Shinseiki Evangelion

What I was promised: a mecha anime with themes exploring interpersonal relationships and mental health.

What I got: A convoluted mystery box that cares way more about symbolism and waxing philosophical than it does about ever explaining (or even hinting at) what’s going on.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for themes and symbolism. But not when it comes at the expense of worldbuilding and plot. By the end of the show I had about the same understanding of how the world works that I did after episode 3. This is because this show does a horrendous job at establishing it’s setting or constructing it’s narrative. By ... the end things are kinda just happing without you understanding what’s going on. Because all the characters who actually have agency over events are super cryptic and don’t actually do anything relevant on screen. That combined with a number of scenes that caused me to question how literally I should take them because symbolism made it so that I ended up having to rely on outside sources to piece together what even happened in the ending.

Warning: Since almost everyone here seems to love this show, you probably shouldn't trust this review. Statistically, it's unlikely that you, the reader, will agree with me, regardless of if you've finished it or are about to start it. Since most love it, you have a high chance of loving it, too, so go whatch it!...I guess...
Also, the review is more so for people who've finished it anyway, so beware of some spoilers ahead!

Neon Genesis Evangelion is one of the most universally praised, influential, popular, and overall beloved anime of all time. Almost everyone I know, as well as the majority of users on this ... website seem to praise it as a MASTERPIECE, or at least a very good show.
I'm gonna be blunt. NGE is one of the biggest pieces of crap to ever become a mainstream anime, in my opinion.

Let's start with what is actually good, because a lot of the aspects of this anime are actually salvageable, which makes it all the more tragic at how grandiously it failed.

Art - 7/10
NGE looks a lot better than most TV anime of the nineties. It's well-drawn, has a good use of colors, and stills of it look really good, but the animation itself fits the pacing - that is to say, it's not moving sometimes for near a whole minute at a time.

Sound - 7/10
Cruel Angel's Thesis is a great opening and Fly Me To The Moon is a good ending. The voice acting and voice direction was ok, not great, just ok.

The concept for the anime was great. It presents itself like a battle sci-fi at the beginning, and it makes you interested in finding out what the "angels" actually are, where they came from, and what the government is doing exactly.

Now onto the trash fire:

Characters - 2/10
The characters are terrible. You've probably already heard the criticism that Shinji is a boring, whiney wuss, who is unable to stand up for himself and isn't a strong enough character to be a protagonist, let alone an interesting one. I am inclined to agree to that, but Shinji is nowhere near the worst character in the show, and he's still a simpathetic boy for the most part. Asuka is the worst and most overrated anime character I've ever seen. She's whiney, annoying, bratty, scummy, and I cannot for the life of me figure out why people like her other than her aesthetic. (fyi she's not legal) Asuka is somehow meant to be a deconstruction of the tsundere archetype in anime, somehow. Yet, instead of deconstructing the stereotypical portrayal of cold-on-the inside females (which I don't necessarily dislike), she shows the absolute worst aspects of being one with none of the positives. "Tsundere"s are supposed to only put their brattyness on the outside, but be nice people. That's how they can become beloved characters. In Asuka's case, however, besides a few moments where she shows some humility, she's generally just a b*tch. If one of your main "good guys" goes so far as to show amusement at her crewmate suffering, like when Shinji was close to dying to an Angel and she was braging about how he was asking for it and they should have let HER do the job, because she's apparently a perfect pilot (she's a terrible pilot btw, wastes ammo and gets herself into trouble all the time), then you know something is wrong with your character writing. (SPOILER) If I was Shinji, I would have probably at least attempted to strangle her as well.
Other than that, there is Rei, who is probably the most decent character out of all of them, but still boring nonetheless. Misato is okay, but being a thot is ingrained into her character. Shinji's dad is a horrible, neglectful person, and Shinji himself goes insane towards the end and does things that make it impossible to root for him, so there is literally no one left.

What happened to great, strong, badass protagonists, with resolve, like Kenshiro and Jotaro?! It's often mentioned that NGE changed the landscape of the anime industry completely, and as true as that is, not all change is for the better. Shinji is the reason why pathetic excuses for protagonists like Kirito clone #55 and unironic Kazuma #14 dominate the anime landscape today, unlike the afformentioned badasses. Who said protagonists have to act like real life people when put into hard situations? It's anime, it's MEANT to be exaggerated and idealised. Real people suck most of the time anyway. It is said that NGE put more psychological and "deep" elements in mecha shows. Who cares??? If it was a generic mecha #119 I would have enjoyed it more. To me, it doesn't just stand out from the rest, it stands out at how bad it is. It is also said that NGE made female characters more three dimentional. And so what??? Regardless of whether Asuka is 2D, 3D, or even a 4D tesseract, she's still a bratty sis. (still not legal btw)

