce the ideas conveyed by Shinji.

Shinji - The man himself, attacking Shinji's character is considered pretty taboo. However, in truth, Shinji is simply pretty mediocre. His character exists to repeat the same few ideas over and over ad naseum, and he receives very little characterization outside of this. By the end of the show almost everything we know about Shinji can be boiled down to "he's afraid of rejection", "he has daddy issues" and "he struggles with self-value and sense of self". While this is great and all, there's more to people than just their deep-seated issues and Shinji fails to display that.

So with all this in mind, what on earth sets Evangelion apart? What has kept the fanbase so alive and vocal for these twenty years while nearly everything else made around the same time has fallen into obscurity? I believe the answer is pretty simple: intensity. The ideas in Evangelion aren't unique. They're in plenty of other anime, portrayed in more well-developed and creative ways, but Evangelion drowns all of those out by being really goddamn loud about what it's saying. Its characters are screaming, crazed people. Its production is a wildly fluctuating mess. Its emotional intensity is unmatched, and it uses this to grab peoples attention and cause them to feel as if it is "raw" or "real" when really it's just very noisy. Neon Genesis Evangelion may be one of a kind, but that doesn't mean that it's some sort of incomprehensible masterpiece. It just means that its a broken, twisted thing that takes some pretty straightforward ideas and yells them until people pay attention, rarely managing to convey them in any powerful way. It's preachy, poorly-constructed, and will hopefully gradually fade into obscurity so that people stop having to feel as though they're obliged to watch it only to be told that they don't "get" it.

**And on the flip side, the following will explain why Neon Genesis Evangelion is an inspirational masterpiece, worthy of standing the test of time.**

Neon Genesis Evangelion: the words that can spark conflict amongst anime fans almost instantaneously, like pouring water on sodium. Many people believe that this medium giant is overrated, outdated, or simply not a very good show. Some people even deeply loathe it, frustrated with its convoluted presentation and rabid fanbase. Personally, however, the show is one of my favorites. I believe it continues to be relevant for a reason. I believe that Neon Genesis Evangelion has achieved what no show before or after it has managed, and perhaps what no visual medium has ever accomplished.

Neon Genesis Evangelion manages to truly capture the feelings of doubt, isolation, existential dread, and desire for human connection that come with being alive. It manages to express them in a way that is powerful enough to replicate the monumental weight that these matters place on us, and it manages to provide a simply, bittersweet yet beautiful answer to them.

The first thing you should know about Evangelion is that at face-value it isn't perfect. It has pacing issues, budget issues, and cracks in its plot that plague it all throughout its run. It seems to change moods quickly in its first half, and it doesn't always seem to care about all of the threads of its creation. However, I firmly believe that a polished version of the show would not be as effective. It's because it's so messy that it manages to draw you in. That messiness is relatable. The world is a confusing, difficult place, and so is Evangelion. Likewise, as it progresses into its second half and the internal struggles of its beautifully-crafted characters begin to swell up inside them and consume them, the show shifts its focus to accommodate this because that's what it feels like to the characters. The internal battles they are fighting are all-consuming things, far more important than what is happening at NERV headquarters, and the show demonstrates this by allowing the inner workings of their minds to consume the show itself and show you first-hand how much this matters to them.

The entire show manages this, actually. It takes such simple internal yet universal conundrums and inflates the scale of them, making them feel larger than life in the forms of giant, gruesome robots and bizarre alien beings. The plot becomes insane and messy, with schemes and scale intensifying constantly to keep up with the messiness of the character's minds. Evangelion takes these all-important ideas and it shows that, using its rather cliched premise to demonstrate that it understands just how huge these issues feel to people. It does this in a way that nothing else does, drilling down to the cores of its characters and its audience and digging up the things that seep poison into their hearts. Evangelion lays people bare, it strips them down, it shows them that it understands them and then it tells them what they can do.

By people, of course, I mean both the audience and the characters, but since I can't give you an analysis of the audience allow me to take a moment to talk about the characters. There are three central characters that make up the cast, playing off each other perfectly: Rei Ayanami, Asuka Langely, and Shinji Ikari. Each of them serves a distinct purpose in the narrative and I want to take some time to talk about each of them.

Rei - Rei is the doll character, a stoic figure lacking emotions that has been repeated over and over again since her conception in all manner of shows. In Evangelion, however, she serves a very specific purpose. Rei demonstrates to Shinji what he is. Because she's a doll, she responds in whatever way she is treated, and showing her kindness will elicit kindness in return. Essentially, she is a mold-able personality, a person that will be whatever you want them to be for you. Through Shinji's interactions with her she demonstrates both that the concept of such a being (oftentimes taking the form of a significant other from a TV show in our world) is disgusting, and that Shinji will not be able to find the sense of acceptance and connection that he desires from her. She's not accepting Shinji because of who he is, she's accepting him because she'll accept anyone.

Asuka - Asuka is practically the origin of the modern tsundere archetype, with the unfortunately truth being that it's an archetype that was mastered at its conception and has not been challenged since. Asuka provides two very important facets to the series: firstly, she's a character to foil Shinji and reject him. She's a very distinct personality of her own, and her coldness towards Shinji stems from who he is. Shinji is forced to confront the harsh reality that if he opens up to her she will likely hurt him, and has to decide whether that is worth it regardless. On the other hand, Asuka is an amazing character in her own right. She struggles with many of the central themes of the series herself, loathing herself for not being good enough and trying to discover who she is when the aspects that she decided defined her come crumbling down.

Shinji - I've already mentioned him a hundred times in this review, but here he is: Shinji Ikari, the naked heart of the human race. Shinji pretty much is Evangelion, and most if not all of the show's messages are conveyed through him. Over the course of the show he becomes more and more withdrawn into his own mind, struggling to come out of his closely-guarded heart and actually express himself to the world. He wants to be wanted for who he is, not because he's useful, or because he's any person. He wants to be cared for because he's himself, because he's an individual, because of what makes him him. It's something that every human on this planet desires, and no one demonstrates it better than Shinji Ikari.

As the show culminates into a surreal journey into the minds of the characters, some people complain about the convoluted nature of the execution or that the ending of the show is only pretending to be meaningful. I assure you this is not the case. It may be jarring, yes, but if you pay attention you'll find that you're observing the most important decision in the world being made. All of the literal world falls away, because in comparison to what is going on inside the minds of our protagonists such a world is unimportant. That is the world through which one can express one's self, but Evangelion is more concerned with what is one's self. Evangelion is concerned with what makes you you and me me, and why the two of us talking and conveying our thoughts and becoming closer is the most important thing in the world, not in spite of the fact that we can never truly know each other but because of it. It's an infinitely important idea, and Neon Genesis Evangelion takes it on like no other.

If you haven't seen this masterpiece yet, I can only urge you to watch it. After all, you are a person, and Evangelion is about people. It knows them. It understands them on a level that nothing else does. It draws you in with its gritty, alluring story full of mysteries and its utterly unique mecha designs, it captivates you with its constantly creative enemies and lucrative fighting techniques, and then it shows you what it means to be human. It's one of a kind, and I can't encourage you enough to give it a try.

Neon Genesis Evangelion is perhaps the most popular anime of all time, trumping the majority of anime franchises, and is often considered to be the best anime of all time. Needless to say, it isn't. Not even close. Although it certainly had the potential to be, it just didn't live up to it. Which isn't to say Evangelion is bad, no. Evangelion is actually very good in many, many ways. The problem is, it counteracts this by having some horrible problem in another way.

The premise of Evangelion is set in 2015, set 15 years after the apocolypse, or "2nd Impact" wiped out half of humanity. ... I do love when a show claims Judgement Day will happen in the near-future, and gets ultimately proven wrong. At any rate, humanity is 15 years later being attacked by these things called "Angels", for some reason, and must kill them in giant robots called "Evangelion", to prevent 3rd Impact from happening. And so beings our vague story of vague vagueness.

And what a vague story it is. Evangelion loves suspense like a fat kid loves twinkies, and will throw in 5 plot twists and/or questions per episode, without answering any of the present ones. It kicks off being something of a Monster-of-the-week thing, and does stick to the formula over the course of the next 26 episodes, but at the same time doing it, and pretty much everything else, completely different to anything and everything that has come before or since. Our normal plot is cut inbeetween with bizzare symbolism and obscure Biblical references, as well as the occassional Navel-gazing episode, which are usually a mental and visual mindfuck, and often very, very disturbing.

Horror is a genre that isn't used very much in anime, and while Evangelion is very much a Sci-Fi show, it becomes more horrific than anything i've seen in any horror movie. Nothing regularly associated with the genre comes close to being as sickening and disturbing as some of the thing you'll see in Evangelion, which I will avoid stating for the sake of massive spoilers. But all of these add to what Gainax does best: Immersion. I don't think i'd be overstating it to say that Evangelion is the most emmersive, involving anime there has ever been, and you genuinely feel an attachment to this world and its inhabitants. Except Asuka. I could rant for a loooooong time about why I hate Asuka, but let's just say she's an irritating bitch who has a large amount of reverse character development.

Speaking of the characters, the characterization falls into a weird void wherein I can't honestly decide if they were lazily written or perfectly formed. While some of them become unbearably whiny, uninteresting, bitchy, or downright twisted, don't real people often fall to the same pitfalls? I've known plenty of people like Asuka in my time, although none of them quite so fucked up, and I can honestly see a lot of realism in that. Although there is one character I will say was undeniably fantastic, which makes the fact that he appears for all of one episode all the more tragic - Kaworu. Whether or not he is a good character (a question very much up for debate for every single character in this show), every moment he is on screen is a joy, providing a strange kind of relief much akin to what he actually does in-story. And probably moreso to fangirls... I can imagine a million of them squeeing over that one particular scene in the shower. You know the one.

Production-wise, the show is a very large up-and-down case. Artistically, the style is likeable and unique, and really brings something to the show. However, the animation is full of enormous and blatant corner-cutting. I am willing to forgive this to some extent, though, in that it was used to interesting artistic merit. The soundtrack is a strong, memorable affair, with several vivid tracks that remain easy to associate with the series. The English dub is a strange mix of realism and annoyance, but it has to be credited in that you really can't imagine them sounding any different, something the Rebuild movies have very much proven.

But here's the show's enourmous downfall. You remember those aformentioned plot threads? The ones they introduced in bulk per episode? None of them are resolved. None. Not even a single one. The movie "End of Evangelion" makes a passable attempt at fixing that, but there's no fixing the unbridled fury that thing that calls itself an ending will doubtlessly induce.

But truly, any complaint I have is somewhat irrelevant, because you HAVE to see Evangelion. There is no other series like it, and it will always be a cult thing, but there's no way to know if you'll like it until you watch it, with Evangelion being one of the most polarizing shows there has ever been.

Final Words:
A must see, regardless of its many faults.

Animation/Graphics: 4/10
Story/Plot: 7/10
Music/Background: 8/10
English Dub: 5/10

Overall: 5/10 (make it 7/10 for the first 24 episodes, but those last two bring the score down HARD.)

For Fans Of: RahXephon, Serial Experiments Lain.

Neon Genesis Evangelion.
Just by saying that name, almost any anime fan will go into an extremely cautious silence. The weight of that series, among fans and haters alike, cannot be underestimated, as it's influence on the anime industry and anime fans is enormous; chances are that even if you hate the series, you can't deny it's positive influence on the anime industry, considering that chances are that you may even have something that was influenced by this series on your favorites, even if you immensely dislike the series in question.

Now, my opinion is a fairly different one from the vast majority of people who watch ... this series. I'm already seeing a plethora of "Not Helpful" votes just by giving Evangelion the score I did, considering Evangelion is often referred to as a series that is either considered well above average among the greatest achievements in the history of anime (which it is, in a certain sense) or a complete pile of pretentious garbage that a pack of elitist wannabes hype to drill into the heavens that is unworthy of being compared to the series it influenced.

