Shinseiki Evangelion

Neon Genesis Evangelion is probably familiar to most of you. It's a well-known series from Gainax written by Anno Hideaki. It's also an anime I never got all the way through before this point. I tried several years before I wrote my first review when I was watching a bunch of anime because they had Hayashibara Megumi. I got through Nuku Nuku, Blue Seed, Saber Marionette, the Slayers, Love Hina, Bakuretsu Hunters and some others. Evangelion was the only series I couldn't get through. The characters annoyed me more than any cast I'd ever seen and the story was pants. In the end I got ... to that episode where Shinji and Asuka have to time their attacks using DDR, and no I don't know which episode that is numerically, and the sheer stupidity of that plot point resulted in my looking up the plot summaries for the remaining episodes to see if it was ever going to improve and promptly dropping it.

My ignoring the franchise ended last year when I was asked to review the film, End of Evangelion, which was one of the worst movies I've ever seen. In fact, I would rather watch one of Michael Bay's films than re-watch that. Now, I've been asked to go back and watch the series in its entirety and give it a chance. Honestly, I'm not looking forward to it. That being said, some of the series and films I've re-watched from that time period have turned out to be much better or worse than I remember. So, Evangelion could end up being better than my memory indicates. I certainly hope so because otherwise this is going to be painful. Let's take a look and see.

Story:

In the far off year of 2015, fifteen years after the second impact cataclysm, mankind finds itself under siege by beings called “Angels.” Our protagonist, Shinji, is assigned to pilot a giant robot called an Eva and fight against the angels. Otherwise, a third impact could come and destroy everything. Unbeknownst to him, the organisation he's working for is keeping secrets that could be more destructive than the angels.

Now, you might think setting the initial event that kicks off your story a scant five years in the future, the series started running in 1995, is absolutely moronic and just serves to make it horribly dated very quickly, but it has to be set in 2000. You see, Anno was making a satirical statement about the fact that government agencies used to lie. I know, shocking.

Some might also call the writing weak for minor details like the angels having no real motivation, the NERV organisation being more transparently evil than a Captain Planet villain, the narrative grinding to a halt halfway through and never reaching any kind of real resolution or the ending in general. The people who say this just don't get the deeper meaning behind all of these factors. The angels have to be depicted as having no motivation because giving them motivations would make NERV's transparent evil too obvious. NERV has to be transparently evil because government agencies used to lie. The story has to grind to a halt to illustrate that life doesn't always have neat resolutions. You might argue that a narrative needs a sensical resolution but that's just nitpicking.

Characters:

In a world where most media tries to have characters who are endearing, complex, realistic or some combination thereof, Evangelion makes the bold decision of having characters who are none of those things. These are characters who are all of a quarter-dimensional. Sure, in a series like Highschool of the Dead or Crime Edge having characters that basic would hurt the narrative, but Evangelion pulls it off ingeniously. You see, Anno adds depth by giving virtually every character severe parent issues. You might think that sounds absolutely horrendous and annoying, but it's not. It's ingenious.

Art:

I will grant that the art is not great, even by the standards of its time. That being said, there are some very clever artistic choices. Like making most of the angels look like rejected super sentai villains. There's also the daring decision to show fourteen year old girls naked. It might sound pervy, but it is very essential to the underlying themes.

Sound:

Hayashibara Megumi and Ogata Megumi are two of the greatest actresses ever to grace the industry. Hayashibara Megumi might even be the best voice actress in any language ever. In addition to these powerhouses, Evangelion has Miyamura Yuko, Mitsuishi Kotono, Ishida Akira and several other talented people. With such a talented cast, Evangelion made the intrepid decision to have none of them act. It might sound like inexcusably bad direction, but it's very important to the themes that each actor only gets allocated one or two emotions. The music is pretty good.

Ho-Yay:

The ho-yay factor is a 2/10. There's a little bit between Shinji and Kaworu.

Final Thoughts:

For the one person out there who didn't pick up on the sarcasm in the preceding paragraphs, I'll say it clearly. This is one of the worst anime I've ever seen. The writing is horrid, using several elements that could be good if very well written but with all of them being handled completely incompetently. The characters are less than one-dimensional, thoroughly unlikable, and downright obnoxious. They neither act nor talk like anything remotely resembling a real person. I apologise to everyone, myself included, who has an actual depressive disorder since so many people offensively excuse the terribly written Shinji as just “being depressed.” The art would be middling, even with the ridiculous looking enemies, except for the gratuitous teenage nudity because the artists are pervy assholes. They got a stellar cast, which went entirely to waste. About the only positive element is that the music is actually pretty good.

Now, I know someone is going to tell me I didn't get the “deeper meaning” behind the pretentious twaddle, so I looked up what Anno had to say about it. Which is that there is no deeper meaning in Evangelion. So, why exactly do people think there's a deeper meaning here? Allow me to explain.

Finding meaning in something like Evangelion is a type of Apophenia, or seeing patterns and connections where none exist. The fact is, a lot of people see things like random religious symbols or the moments inside what passes for a “mind” in Whiny, Blank Slate or Anger Issues, as proof that there's a hidden meaning. So, they look for what it could be and they find something that satisfies them. If you're looking for a deep meaning, you will find it, regardless of whether or not there actually is one. It doesn't matter if a series is meaningless, simple and straight-forward, random or downright stupid.

As an exercise, Let's revisit Kill La Kill, assuming that it has a deeper meaning instead of just being a dumb action series. The series is actually a cautionary tale about the misuse of, and over-reliance on technology. It makes the brilliant move of using clothing, one of the most basic elements of our modern society, for this endeavour. It presents a nuanced approach, having clothing used both for good and ill. I could point to scenes like Mako and her family being corrupted by opulence only to discard their clothing and emerge as a noble poor family again. Sure, you could probably poke holes in this idea if you've seen the actual show, but the point is that it's ridiculously easy to construct your own meaning, especially if you're convinced that there is one.

The final rating, 1/10. To paraphrase a writer with actual talent, if the word “hate” was engraved on every atom of my body, it would not be a billionth of the hate I have for this series. It's downright atrocious and it was painful to sit through to the extent that you could force people to watch it as a method of torture. Next week, All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku. I need to read some Alan Moore to try and fix the damage the idiocy inherent to this pile of rancid fecal matter did to my brain cells.

Hugely experimental and thankfully unique, Evangelion is a roaring failure.

Yeah, there might be spoilers but I'll try to stay away from them.

After watching several series, I finally ran across something that I actively disliked. Maybe if you are a (shudder) person who enjoys a nice bit of Camus to go along with your nightshade cocktail, you will really dig this series. Otherwise this one is going to be painful.

STORY: Evan starts off moderately interesting. For some convoluted reason a teenager is the only one who can pilot a super-mega-awesome-gigantor-robot for some convoluted reason. We've seen it before -- it allows the ... target shounen audience to have characters they can identify (i.e. lazy kid) get to play the hero instead of someone more realistic -- say a 30-year-old ace captain with years of conflict experience and (more importantly) some emotional maturity. But hey, not like this is the first time. So we get the normal mecha-on-mecha action sequences, which are kinda cool, and the expected teen drama stuff. Oh, and some daddy issues, because what is anime without a justified hatred of one's parents?

AND THEN THE SERIES LOSES IT'S FREAKING MIND

There is no better way to put it. I read on wikipedia that the person responsible for this travesty of philosophic trite had a bad batch of depression, and it shows. Anytime sci-fi has to double back to religious fantasy, it fails. I "got" the story but I hated it. Around this time the series shifts to adult themes over shounen, which is kinda cool. But since everyone was afraid of losing their jobs at the time (per Wikipedia "but also partly because by this point, production had begun running out of funding and failing to meet the schedule; this collapse has been identified by at least one Gainax employee as the impetus for Evangelion's turn into metafiction...") they decide to spew out a bunch of woe-is-me-the-world-sucks garbage.

ART: Art here is decent. Not great, but decent. Since this was a 90's anime, this is very excusable. At the time, the art had to be fantastic. Thank god I started watching anime now than back in the day.

Sound: Passable. Nothing great, nothing too easy to beat up on.

Character: Anyone who tells you that they liked the characters is lying (a) to themselves and/or (b) to you. All of them, especially the protagonist, have extremely annoying qualities (whinny, self-absorbed, withdrawn) that begin to drag on one's nerves. The protagonist particularly sucks -- 4 weeks of basic bootcamp as Gomer Pile would have given him something to really cry about.

Enjoyment: There is a reason why this series almost bankrupted the company. This is not what all anime should be, entertaining.

Overall: I was really looking forward to this anime after hearing such great things about it. For the life of me, I cannot figure out why this is so well-regarded. I think it's because if you are the type of person that thinks the same as as some of the characters, this anime will sing to your soul or something.

Sometimes classics are deserving, sometimes they are not. This anime is the latter.