Story - at least 8/10 for premise and 2/10 for execution
As I mentioned before, the show starts out very promising. It almost looks like a battle shonen from the way it invites the viewer into an interesting distopian setting and makes you wanna see more action and discover the truth behind the Angels' invasion. After that it just goes nuts. Instead of answering questions, it only poses more. It tricks the audience that they are gonna watch something cool, but instead it it partially abandons the original premise a few episodes in and focuses on overdone, cliche (even for 1995) teenage drama, and then completely abandons the original plot in the last third where the show, and the director, go INSANE. First off, it's ironic that fans of the show overanalyse every little detail and can talk for hours about how deep it is, when the dynamic between the three children is on the same level of depth as The Jersey Shore.
The reason why there are so many open-to-interpretation bizarre sequences is not that Eva has something deeply profound to say, that is hard to express with words, but that the people behind it didn't know what they were doing. The show is a disjointed mess that doesn't know what it wants to be.
It's a sci-fi action mecha, but not really. It's a psychological thriller, but not really. It's a drama about growing up with some comedic elements, but not really. It's a study of the minds of some seriously messed up kids, but not really. It's a bad hallucinogenic trip, but not really. It goes from a quirky show where some woman drinks six packs of 100% alcohol "beer" and her penguin eats toast and takes baths like a human, to an apocalyptic existential nightmare. The tonal shift isn't commendable like the slow-burn, mindblowing tonal shift in Adventure Time, or the sudden and unexpected one in Made in Abyss. It's a disaster, where the production was started while the script was still ongoing and the ending (if you can even call it that) was an afterthought. You know how everyone hates the talk no jutsu in Naruto, because the creator put it just because he felt like it after a session with his psychologist? That's exactly how EVERYTHING towards the end of Evangelion (the series, not the movie) works. The director became depressed and not only wanted the series to reflect that, it feels like he wanted the fans to suffer as he does, for some reason. I've heard he even admitted that Evangelion's plot makes no sense, but I cannot find a source for that. Either way, the lack of consistency in the writing is even reflected in the animation and general production. It's the same negligence that caused Gainax to blow all their budget prematurely and animate the last episode with what appears to be crayons.
You see, Evangelion's ending is not so much bad......as it is NON-EXISTENT. Evangelion is the reason why people make fun of how studio Gainax ends their shows, even though it's not really true for all their shows. Gurren Lagann has, in my opinion, one of the greatest endings of all time, but people still prefer to talk more about the bad. I like every other Gainax anime I've seen more than Eva and it really tarnishes the reputation of the studio for me, just as it tarnished the reputation of their ability to write and produce a good ending.

Enjoyment - 3/10
Once again, the show was interesting at first, but about 10 episodes in I was already sick of its repetitiveness. Every angel attack felt the same, but even then that's still the best part of the plot. I was sick of Asuka and the rest of the cast. The pacing has been extremely flawed from the start, but it felt slower and slower the further I got into it. It's really boring to watch, and the whole pretentiousness doesn't help. The weird sequences and Christian symbolism make no sense. Don't even try to make sense of them. The creators didn't have any comment to make on religion or using religious symbolism, they just like adding things they thought look cool, and if you, like me, don't think it looks that cool, then a large portion of the anime will be a waste of time for you. (SPOILER) Apparently Rei is a clone of Shinji's mom because his dad loved her too much to let her go. WTF?.....Okay, whatever. The EVA unit going berserk was supposed to be the climax of the series? That was disappointing. A great show like Kill la Kill could probably make Ryuko mowing her lawn more intense than that. The show is pretentious. It has nothing to teach you, it has no deep meanings. It's just a hodgepodge of random things the creative producers and director thought would be kinda cool. Worst of all, it's boring. It feels even slower than the average 90's show, and it never fails to be anticlimactic.

Despite it's roaring commercial success, I still consider "Neon Genesis Evangelion" a massive FAILURE of storytelling and entertainment.

I'll avoid spoiling any of the major plot points, but I'll tell you right now in case you're wondering: no, Shinji doesn't bone Misato. I know you're devastated, so am I. I thought this was going to be a great show about large robots fighting monsters and an MC who mans up and gets with his cute roommate, but I'm sad to say it isn't. Instead we have eight hours of characters moping around feeling sorry for themselves and five minutes of action so they can bait people into watching this with the promotional material. 4/10, trash tier Gundam show. Go watch Iron Blooded Orphans ... instead.

So, I've been thinking about Eva for a while now. Which is not a pleasant thing in my book, as I find the "Discourse" around the show to be extremely tedious, not helped by the fact that its nowhere near as original or influential as it's often made out to be (I mean, Victory Gundam released just a year or so before Eva, so sad, vaguely pedophillic mecha nightmares were clearly in vogue). However, I can't front and say it didn't affect me at all-it was the second anime I ever watched (long ago now, so forgive me if I'm sometimes vague on details) so ... I feel I owe it some measure of appraisal. Which brings me to the point; I don't like Eva. I never have. But a succinct reason why has eluded me for a long time. And I think I've finally pinned it down.


Evangelion is bad because, despite all the crazy symbolism and great music, it's BORING. And it's boring primary because it is so incessantly, obnoxiously moralizing.


The show's focus is always on one of two things; either the convoluted myth arc that drags on for way too long such that by the time the "mystery" is finally done with all you get is a ten car pile up of vague Biblical imagery and dumb technobabble that functions only as an overwrought metaphor (or a low-rent Shin Megami Tensei cutscene). Or it's the thematic journey of a bunch of traumatized individuals, mostly the kid protagonists, into opening up their hearts and allowing connections to be formed, even if it hurts. Honestly, its not a bad theme, if one that's extremely common when you look close at Japanese media.