In any case, enough of me talking about that and onto the review:

Story (5/10):
I'm already seeing eyebrows being raised. But let me clarify something before I give my opinion: I am aware that Evangelion is meant to be a deconstruction of the mech genre. I am aware of the various themes it was trying to handle, ranging from Freudian psychology to Christian symbolism to the Hedgehog's dilemma to Social Darwinism (to some extent, anyway).
Everything I said sounds good, right? The series however, assumes instantly that you know all of these themes and will make sense of it if jumbled together, which leads to an extremely flawed and contradictory form of storytelling.
Allow me to explain what I mean. Series should know how to show a story, while providing minimal, but necessary information in telling a story.
This series assumes that instead of telling a story, the viewers will make up the story for it, ruining most of the credibility the series had going for it.
And onto the show aspect; the series loves placing irrelevant symbolism at the wrong times.
Such as when the angels get defeated, a giant cross (or multiple giant crosses) with no meaning whatsoever appears.
Or making characters act completely out of character and unrealistically (I'm looking at you, Asuka) just to emphasize it's themes, forgetting that if the viewer doesn't connect with the character in question, any point in it's themes are deemed irrelevant to the casual viewer.
Seriously, this series could have done so much more with it's themes, but instead resorted to randomly tossing in big words and jumbling it's themes together in the hope something would make sense to the viewer, leaving a mildly interesting story with interesting ideas (with absolutely no idea how to execute them) and a miserable excuse for an ending that in my opinion doesn't make any sense whatsoever, although I'm not entirely sure how anyone can make sense of that ending personally even after watching End of Evangelion. But that's a review for another time.


Art/Animation (6/10)
The artwork looks quite interesting and well-done for it's time, and the mech designs as well as the detailed Lovecraft-styled Angels look pretty damn good too.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the animation during most of the series, as it randomly fluctuates between looking absolutely gorgeous during action scenes to looking absolutely terrible most of the time. This lead to some rather...questionable scenes to say the least, including the ending, the infamous train scene and the countless times (No, for those who haven't seen it, I am not joking) character's mouths were covered and the frame would stay completely still for around 2 minutes.
The exceptional artwork is therefore put down by the extremely low quality, inconsistent animation, hence the low score.

Sound (7/10)
Decent voice acting and soundtrack and an amazing opening.
All right! Everything is perfect!
Until we get to the classical music. No seriously, the classical music ruins the atmosphere so badly it's not even funny (OK, I jest, I find it bloody hilarious, especially in completely still scenes). Who's idea was it to randomly insert classical music in the hope people would make sense of it?
It loses what would've been a perfect or near-perfect score thanks to this problem I encountered.

Character (4/10)
Where do I start?
The three children are all annoying, angst-ridden, irritating and serve later in the series as tools to advance the themes and plot of the story. The character that falls victim to this the most is Asuka, who has (mild spoilers) feelings for Shinji yet changes personality to be jealous of him off the drop of a hat, which emphasizes the theme in question in all the wrong ways.
We never discover the motives for some of the characters for acting as they did, which for several of these characters is a huge mistake considering how important they are to the advancement of the plot.
A huge shout out however, to Misato Katsuragi, who was easily my favorite character and the most consistent and most lovable character of the show. Sure she has...problems, to say the least, but she is the only character who stops me from giving this section a lower score. If only all the characters were as well-written as her...

Enjoyment (4/10):
Ultimately, I feel Evangelion is a completely average mech anime with interesting ideas but one of the poorest executions to those ideas, due to underdeveloped characters, ill-fitting music at times, low quality animation and lackluster storytelling, which I found greatly hampered the show's great moments and throw it off from what it could have been to complete mediocrity.

Overall, I give this series a 5 out of 10. Lord have mercy on me.
Thank you for reading my review! Feedback is greatly appreciated!

Here goes nothing

A review of Eva and EOA

a bit of backstory
Around 5 years ago,I read the evangelion manga,since a lot of people told me it was the best anime and that it was complex
Silly me thought it was an adaptation,it wasn't,I didnt like it, i decided i should watch the end of evangelion,since the manga was unfinished
I didn't like the characters much,but I was in high school and in that time,
I always finished what i started watching.
It was a fucking mistake,I felt the story was too bogged down by symbolism and the characters were a joke.
...
After years of ranting every time I heard about evangelion on comment sections of the internet
I decided I should go back and watch the anime series,hopefully thinking that I was wrong and there was something worth of my time back then.

Let's start with the good:
The design and the sound
All of the characters visual design are iconic
the backgrounds work
it has a certain atmosphere that gets to you,
If there's something flawless in the franchise,its this point,the music,shiro sagisu's work is good mostly,certain moments are great and interesting,
Certain tracks get you a bit pumped even by themselves
The original voices,are fitting and not annoying for the most part.

Now,for me,characters and story are the important parts of any series,it's here where the series lack,see,the characters.while a little bit more developed than say,knights of the zodiac,are not relatable or sympathetic

See Shinji,starts as a coward character,who halfway through the series,seems to get some courage,but by the end of it reverses back on his old ways,in the manga i hated him,in the series,he's not that bad,at least not for the most part but for me,bringing him back to that cowardly position is a bad choice,why delve into someone's mind if you dont like him or find him interesting at all.

Asuka's even worse,I had to take her annoying voice as a child on the brink of murdering someone,she's not likeable,her backstory is very simple and boring,her motivations are very silly,proving herself to Kaji and later just to anyone.

Rei is as dull as they come,she's even worse than her manga counterpart,just a line here or there. At least there she had a hint of a relationship with Shinji.
The rest of the cast is hit or miss
Gendo's motivations are confusing,he's less likeable than his manga counterpart as well
Ritsuko tacked-on backstory feels silly
The kids,toji and the one with the glasses are ok,whoever decided to kill Toji in the manga deserves a punch to the face.
Kaji is still a womanizer but we dont see a lot of him really
Misato instead,comes off as a better character on the series,we delve more into her relationship both Shinji and Kaji,she has motivations,she cares,she's just a woman in a storm of crazy confusing plots

The story for the most part,is a generic mecha monster of the week show with a mystery ,while some questions are answered,most of them are not,at least not in a clear fashion self concluding way,
What do i mean by this,see,the creators made such a mess of a series that they sometimes answer questions of the series in conferences,which are then spewed out by fans,
To me,this isnt satisfactory at all,a series shouldnt have its questions answered outside of it,its like buying a ticket for a ride and instead someone's telling you what happens in the ride
Back to the series,its mostly episodic just right before the ending we get some good drama,but it gets undercut because of budget problems and the series shows it specially in one scene in episode 23 or 24
There's a scene where it tooks a whole minute to move out of a frame,I couldnt believe it,what a cheap way to fill time,there's another where it's a thirty second wait,there's half an episode of clips
The animation of the battles though,is another story,they're fluid and sometimes beautiful.

I could've accepted time filling if it wasn't for the bad part of the series,see,the author was depressed before making the series,this is his way of getting out of it and it shows
Tts filled with half ass references to Freudian and Jung psychology(One of them is outdated and ridiculous,The other one symbolistic) and philosophy,which also fill time by getting this repeating scenes,
See,im all for anime or movies dealing with those two subjects if done well,the execution of the series and movie is piss poor

The movie continues the series where the show after two episodes of filler and bad philosophy left off,Shinji's been broken down,all the angels have been defeated but for some unexplicable stupid reason Seele wants to cause the third impact and so does Gendo,which makes all the series rendered moot and stupid,hurray!
We get someone jacking off,good action scenes,misato being cool,gendo being an asshole,this is all fine and dandy until we get a trippy scene which then breaks down into some avant garde scene with video of an audience on a movie theater,images from japan, text and clips from the show,the movie then ends with the line that defines the whole franchise:how disgusting(whether its i feel sick or how disgusting is a problem for the subs)

See,most people who read this will probably assume that i came back with a bit of prejudice,i did somewhat,but i really wanted to like the series
I just couldnt,at best it's mediocre,if ignore the bad philosophy and psychology
At worst,it feels like a high school essay on both subjects,in the end,
I just didnt like it,i felt peace while rewatching the series though,my mind finally rested from the torture of the doubt if the series was any good,if you want a better series with self conclusion stories,that deals with heavy subjects,go watch ghost in the shell or lain

This is a cult anime show,only for the hardcore fans who get too much into it,if you're a newbie,i say take a pass and go do something better with your life

EDIT 2015:
In hindsight,with now new knowledge that was given to me by some internet posts. I still stand by me decision to give it a 5. Mind you I should post some old Locomotion channel trailers that promise God vs Humans. This was misleading. Also,I kind of expected Evangelion to be more like the original Mobile suit Gundam 0079. Yet to fault it because it is not similar. It's stupid. Without Gundam,there is no point to Eva. Eva is the watchmen of mecha anime as watchmen was to superhero comics. It is about deconstrucionism. I don't like deconstructions. To me they are very fucking boring
If and only IF I compare it to modern anime,I would give this a 7.
At least EVA tries and has ambition.

Neon Genesis Evangelion is one of the most iconic anime's in existence. For two decades NGE has been heavily endorsed and internationally touted by young and older anime viewers alike complete with impressive numbers by any standard on MAL. Watching NGE is an overall enjoyable experience and within a few days of finishing the series I felt myself missing several characters and even the OP. However, I did feel throughout watching the entire show that the reception it has received with these lofty ratings and rankings should be taken with discretion.

The show, I feel, is one that is best appreciated by the group. If you ... watch anime as a loner for your own benefit but never discuss it with others, then this series may not be for you. That is to say that this anime's strong points include its ability to branch off into fan fiction, openness to personal interpretations, and its overwhelming popularity which has led to constant outside references. Although it would be wrong to say you couldn't understand NGE by simply watching the show, it does rely heavily on implications and towards the end jumps from one scenario to the next abruptly. By the conclusion the viewer should read up on the back-story through other means to fully comprehend the non-explicitly stated or easily missed plot points.

To put it simply, NGE is ultimately an enjoyable yet extremely and intentionally bombastic series. This is where and how it allows for the immense amount of fan fiction, yet standalone the series is simply a face-value story. I have seen other reviewers delve deep into the apparent symbolism (specifically the religious aspects) of the show when in reality there is little to be had. The viewer is immediately introduced to the idea of Angels and then later on Adam, Lilith, along with a litany of other Christian expressions and names. Fans of the show have written extensive theories regarding the interrelations between these figures and their symbolic meanings. However, when asked about them directly, the Assistant Director of the series Kazuya Tsurumaki was quoted saying that they had "originally used Christian themes and symbolism only to give the project a unique edge against other giant robot shows, that there is no Christian meaning to the series and that it was not meant to be controversial." Overall, if you would like a show that will lead you to reading more about the anime outside of the episodes, one that will leave room for you to make your own theories on a particular aspect's significance NGE could be a good fit. If you want a show deliberately designed to incorporate intellectual symbolism or hidden meanings then you should look elsewhere.

If you are an anime lover and are a frequent visitor to anime communities, you will no doubt have been exposed to one or more of the Evangelion's cast. Personally I hold Misato Katsuragi, one of the main characters, as one of my favorite characters of all anime. She is without a doubt the most real of the cast members and has the most persistent character story within the show. Aside from her there is no real character progression per say, the viewer is slowly clued in to the true nature that has always existed within each character more so than the characters learn from their experiences and grow. Tensions build as these characters struggle with realizing their own identity and the show makes for a different style on the coming of age motif. Unfortunately most characters end up simply remaining or even intensifying their role as one sided caricatures of the trope they were originally introduced as.