I realize that I'm likely painting a target on my face with this one, but here goes. Please read to the end, as my recommendation may surprise.

The biggest sin of NGE, in my opinion, is wasted potential. Be warned, I'll be touching on spoilers here, though I'll try to avoid any actual plot developments.

Story: 5
The story of NGE actually starts off rather strong. Eldritch abominations are attacking the world (primarily Japan), and only might mechs known as Eva-Units can defeat them. The only catch, only certain children can pilot these mechs, and doing so requires mental synchronization with the machines (in other words, if the ... robot's arm gets ripped off, the pilot gets to feel it). I love this premise, and it proves a great deconstruction of the genre. The problem is that eventually the story devolves into a pity party so full of skin-deep symbolism that there's no real... victory involved. There's bad ends, and then there's spiraling into a whirlpool of depression that aims to take the world with it.

Art: 5
The art direction is actually rather solid. Character designs are unique, for the time (really everyone else began copying this), and when the show does an action scene, they do a wonderful job of it. Sadly, the limited budget of the show leaves us with several scenes that consist of stills. Still, props for doing a great job with what they had.

Sound: 7
A true high point of the show, this is where a great chunk of effort came it. Even the dub is quality, and it's a 90's dub. I came in expecting a few laughs, but I was pleasantly surprised. The music is well-done, but not varied. I mean, I love fly me to the moon, but pick another song, Hideaki.

Characters: 3
Hoo-boy. This is the hardest part for me. It's not that the characters are bad, per se; it's that they had wonderful potential for growth, and then stagnate AT BEST. Shinji is a whiny wimp who looks like he'd fit in well in a coming of age story. Sadly, he stays in the whole "Somebody love me!" stage pretty much the whole way through, and the few times he does grow, some event comes along to destroy it. Rei is an... acceptable excuse, but that's going into spoiler territory. Clever naming though. I can approve. The other likable characters all have something come along to ruin the growth they've had (again, heading into spoilers, so I have to be a little vague). Gendo's a prick. I am accepting of this fact. Moving on. Asuka................ she could have been great. She could have been one of the best characters in the show. She starts off selfish, and abusive, and arrogant. It's shown later that she came from a damaged family. But rather than realizing that there are people who care about her, that she doesn't need to prove anything, she just spirals into depression worse than any other character.

Enjoyment: 1
I know this will vary heavily from person to person, but what I love most in a story is character growth. As detailed above, I didn't get that AT ALL, and it really hampered my enjoyment of the show.

Overall, should you watch this? Yes. At least once. The show has some virtues, but I felt those virtues were heavily overshadowed by the themes of depression that began to permeate the show. It can be done right, but I don't think NGE was the show for it. Just be sure you're in a stable frame of mind when you do watch it. I've met those who actually fell into bouts of depression after watching this show's conclusion. Oh, and thanks for reading to the end.

Overhype, thy name is Evangelion.

Since I started watching anime, it seemed that all anybody could do was talk about how amazing this show is. In a sense, they're right. When one watches this show, they must see it through a lens of how revolutionary Evangelion was at the time, and how largely it influenced anime. However, this review isn't about that. This review is about how enjoyable this anime is to watch. Evangelion is well-written, full of symbols, and smartly deconstructs the mecha genre; however, it is pretentious, at its best underwhelming, and at its worst a complete waste of time to watch.

Let me preface ... this by saying that I am not a fan of the mecha genre. However, I was assured repeatedly by fans who swear by this show that this show is a psychological thriller at heart, and that the mecha aspect isn't very important. This is incorrect. Between the lack of cliffhangers, the episodic plot structure, and the fairly predictable mecha fights, I was at times forcing myself to watch the next episode as I so dearly hoped that the next one would become more captivating and finally begin to shed light on why this show is so revered. Unsurprisingly, I was disappointed.

Some would argue that the plot predictability comes from how much this show influenced future shows that I've probably already seen. Even if this were true, it doesn't fix the problem; it only shifts the blame around. Moreover, the episodic plots, predicable or not, still were not compelling in the slightest. This is the real issue, and regardless of what causes these issues, it doesn't change the fact that it makes the show far less entertaining.

Ironically, I liked the last two episodes more than the rest of the show combined. Perhaps it was because the writers couldn't use mecha battles and instead had to write some actually interesting and compelling character or philosophy-driven content. I won't get into detail as to what happens in them, but they were a breath of fresh air and a remarkable improvement to the series (even if their budget was nearly nonexistent at that point).

Evangelion is a tricky case. Yes, the show is filled with symbolism and motifs and other such nonsense, but packing an otherwise mediocre series with symbolic imagery doesn't inexplicably improve the enjoyment of the show. Fans of this show berate others who didn't like it for not "getting" it, and that people who truly understood the show would love it. This variant of the No True Scotsman fallacy is the exact same thing that similar fans use to dismiss those who didn't like FLCL, and it's just as wrong. If you enjoy the mecha genre enough to see a deconstruction of it, and don't mind some predictability, Evangelion will be right up your alley. Otherwise, you are only wasting your time.

Neon Genesis Evangelion is the worst anime I've ever watched, and let me tell you why. First of all, the character development. Shinji remains stagnant throughout the entirety of the show as a scared little boy, with no balls. He never comes to realize the responsibility he has, and instead simply acts immature for the sake of seeming realistic. Asuka is an arrogant bully suffering under a depression after having a messed up childhood; and Rei is more of a robot than a character. Other side characters like Gendo and Misato do receive some nice backstories however, that doesn't help the weak main cast.

The story ... is average at best, consisting of episodic monster of the week battles against angels. Later it is revealed why this is so, all being a lead-up to Gendo's plan of human instrumentality, but it doesn't change how weak and un-engaging the story is, and human instrumentality is just an excuse for the last episodes to exist.

The art isn't very good, the aspect ratio is small, and the animation quality is really inconsistent. The music is nothing special either. Thankfully the action scenes are very intense and help make the series very addicting (I marathoned it in two days).

The big things that absolutely ruin this show for me are the horrible characters, the Gainax ending, and an uninteresting story. In some areas, like action, this show was pretty good. After watching this, I felt disgusted for having wasted my time with this series, it truly deserves a 1/10 from me.

Wow, I don't even know where to start with this review. I suppose I should begin by saying what an incredible sense of disappointment and disgust it filled me with. So much that I quite literally dropped the show halfway into the final episode.

Neon Genesis Evangelion starts out okay, with a very whiny main character who doesn't seem to ever pay attention (IE, DODGE SHINJI DODGE and then he just stands there and get's shot for the 6th time) but these flaws are easily overlooked due to the interesting world in which this anime takes place.

For about the first half of the show the world ... environment is strong enough to maintain ones interest, and keep them coming for the next episode. In fact for the first half of the show the only issue I would complain about is the weak and overly emotional lead character. For example his father issues are so extreme that even when his dad is giving him advice that will save his life, he gets angry at his father for the suggestion, then has a hissy-fit after he is rescued.

The latter half of the show though. Holy fuck. They literally begin to have 1-3 minutes of a single frame just to fill the time, all while very loud classical music blasts. If the lazy animation wasn't the only issue they start to have entire episodes of what looks like hallucinogenic pipe-dreams, where the characters float around in various form (like stick figures) while the character talks to himself and attempts to philosophize. Multiple consecutive episodes are spent like this, and it happens to be the reason I was able to drop it finally at episode 26.

They would also have entire episodes in the last segments of the show where they would reveal all sorts of information that one could tell is supposed to be shocking. However when they revealed 20 different things in one episode, and never provided any clues or hinting earlier in the season it just felt very forced and weak.

All in all Neon Genesis Evangelion is a show that started off mediocre, managed to turn halfway decent, then dramatically killed itself. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

This review is for both the series and two movies.

This overall is the worst anime series I've seen, and I've seen a lot of them. There are many things wrong with the series and movies.

First is the story. It begins in the year 2000 when a disaster nearly destroys Antarctica and kills billions of people. It's first thought to be a natural disaster, but was actually a experiment sponsored by a organization called SEELE and carried out by GEHIRN. Fast forward to the year 2010 GEHIRN has changed into NERV a military organization. NERV's primary mission is to locate creatures ... called Angles and destroy them. The primary story follows Shinji Ikari who decides to join NERV and his father is the head of NERV.

Now onto all the problems with this show.

First is the story: I'm not sure what the creators of this series/movies were trying to do, but they failed miserably. The story as it went on from episode to episode and movie to movie just got worse and worse as it went a long. The story was incoherent and didn't make any sense. I don't mind series that try to have a hight meaning, but at least make some kind of sense at the end, express something even if it's that everyone dies.

Second the characters: I think this might have been my biggest problem with the series. The characters brought nothing to the series. The main character Shinji has to be one of the worst if not the worst anime character ever. He had no depth, emotion, and didn't try me in. He was just annyoing, and I wanted him to die almost from the beginning, the same with most of the other ones. I can't think of on character I actually liked.