Many, including myself, say Steins;Gate truly takes it's time to get into the meat of the action and relies on a large number of episodes for set up. Neon Genesis Evangelion arguably takes even longer to come into its own. Once it's pacing finally sees an increase it also seems to rush itself to fit everything possible into what little amount of episodes they had left for broadcast. As the anime begins to come to its conclusion, the writers implement several incredibly deus ex machina and convenient plot points that allow for the shows rapid development but more highlight the staff's lack of foresight. Additionally, it still confuses me how an anime so highly rated can have its final episodes be so poorly done and poorly received by the public that it needed to have a theatrical release to re-write the action for an alternate finale. The story would be best described as alright but can still be interesting given the proper mindset for the show. It's ambiguous enough to allow for those who want to go deeper to be able to, clear enough to understand where it's going even if not everything is explained.

Themes can hit hard in NGE yet are more tropes than anything else. You will see overwhelming amounts of pacifism from several characters to the point where it becomes irritatingly redundant and occasionally bizarrely inane. It is a problem in many anime where they have a deluded character with an estranged sense of righteousness that has no problem with allowing hundreds of their closest family and friends die as long as they themselves as a single character don't have to feel the guilt of cutting short the life of a single enemy. You will also find the ancillary character who, while prepping for and participating within a war, exclaiming they don't want to kill people. The most prevalent and persistent theme however would be the question "what makes a person human?" This anime is first and foremost an elaborate identity crisis for each character. Are they themselves when they are forced to make decisions against their will, does doing the right thing by conventionally bad methods mean they are a bad person, what is the meaning of their existence or even of man’s origins in general, are they defined by the connections they have with others, are their entire beings in existence to prove something to someone else or are their internal drives truly intrinsic? Each character will break down into some form of trying to understand themselves rather than trying to improve a self they already understand. Unfortunately I would say that the majority of the questions posed go unanswered or are poorly concluded within the anime itself.

The art of the show can be impressive, especially when compared to other anime of its time. Its colors are usually vibrant, its animation is typically smooth, and there isn't too much re-use of older frames. The art is one of the stronger points within the show itself as it portrays everyone throughout their lives within a real light yet still with the distinctive anime proportions. During flashbacks the characters can look notably different and younger while still retaining their individual identity.

Personally, I found the soundtrack for the show to be pleasing as well. The opening theme always got me into the mood for just one more show even if I wasn't exactly satisfied with the plot development in the previous episode. The sounds are all realistic as well as fit the tone and mood of the show.

Overall, this show is one that should be taken for what it is: a popular show with great potential to expand upon. Shinji is a weak willed protagonist who even with the proper influences around him still fails to comprehend the situation he finds himself in. While some defense can be made given his young age, as a viewer it becomes difficult to continue to watch a character go through the exact same problems week-in week-out without much progression towards improving his character's mindset. The story can be fun for viewers who enjoy shows as they come and don't worry about the unexplained nature of action buzzword themes such as NGE's use of 'berserkers' or the lack of detail for much of the driving forces behind the majority of the cast in terms of why they fight the angels. Most of the series showcases a dedicated group blindly fighting an unknown enemy out of the idea of self-preservation which could be seen as a symbolic theme of the necessity to understand each other, however such symbolism is ruined when a major character makes a nearly nonsensical and again unexplained monologue about how only one life form, humans or angels, can exist on Earth at the given time.

The plotline is enjoyable and even if it's not exactly surprising, it still takes twists and turns along the way. Its animation is clean, its soundtrack is good and it is a nice reference anime. As an anime I reviewed it as a 6 while personally I enjoyed it. It is better than your run of the mill anime although more popular than it is technically sound. Its popularity has led to its great fan fiction potential and after almost 2 decades still retains many raving fans. NGE also includes several rebuild movies in addition to the series and alternate ending.

I recommend this anime for those who like to watch or discuss anime in groups, would like the understand references made to one of the most popular anime series of all time, or fans of the mecha genre. If you are looking for a well-constructed anime with consistent pacing, no plot holes/deus ex machina, or no emphasis on following up through additional reading or movie-watching then NGE is not for you. It is neither a confusing anime nor one that is hard to understand simply one lacking in explanation within the confines of the episodes themselves.

When I started this anime I expected sweet mecha battle action, maybe a little bit of drama, and an epic ending to wrap it up. I recieved none of the above.

Story 2

I kept watching this anime for and only for the awesomeness of the mecha's. I've heard that if you watch the movies the story for this anime makes more sense... Would you take the chocolate chips out of a cookie, to eat the cookie first and then eat the chips last? No, you would naturally eat the thing as a whole. Back to the anime, there is no explanation, no decisive battle between good ... and evil, no chocolate chips at all, just a terrible attempt at a psychological battle within a character who has the whiniest, most annoying and difficult to comprehend personalities in any protagonist ever. -EPIC FAILURE-


Art 6

The mecha's were amazing for their time, the characters and their piloting outfits all looked sweet. Its too bad the focus of the anime is psychological and not action. There are a lot of good art sequences during the battles but the flashes of random garish colors and etc. that make up psychological segments are absolutely dreadful. About 20 percent of the anime consists of sweet mechaness. 60 percent is decent everyday life art, and the last 20 is the often annoying and senseless art thats suppossed to overwhelm your sense logic.


Sound 5

Nothing to get excited over, the sound gets an average score of 6. It would of scored higher except there were far too many alarms, and annoying beeps, even police or ambulance sirens completely randomly and pointless in the middle of the night in a high tech city.


Character 7

The characters were generally as bad as the rest of the criteria, there were a few saving graces. The main character was too flawed to be anything more then annoying especially during the 2 episode psychological trip. Rei and Misato were definately interesting though, as well as some of the side characters.


Enjoyment 3

The battles were the only thing worth watching. Luckily enough for the first half of the anime the battles were frequent. Don't get me wrong the drama could have been okay but the resolution and delivery of it all was an epic failure.


Overall 5

Most definately a love it or hate it anime. The scores represented here are all over the place as you can see. I tried to evaluate it solely with the criteria in mind but the ending average looks higher to me then i feel it should be. Watching this anime was such a disapointment to me. Ah well.

[Warning: this review will contain vague, but consistent minor spoilers]

Around 2008 or 2009, I don’t remember exactly, in a decently warm Saturday, I went back home and decided to check out the site from where I got my anime. The news that day was that they were able to upload Neon Genesis Evangelion, a 1995 TV series that was apparently a very influential piece of the Mecha genre. Intrigued by the description I decided to check out the title, completely blind. That was my introduction to the inevitability of Evangelion, possibly the most divisive anime ever made.

By the score you probably guessed already my ... stance in regards to the series: I don’t like Evangelion, I didn’t like it when I first watched, knowing little to nothing about it, and I don’t like now that I have better critical mindset. However, I’m not beyond admitting when the series does something right. I write these self-indulgent pieces called Reviews when I think I have something at least mildly interesting to say about the work and I believe I can give my 2 cents to the discussion in the fairest manner I can pull off. A little warning, though: discussing the most contemptuous points about Neon Genesis Evangelion is difficult without spoiling anything, so I’ll try to comment about late events without giving the most spoilerific information away, all the while trying to make my points as clear as possible.

Story and Characters

Before anything else, there are two important external factors necessary to understand when analyzing Neon Genesis Evangelion, as they had massive influence during the production of the TV series (the movie is a beast for another time). The first is the role of director Anno Hideaki, the main creative force behind Evangelion, the second are the budget constraints that plagued the series and lead to some of the more controversial decisions that created the massive split in opinions the series is known for. Firstly, director Anno Hideaki is a person that has dealt with depression in many instances of his life and is, according to second-hand information and some interviews, someone with a very low opinion about himself. When the time slot for Evangelion was pitched to him, Anno and Gainax were in a period of failure in which the studio tried various projects that were never able to get off the ground. Rumors even tell that he was at a bar, drinking to escape his depressive state, when the idea was offered. The budget issues we’ll discuss along the review, so for now let’s understand how Anno’s emotional condition at the time affected the conception of Evangelion.

Initially, the series was conceptualized to be a deconstruction of the Mecha genre, bent on straying from the escapism centered narratives provided by the anime media. For those not in the know, a deconstruction is, in fiction, a work or character designed to break apart and analyze the tropes that make traditional examples of said genre or archetype. The common method of doing so is by inserting realistic outcomes the different elements of the genre would have if the setting followed the rules of the conventional world, a notable example being the graphic novel Watchmen. Works of this nature tend, but are not limited, to be very dark in tone. Having that in mind, makes sense that Evangelion would take to a very unusual level the depiction of unstable young teenagers having to pilot immensely powerful mechs to defend humanity from a mysterious threat, as well as exploring in depth the mental and emotional problems derived from that role. However, this very nature opens the work to some criticisms that works that follow the genre straight are not victim of, as the suspension of disbelief dispensed to a deconstruction is tighter. By watching Evangelion you can raise questions like:

- Why were NERV’s headquarters built under a populated city, putting in danger the lives of innocent people and exponentially raising collateral damage, especially when the Angels seem drawn to the Eva Units?
- Why aren’t the pilots offered psychological assistance, given the immense levels of pressure they suffer, as well as mental and emotional scars the fight against the Angels bring them?
- Why doesn’t NERV share at least some of its technology with the military, so that they can pose a threat to the Angels too?
- Why there are tits and a boner joke on my deconstruction?

By the way, I know "deconstruction" has become somewhat of a dirty word now, but fans and critics have been using it for a while and it fits, so I'm gonna use it too. Before I get ahead of myself though, let’s talk about the characters:

Ikari Shinji is the main protagonist of the series, the pilot of Eva Unit 01 and the one the internet is more used to bash for being a “pussy”. Introspective, socially awkward, extremely afraid of rejection, full of self-pity and having massive difficult to express himself, he makes clear that he only pilots the Eva because people tell him to, and in some instances seems to try forcing his acceptance onto others. Shinji is the center of the majority of discussions about Evangelion, either hailed by supporters of the series as a realistic representation of someone with depression and low self-esteem or bashed by its detractors as the rock that holds the anime from improving. Now, before you jump on me, let me tell you I actually believe Shinji is the least of the problems with the series. I’d even risk saying the he is in fact a very good character, but one that is handled particularly bad by his own series. All of his issues at the beginning of Evangelion are grounded, realistic and believable, and his development doesn’t take long to appear. The issue is how that development is handled during the anime’s second half, which we’ll discuss in due time.

Katsuragi Misato is the commanding officer in charge of orienting the pilots during the battles against the Angels, as well as the main caretaker for Shinji and Asuka. Having contrasting personalities when at work and at home, being professional and quick on thought in the former, but carefree and irresponsible in the latter, she plays major role at Shinji’s development, being the first one to try to form a connection with the boy and give him better motivations to fight, besides simply obeying orders. She is also the character with the most fully realized character-arc during Evangelion’s first run and the only figure the anime doesn’t shit on by the end. Early on, it’s introduced the idea of the Hedgehog Dilemma, in which the closer people with deep-rooted emotional issues try to get, the more they risk hurting each other. This dilemma is the main topic for Misato’s relationship with Shinji during the first four episodes.

The next pilot is Ayanami Rei, the first children chosen to pilot the Evas, and responsible for Unit 00. Rei is the least problematic of the pilots, both in the context of the story and among the debates sprung from the anime. Considered the prototype for all kuuderes, Rei is quiet, reserved, keeps herself distant from most social interaction, seeming to only open up to Shinji’s father, and generally holds her own life in very low regard. These traits are originated from one particular information about her origins that I cannot spoil, but one can always question the level of realism of her depiction. According to Anno, her purpose in the story was to show the audience how unsettling it is to face an emotionless being, basically a character that could personify the Uncanny Valley.

Asuka is the second children and the pilot of Eva Unit 02. She is brash, outspoken, eager for attention and to show herself, and packs a massive superiority complex, underneath of which lies her deep-rooted need for praise, in order to keep her self-esteem up. Asuka’s introduction in episode 08 marks a shift in mood to the series, as from the point she appears, NGE develops a campy mood, closer to traditional Monster of the Week shows. It’s actually a very natural root to take. At this point, while old personal struggles are still present in the cast and some of them are yet to be introduced, Shinji is a lot more comfortable with his new living situation and his role as a pilot, so, while the serious stakes remain, the series is considerably lighter at this point than in the “hedgehog dilemma” days. This is also the segment of the anime that features the most frequent use of sexual fanservice, or cheesecake if you prefer, which by itself is not a problem (I’m not that much of a hypocrite), but will bring up an issue, in comparison to other aspect I’ll comment later at this review.

Ikari Gendo is Shinji’s father and the main reason for the boy’s issues. Having abandoned the son right after the death of his wife, Gendo displays little to no interest for him, is completely driven by his objectives as the head NERV, acts arrogant and doesn’t take much time on making decisions that might often put in danger the lives or mental stability of the pilots, quite often in ways that can only be described as plot-driven stupidity. The only person Gendo seems to be relatively worried about is Rei, as indicated in the event when he rushed to take her out of the Eva Plug, burning his hands in the process, and by the more tender expression he exhibits when talking to her.

Kaworu is the final pilot introduced in the series, but his appearance comes very late, making in depth descriptions difficult without spoilers. He’s strongly drawn to Shinji, seeming to have deep understanding of his emotional state. Not knowing the secret of his character, though, that fact gives their interaction strong homosexual undertones. Well, if you can call that “undertone”, anyway.

Other characters that play important roles would be Ritsuko, head-scientist responsible to keep the Eva Units working and later the anime’s punching bag, Kaji, a man that shares a romantic past with Misato and plays a dubious role dealing with important information for NERV, and Fuyutsuki, second in command in NERV and main advisor for Gendo.

The first half of Evangelion is the part I consider worthy of genuine praise. Sure, it soon assumes campier tone than it had at the beginning, but the psychological themes are far less blatant and still stealthily addressed, as they should be. This is also the point where character development is implemented in its most effective and subtle form. For once, it doesn’t take much for Shinji to stop imposing his acceptance to others and under the influence of Misato’s early support he soon starts attempting genuine interaction with the people around him. While piloting Unit 01, he also becomes much more focused, internally compelled to improve at the job and quicker to take action. He’s, off course, still socially awkward, a trait that becomes noticeable when confronted by Asuka’s upfront demeanor. Asuka also plays the role of a conflicting force to Shinji stern from the fact that he’s still a teenage boy and those hormones gotta go somewhere. While the boy is drawn to her appearance, he is also turn away by her personality and his own lack of social skills. This subject, however, unfortunately ends up being forgotten as the series progresses.

Rei, in the other hand, doesn’t display any interest in strengthening the relationship with other characters, but becomes slightly more receptive to interactions others initiate with her, as shown by Shinji being visibly confortable in conversations with the girl. She’s still very inexpressive, though. Being someone with little personal motivational to pilot the Eva, she becomes an object of contempt to Asuka, who pilots in order to gather external approval from others. Asuka becomes increasingly spiteful of Rei, as she can’t accept that someone like her gets recognition and attention from her superiors without attempting so. Even Shinji’s confortable expression while talking to Rei is a point of contempt for her. As you can see, Asuka’s character arc is a downward spiral, the “conclusion” of which will see at the second half. The last bits of this segment of the story are the ones most focused on driving home the motivations of the pilots, while giving hints of deeper issues.

Before moving on, it’s important that I address the religious symbolism present in Evangelion. This is a target of criticism for many, as they believe it makes the show pretentious, since the symbolism doesn’t play a role in the story itself. You can extract from the series a commentary about how humanity uses science to challenge the Higher Power, be it God, fate or simply the inevitability of death. The symbolism, however, plays no role in that commentary and is used only for aesthetic purposes. This might surprise you, but I don’t consider this an issue. Japan’s culture is barely influenced by Judeo-Christian principles, being instead influenced by Shintoism and Buddhism. Biblical references for Japanese authors are not too different from what Greek or Nord mythology is for the West.

Ok, Evangelion fanbase, you had your 6 episodes of fun with Asuka, but now it’s time to talk about the real meat of the issues with the series, its second half. The problem with addressing the issues at this part of the series is that they are not standalone problems, they merge until they create one single monstrous beast with several heads. In fairness, it doesn’t start all that menacing: episode 14 is part recap, but soon it goes back to the regular format. What this episode does is to signalize a mood-shift and foreshadow heavier emphasis on Seele, the organization that oversees NERV, and the Human Instrumentality Project. From this point on, Evangelion would feature significantly different mood, structure (again!) and severe problems with character consistency. It’s also here that Kaji becomes a prominent character in the story, although it calls attention to the question of what exactly is his role on the plot. All of that in mind, let’s start with the simpler issue, the Mind Trips.

For mind trips, I refer to the segments where characters would go to hallucinations where the majority of the issues they faced up to that point are regurgitated at them. These segments also feature some exposition about backstory, which leads me to ask: couldn’t this be exposed in more graceful manners? The first one, at episode 14, is fairly harmless, featuring Rei inside the Eva Plug, making vague definitions about random objects and some of the characters. It’s possibly a hint to the real nature of her character, but this possibility is unclear. The issue starts when we move to the other pilots, most notably Shinji. Now, up to this point, Shinji’s character development was pretty much set, what the series needed to do was to continue expanding on it and address the issues the boy had not faced yet and he would have a complete and rounded arc, going from a simple and depressed kid caught up in events much bigger than himself to a competent Unlikely Hero. The mind trips, however, work in contradiction with this development. In them, Shinji is displayed as he was in his Hedgehog Dillema days, in complete opposition to his behavior and natural demeanor outside of these sequences. In some points they try to actively disregard that development. Do you want an example? In episode sixteen, during his first mind trip, Shinji utters the following line:

“I already had my happy moments and just tried to hold on to them. Is there something wrong with that?”

That is a very good question, is there something wrong with that? By holding to those happy moments is how he was able to improve and become truly effective as a pilot and meaningful as a character. What is even more obnoxious is that these segments have no effect on his depiction in the real world, only serving to stagnate his development up until the end of the series. Meanwhile, Asuka continues her downward character arc. Her progress is, interestingly enough, inversely proportional to how Shinji develops alongside with her: as the boy becomes increasingly prominent as a pilot, she becomes more frustrated by the growing competition and the likelihood of facing opposition in her fight for attention and praise. Her mind trips come in to expose her past, where we can see the reasons for her low self-esteem and obsessive need for validation, essentially stuff that could be featured in a flashback, as well as allow for narrative padding. Just for clarification, I’m not implying that pessimistic character development is a bad thing. Part of the fun in Black Lagoon is witnessing Rock’s gradual loss of his good-will while traveling to the darkness of Roanapur and, if you want an example outside of anime, Will Munny, from The Unforgiven, is a man trying his best to be a decent person, but still has to cope with the fact he’s someone with a scary and violent nature. The issue here is that those were complete character arcs, while for Asuka’s case, just like other points I talked about, we’ll have to discuss while tackling the final episodes.

Moving on. Remember when I mentioned that Gendo seems to suffer from plot-driven stupidity at key events? That is not exclusive to him, as in several instances multiple characters will hold the idiot ball for the sake of progressing the narrative. This is a a common situation for when a writer wants to include an specific plot point in the story but has no proper set up to do so, resorting to make the characters act stupid so that such set up can be achieved. Let’s discuss some of those instances. For starters, there’s the ever-lingering question of why there aren’t psychologists available to help the pilots. These are clearly people under severe mental and physical stress and since one suffered from depression from the beginning, one is almost completely detached from human interaction and the last one is in a downward spiral of self-hatred and need for approval, all factors that heavily influence their performance at the job, the dire need for mental assistance for those kids becomes increasingly more apparent. Some might say I shouldn’t think too much about it, but remember: this is a deconstruction, it’s supposed to be grounded in a realistic setting, just including out-of-this-world elements.

Now going to a case-by-case take, one of the main arcs of the second half involves the fourth children selected to pilot the Evas, responsible for Unit 03. The problems arrive when Unit 03 goes rogue due to being infected by an Angel (these things seem to gain abilities based on what is convenient for the episode) and the pilots are sent to take care of it. When the responsibility comes to Shinji to fight Unit 03, he freezes because there’s a person inside the Eva and he fears harming them. At no point comes to his mind to just immobilize Unit 03, neither any of his superiors gives him that idea. This leads Gendo to order the activation of the Dummy Plug, a project he knows still has problems to be fixed and whose efficiency is uncertain. In the following sequence Unit 01, under the control of the Dummy Plug, proceeds to brutalize Unit 03, far beyond the point it was necessary, without Gendo ever ordering it to cease the attack. This whole sequence is designed for shock factor, to lead the audience to feel repulse by what’s happening on screen, ignoring the lack of logic. It culminates when Unit 01 rips off and destroys the plug. Apparently Gendo decided they didn’t need that pilot anymore, either that or he’s an outstanding idiot.

See? It took me 6 pages of text to finally have a problem with Shinji.

Besides shock factor, another purpose for this event is to lead Shinji to rebel against Gendo, reviving the tension between them. It’s hard to reprove the boy for the attitude, though, since most of what happened was due to Gendo’s incompetence at commanding. When he comes back, he’s displaying even better resolve to fight them before the incident, and coupled with how little of that is mentioned in the rest of the series, the whole Unit 03 arc becomes effectively pointless. After Shinji’s return, we’re lead to the events of episode 20, which also has minimal relevance to the progression of the story, since soon after that comes a flashback detailing Fuyutsuki’s past in relation with Gendo and the Second Impact. Hell, not even Shinij seems bothered by the absurd experiences he just went through.

Actually relevant stuff starts happening right after, as Asuka’s descent is leading her to get progressively worse synchronization rates with Unit 02. Since nobody does absolutely nothing to solve that, while still placing her in scenarios where maximum efficiency was needed, she ends up in a situation where her life, or at least her mental stability, is in serious danger. None of the people at NERV comes with the idea of ejecting Unit 02’s plug, a method they’ve resorted several times up to this point, in order to save her. Why? I mean, besides artificially raising the tension without it being earned. Later, they continue to send her to combat, resulting in a situation where her synchronization is so low she can’t even move the Eva anymore.

Before moving on to the final stretch, where I’ll talk about the series final episodes, I’d like to address the shift in mood taken by the anime on its second half. I mentioned before about how the fanservice present in the first half was not an issue at the time, but this is the point where it becomes an issue. The mood in the series becomes progressively darker and some particular scenes, specially one from episode 23 (you know which one), have potentially disturbing content, and compared to the fanservice and campy atmosphere from the first half it gives the anime an very uneven tone. The bleakness of tone stretches all around, reaching even secondary characters. Remember when I commented the character of Ritsuko becomes the punching bag of the series? Up to this point, she was a character with importance to the plot and noticeable characterization, but essentially a secondary figure, with no relevance to any of the themes and only needed to keep the plot going, and she was good that way. In the final episodes, though, she basically retreads the exact same path of misery faced by her mother, detailed in episode 21, only to be moved away from the plot for the remaining episodes and become irrelevant. Unlike works like Trigun, where the tone shift works to test the protagonist’s morals and allow him to come off as a fully rounded figure, or even Shingeki no Kyojin, where the brutal outcomes serve to emphasize the resolve the humans have to achieve their goal, this is not misery for the sake of advancing a character arc or improving the plot, it’s just characters being miserable for no purpose, and in the words of GoatJesus, if it doesn’t play a purpose, why have it at all?