Third the animation: The animation done by GAINAX is terrible it looks like something done by in the 60s or 70s. Hell I think Speed Racer looks better than this series.

Overall this is the worst anime series ever and most overrated series I've seen. I really don't understand why people like it. If they want to see a great anime series with meaning then you should check out series like Saikano, RahXephon, and Now and Then, Here and There just for example. Just skip this series and movie, you'll life will be much better off.

* Might have a few spoilers (even though I'm trying my best to keep them out). Also, english is not my first language, and I apologize for any mistakes. *

This anime starts pretty well. For a few episodes, you might think it will be an epic story about a teenager caught in the unlikely position where he is the only one who can pilot a certain gear (and all the drama that arises from that situation).

Well, if you thought that, you were wrong.

A few episodes down the road, you'll notice nothing is moving forward - you don't have a clue about what is going on. ... That would be OK if it were intended, a move to create anticipation for what is coming next. But no, the main character doesn't have a clue either, and he is too busy (doing nothing at all) to figure things out. He just keeps doing things because, well, that's what he's "supposed to be doing".

Do you know when anime characters desperately "need a hug"? You can identify them easily. They stare at the other characters with beady eyes, desperately needing to open their hearts, thinking about things they should say, starting sentences that never get finished... well, turns out ALL the characters in Evangelion are like that. They ALL need a hug. Badly.

"Need a hug" characters often don't communicate, either. They just keep all the important info and questions to themselves. And then you get to roll your eyes over and over again at the ridiculous situations the characters put themselves into. Yes, the "roll eyes" factor in Evangelion is high, very high.

I can't think of anything redeeming to say about this anime. It could have had good characters, but whoever wrote it was too busy making every single character behave like a lunatic. It could have had a good story, but whoever wrote it was too busy raving about metaphysical nonsense. To me, it just feels like whoever wrote this got really depressed halfway through and decided to... I don't know, "open up".

If you're a sensible kind of person - one who stops to think about what you're watching and one who gets "touched" by the characters, who tries to understand what they are thinking and feeling - you'll probably feel like cutting your wrists after watching this.

My advice is: stay away.

I HATE NEON GENESIS EVANGELION.

I wish i could scream that at the makers of it, not to mention THE WHOLE FREAKING WORLD.

Okay. Let's get this over with.

I really don't want to think about this anime.

Crud.

... Lemme try again.

Neon Genesis Evangelion is, if you couldn't tell from the scores I gave, pathetic. At least to me. The goal of this review/rant is not to convince anyone to hate it, just to show why I hate it. Let's start with the beginning. In the beginning, NGE showed promise. It had a good story, good potential for character growth, and a believable situation, as far as fiction goes. And the main problem i had was the character growth, or lack of it, rather. Shinji Ikari was great raw material for a protagonist, he had his problems, his secrets, his weakness, and his strength, the ability to be an exceptional EVA pilot. And it seemed that he was well on his way to becoming my next favorite character. But do you know where that went? Downhill. The infamous episode 16. He goes into the angel, is trapped, his friends try to save him, he gets out, and immediately begins to go berserk on the very city he is supposed to protect. And I am proud to say that I remember very little of it. I skipped most of that episode, and every episode thereafter. From then on, every episode had a tedious session of him messing with his own head. From then on, angel fights were boring and/or overtly violent. They were obscene bouts of attempted action and they didn't work for me. From then on, Shinji's personality, which had actually seen some positive growth, became completely twisted. You don't get much more twisted than having fantasies about a comatose girl, jerking off to them, then killing her at the end of the alternate ending, which was just as confusing, just as irritating, and just as pointless as the original.

Speaking of Asuka, she was another good character that I loved. For a short time. Then she went in the same direction as Shinji, becoming a bathtub inhabiting girl who had "I hate the world" issues, just as Shinji had "The world hates me" problems. Her tomboyish attitude, her skill with an EVA, her possible love for Shinji- DOWN THE DRAIN. And you might be thinking, "Now wait, you can't hate the entire anime, as well as the makers of the anime, because the characters didn't develop the way you want, and the story didn't have the ending you wanted." I agree, it's not fair to hate an entire anime because of the characters or an unexpected plot. But this is beyond that. Hating a character is proof that the anime is good. It makes you realize that you feel the hate that the characters themselves have. The anime has successfully drawn you in. This is different. An example of an anime making me hate a character by drawing me in is Holland from Eureka Seven. This, on the other hand is me hating the makers of the anime and the anime itself because of what they did to everyone in the story. And an example of an unexpected, unwanted plot turn is the death of Lelouch in Code Geass, or the repeated death of Mayuri in Steins;Gate. This, however, is taking a good anime and killing all purpose, sense, and likability. Seeing Shinji and Asuka kill the angel in episode 9 was very satisfying; seeing Asuka tear apart the angels in The End of Evangelion was not satisfying at all. And it has come to my attention that according to some, Asuka didn't die at the end; these some are liars. Not only does Asuka receive extensive wounds from the fight, she was strangled by Shinji; even if he doesn't actually kill her all the way, he still tried.

Sigh. I really don't want to keep going. But I need to get this out of my system.

Then there is Rei. Possibly as disappointing a character as Shinji. Out of the three, she has the most potential. But not only do they kill her, they kill her, bring her back, kill her again, reveal that Shinji's dad loves her because she is a clone of his wife, kill all of her other selves, make her appear naked in every episode past 16, and basically spit on my hopes for her. The more I saw her in the beginning, the more screen time I wanted her to have so that she could become a person, a character that might be up there with Yuki Nagato, Kallen Kozuki, C.C., Lucy from Elfen Lied (not Nyuu, she doesn't really fit), and everyone else who was unapproachable at first but became greatly beloved by all. But, just like Shinji and Asuka, Rei's personality went down the drain. Completely.

As for the other characters, they didn't disappoint me nearly as much; Misato was one of my favorites. The only stains on her soul were the extensive sex scenes near the end. Same goes for Ryoji. Toji was a great character in and of himself; too bad he died. Gendo Ikari is one of the non-EVA pilots whom I hate; he is, among other things including a shameless, selfish lunatic, a pedophile. Ritsuko is not as bad as him, but she, as with her mother, are stained and imperfect, which wouldn't be so bad if nearly everyone else wasn't as bad as they were.

I could go on, but it is getting late, and I really don't feel like going on. Maybe I'll finish up later.

Peace out. May the blessing of Haruhi Suzumiya be with you always.

I finally finished Neon Genesis Evangelion after starting it 15 years ago & this anime is genuinely the biggest most overrated overhyped pile of pretentious psychobabble hipster horse $#@% Ive ever seen in my life. Im in complete & utter awe of how immensley overrated this literal garbage is. WTFH?!

I don't even know where to begin. This to me is objectively the most overrated and overhyped anime in the entire industry. Terrible and I mean AWFUL dub, terrible annoying characters, thin non existant plot, no closure, baseless monster of the week crap for the first half of the series. People said it gets better after ... episode 16 but it actually does the opposite and gets progressively worse after episode 12.

If you're like 5 this anime might blow your mind. The soundtrack and intense music and one single voice actor carried this nothing burger of a series.

Im genuinely sickened, offended, and overall mother@#$%ing appalled that this unadulterated crap is considered a masterpiece and so highly regarded. I didn't have any problem following the plot, I don't need to "understand it better" I just think the plot is stupid, this entire anime is the definition of pretentious psychobabble hipster crap and anticlimactic AF.

The third impact was my finger hitting the button to turn the TV off after fast forwarding through the last 2 episodes. This was genuinely objectively one of the most overrated overhyped and undeserving of its constant praise series I've ever seen in my entire life.

The hipsters and people over the age of 8 who actually think this show is a masterpiece or that its deep genuinely have horse turds for brains. I genuinely hate you and this anime. This anime is literally like the Tool/Radiohead of the anime industry. The only other anime even as remotely close to as overrated and trash is Gintama.

I cannot even fathom why people think this anime is even remotely watchable.

Oh wait, yes I can.

Throw in some symbolism and some vague concepts that take a few seconds to comprehend, and ta-da, according to almost everyone, you have a frigging masterpiece!

Are you kidding me?

This is literally what I see when I read positive reviews on this anime: "this is the best anime EVA (hur see what I did der), omg if u dont like it 5deep6u, yoiu just no understand the symbolism and the magic dat is the evangelion omg"

I understood the symbolism. I understood the ending. I am very sure that I am ... not the only one that understood it and absolutely hated it.

Oh wow, it had some symbolism? Oh wow, you had to think? It must be a masterpiece! AHAHAHAH NO.

This feels exactly like the positive reviews of school days: Oh wow it made you feel emotion? HOW UTTERLY FANTASTIC.

Sure, it had symbolism. Sure, you had to connect concepts. Does that change the fact that it was boring as hell to watch? Does that change the fact that the story sucked? Does that change the fact that we had to sit through the same finding-yourself-through-psychotic-mumbling over and over again? Does it change the fact that we essentially sat through the "endless 8" arc of The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi for 26 episodes?

The answer: No. No it does not.

And the 2deep4u ending? It is terrible. It is one of the most pathetic cop outs I've ever seen. The entirety of the anime could be summed up in that one episode were the last enemy appears, as he just conveniently and transparently explains absolutely everything through his pseudo-philosophical rantings. Yes, I understand that there were time constraints. But it doesn't change the fact that it was still terrible. It was a terrible end to a terrible anime.

This anime is literally only praised by people that are too enthralled in their mediocre ability to understand the simplest and most transparent of symbolism, which by the way, appears to be the only thing that they actually praise. If they praise something like character, I'm going to go ahead and say they are lying, because they character development, if you can even call it that, is the most ridiculously shallow thing I have ever witness. Makoto from school days developed more than Shinji, and Makoto is a piece of shit.

And you know what? I'm usually fine with transparent symbols. Unless the only thing the anime has is these transparent symbols and attempts to purport these symbols to greatness. Symbols were the sole virtue in this anime, but they were so overly used that the end result was just awful. I actually enjoyed the 5 minute cliched fantasy world at the last episode more than the entire anime. The rebuild movies exist for a reason, people! Even the original writer hated this version!

If you plan on wasting 26 20-minute episodes of your life, go ahead and watch this. If you want to pretend to be smart and connect shallow symbolism to a shallow and repetitive story, go ahead and watch this. If you want to pretend that over use of symbols makes an anime a masterpiece, go right ahead and waste 520 minutes of your life.

Otherwise, just stop.

One of the most talked about, loved or hated, admired or despised animes released in the 1990's which we still continuously analysis and study to this day. There are many layers of utter sh*t that hide this anime’s true nature but if you are willing to accompany me, I am sure we can discover all the tactics and mechanisms the writers used to manipulate and brainwash us into considering this pure sh*t a classic. Without further delay, let's review Neon Genesis Evangelion or as I prefer to call it "The Life of Hideaki Anno: F*ck the world, F*ck myself and F*ck you, you optimistic ... fools".

This story revolves around Shinji Ikari / Hideaki Anno as we journey with him as he evolves FROM A miserable, angry emo creep who wants to see all life forms obliterated TO A miserable, angry emo creep who wants to see all life forms obliterated.

Oh.My.God. The fate of humanity's survival is in DANGER!!! What should we do? Should we a) place it in the hands of a team of well trained and experienced teenagers or b) place ALL of our faith in a spineless pessimist with no form of training what so ever? Well, the choice is OBVIOUS!?!
The only correct answer is B because.....LOGIC

On a more serious note, I consider the weak and cowardly character to be far more superior to the overly perfect at everything character. I found myself looking forward to Shinji's character when I first began TLOHA. That is until I came to realize that the world "EVOLVUTION" to Shinj actually means "REGRESSION". Shinji's primary function is to piss the audience off in any way this little sh*t can think of. People tend to hail Shinji as an excellently written character but he just comes off as an exact reflection of the writer himself, someone who's ideals or opinions remain the exact same throughout the show is not REALISM it's the exact opposite.

Now you'd think that with such an unrelatable protagonist carrying the story, the supporting characters would be much more likeable and varied right? NOPE. The writers magically defy common sense and make ALL the supporting characters INHUMAN. Hell, the f*ckin angels are more relatable.
We've got Asuka who's here to raise the awareness for male victims of domestic abuse, Rei who makes sandpaper look like Jesus Christ and a bunch of scientists who have as much importance as Pen Pen......Great Job, you guys *reluctantly claps*

All that stuff you heard about robots fighting aliens is nothing but a poorly done facade. In reality, Anno uses this story as a coping mechanism for his ongoing depression. Oh you heard correctly, the creator is in PERFECT CONDITION SO HE WILL DEFINITELY NOT INSERT HIMSELF INTO HIS OWN WRITING.

The show's sense of morality is instantly handicapped because of Anno's state of mind at the time. He fails to understand that even the DARKEST stories have a flicker of light in them as do the LIGHTEST stories have a flicker of dark in them. They both go hand in hand and by choosing to ignore one of them it will create a sense of unrealism. Even the darkest animes, Berserk, still manage to include a sense of optimism, while The Life of Hadeaki Anno prefers to rely solely on acts of self hatred which are then used to manipulate the viewer.By doing this, the trust between the writer and the viewer is completely destroyed. Anno dangles thoughts of hope right under the viewer's nose before quickly snatching it back. It is used to get the audience hooked on a sense of hopelessness and despair.

Anno also likes to make his story near impossible to understand because that will instantly mean it is a masterpiece. This works if it suits the anime it is used in, not because the writer simply wants it to be this way. You will find yourself watching episode after episode in the hopes of uncovering all the answers. When you reach this point in the anime, two things will occur. You will uncover SOME of the answers towards the very end of the show. They will however, end up as a TOTAL DISAPPOINTMENT. Characters motivations will turn out EXACTLY as they are presented, Angels are just evil etc.

The MAJORITY of the answers are instead left up to OUR interpretation. This is were the hundreds of essays trying to understand Evangelion come from. I a quite fond of this method, so I had such high hopes for it. Sigh. The reason this method of writing can't function well in Evangelion is due to Haneaki Anno and no one else. A writer who is heavily biased or opinionated will make the fatal error of inserting their own views into their writing.
PRO TIP: Unfortunately, all essays on Evangelion are very limited as the writer restricts hope and faith in favour of hatred and depression. This forces all conclusions to be BIASED instead of being IMPARTIAL.

When you take away Eva's overuse of pessimism and complexity, it really is just an average show about teens in robots fighting aliens. Anno still needs one more tactic to grasp our attention. That tactic being: CONTROVERSY.
The show is always demonstrating it's MEANINGFULNESS at every chance they can get but this is completely ruined when it swaps this in favour of controversy. While we could have had some form of self growth for Shinji, we are thankfully treated to jaw dropping moments like masturbating over comatose teenagers and awe inspiring pedophilic moments with Misato. Why are these here? To keep people TALKING ABOUT the show no matter how f*cked up it is, they don't care whether you love or hate it.

CONCLUSION:
At the end of the day, NGE is an anime that showcases what an anime will do to become FAMOUS. It ironically betrays what it represents in order to stand out from the crowd. Despite constant arguments, Neon Genesis Evangelion is an anime that never set out to be one of the best animes of all time. Nor did it set out to be one of the worst animes of all time. Neon Genesis Evangelion set out for the sole purpose of being the MOST TALKED ABOUT ANIME OF ALL TIME. And guess what? It worked because we're still talking about it nineteen f*ckin' years later.

* Although I am quite pompous, this is ultimately MY OPINION. Feel free to share your thoughts and opinions whether they are positive or negative*

Note: This review is for both series and movie of Shinseiki Evangelion.

Shinseiki Evangelion is a failure on every aspect when it comes to anime. From a bare minimum effort of making the characters any close to being likeable, controversial themes used for controversie's sake and the most agravant aspects:
The ultimate wussylord Shinji Ikari. Obvisously the worst protagonist of all time;
Incoherent plot that makes no sense. An alegory of faux symbolism and pretentionism like no other before;
Horrible conclusion of both last two episodes and sequel movie.

Shinseiki Evangelion is everything wrong with anime. It influenced many bad anime such as Infinite Stratos and Gakusen Toshi Asterisk. It ... doesn't brings anything new to the table and tarnished anime's good name for decades on end until Violet Evergarden, 86, Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso made people who aren't evafans forget about such stupid franchise. Thank God it did. Having consumed the entierity of the medias of this horrid franhise (anime, manga, rebuilds, ANIMA spin offs and games) it was easy to come to the conclusion that it is not worth it.

Asuka is the saving grace of this horrible franchise. Strong-willed, deep and cool. Just like many cool mecha pilots before her. Shinji and Rei are a disgrace. One is whiny maggot and the other one sucks majoritally. The rest of the cast is not worth mentioning. They're just two-dimensional annoying people who add nothing to the plot. They all suck!

In conclusion, SSE is a failure on every aspect I can think of. Horrid plot, average desings and mediocre animation, lots of plotholes and conveniences and generic, if not bad, OST. Watch/read Tengen Toppa Gurren Laggan, Full Metal Panic! and Gundam for superior mecha and don't listen to those who say that it is "a necessary experience", that's a filthy lie. Evangelion is an empty bundle of nothingness with a horrid cast and incoherent conclusions that try to hard to be philosophical and falls flat on it's face.

TL;DR: Shinseiki Evangelion is cancer. Do not watch it.