With Asuka falling to her deepest depressive state and the introduction of Kaworu, the series has its climax at episode 24. The two remaining episodes are the biggest source of diversion when discussing Evangelion. For once, they are giant mind trips. It’s supposed to take place after Gendo has initiated the Human Instrumentality Project and merged all of humanity under one collective conscience. How the project was initiated or what were the pieces for triggering it is left unexplained, the episodes simply start in the mind trip and no proper context is given until the information that Human Instrumentality began comes up. It’s clear that it was at this point during production that the budget expenses reached their limit and Gainax was forced to compromise, bringing this as the result. For the remaining 40 minutes of the series, it’s just a dream sequence where the emotional issues of the characters are retreaded and blatantly spelled out without ceremony or the least shred of subtlety. Asuka appears in her pre-decay persona to spout why she’s so eager for attention, Shinji reminisces his issues with rejection and even Misato, who had a complete character arc at this point, reinforces her Elektra Complex when she was supposed to have come to terms with it already. At this point something finally came to my mind: Anno was able to create the basic state of his characters and the problems they would face very well, but he was not able to make them properly deal with such problems. That is why there's such a disconnect between Shinji's portrayal in the real world and in the mind trips, the characters in Evangelion are not able to fully develop their issues towards a solution, only being capable of flat out explaining them, without sublety. After many divagations, with characters bringing up philosophical concepts to replace more pertinent psychological matters, the series comes to an end with Shinji’s epiphany, in which he concludes:

“But maybe I can learn to love myself. Maybe my life has a greater value. Yes, I’m no one besides myself. I am me, I want to be myself. I want to continue existing in this world. I’m worthy of living here!”

And THAT is the problem with the ending of Neon Genessis Evangelion: it’s not the resolution of the numerous character arcs and plot points raised, but the acceptance of stagnation, the simple possibility of a conclusive development without truly having one. At this point, I have to ask: Why is this acceptable? Why is uncertainty preferable over closure? Let’s take a look at some questions that were left unresolved:

- What really are the Angels?
- Who was Kaji really working for and what were his objectives?
- What was Seele’s objective with the Human Instrumentality Project?
- If Both Seele and Gendo want the Human Instrumentality Project, why there’s so much animosity between them?
- What is the origin of the Dead Sea Manuscripts, or even their nature itself?
- What was the fate of Asuka and Ritsuko?
- How did Seele “find” Kaworu?

And before you tell me that the series is not about these mysteries, but about the issues characters face, let me stop you, because Evangelion built a sizeable chunk of its appeal on these questions. For the last 11 episodes, give or take depending on your perspective, the audience has watched ever-increasing pain plaguing the main cast, but unlike something like Berserk, for example, where the horror of what is happening to the characters is compensated by the full realization of multiple character arcs, as well as the conclusion to an event that has been foreshadowed through the entire series, here the audience is rewarded with vagueness and uncertainty.

Presentation

Well, here is the boring part of the review.

Ok, everyone knows by now of the effects the budget limitations had on Evangelion’s presentation, but before we get into that, let’s talk a little about what are really strong moments for the visuals display in the series. For once, cinematography is excellent. Multiple scenes feature various meaningful details, giving away subtle information that could not be included in the dialogue, and when there’s little time for details, and framing is effectively used to convey the emotions of the scene. There was a clear understanding among Gainax that animation is also a tool for storytelling and not just a fun way of putting images on a screen. A sequence like Shinji entering Misato’s apartment for the first time could be just a bland moment unimportant for the story, but is used to emphasize the importance of the decision the two are about to make and, in the same vein, lighting also plays a big role in moments of dialogue, helping establish the mood for the scene. Colorization is usually realistically applied, not counting the traditional oddly-colored hair-styles, with mostly pale colors applied throughout the enviroment, but good care is put into making what is important pop in the screen, from relevant characters to information about the action and, obviously, the action itself.

Aside from the traditional methods used by studios to cut corners in animation, the symptoms of the decreasing budget appear distinctively in two areas, one being the long stretches of static imagery, where time was really moving and, no, your computer did not freeze while you were watching it (for real, I once thought that was the case). Oddly enough, there are people who argue that those moments of absolutely nothing happening are what add to the artistic intent of the story. To them I say “stop inserting meaning where there isn’t any”, there is nothing there that really needed a minute and a half to achieve what could be done in ten seconds. The other practice that made the money issue noticeable was the reuse of footage and in no place is that more apparent than in, again, the mind trip sequences. During such sequences the amount of reused frames was too much to count and details on screen were kept to a minimum. Unsurprisingly, those were also the instances where the cinematography also took a nose-dive in quality.

Now to the sound: I watched the series subbed, because off course, that how I do it. The performances in Japanese are nothing to complain about. Shinji’s voice work is nowhere near as annoying as his western counterpart, playing a much more subdued tone when away from the intense sequences, Asuka is, in the other hand, just the right degree of annoying she should be, but smoothly transitioning to lower tones when the character reaches her lower points, and Rei is… well, Rei. Fun fact: the voice actress for Rei was Hayashibara Megumi, the same one who played Faye Valentine in Cowboy Bebop. The opening is the iconic Zankoku na Tenshi no Teeze, or Thesis of a Cruel Angel, an extremely catchy song, but I’d also advise you to look for the lyrics, which is very compelling and fitting for Shinji’s character. The ending is a rendition of Fly me to the Moon, which is not really my kind of music, but if it’s yours, good enough.

Personal Ramblings

As harsh as I might have sounded in this review, I want to make it clear that I didn’t do this to diminish and lash out against fans of the series or to provide ego-boosting to detractors, I’m not ThatAnimeSnob. I wrote it with the purpose of showing my perspective, the perspective of someone who went into the series open minded and willing to take the most out of it, but came out disheartened by clumsy writing wasting away solid potential. I bet 19-year-old me really wanted to like Neon Genesis Evangelion. Besides what my favorites list might indicate, I’m all for appreciating what is old and influent in a media and that was one of my biggest drives while going into the series for the first time.

Unfortunately, by the end of it I could just repeat to myself: If only! If only the tone was kept consistent throughout the whole series; if only the unnecessary plot points were discarded in favor of tightening the script; if only the mysteries had been fully explored; if only the character dilemmas had been properly addressed and character arcs were completed; if only money was used to animate actually relevant plot-threads, giving the series the proper resolution it needed. Ironically, many of these problems are what makes Evangelion, to this day, such a divisive series and highly talked about subject, spawning countless interpretations and counterpoints. Perhaps if the series didn’t have all of the problems I discussed about and was a self-contained, complete story, it wouldn’t be nowhere near as influent and heated topic. Yes, its flaws are what make it memorable.

Evangelion is inevitable by this point. It’s considered obligatory watch for any anime fan and the result is almost always a passionate inclination to either love it or hate it. Believe it or not, I used to dislike the series even more than I do now. There was a time where I couldn’t comprehend what people saw in the anime and my reaction to anyone who placed it among their favorites was “Really?” Nowadays I’ve grown to better understand their reasoning, even though I still stand by everything I said here. I even got to be far more forgiving to Shinji than most detractors of the series are. If you like Evangelion, if it’s your favorite anime and something you wholeheartedly cherish, here is what I have to say: it’s OK, that won’t lead me to have anything against you, I might even like you, but, by the end of the day, my opinion is still the one I trust in the first place.

Oh, one last thing: stop calling Asuka a Tsundere, she has no dere-side and only going halfway isn’t enough to fit the archetype!

I ended up watching the entire series probably about 8 times due to the fact that my brother was a big fan and so was a couple of my friends back in the late 1990's. At the time this was basically THE anime to watch both in Japan in around the world. Despite huge fan fare, and a cult following, I didn't seem to like the series as much as other people have.

Story: 5/10 - Now I know people will blast me about the low rating for the story but the main problem is that the story is pretty simple especially early in ... the series. In essence it's robots vs creatures with a twist. Not much is a surprise, with only a few plot elements that keeps you wanting to watch more... which other shounen anime like bleach and DBZ does all the time. The other thing is that later on, the story gradually mixed with amateur psychology, and some of the episodes ended up just purely about the characters' internal struggles with no end in sight. Japan loves psychology for some reason, and a lot of anime does have it. Some do it well, others do it horribly, and this anime does it mediocre. Then there was the last 2 episodes. Many see it as a work of art. I see it as a cop-out. It is something akin to a rambling thought process of a socially withdrawn person. While it does make sense and I understand why the creators made the last 2 episodes like that it doesn't complete the story and leaves everything hanging. While the later movies fill the plot holes, I don't think this type of ending is acceptable. Don't get me wrong, I like endings that purposefully don't tie everything up and leave it to viewer interpretation, but this ending doesn't make you "think" it just makes you feel cheated.

Art: 8/10 For an anime in the late 90's it had crisp animation and I loved the character designs. Some parts of the animation were choppy and awkward especially in some action sequences but that was expected of animation of over 10 years ago.

Sound: 10/10: I love the music, and the BGM. It adds a lot of atomosphere to the show, and it can't help but feel excited when you hear the eva launch sequence music, and many of the action music.

Characters 6/10: Overall the characters were interesting. None of them were particularly deep ie. first impressions tend to be pretty much on the ball for most of the characters. example: Shinji is withdrawn, shy, timid in the first episode. Shinji is still withdrawn, shy, timid in episode 22. Because he doesn't want to hurt others and be hurt by others... a theme that persists for that character for the entire series. Other characters have the same issue, and the level of development that occurs for all the characters is minimal at best. You learn more about the characters and why they are like that later into the series, but that is not the same as character development. In the case of Asuka, you learn different aspects of her personality, but nothing fundamental changes with her.

Overall: 6/10 The series overall is enjoyable. As a mecha series it's one of the better ones out there... but the characters and the story for me was the weak point, that they could have given more polish.

First of all I want to say, I have watched the whole thing. Twice. I put it under dropped at 12 or so episodes because I finally finished watching this show after 7 tries, and the 10-14 episode range was the part where I usually dropped off and said, I give up. I also put it there, because it is seen so much as a "holy grail" of anime, that I keep going over it to try to see what so many people love about it. And for the people out there who believe that those who rate the show low ... don't get it, you're wrong. I get it. I still don't like it. I feel like I'm being generous giving this a 5.

I'm not going to say much about the story. You've got dozens of reviews to tell you about the story that'll give you a basic idea of it. I give the story a 2 or 3 because it really is trying to be a thoughtful piece that invokes thought. And it does invoke thought, believe me it does. But the story is pretty shallow, and could've been done in less than half the episodes without trying to be so artistic. It is an interesting premise for a show and I really love religious discussions, I just feel like the story was too shallow and too badly done to deserve a good score.

I won't say much about the art and sound, because they were done pretty well. The art could've been better, but as I said with the story, it was trying to be "artistic," and kept sending you on these acid trips that were a little underdone in many ways, though they were used too often. The art and sound wont be impressive by today's standards, but for the time they were done, I think they were pretty impressive.

The characters were really the part of the show that made me quit every single time I tried to watch it. Shinji is so horribly annoying that he makes my list of least favorite characters in the top 5. The only character I'm sure I hate more is that guy I keep trying to forget from School Days. Rei and Asakura I felt were interesting characters for the most part, though by the end it felt like they were almost caricatures of themselves, as really the entire cast is. I just mention those two because I really liked them at some point in the show.

I have to say the enjoyment is a one or a two, because any higher would just be a lie. I didn't enjoy the show, and watched it through twice to make sure I really got it, and wasn't just "missing the point." Perhaps its as some say, that the biggest problem was the lack of budget. I can see what people mean by that, but I think the problem lies elsewhere. The characters were just ridiculous. The story had serious brain damage that tried and tried to work, but just didn't. And the biggest problem with me is that I just didn't enjoy it. By the time I finally finished it I was basically just forcing myself to watch it (and rewatch it) because it's such a big deal to anime enthusiasts, that I felt I had to see it through to the end.