The Secret Ingredient.

- Anno, What are you preparing?.

- A special meal.

- You puzzle me. What ingredients has it?.

- Suspense, a magisterial animation, a spectacular sound, amazing fights and fanservice. All this seasoned with a magic and fascinating atmosphere that many wanted. And the secret ingredient.

... - Damn, that smells good.

(Eight hours and few minutes later, uncertainty has become boredom, and finally Anno brings the dish.)

- The special meal.

(The viewer carves the fork and sounds a "clas" that is the empty dish, still carving and carving and eventually ends up killing the dish.)

- But fuck, Anno, this is empty.

- But it smells good, right?

- Yes, but...

- But the meal was very fascinating visually, right?

- Yes, but... What is the secret ingredient?

- The nothing, is not that amazing?.

PD: I don't know what the fuck has put Anno to the nothing, but fuck, what a indigestion.

PD2: I don't speak/write/spell English very well, sorry for the gramatical errors.

Note: I have tried to be cautious when approaching revelations in the work, but I have not been able to completely avoid some to ensure proper understanding. Although the revelations here are minimal and shouldn't impact people who haven't watched it too much, it's important to mention their presence to avoid any unwanted surprises.

Sound

The opening, ending and combat songs are good, but lose prominence due to the lower quality of the rest of the sound work. The soundtrack throughout the episodes oscillates between sounds that are unoriginal and inappropriately applied to the situations, with moments of silence or the exaggerated sound of cicadas. Cicadas are ... present everywhere, all the time, and sometimes even the characters' voices become inaudible due to excessive noise. Although it doesn't make much difference, since the dialogues are in Japanese, it is still disturbing due to the excesses.

Art

Certainly, the darker atmosphere of the anime suits the narrative well, but the frequent use of dark scenes seems to be an attempt to hide problems in the settings, when they are present, as we are often faced with just a black background. This results in visual discomfort, especially when the scenes are not very detailed, such as the rustic features on the buildings.

There are also some error problems in the scenarios, such as a specific scene in which the characters go down an escalator that moves slowly, while the staircase next to it goes up quickly. Although these are details, when added to other problems, they become significant.

There are numerous completely static scenes or scenes with minimal movement, where only the characters' mouths move or only one object or element of the scenery shows movement. Although this is not necessarily a defect if it is not disturbing, one cannot value an anime that abuses these scenes to the detriment of those that invest in more detailed work. Drawing a parallel with "Akira", released in 1988, which features superior fluidity and scenery details, there is really no comparison, despite "Akira" being older by about seven years.

It's true that science fiction and futurism can become dated quickly, however, "Evangelion" feels particularly dated, and the settings conceptually are a significant nuisance. Even considering the limitations of the time, there are works from the same period that managed to transcend and reach a much higher level.

Anime often uses the technique of turning on lights to introduce a character into the scene. This can have its charm and, in certain situations, work well. However, by being widely used in so many episodes, this technique loses its visual impact. Furthermore, these scenes are static, as inserting a character into the environment in any other way would be more complex than simply turning on a light. Therefore, this contradicts the argument that anime is fluid. Again, the lack of movement in these scenes is not as terrible as in other animes, but it cannot be considered a virtue either.

Many scenes feature exaggerated visual effects, especially in the final episodes. Vibrant colors, flashing lights and excessive black screens give a rave feel. This approach in the final part of the anime is quite uncomfortable, especially because there is a mix with real scenes, when what is expected is an anime and not a live-action. Additionally, there is the use of storyboards and recycled scenes from previous episodes.

There are many frames with texts, which may suggest that the director had difficulty conveying the message and had to resort to writing. This is problematic, considering that "Evangelion" is an anime and not a light novel (Show, don't tell). It is possible that this choice was an attempt to mask the anime's defects by introducing cuts through these frames, but regardless of the reason, the viewer often does not have time to read these texts.

It's crucial to consider the visual representation of this universe when it comes to building the world of "Evangelion." The anime describes a catastrophe that resulted in the melting of Antarctica. This melting raised sea levels between 65 and 80 meters, mainly affecting coastal regions, where around 80% of the world's population lived. However, this elevation would be just one of the impacts, as there would also be the occurrence of huge tsunamis resulting from the rapid melting of glaciers, followed by significant climate changes. It is not plausible to believe in a world almost completely destroyed by catastrophes and, at the same time, have a technological megacity in a short space of time.

The anime creates an apocalyptic world, with a city that serves as a military base for the resistance, constantly attacked by monsters. However, everyday life in this world resembles the 90s. The existence of everyday settings seems inconsistent with the plot, raising questions about the consistency of the setting.

One part of the city is devastated, while another part remains intact, destroyed like in a Godzilla movie, and then everything returns to normal as if nothing had happened. While this may be poetic, it lacks logical sense, especially considering the 80s-style buried structure. If only it had been explained that the physics of this universe differ from ours, but that was not the case, making the architectural concept of the city absurdly inconsistent.

The wreckage and rubble of the city should be evident after each attack by the angels, demonstrating the widespread destruction. However, these details are often ignored to facilitate the angels' next attack in the next episode, following what is known as the "Power Rangers" style, where it is more convenient to reuse existing scenarios rather than create new ones.

Even when the scenarios change, there are mistakes between them and the script. Again, these are details, but the existence of a strong United States Navy is strange for the anime's proposal. It seems like a convenient forgetting of the devastation the impact should have caused to the world and the navy itself.

It's true that this anime has its plot conveniences, but it's not alone in this issue. Conveniences are common in all anime ever produced. The problem is not improbability, but rather the contradiction with the rules established by the universe itself, or when they appear out of nowhere, especially in a recurring and lazy way, as is done in Evangelion.

In relation to art, they could have explored the scenes of this world more, but the focus almost always remains on the city. Although it is not a mistake, it is a shame to miss an opportunity to enrich the work, as it is a global threat. This certainly doesn't contribute to the world-building, but it was more convenient as it would require less effort.

History

What exactly makes sense in this story? A quality narrative is not limited to a mere collection of elements such as social criticism, scientific knowledge, philosophical approaches, moral reflections, cultural diversity and religious references. Although it is crucial to include these aspects and value them, they alone do not guarantee the excellence of a plot. The true merit of a story lies in its coherence, cohesion and clarity, avoiding gaps and inconsistencies. An engaging narrative, even if complex, manages to close itself within itself, providing clear explanations for those who are paying attention. On the other hand, a story that leaves many points open, that does not offer objective content, praised more for the viewers' subjective interpretations than for the text itself, cannot be considered of quality. Furthermore, although some may claim to find depth in this work, the reality is that it presents itself as a psychological mess.

Starting with Kabbalistic mysticism and elements of Christian theology. Yes, the anime makes use of this, which is good and bold for the time, making it a landmark. However, he is not the pioneer of these elements in anime. Kabbalah has some of its principles incorporated, but the Jewish and Christian religion is just a cover, with no depth beyond the symbolism used to justify the existence of "robots" fighting giant monsters.

The anime presents many mysteries, stimulating thought, but at some point the answers need to emerge, otherwise the work is incomplete. A narrative full of loose ends is a deficient narrative. Throughout the series, Evangelion simply leaves several questions unanswered. Why exactly do the Angels need to be destroyed? Why do the scrolls give that specific number of Angels? What happened to the characters in the end? What exactly happened in the first and second impacts? What is the organization's objective? What is Shinji's father's goal? Who are the people in the organization? Where did Adam and Lilith come from? Why can only those born after the second impact fly an EVA? Why doesn't Shinji's father like him? How did the "accident" with Shinji's mother happen? Why did Shinji's mother "kill herself"? What is the origin of the liquid after the impact? And many others.

The loose ends in "Evangelion" are a matter of debate among fans. One could cite the film as an attempt to clarify some issues, but its inclusion was more of a fortuitous consequence than an integral part of the original plan. If the anime had not been successful, we would have been left without answers to many of the enigmas presented. While it's comforting to have the film provide some clarification, it's important to note that it offers few answers and creates additional questions. Furthermore, it is essential to understand that the film does not represent the end of the story; episodes 25 and 26 are the true conclusion, while the film brings the events before these episodes. Therefore, we should not see it as a continuation that promises future clarifications, but rather as an explicit attempt to cover some flaws and gaps in the narrative.

When observing closely, it is possible to glimpse some answers in the anime itself. However, this extremely accentuated search for clarification is a narrative flaw, given the difficulty of effective communication in anime, which is often mistakenly praised by fanatics, thus deviating from the primary purpose of entertaining. Furthermore, the answers obtained are generally vague and not very enlightening. For example, when we question the origin of the Angels, the answer provided by the anime is "from Adam". But does this really answer the question? How and why did they arise from this source? Such answers, in fact, only serve to generate more questions, expanding the spectrum of questions without definitive answers in the series.

Regarding the origin of angels, the film mentions that they are derived from Lilith and that humans are a species of angels, but this does not provide a complete or satisfactory explanation. It is an answer that raises more questions than it actually answers, contributing to the ambiguity of the narrative.

Fan responses to unanswered questions are often simplistic and evasive, such as "you don't need to know." Does this attitude deserve applause? Another common answer is "where everything indicates", although there are no indications in the series. What matters is where the anime presents this information, and there is no point in justifying the "show, don't tell" technique, as these issues are not shown at any point in the series. So where do these alleged fan responses come from? They are based on derived material, statements from the creators and theories circulating on the internet. This is clear proof of the series' narrative flaws.

In episode 24, an "angel" expresses a desire to die, quoting the famous phrase from "Hamlet": "To be or not to be, that is the question." This quote refers to the idea of existing or not existing, of living or dying. However, the use of this quote does not seem to be adequately framed in the narrative. It seems more like a superficial appeal to a catchphrase to reference Shakespeare's work, without properly exploring the philosophical dilemma underlying the theme of life and death. Instead of delving deeper into the dilemma, the scene goes on for almost three minutes, with the screen static and Beethoven's music in the background, leaving viewers confused about the purpose of the scene. The question remains whether the intention was to inspire contemplation or generate anxiety about the character's fate. This approach seems overly pretentious and lacking in genuine meaning, contributing to a sense of false intellectual depth.

The anime makes some references, but they only appear pedantry. Because, although references can add depth to the plot, if they are not well crafted, they end up being superficial. Even considering the financial limitations, this does not justify the lack of narrative quality.

During most of the episodes, the narrative is limited to battles, without deeply exploring any significant theme, just focusing on the confrontation against the monsters that the giant robot will face in the next episode. Therefore, it is evident that the supposed philosophies that are said to be present in the work do not guide it in this part of the story. Even in the final third, where one would expect a deeper discussion, we only find psychological nonsense, absurd dialogue and pseudo-Freudian elements. The only notable philosophical insertion is a quote from the hedgehog's dilemma, which does not permeate the work most of the time, being neglected and superficially explored.

Regarding the AT Fields, there is an inconsistency in the itinerary. These fields are essentially soul fields (or soul light), which implies that, because the fields come into contact when they get too close, only an EVA should be able to break the field and harm an angel. A huge variety of weapons are used, such as bombs and other devices, against these monsters, but nothing has any effect. However, at certain times, conventional rifles are able to harm monsters. This is clearly a mistake, as it goes against the idea that conventional weapons should not work against these beings.

In the first episode, Shinji was in the middle of a city close to the monster that was destroying everything. Then comes a bomb called N2 with nuclear aspects, destroying everything including the car where the protagonist was. This scene presents three problems: first, the monster did not kill Shinji; second, they are instantly able to get very far away from the monster; and third, come out of it all unscathed. Later, the protagonist, without training and still being a child, pilots a giant "robot", delivers a few blows and defeats the monster. This sequence raises questions about its plausibility and coherence.

Furthermore, there is the issue of clichés, which to a certain extent could even be tolerable if there were an evolution, but simply copying others is not positive. The conflict style is incredibly predictable, with an established sequence of events: a monster destroys the city, the 'robot' defeats it and then comes another episode with another monster, repeating the cycle. It's noteworthy that the subsequent monster ends up attacking the same city that should be in ruins but surprisingly isn't. The designs of the monsters and scenery, as well as the choreography and concepts used, also follow very old-fashioned formulas. These standards are not a new thing established in 1995, but date back to the 70s, becoming overly saturated.

Dialogues often turn into a tangle of psychological questions and answers. If someone asks if a circle is round, the first reaction is to ignore it. If that person insists on the same question (even if it is non-literal), the reaction is one of astonishment and attention, and if this persists, people begin to question themselves and theorize. Add to this a scene of intense lights and vibrant colors on a dark background, creating a kind of hypnosis. Then someone offers an answer: "the sun is a ball," which leads to more theorizing about the question and the answer. This cycle repeats itself, accompanied by flashbacks, scene cuts and screens with lyrics that quickly appear and disappear. What is that? Nothing, yet a certain public will speculate to try to justify something that seems like a meaningless question. And at this point, even those reading this may have forgotten what the original question was, but the answer remains the same: yes, the circle is round. The rest are just psychological ramblings with no substance.

Despite being a narrative resource exhaustively explored in the anime, it is wrong to say that these forms of dialogue have no merit. The main problem does not lie in the form itself, but in the questions and answers in the dialogues, which often leave a lot to be desired. Although some scenes can be visually impressive, what is often observed is a superficial pseudo-Freudianism. Furthermore, questions that could really contribute to the development of the plot are systematically ignored. The most worrying thing is that there are those who see these elements as something spectacular and profound, when, in fact, they lack substance.

The initial dialogue between Shinji's father and Shinji himself, despite bringing an irreverence that causes surprise, ends up complicating the plot. It's hard not to realize how much it doesn't make sense for a father to treat his son so badly at a crucial moment like that. After all, what would be the logic behind this behavior, especially considering that the fate of the world depends on the son? Even if there was a certain antipathy between them, acting so disrespectfully towards the boy would only make him even more unstable in an already tense situation. Although the scene is remarkable, it ends up being a weak point in the script.

As for the main theme of the anime, individuality versus collectivity. The approach to individuality, represented by loneliness, is treated in a predominantly psychological way in the four main characters, but in a confusing, superficial and often negative way. Furthermore, the theme is obscured throughout the narrative, mixing with other elements in such a way that it does not guide the work most of the time. As a result, many people reach almost the last episode without understanding what the anime is about. The author may have his reasons for doing it this way, but it is to be expected that in a good work the theme is established from the beginning, in an evident way, receiving a clear narrative focus, allowing comprehensible development and bringing to light the central aspects of ideas.

In the final outcome, the most peculiar thing about the work is how individuality (loneliness), which was constantly fought and frowned upon throughout the anime, ends up being presented as the savior, or not, depending solely on the point of view. Although this twist could be intriguing, once again the anime leaves one question open, among many others, and with so many it only ends up generating more confusion.

Characters

Starting with Shinji's father, Gendo Ikari, he was initially introduced as a character with great potential. His presence was enigmatic, suggesting depth and importance to the plot. However, throughout the narrative, his participation on screen was limited, not allowing his character and motivations to be fully explored. This is especially disappointing considering the expectations that were generated around him and his relationship with the protagonist. Thus, despite having a good start, Gendo Ikari's potential ended up being underutilized, leaving a gap in the development of the plot.

Shinji's colleagues, initially presented with the potential to influence the plot and interact in a meaningful way with the protagonist, ended up being developed for nothing. In the first few episodes, we briefly observed their personalities and relationships with Shinji, which promised an interesting dynamic. However, as the story progresses, these characters are progressively sidelined, becoming mere extras who rarely have an impact on the main narrative.

Asuka became extremely popular and ended up becoming the reference for all tsundere-type characters. While there are arguments that she doesn't exactly fit this archetype, it's undeniable that she set the standard for it. Furthermore, her character development has some layers, but they are not exceptionally deep and do not reach the level expected for such a prominent figure in the plot.

Rei is another character from this anime who became an archetype, in this case, of the so-called Kuuderes. Compared to Asuka, who also became an archetype, Rei has a little more depth. However, throughout the anime, she is portrayed as someone devoid of ego, obeying orders without question, reflecting a lack of self-awareness and individuality. Therefore, these characteristics demonstrate a lack of layers. Only in the film does it begin to gain more complexity.

The clones play an intriguing role in the plot, acting as stand-ins for a specific important character, so they deserve to be mentioned. Their function is that of extras, used as a resource to grant almost immortality to this character in question. Furthermore, we can see an effort by the narrative to hide their existence, with the intention of revealing them later as a twist, although their existence is easily deducible. However, the real merit of this revelation lies in the fact that the clones are the plugs. Another important moment involving the clones is the scene of their destruction, which undoubtedly adds depth to the plot.

Misato is a major in this apocalyptic world, but it is strange that she is always wearing sexy clothes in all places and times. Furthermore, her dialogues and behaviors reflect childishness, such as her gesture of showing her tongue. She is also seen in almost every scene flirting or getting drunk. Her main activity is to be a kind of nanny responsible for the protagonist. This raises huge questions about the coherence of her representation, given her behavior, military position and the situation in the world. Furthermore, it is questionable whether it was intentionally designed in this way to please a certain audience.

Misato's most appealing fanservice scene is surprising for its boldness in presenting it in such a detailed way. Perhaps it was this courage in portraying it in such an explicit way that had such an impact, even though the scene was censored and limited to audio only.