To conclude, I would like to say before you crucify me on this, for those people putting this on their favorite list or even as their favorite anime: Find something better. There are hundreds of anime out there that are so much better than this in every way. If you want to watch something psychological and thought provoking, go watch Ergo Proxy. It is both, but it suffers from none of the psychological damage this one does and actually presents itself as a complete product by the end of the show. The characters aren't all completely self loathing and completely annoying to watch, and like this show, the art is unique and itself part of the story. Its true that there are not many shows out there that make you think like Evangelion does, but there are a few, and I think pretty much all of them are better than this one. And if you aren't looking for something thought provoking, there are probably thousands of anime out there that have a decent story, are completely coherent, have more likable characters, and are just so much more well done.

This is about the evangelion TV series. The original TV run of 26 episodes without any special editions, recuts, director's cuts, alternate reality endings, more funding endings, better endings, re-envisioned script TV movies.

This is about Hideaki Anno's mindfuck acid trip that people seem to call an excellent anime, despite it being a mishmash of bad ideas, terrible plot, and has been redone more than Lucas's Star Wars franchise.

At the heart of this is Shinji. A loathsome coward of a man who is perhaps the biggest pussy in anime--he has zero redeeming character traits and when he starts to build up some, he pisses it away ... and make us wish we could strangle him. He is not an identifiable character, we're supposed to hate him, I guess. Shinji gets conscripted by Shotacon Misato (if she were to fuck Rei, Shinji, and Asuka while they were in her apartment, at least the anime would be more plausible) to pilot his daddy's giant robot/mutant thing. This is because post-apocalyptic (taking a creative view of Revelations) Japan has been attacked by angels.

That's right. The end of the world isn't some place in Israel, but Japan. And Shinji needs to pilot the bioweapon Evangelion (called Neon because they come in cool 1990s neon paint schemes and hammer pants) against the "angels" who are waging all sorts of physical, psychological, and biological warfare against humanity because Gendo (Shinji's dad) has stocked something away from them in his NERV complex under Tokyo and is using kids with their neon robots to protect.

The plot doesn't make sense. Although the show retcons meaning into the last episodes, there's NO FUCKING WAY they knew what was going on when they started to make it, and it seems like when they finally settled on a plot, they ran with it, neglecting the plot holes they made.

The characters are loathsome as well. Gendo is just a dick. He hates his son, sacrificed his wife, has no sympathy for anything or anyone (as is told by a sidestory how he screws around with the women he works with). Asuka is just a screwed up girl. Self loathing, tortured, unstable, and has a daddy's complex for her handler Kaji (so he's a lolicon). She has all the charm of a molested girl turned stripper.

Rei, the bloody and beaten "heroine" is as much of an albino in her personality as her appearance. Bland, creepy, emotionless. Dying all the time, but what do we care about someone with no personality.

Misato, as described before, is a whore--shamelessly parading her sexuality before Shinji, using it as leverage at NERV and essentially selling herself out. Eerily it's not done in the typical amusing anime fashion, but a creepy pathological criminal fashion as to someone who has no other way to express her feelings of fear and love which also destroys any sympathy she may have had. And then there's Ritsuko. Mommy's girl. She's essentially a blonde Misato who hates the kids more than Gendo does.

The music is a cacophony of orchestrations that sound like lion seals being raped to the banging of drums. The Evangelions are actually clever mecha designs, and their appearance is intentionally primeaval and terrifying. The animation quality is decent for the time.

What kills Evangelion is the premise that we're supposed to know what's going on (whether through retconning of the plot or just loose associations with Kaballah--pure shit--and Revelations). Except that the writers never did their homework. Add to that the two finale episodes which seem like the production staff ran out of money, Anno had a nervous breakdown, and everyone got shitfaced drunk with a box of crayons and decided to put a shovel in the head of this trainwreck of an anime. The decision to do so spawning more reimaginings, movies, and alternate reality endings...

Save yourself the headache of a show that has no idea where it's going for the first 13 or so episodes, has head trip characters you want to take out back and shoot, and an ending that will leave you exasperated.

I can't understand the appeal of this franchise.

OR WHY IT REFUSES TO DIE.

But odds are you've seen Evangelion already, anyway. Because everyone has seen it. And we're all worse off for it.

If you haven't, see RahXephon. It's Evangelion lite. And the characters are more endearing.

...

PS: I also have an alternate theory. That Evangelion is REALLY about what kind of asshole people stay behind in the world after the Rapture takes all the good people to Heaven.

Story – 5/10

The two aspects of the story I am going to point out are the themes aboarded in the story and how that is done. The first , in my opinion, with a lot of potencial and the second which does not uses all that potencial.
First of all, the superficial/inicial plot is not at all new. Boy gets to fight to save the earth while he lives a school life together with some girls and new friends. There I put one of my critics. The introduction is very badly done. To me, it just seems the direction was too eager to create that scenary ... previously described. Many aspects of the universe are not explained to the viewer, which ,on one hand, makes it difficult to understand everything but, on the other hand, makes you want to watch more.
With the development of the series, many other themes are added, which contributes to make me think that the middle of the anime is its best part. Trouble of socialization is aboarded with Shinji and Rei; paternal and maternal issues are aboarded with Shinji, Asuka and Katsuragi; existencial issues like the reason why one fights is aboarded with the main trio, mostly Asuka and Shinji, and like the truth of one’s world and how that person reacts to that. That said, the choice of the themes pleased me, but not how mostly of them were exploited. One instance is that the story develops these themes way too fast, not being developed for enough time , which difficults their comprehention. Also, there is a pacing problem because in one moment there is not any substancial development but in the next there is a huge amount of information rushed in the screen, which also difficults the comprehention, resulting in an alternation between a too slow storytelling and a rushed storytelling. Also, other aspect that I dislike is that many events happen, but they do not seem to influence the future.
About the ending, it not a really good one. Although some other existencial aspects are aboarded, which I liked, in this section, also, many informations and events are rushed, which unables them to be well explored, creating a trouble in understanding the anime’s conclusion. By the way, it is not near to be a good conclusion, because it finishes events that happen only in the last part of the anime and does not explain many aspects of that universe, leaving many subjects and characters aside and viewers confused.
Thus, Evangelion ends up being a story that talks about good themes, but that does not give them enough time to be developed and that ends up being confusing and not well finished.

Art – 7/10
In the first two thirds of the anime the art is not exquisite, but is good. The drawning is good and stylish, the animation is fluid when it has to be. Nevertheless, the concepts of the art are a two edged knife. While the city and NERV’s base are very serious and futuristic, the EVAs’ and the Angels’ appearances distune of the anime’s atmosphere. They sure do look awesome, what is a good thing, but they are way to stylish and colourfull to the setting of the anime.
In the end of the anime, putting its difficulty of understandment, there was used some interesting visual effects. The narrative uses a lot of alternative arts like the manga drawnings or simple drawnings in a white screen, with water painting. This results in unique and interesting way to communicate the character’s confusion to the viewers.

Sound – 5/10
First, about the dubbing. The main trio is perfectly enpersonated by the dubbers. Shinji’s shyness, Asuka’s pride and arrogance and Rei’s lack of emotion are completely transmitted by their voices. That also happens to the side characters, although less noticeable. Thus, the dubbing is very good.
About the soundtrack, I can say the direction uses the silence better than it uses soundtrack. The silence and ordinary sounds are commonly, and perfectly, used to express the awkwardness of the situation or the solitude of the ambient. On the other hand , it does not uses music, most of the times, in the best moments it could, like the battle scenes, and when it uses, it is usually a soundtrack that distunes from the anime’s setting and that barely helps the build up of the scene.

Characters – 7/10
As the story, this aspect of the anime had a great potencial, which was not well explored.
The trio of main characters is very good. Everyone of them has a unique personality and issues, and all of them give the story a chance to talk and to develop good subjects. Also, their interactions with one another are really fun. Nevertheless, they were not completely explored. First of all, they do not receive a proper ending. Also, they lose screen time in spite of the development of side characters and events that are neither as interesting nor as important as they are. Thus, some of their characteristics and story are not as developed as they could be.
About the side characters, they are not all bad , but they are indeed worse than the main trio. Also their development was a bad call from the direction because by the end of the anime, they try to implement and to create importance and background to a lot of characters, which results in little screen time for any of them and , thus, in a superficial development.

Entertainment – 6/10
Again I am going to praise the trio of main characters while I think the most of the rest of the anime is just satisfactory.
Shinji, Asuka and Rei have different personalities. During the anime, they clash and interact with one another. It is really fun to watch this process, mostly when we have Asuka’s spontaneity and pride facing Shinji’s shyness and Rei’s indifference.
Other cool aspect of the series are the EVAs’ scenes. Most of them are really cool and, besides almost always having the same “Angel appears and we stop it” formula, they manage to have some diversity of in how the problem of the episode is solved.
Nevertheless, there is one big defect, at least in my experience watching the anime, that is one retrospect of the story. While the plot is being developed and you are being overwhelmed by information, the entertainment of the anime is seriously jeopardized by the confusing narrative, mostly in the end of the series, because of the difficulty in understanding what is going on.

Evangelion is truly a unique experience. Everyone has their own thoughts on it, and its level of influence makes it something that should be watched at some point by anyone that wants to get into anime. Whether you regard it as a masterpiece or a disaster, it's certainly worth your time.

Unfortunately, I can't agree with either side, and now I sit in the uncomfortable middle seat in this awkward mech ride. Evangelion is by no means a bad anime, but there are many things that kept me from enjoying it, whether it was personal tastes or just flat-out questionable ideas.

When coming into this, I already ... understood that this was about some wimpy kid named Shinji who cries a lot and pilots a mech thing. Evangelion delivers. Great job, everyone. Though I didn't particularly like Shinji as a character, I could understand his feelings; why he's upset, why he's a loner, all that shit, so that's fine. What I DON'T understand how everyone does a shit job at helping him. Particularly in the case of Gendou, Shinji's father, everyone is reluctant or even annoyed and angered with Shinji because he doesn't want to be forced into his position, as he puts it, to the point where they even accept his leave. Isn't this kid, like, super important? Isn't he the only person who can pilot Unit 01? The least you could do is pretend to like him (which could even lead to some more character drama down the line) or get a therapist to talk to him. I don't even understand how Shinji and the other kids are the only pilots anyway; teenagers and their crazy hormones would seem like some of the worst kinds of people for a military operation, but they aren't when you need your anime to appeal to teenagers!

That's kinda like the other thing with Evangelion that I disliked: how little I knew about everything, particularly with the Evas and Angels. Now, I'm not saying that they should dump every bit of info at me in the first episode or I'll rate it a 1/10; in fact, making it evident something is not good but holding most information from the audience would be best and make that reveal more interesting, but the only time anyone even wondered what these things were was around the middle of the show, and it was just a carefree question. Otherwise, everyone just seems to go along with this whole questionable scenario. And even when we DO get answers, they're mostly vague because Evangelion prefers to be deep and symbolic. I could look up all this imagery and symbolism and shit... if I actually cared enough? Being direct is what I want in a story, and I'll only look into the hidden details if I'm actually interested in it. I don't want to look at everything with a magnifying glass to understand the basics. But if that's the kind of art you're into, this show will be right up your alley.

What I also disliked is that EvanJellyMan seemed unsure of what it wanted to be more: a psychological anime, or a sci-fi/action anime. The start of the anime balances these two elements pretty nicely, but after a few episodes there's very little of the psychological elements because reasons, and the show goes into "monster of the week" mode, where every episode for a while is just about a new Angel appearing and the kids needing to stop it. As an action anime, this is somewhat okay because of the interesting fights, but it slows the overall narrative a great deal. The absolutely atrocious ending is another example of this imbalance by being only half of an ending, and... well, I'll get there later. Either of these themes could've worked on their own and made for a 13-episode anime instead, but instead they were combined and got messy at times. I'm not against the idea of an action show like this mixed with some psychological drama, though.

This paragraph is a little spoilery, so skip to the next if you want. The story could be good even beyond those gripes, but the ending will prevent it from ever being good. It is probably the worst ending I've ever experienced in any medium. Fucking Tetris has a better ending than this shit. Well maybe not, but anyway, this is just half of an ending at best. It simply gives Shinji's internal character some resoultion while the show LITERALLY says "we don't have enough time to explain the rest." Never mind that the show wastes a handful of minutes by prolonging scenes as long as possible because the budget eventually ran out. Forget about symbolism or anything; it's one thing to have an ambiguous ending, and it's another to have absolutely no ending at all.

Beyond the bad ending, unbalance of themes, and some lack of details, the story is pretty basic, but passable enough.

Evangelion isn't more focused on its story, though; rather it's more interested in selling its characters, which it does only decently. Shinji is an alright character; he's very boring when he's not depressed, but this is actually okay since Shinji's supposed to be the normalfag who shouldn't be thrust into extraordinary situations like this anyway. Still, there were a couple things that I disliked about him that I'll put below this paragraph, because they're spoilers. Misato is pretty good because of her relationship with Shinji, as well as the drama caused by her past and relationships with others. Unfortunately, that's basically the end of the supposedly amazing cast of Evangelion, as the other characters are basically... well, basic; or at least not interesting or unique enough to stand out. Asuka doesn't fall into either of these categories, but I personally disliked how much of a bitch this character is in pretty much every scene. She's a similar, but opposite character to Shinji: instead of being emotional and not wanting to pilot the Eva, she's emotional and wants to pilot the Eva, at least whenever it's convenient for her. God forbid she has to wear a marshmallow suit or cooperate with someone she doesn't like when she's, you know, saving the world or something. And then everyone in authority just kinda goes along with her bitching. Okay. At least they treat her better than Shinji???

Spoilery part about Shinji: In episode 4, Shinji quits being a pilot entirely and begins to leave home, but at the last moment, he backs out and goes back to being a pilot. They don't say why he makes this choice, he just... kinda... does. Much later, towards the end of the show, he meets a character named Kaworu, becomes friends with him, and then kills him... in one episode. And he's upset about this. REALLY upset. For fuck's sake, man, I'm the one who should be upset here. I'm the one who had to sit through that absolute masterpiece of a scene. Probably the funniest part is that this guy is on the promotional poster. I'm really not sure what was going on with this whole thing, but I also just wanna let it go because this is basically the last thing that actually happens in the show.

I think I've said all I want to say about the story and characters and all, so I'll just talk about the actual production.

Especially given its time, the art of Evangelion is quite good. On a basic level, the character designs are outstanding--yeah, OUTSTANDING, and that includes the designs of both the mechs and the very odd-but-not-silly Angels. Beyond the actual designs, the animation holds up pretty well. The key problem is that many scenes will drag on and on with little-to-no animation required because budget. However, I won't pin this on the art itself and just the overall direction of the anime... it still looks good in the end.

The soundtrack is okay, but it's very repetitive. It's always the same song for an Angel attack, for breakfast at Misato's, and probably some others that I didn't really point out. Nothing in the OST really stands out but it can at least get the job done. Eva's real claim to fame is the opening theme, 'A Cruel Angel's Thesis', which is considered by pretty much anyone that takes opening songs seriously to be one of the best ever... and they're absolutely right. It might not exactly fit the mood of the anime very well, but at the end of the day, it's a damn good song that will cling to your memory for quite some time.

To close with, I didn't really hate Evangelion, and I'm glad I watched it, but I would've also avoided it if it weren't for its legacy. The blend of its elements are what make it stand out, but I didn't think it did anything particularly well. The psychological stuff is shadowed by an overall weak supporting cast, the sci-fi is more about imagery and not actual science, and the action will be broken up by these things. I'd still recommend that most people watch it, though, as you'll definitely have a few things to say about it.

Story - 5/10
Art - 8/10
Sound - 6/10
Characters - 6/10
Enjoyment - 3/10
Overall - 5/10
Favorite character - Misato
Favorite episode - 6

This is a very hard series for me to rate. On the one hand I loved it, on the other I hated it. Often at the same time. There is also the fact that it was my first anime and therefore I got more easily confused than I am now at NGE's mode of presentation and storytelling. I would not, incidentally, recommend this as anyone's first anime under any circumstances. Love it or hate it I think most people would agree with me on that. I started off loving it, only for the ending to put me off anime for a few years. Since I ... can separate what I like from what I hate quite easily I'll split the review up in that way.

Love: The artwork here is gorgeous. Given the limitations of their budget they did a fantastic job, from the Evas to the character designs. My one caveat is the angels: I didn't really like them. But that isn't enough to keep me from appreciating the visual splendor on display. Also brilliant is the music. The opening title is one of my all time favorites and throughout the series there are wonderful themes that add greatly to the drama. I have several tracks permanently on my iPhone and listen to them often. Plotwise, the basic story has been done to death, from high-schoolers as the leads to the mechs being built to fight monsters destroying humanity, but I was lucky in that this was the first time I saw it and thus the cliche seemed new and fresh. Since this series created many of these cliches it seems only fair to give it a pass on them. It revolves largely around a monster of the week approach, although they do have a number of overarching themes. The plot really feels like it's advancing so you feel quite drawn to the struggles of the leads. It also features a lot of emotional soul-searching and character development. This was something genuinely new to anime, and is why this was one of the most influential animes of all time. The series does quite a good job of setting up the drama and danger and makes it very clear how important for the survival of the species this mission is. Which leads right into the problems.

Hate: I think that everyone can agree the ending sucked. A big part of the reason the show kept me hooked was because I wanted to know the answers to the many mysteries it set up. What were the Angels? Why were they named that? Why were the computers running the Evas named after the Magi? What was with all the Christian symbolism? What was Gendo's goal in all this? Well, you never find these out. The movie explains some of this, but to say that the answers it gave were unsatisfactory is rather an understatement. I naively assumed that this series was doing things for a reason, and when it turned out to be going nowhere I turned harshly against a series that I had previously been enjoying. Watching it again knowing that these questions wouldn't be answered I realized how pretentious it all is. Why throw in all this (often obscure) Christian symbolism if it doesn't mean anything? The major complaint shared by everyone is the characters. Shinji is a whiny brat, and kind of a wuss. Fans who point out that he is in fact an accurate depiction of an abused child are missing the point. This is a form of entertainment, not a documentary. Nobody wants to listen to someone whine about how bad their life is for hours on end (wah! my dad built me a mech and surrounded me with beautiful girls. wah!). Having an unsympathetic character is fine but they have to either be surrounded by better ones or improve. The series relies and focuses on the whiner FAR too much. People who like to go on about realism should note that there is in fact no way that people with such severe emotional flaws would ever be put in positions of such power. I put up with Shinji entirely in the hope that he would get better, and he does, only to collapse back in on himself again. The other characters aren't as bad, although his father Gendo is the worst combination of stereotypically distant Japanese father and incomprehensible supervillain. He does however have the best glasses in the entire world. The final few episodes were really bad, although here I'm giving the series a pass since I know it was budget constraints more than anything else. We get one obviously major character showing up, developing an instant bff relationship, and then vanishing an episode later. The last two episodes are told almost entirely in stills since they ran out of budget to animate anything. But even here, it is obvious that the series didn't have a plan of where it was going. It was relying on faith that it would get somewhere interesting and it didn't arrive there.

I don't want this to be a 5. Five implies mediocre, and Evangelion is never that. But since there is no way that I can provide a score that is both 1 and 10 simultaneously there's nothing I can do but average them together. And when you do that it comes out completely average. The series is one that should be seen if only because of all that it inspired, but be prepared going in for an unsatisfying conclusion and some seriously annoying characters.

I had an urge to write yet another review to this "mindblowing masterpiece" for some unknown reasons, maybe because it's been a long time since I was so dissapointed with an anime and didn't even realize what the hell is wrong with it. Maybe this'll clear my thoughts up and make you waste a couple of minutes of your life on reading. Oh yes, and pardon my English.

Nowadays when we start watching Evangelion, most of us already know what to expect - something unique, amazing, special, deep, powerful. Well, this series hasn't left any of those impressions, nor any impact on my mind and ... soul, apart from a brief suspicion that the author played magic tricks on the society and made it truly believe that this muddle has sense and meaning.

The story doesn't shine with singularity and isn't really that complicated. Weird monsters attack the world, and a typical japanese student with serious complexes and attention issues has to save it by piloting a giant robot. He has no desire of doing so, and doesn't really suit for the job, but who cares? That's basically it for the main story. Period. No twists, no amazing revelations, no intrigues, just some mind-digging philosophy for the rest of the show. And don't expect any interesing combat tactics or strategies, the little amount of action is easily forgettable and doesn't captivate your attention at any moment.

The main focus of the show are the characters, their psychology. O'kay, psychology is nice. I really love to observe how amazing, complex characters solve their problems by self-analisis and then actually DO something. Shinji, the main character of Evangelion, is a wimp, has always been a wimp and will probably stay a wimp, in spite of what he said in the finale. Yes, this is a non-typical anime character, he's realistic, not Lelouch, I get it, but I don't like it. The only worthy characters are probably Asuna and Misato, being more or less reasonable and interesting to watch.

Until the end the show was still promising and watchable. Its ending is truly pathetic. The main idea of the show seemed elementary and priimitive to me. As not to spoil the "fun", I'll stop here.
And a couple of words about the supposed alternative finale, the movie, which you must watch after completing the show: more action in the beginning, and a completely muddled rot and nonsense, deeper than any ocean, in the end.

I didn't find this mindrape enjoyable at any rate, if it provokes any feelings, those are disturbance and confusion.
Actually,at first I still gave it a 7, as an homage to it being classics and peculiar in its own weird way, and I'm not claiming that it's a bad anime. But if you're a fan of epic and dramatic shows that actually make sense and don't leave so many questions unanswered, shows like FMA, Code Geass or whatever, it's highly possible that you won't like Eva.

That's it, I'm ready for your dislikes.

NGE has amazing presentation. it's animation, sound design, and general mood all set the tone and feel of the show perfectly. The beautifully detailed old school animation of it is what initially had me enamored with it. Then there's the action sequences, which are well choregraphed and visceral, really riveting and intense (the good ones anyways, there are some action sequences that are just meh). It's themes, if you can even decipher them that is, are really poignant and powerful ones but sadly I feel NGE sort of butchers it's own themes in execution since half the people I know who watched this show didn't ... understand the themes without reading wiki articles. It's plot could be interesting if the show cared at all about it's plot, but the show seems entirely uninterested in it's own plot and fails to ever explain it in a way that makes much sense to the average viewer. Again most people I've talked to who watched NGE had to read wiki articles to understand what the plot was.

Basically put, NGE has great presentation and riveting action, but it's themes and plot, while potentially quite good and meaningful, are hard to follow and you'll likely be left confused by the show and end up reading some wiki articles or forum posts trying to make heads or tails of what you just watched. If NGE spent anytime at all trying to present it's plot and themes more coherently then it would be an amazing 10/10, but instead it chooses to be obtuse and mysterious in the weirdest ways possible. I think the epitome of my gripes with this show is how they just drop random proper nouns with no context and then never even try to clue the audience in on what they mean. Like some character will just be like "At long last the Book of Fleembis, the key to Glungo's Dominion" and then never explain or even give any clues as to what Fleembis or Glungo are ever. Obviously I made up my own nonsense words, but they literally do stuff like that and it's pretty annoying.

NGE is hard to recommend for those reasons. Overall I think it's a unique and worthwhile watch even if it's kind of half baked, or rather overdone, in many aspects. Just be prepared to be a little lost and don't feel ashamed to google stuff you still don't understand when all is said and done. What is does well, it does really well and if you meet it halfway it does have a lot to it once you start to unpack it. It's one of my personal favorites even if it is very far from perfect.