Even if all the characters in Evangelion were good, they wouldn't make up for Shinji, who is a terrible character. Not that anyone wanted or expected them to change out of nowhere, but in 26 episodes there was at least some evolution, and if they wanted it, it was possible to make a big evolution. However, what happens in the anime is more like a devolution.

Shinji, the anticlimactic, passive, weak and perverted protagonist, manages to become even more unpleasant in the final stretch of the anime. He is simply the worst anime protagonist. It's true that the reason people usually watch Evangelion is not this character, but if they don't have a reason, it will just be to hope that he dies.

Working with a character like Shinji is really challenging and daring. It often detracts from the work and is unpleasant. However, in rare cases, this type of character can become interesting. The problem in Evangelion is that Shinji's personality doesn't seem to contribute significantly to the plot, which is essential to make characters like that minimally interesting. This becomes evident when we consider that a more charismatic personality could easily be adopted without changing the story, making Shinji just a detestable element. Being lonely and depressed does not necessarily imply being cowardly and perverted.

It is also important to recognize that, at no point, even for those who do not appreciate Shinji, can it be denied that the character has a complex construction and well-elaborated layers. However, it is crucial to understand that being well-built does not necessarily qualify you as a good character. This also goes beyond charisma and is related to the role his characteristics play in the plot.

Some may argue that Shinji is good because he has become a reference, however, this does not necessarily mean something positive, as can be seen in the cases of Yuki from Mirai Nikki and Haruyuki from Accel World, who were inspired by Shinji. In fact, Shinji served as a reference for a variety of animes with fearful, weak, despicable and unpopular protagonists.

Enjoying Evangelion with Shinji as the protagonist is extremely shameful. Shinji is a coward who doesn't seem to care about anyone and it's disturbing to see his actions. He's the crazy guy who goes so far as to have a romantic interest in his own mother's clone. He's the bastard who leaves his teammates in critical situations. So weak that he even gets beaten up by a girl. He is so vulnerable that he allows himself to be groomed by a boy. Furthermore, he goes into crisis over trivial issues and almost kills a friend by hanging, showing his lack of control and compassion. The psychopath is so incompetent that not even evil can complete it. Worst of all, it starts badly and ends terribly. How is it possible for anyone to care or get involved with the depressive crisis of such a character? It's not just about not appreciating his personality, but mainly about the way situations are approached in the narrative. Many of his actions seem to be included just to shock the audience, which is akin to a kind of macabre psychological ecchi. There is no problem with fan service when it is properly and meaningfully integrated into the story.

Regarding Shinji's sexuality, he cannot be labeled as gay, otherwise he would not show interest in girls. The anime also does not suggest that he is bisexual, as the interest in the boy does not come from him. What the anime really portrays is his extreme fragility, which makes him so vulnerable that he can be easily manipulated or seduced even by a boy.

It's quite common to argue that Shinji is a good character because he's "human". However, when asked which of his characteristics are admirable, inspiring or worthy of mirroring, opinions differ. While people like Shinji are not extraordinarily rare, they are also not representative enough to be considered a standard of humanity. It's as if they were changing the norm by accepting characters with such negative characteristics as the new normal. Someone like Jack the Ripper is a human being, but why should we admire and desire to see characters with such negative characteristics as protagonists of a story?

Why did Shinji need to be chosen to pilot an EVA? The criterion presented in the anime as justification for this selection was being under 14 years old, but why not any other young person who was willing, capable and in training? Are there only three post-second impact children in this universe? If only he could, why didn't they train him beforehand? After all, they had so many years to prepare for the arrival of the angels. Wouldn't it just be a forced convenience of the script for this to happen right away with the boss's son? Despite the supposed "justifications" surrounding Shinji's mother that appeared later in derivatives, which in itself is already a flaw, there are still some holes that do not answer all the questions. Furthermore, it's ironic that some people criticize convenient scripts and at the same time put Neon Genesis Evangelion at the top of their lists.

Pleasure

The emotions transmitted by the anime manage to generate a certain stimulus in some episodes, but this excitement is fleeting. Throughout most of the series, the presence of a climax is lacking, which makes the ending tedious in itself and, as it turns out, even more difficult to watch. It is not an anime that provokes tears or laughter; the only strong feeling you want when watching it is for it to end soon.

The reasons for watching a long anime may vary, but generally, when you enjoy it, time seems to pass quickly and finishing becomes easy. However, this does not apply to Evangelion, which is almost impossible to watch in one sitting. This does not meet the expectations of a good anime; a quality anime should captivate and leave people looking forward to the next episode.

Many episodes simply cause drowsiness, making it a real struggle to stay awake. However, it is important to note that this point does not apply to all episodes; there are some that are more interesting than others.

In general

Although it is often recommended as an excellent work, as a cult work and a reference for several other animes, the truth is that Neon Genesis Evangelion can be a great disappointment for many viewers. If you're not a fan of the Power Rangers episodic style, you might feel agony over 15 episodes of similar, saturated content. Furthermore, the rest of the plot is filled with empty dialogues that lead nowhere. The worst thing is that some people don't seem to notice these flaws and invent meanings where they don't exist. The ending ends up becoming a confusion of psychological elements, indicating that they had not thought of an ending. This outcome also includes scenes taken from previous episodes, strongly suggesting a lack of good direction in resource management on the part of the creator. This shows a lack of respect for the public, with the impression that they finished the work somewhat reluctantly, throwing anything at them just to fulfill the contract.

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The fans' final claim is that the work is wonderful because the author is depressed and he wanted to show his depression in the anime. Really, he managed to make me depressed with something so bad like that.

The phrase "Don't be such a Shinji Ikari" is now in my repertoire of critical things to say about under preforming and or unlikable characters. Look I get this is considered by many as a cornerstone in Anime history and highly loved. But it just was just not my cup of LCL. The story was woefully under developed and hard to follow. Episodes are disjointed and never clarified. Look I like shows that manage to be open ended and left to interpretation as the next guy, but my God, this show is all over the place. You could make assumptions about what happens to specific ... characters to get your own idea about who that character really is I guess. BUT the reason that isn't redeeming is because you don't like any of these characters. Shinji is honestly the most infuriating character in any show I've ever watched by far. Asuka just comes off as incessantly whiny and selfish to no end. Rei has a few glimmers of hope at times but for the most part is deadpan. Misato carries the show as the one comic relief and only enjoyable presence as she searches for clues as to what the hell this show is about. The ending just felt lazy and aggravating because by that point your starved for answers only to be slapped in the face by more pointless babbling. No real feeling of closure was given, even if I tried to make my own meaning of this steamy mess of "plot points". In closing I can't say my continued patience with this show or effort to understand it have paid off at all. Which is why personally I gave it such a low score. Ultimately I don't understand why this show is so acclaimed and enjoyed but if it were up to me I'd have to say stay away from this one.

There will be some spoilers in this review but the show is nearly 21 years old and you've already seen it most likely so who gives a shit.


Neon Genesis Evangelion does a great job at raising questions about its story; what are the angels? Where are they coming from? Why are they coming? Why do they want to destroy humanity? Is anything that was shown to the audience true? How does Gendo Ikari plan on combining all of human consciousness into one soup of nothingness? How were Evas designed from humans? What was Kaji's purpose? What actually caused the Second Impact?

Why is Asuka literally the ... worst? Why should I care about any of these characters? What the hell happened to any of Shinji's schoolmates who we were forced to spend time with? Are the last two episodes of this show fucking serious?

What Neon Genesis Evangelion does a horrible job at doing is answering literally any question that it raised. The middle arc of the show is almost completely worthless. It's the same formula as a Pokemon episode, more or less. Characters (main or ancillary) are talking while engaging in a somewhat menial activity (eating, sitting around at school, testing compatibility with Eva units or whatever), we see a character (usually Gendo) do something somewhat peculiar or suspicious. Oh no! An angel is attacking! Send out the Eva unit! Oh no it seems all hope is lost! There's a zero point zero zero zero zero one chance of us succeeding! But wait the kids believe or some shit! Oh yay we're all saved!

Seriously, just replace "angel" with "Team Rocket" or "random trainer Ash is battling this week" and it's the same thing.


The last half of the show is just mind-fuckery under the guise of being 'deep' that just comes of as pointlessly edgy. Nothing is actually said in the last few episodes that was monumental in any way. It was just character exploration. But it was character exploration in the worst possible way. It was just talking. No action. Only dialogue. To explore a character we've spent 24 episodes with. We've been watching the show, we know about Shinji through his actions and responses to the people surrounding him, we don't need you to spell it out for us.


So that's why I think the story is poor at any rate. I could go into more detail but I don't want to beat a dead horse, unlike Neon Genesis Evangelion.

The art was pretty good for 1995 for a while. And then character's lips started moving less. And scenes started moving less. And then we spent minutes at a time on singular frames with voice acting overlaid. And then the last episode barely even tried to convey a respectable visual message. It looked like rough sketches of characters on literally an empty screen. So the diminishing quality of the animation greatly reduced the art score in my mind.

The voice acting was very not good. The only character whose voice I didn't end up despising was Shinji's. The opening theme was an alright one, though it didn't seem to fit with the show at all and the closing theme being Fly Me to the Moon covered *slightly* differently each episode seemed like a waste of time and money in my mind. The song doesn't really fit the show and one recording would have done just fine. The original music in the show was incredibly repetitive but at least the most played track was somewhat fun. At least until they decided to just play minutes at a time of public domain music. Bach's 1st Cello Suite? The Hallelujah chorus? Beethoven 9? Really? There was nothing artistic about their use, they just got thrown in for extended periods so something would play in the background of a scene. *Maybe* Ode to Joy could be argued that is was used purposefully but that would imply that Nagisa is a character.


SPEAKING OF WHICH! Every single character in this show, with maybe the exception of Shinji, is borderline unbearable. (Though Toji has a little bit of character development while he isn't being completely ignored I guess.) Asuka is literally the least pleasant character in history. The writers did everything they could to stop Rei from being a character. Gendo wants to destroy humanity for poorly explained reasons, and also he's just a fucking dick-head. Misato doesn't know how to handle her fucked up "relationship" with her father so she resorts to alcohol and having sex whenever she decides to think at all. And every other character is given almost no time spent developing character unless it's to point out a poor relationship with their parents.

This show is basically just Daddy Issues and Poorly Explained Mysteries: The Show.


As the show progressed my enjoyment lessened with every episode. I would not recommend it to anyone, but everyone and their mother has already seen it so that doesn't matter.

The all-famous Neon Genesis Evangelion... I spent years avoiding this anime due to it's 'controversial' nature. Finally, a few days ago, a friend of mine convinced me to watch it and I did, if only to see what the fuss was all about. Well, I found out all right.

*This review also takes The End of Evangelion into consideration. There are very few spoilers, none of which really impact the viewing experience.

Story (2/10):

Honestly, I prefer anime that start off alright and end well, as compared to those that have strong starts and weak endings. NGE, on the other hand, started off pretty bad, was bearable near ... the middle... and did a nose-dive in the last few episodes. NGE spends 80% of it's screen-time showing us the escapades of Ikari Shinji, which mostly involves him running away and being a wimp in general. The rest of the time is spent quite liberally on mecha fights and the sexual activities of the remaining characters.
I was seriously wondering what Hideaki Anno was smoking when he wrote the last few episodes... and then I watched The End of Evangelion... and realized that this level of insanity is beyond the capability of any drug.
It is often said that NGE has a lot of Religious and Psychological symbolism, but as far as I could see, the 'symbolism' was basically a bunch of crosses and huge floating vaginas (Yeah, you read that right). I even went as far as to read up some of this, to see if I just outright missed something... but in the end, it seems like everyone is trying to find meaning in something that is obviously nonsense - Feels like modern art.


Art and Sound (7/10):

I'm not much of a critic as far as art and sound are concerned. Both were decent for its time, though they may be relatively obsolete to a present day audience.


Characters (1/10):

What is considered to be the strong point of NGE is actually by far its greatest weakness. It is often said that NGE has some of the most realistic characters in anime history... well, I wouldn't fully disagree - but that doesn't change the fact that I feel like beating some sense into them.

-Ikari Shinji: The main character, who should've been killed as an infant. A 14-year-old kid who spends half his time wallowing in self-pity and the other half leching over all things female. That should be relatively normal for a young teen suffering from severe depression, but that doesn't make it any less annoying, considering how the fate of humanity is supposedly hanging in the balance. Nearly 4-5 episodes are spent on elaborating his escapist nature.

-Ayanami Rei: Development? What development? Some 'shocking' revelations about her origins, but she remains a blank slate from beginning to end.

-Sohryu Asuka Langley: Probably the most understandable of the three protagonists, but that doesn't make her any less annoying than Shinji. Her comments on Shinji are usually quite accurate and you often wonder why the others don't feel the same. Then again, her pride, vanity and disagreeable personality on the whole are hard to ignore.

There are plenty of other characters, such as Katsuragi Misato and Ikari Genji, who start out interesting and end up utterly two-dimensional (no pun intended). In fact, the only character I actually enjoyed watching was Pen-Pen, the penguin.


Enjoyment (2/10):

Hard to express how terrible an anime NGE is... I almost dropped it many times, but went on just for the sake of completion. I hoped time and again that it might do a major turn-around in the last few episodes like Durarara, but what I got was a Guilty Crown 2.0


Overall (3/10):

Frankly, it's not worth your time. Some people (mostly the overly imaginative lot) may find some profound meaning in this one, but I wouldn't suggest it to anyone. For a Mecha series with a good deal of mindf*ck, the Muv Luv trilogy is a much better alternative (pun intended, for those who get it).

I'm sorry, I just don't get it. This series has been hyped up so much, and is praised as one of the greatest anime ever made. So when I went to watch it, I was very excited.

Very rarely have I ever been so disappointed in a series. It was so damn BORING. I mean, I guess the fights were ok, but seriously, I was trying to find things to like about the series, and coming up with nothing. Even the characters were all unlikeable (with the exception of one or two). Rei was ok, but Shinji was annoying, and I utterly despised Asuka. I literally ... cared nothing for these characters or their fates, except for the ones I hated (like Asuka and Shinji's dad), who I simply wanted to die just so I wouldn't have to see them anymore. I had to force myself to keep going, thinking and hoping it would get better at some point.

Despite my dislike of it, I forced myself to push on, just so I could say that I had see it since, as an anime fan, it's pretty much a requirement for this series to be seen. But geez did I want this series to end. Especially the episodes towards the end. They dragged for for freakin' ever, even just killing time by replaying the same scenes over and over again. I swear, if I had to hear Asuka say "This isn't the real me!" one more time, I was going to put my fist through the screen. I was beyond relief when I finally finished.

Of course, I was aware that maybe it would have a different impact on me later. So 5 years after my first viewing of it, I gave it a second chance and watched it again. It was even worse the second time through, and no less boring. Seriously, what was it that people liked about this crap? Yeah, yeah, I've read reviews about the meaning and symbolism, yadda-yadda, all that nonsense, and I got/saw all that when I was watching. It still didn't stop me from being bored out of my mind.

This was one of the worst series I have ever seen, and having watched over 1000 series, that's REALLY saying something. It's not that this series just wasn't my cup of tea, it was boring garbage. I know I'm in the minority here, and I'm sorry, but I just don't get what's so great about it. I give it a 2/10, and that's me being generous.

This has to be one of the most over rated anime I have seen in my life.

Story-

We have NERV, the super duper military complex builder, who will waste ammo on Angels and sacrifice service men to not even delay any Angels. Conveniently the EVA's can use assault rifles and other armament that NERV can't simply make into mobile weapon units to maybe hurt the Angels with. The disconnect is when an EVA uses a projectile weapon it suddenly turns into a weapon that can negate the force fields of Angels and sometimes out right kill them. This is unexplained and a very ... glaring plot-hole it self.

Now I can see how wasting ammo at the beginning can introduce the viewers to how powerful the Angels are, but repeatedly doing so is very dumb...

This same NERV , that is composed of elite military minds, decided that 14 years old kids will be the controllers and pilots of weapons of mass destruction or EVA's. This plot seemed like the typical shounen plot-line, but its so far from it, very far.

Art-

We have fluid motion and nice hand drawn frames. Everything looks and flows well while somewhat dated by today's standards, it is still very watchable.

There are some questionable biblical symbolism. I am not sure what they mean. They might be meaningless.

Sound-

The sound was very good for the most part. All the music seemed to fit to the situations and that is as much as I can say for that as I am not very big on music.


Characters -

Shinji. This guy alone corrupts the whole show. The other characters were all decently crafted, but they all were overshadowed by Shinji and placed to help prop up the loser that is Shinji. So I will focus on Shinji.

Seriously. I do not understand how he can be so self loathing. I know people without arms, without legs, blinded, the deaf, the poor, the starved, and people have the gale to say "Shinji is realistic". In my eyes I can't even fathom such a wimpy person. I understand people get depressed, and sometimes that mental illness can make you not care at all, but when the show is 99% self pity while nearly 99% of the world needs you to fight and you keep calling your self worthless. It becomes a chore to watch. Over and over again. It happens. The self loathing is so unnatural, even the most depressed person in the world when given the purpose of SAVING HUMANITY would at least love them self a little more. Give themselves more worth and at least try to do something with thier, in thier mind, "worthless life". When your life is worth almost all of humanity it should tend to be worth a lot more. The show hardly gives Shinji the development he deserved. This is a black stain on Hideaki Anno career.

Enjoyment-

It was a very hard watch. I wanted to complete the show before reviewing it or else I would have dropped it at around ep 4.