"Wait, what is this... This is me... This is the shape that let others recognise me as myself!"

The plot is really scrambly, but what makes it beautiful is that you can piece the puzzle pieces together yourself in your head. There are lots of theories online about what's supposed to be the real meaning of Evangelion, the real plot, the real "purpose" of everything. They even go as far as comparing it to the most wild shit ever. But it all makes sense in some way or another.

For me the beauty of Evangelion comes from the realization of it all after you're done watching it. ... Everything clicks. Or it doesn't, and that's fine. You start to realize that every character, main character or side character, has their flaws. That's what makes them unique. You can't simply "pick a fave" from evangelion without having to come up with excuses for their wrong-doings. Everyone has their own trauma and even the so called "bad guys" can be excused in some way or another.

If you're down for a very confusing, but in the end rewarding ride, i'd strongly recommend this. It really made me think about life and also death and other deep issues in the world. I won't go into much detail.

Because of the relatively high score I finally watched this series after years of procrastinating.


Something I liked is the interesting concept of the post 2nd Impact world, with its biblical references and the unique idea of living beings being separated by a wall, the AT-Field.

While it definitely does have a very artistic style of conveying the various characters' train of thought and feelings, the series lacks action, especially in the second half. The characters especially the protagonist, are too busy with their psychological problems that the plot is not really advancing anymore. The last two episodes consist only of high speed flashing of images ... and Kanji and repeating symbolics like the opening of a door twenty times while one of the characters is hysterically fighting with their own past.

I tend to dislike the anime when I dislike the main character. And Shinji is one of the most pathetic characters I've ever seen in an anime.
In the first few episodes there seemed to be good character development with Shinji, but he fell back to being pathetic until about 5 minutes before the end of the series. So practically all the character development happens in a few minutes. In the anime and particularly in the last two episodes everything is going in circles. The characters are imprisoned in their own minds going over their problems over and over again. Then from one moment to another Shinji is enlightened. The End. I was like wth?! What's going to happen to the plot? They built up a complex story of the complementary project and after episode 26 all the open ends are left open.
Luckily there's the alternate telling of the two last episodes in End_of_Evangelion which does at least tie most of the open ends together in an almost pursuable way, but left the character development behind. This time Shinji is pathetic to the very end.

In the end I can only say: Art is different for anyone, and to be honest I just didn't really enjoy it.
It's probably like I enjoy some clean and modern artwork from sculptures to architecture or modern automotive design concepts, but I really dislike the kind of art like some of Picasso's works with intertwined limbs coming out of incomplete bodies at impossible angles, that when I look at them I always ask myself what twisted mind can produce something like that.
If I had to describe Evangelion with one word I would say it's twisted.

WHY THIS ANIME IS SO OVERRATED, AND IS A EXAMPLE FOR THE HOW TO MAKE AN AWESOME ANIME???? JUST WHY?

CONTAIN SPOILERS

Evangelion is a anime about Eva x Angel, where Angel doesn't have any explanation, and Eva is some thing like a Adam son. YES, JUST IT.
That anime has a lot of fails in the plot, and doesn't shows what really happening... After a lot of time doing search , I can understand some things.

Story - the history is very complex, there are various references about religion, as: Judaism, Christianity and Buddhism, the history revolves around Ikari Shinji, a 14 years old boy, who was ... called for be the new Eva 01 pilot, who after would be his mother. Much of the history is impliedly placed, or worst, IT IS NOT IN THE ANIME, and how can it doesn't be rated as fail script? Idk, a lot of people say that Mirai Nikki and Tokyo Ghoul are bad (indeed), for having a lot of fails in the script, but Evangelion, who have absurd fails in the temporal question, and Revelation of mysteries, Is not classified as such
Doubts who were answered, but doesn't have in the anime: Why the Shinji's father said "Yui" for Eva 01? Who's the SELEE? What's the great day? Who is Kaworu and what he was wanted? What is the big secret that Kaji knows, and why he is an spy (for who and for what?)?
Doubts that I still having: Why Shinji is the easiest to pilot Eva's? Why Shinji's father is an asshole? Who are the angels? What is the reason for the accident of the two "Shell" were downed in the Earth? Why Ritsuko killed the another Rei's, and still out of it?
Ofc have another wrong at the plot or doubts, but these are the most important.
The anime forces you to create theories, and more doubts and discussion, doesn't turn him good, just exposes his fails who have in the anime, and because he's not concise

Art - Dude, Ok, that anime was made 20 years ago, but couldn't be better? had very very repetitive scenes, really, or scenes who had staying ONE MINUTE JUST WITH THE SAME IMAGE (Elevator scene and a lot of hospital scenes), out that, the personages are good drawed, and the fight scenes are kinda good tho.

Sound - One of his strong points. What was that opening? of 26 episodes, at least 18 I did listened the whole opening, I very liked. And the fight scenes or thriller scenes, though very limited, They created a kind of tension and exciment in watch what happening, and that scene when started to play classic music? WHAT WERE THAT, Gave me a impression of something tragic was happening (what of course was), in other words (darling kiss me), combined as well with the scene.

Personages - This was the 2nd biggest strong point. All personages are relevant for the serie, and have a "portion" of blame in all facts who happened, the psychological treatment who each other have, and psychological horror inserted at them is just great.

Shinji - I'm definitely of "against", I guess. Because I really liked him, really, he's like Natsuki Subaru from Re:Zero, but without the determination of the same. Although he have fear, he always is in there, fighting, don't because he want to, but because he have to make it, because he tried to ran away twice times, but in the twice times, he perceives who anybody else could resolve the problems that the humanity battles. the psychological trauma that he have...it's simply magnific, the hate that he have of his father, it's quite understandable, since he was dropped of in the Childhood by the same.

Asuka - PROBABLY, SHE'S THE BIGGEST ANNOYING CHARACTER THAT I'VE EVER MET, she's envious, always make troubles, discussion and conspiracy, is inane, always want to appears herself, maybe she has all of worst, there is a reason to she is like it? BELIEVE IN ME, DOESN'T HAVE! She suffered big traumas in childhood, but nothing justify why she's so arrogant and futile as she is.

Rei - I already said I love Kuudere characters? characters like her, are simply adorable, they doesn't feel fear, doesn't feel love, doesn't feel anything, and isolate themselves, and when isolating themselves, feel loneliness, and then create a psychological horror with themselves, this is just awesome!!! There is a reason to she is like a "robot", she's like this because she's like a Android, or any other name for a lab test, so, she can't feel something, after all, she was made with an objective already, and all we know that Humans seek their own objectives

Katsuragi - Another character type that I love, she's like a "big mother", always willing to help, for some lack reasons maybe, or empty existential, but she always is in there to help, and support the Asuka & Shinji pain. She doesn't have objectives to be achieved (As all Evangelion characters, who addresses the theme of the meaning of life), she's just in there, doing what have to do, because hate the Angels.

Shinji's Father - THIS GUY IS AN ASSHOLE, really, he's despicable, disgusting, makes me feel desire to punch his face. Why he's the general? precisely for being like this, cold and calculist, who is willing to abandonate the own son or descard the chosen children to achieve to your goal. the his objectives are implicit, and maybe he is so desesperate to achieve your goal, That he will eventually fail.

Enjoyment: DEFINITELY THE WORST THING. The anime have 26 episodes, but can have at least 15 episodes totally useless, how can a anime what just excites in the episode 15-17 be good? Idk
The anime have action scenes COMPLETELY cliche and obvious, that you already know what is gonna happen, sometimes for pure protagonism (Shinji entering in Berserk mode) or for pure Action Yield (Asuka x Angel in the lava).
Repetitive scenes as the fight of 17 angels, really? couldn't decreases the quantity? or compress 2 fights in one episode or something, and just focus the other episode in the history, who didn't nothing developed?
Some good thing to emphasize of his anime is the tension created in each episode, And that holds you till the end of the same, when they shows a doubt in the beginning of the episode, and just does answer in the final.
The 1-15 episodes gonna make you say "Why that anime is so overrated?", the 21-24 episodes gonna make you say "WHAT A GENIAL ANIME", and the 25-26 episodes gonna make you say "Ok, but what happened?", that psychological attack making he accept herself, for in the final he receives a lot of congratulations, was completely despicable and laughable.

Conclusion: I still without understand why this anime is a reference in script and plot, when they does precisely the opposite of how to make a good work. A anime who needs of a movie and theories for affirm the things, can't called as something good, this is my opinion. But watch it, for shows to the others how much this anime is terrible ;)

First and foremost, I would like to call for an end to the use of the phrase “mind f***” when describing this anime. I guess it is mostly attributed to the ending that was really just a mangled regurgitation of a few ideas from an introductory psychology course. “I am the me that exists in your mind”…give me a break.

Story (6/10):
Monsters called angels come from space to attack humanity. Their best bet is to use supernatural mecha called Eva that can only be piloted by teenagers to stop these attacks. The majority of the episodes fluctuate between fighting whatever random angel that comes that ... day and trying to live normal lives. Sound like an awful episodic structure that would fail in any poorly choreographed action series? You're right it is terrible. And worse, the stark contrast between these two states is painful.

As you have read or seen, there are hidden agendas and motives behind the characters and organizations in the series that get revealed little by little after each episode. This is one the few bright spots that this series has to offer and allowed me to retain interest in the series. Unfortunately, the end of the road is unrewarding to say the least.

You also may have read about religious references used in the show. None of these are relevant to the characters or story so they are really just trying to make the series seem more complicated than it really is. Don’t get bogged down trying to pay attention for them.

Characters(6/10):
Contrary to the beliefs of many, the main problem in this category is not that the characters are static. It comes down to interactions between the characters. I’d say that there is way too much explicit analysis of each character’s faults. Nearly all of the dialogue in this series outside of battle scenes involves either a character’s faults being criticized by themselves or another character. These criticisms make for some of the most melodramatic moments ever and I typically am a fan of melodrama (NANA and Geass ftw).

The characters were not static. Shinji, the main character, made changes to himself quite frequently and improved in some areas, but sheltered his main fault to the end. That is a route that isn’t seen often in this industry. Some characters got worse and worse matching the dark themes of the series . Others meant to be mysterious left us with more questions than answers…kudos.

I think it is worth mentioning that the removal of Asuka from this series may improve the score of this series by 2 pts…just think about it.

Artwork/Animation (7/10):
The dark and powerful vibe from the eva paired with slimed down armor schemes with vibrant colors makes for the best mecha designs I have seen. The battle scenes however are extremely repetitive and lack general movement and choreography. For the most part, one eva pilot will try to attack the angel and will get immediately defeated. Then there will be a stupid sequence of scenes that ultimately exposes a lame weakness in the angel resulting in one of the pilots saving the day. All in the blink of an episode. Eva are apparently best suited for hand to hand combat, too bad they can’t animate this, so it rarely happens. Fortunately for us, the diverse camera shots that they use during these sequences are really cinematic, and a nice battle music selection amps the scenes up a bit as well. When the scene is set in the school or at home the artwork and animation was inconsistent and lazy.

Overall Reaction:

If there were budget problems with this series why not halve the number of angels fought and not waste my time with lame fight sequences. Most of the time spent in the slice of life settings were used for poor comedic purposes and did not develop the characters. Why not halve that time as well.

This series is noteworthy for having some new psychological and mystery elements in a mecha series, but it is paired with a boring repetitive vehicle of a plot that just manages to crawl to the end of the series. The ending is not a mind f*** moment...more of a f*** up moment that could have been handled much better had they spent maybe a little time on the script. The dialogue is bad, the music and art solid. The action sequences lackluster. Watch with caution.

Overall Score: 6/10