The fatal flaw is in it's execution. The protagonist, Shinji Ikari, and his supporting cast of various importance just aren't engaging characters. How could they be? They're defined almost entirely by their trauma, either to begin with, as is the case with Shinji, or at the very least by the show's last third where all joy or hope is left by the wayside. Gendo Ikari, the ultimate antagonist, is the worst example of this- his disdain for his son is never explored in any depth until the very end, when it's long since stopped mattering. The show spends nearly its whole runtime, and the added runtime of End of Evangelion, wallowing in the misery these characters are subjected to, razor focused on their flaws, their Freudian psycho-sexual disfunction, and their navel gazing self-recrimination. Not only does it make the act of watching the show dull and miserable, it ultimately destroys the very message its trying to convey. Be an individual? Make connections with people? Why would the characters do that when not a one of them ends the series with any sort of engaging personality or hopeful future? Having the capacity to connect with others doesn't automatically make you actually WORTH connecting with, and none of the characters have any real chemistry, romantic or otherwise. Only Rei really ends up feeling more like a full person than she starts, and considering she starts at basically zero that's not hard to do.


All this story focus also means that the action part of the show is pretty lacking. The biological Evangelions are genuinely a cool concept that is mostly just used as a plot device, especially if Shinji needs rescuing in which case his mecha mama takes control and solves the problem instantly. The Angels, the monsters of the week, are so vaguely defined in ability and origin that they essentially function via authorial fiat, meaning there's no real tension because the Angels only really lose via technobabble or the aforementioned Mechamum. The art can genuinely be great, and its often colorful, which I appreciate. But even the most hardcore defenders will admit that as the series goes on more and more cracks begin to show until animation itself becomes scarce and dialogue overtakes everything. The music is consistently good, at least.


So, where does that leave us? Honestly, as much as I dislike the show, like I said at the start, its not uniquely bad. It's a product of its time and several trends that have mostly either diminished or have long since transformed into something more consistently engaging. Eva's reputation I think stems much more from just being the "first" example of such trends to many people, especially outside of Japan, who, like me, were often just starting out with anime. And I think that's why its become such an albatross around the neck of the community. Like a lot of "classics", it dominates discussion and pushes out both older shows just as worthy of examination and newer shows that have improved much since 1995. I just....don't think its worth all this damn trouble.

What is this garbage?? after this has been hyped soo much I watched it after someone recommended it to me and jesus christ.

DO NOT tell me about the "meaning" of this show because if it really was ment to have a deep meaning then it would have a good story.

The characters cant grow up??? oh my god.. they do not know what moving on is and the last couple episode got me so confused... I don't know I'm just lost on how this show gets called "good". Also.. whats up with teenagers piloting robots with immense power? They clearly are going through a emotional phase ... and should not be piloting at any costs, we aren't really shown how they learn how to pilot the evangs because If they know how to pilot it as teenagers THEN adults show be able to aswell..

No explanation of where the angels are coming from aswell.. Do the writers realise how important it is to know where they come from? A beginner writer with actual passion and commonsense are better than these scumbags using the animators time to make this trash show, I have more to say but it's not worth it to complain even more about this.

the ginger girl is the most cursed part of this show, she cant grow up at all along with shinji, the story and his dumbass father.

this really doesn't deserve a full review with 5 paragraphs or so because its just unbearable.

That scene with the piano music/ classical music with the evangs dancing was pretty nice tho, favourite part of the entire show tbh.

I had heard many great things from many different people before I started watching neon genesis evangelion. Unfortunately, I was let down! This anime starts off slow, and takes a while to pick up, eventually it builds up to something. However, the buildup was a total failure as the anime failed to deliver at its climax. It seemed as if the show ran out of money in their last few episodes and decided to throw in whatever they could for penny scraps. The art style was bad, the sound was bad, the character development was terrible, the story made little sense and lacked continuity, overall ... a terrible anime. Would not recommend.

Before even watching any kind of TV series or movies, we always have expectations. Of course, we also get a “feeling” about how the show will progress by reading about it somewhere on the Internet or watching the first few episodes before building up our “requirements”. However, twists and turns don’t actually contribute to these expectations because they are generally more story-related, not content-related. The content is everything that the show has or is currently offering us, from characterization, to storyline, to animation and audio. Now you may be wondering what this is all about. Why should “expectations” matter? We should just watch and then ... judge, right? But on what basis? People’s opinions? No. Expectations. If you don’t expect the show to have a good set of characters, and if by any chance they turn out the other way around, then you will be surprised that this actually exceeded your expectation from the characters. It was twisted around, but in a positive way because the characters didn’t turn out the way you expected. If, however, you expect the series to show you something it promised but unfortunately failed then it’s an entirely different matter. Yes, we’re talking about Neon Genesis Evangelion, a show that promises everything but ironically presents absolutely nothing. NGE is all about one thing: False promises.

This review is spoiler free.

Let’s talk about what NGE actually promised us, the viewers. Character development is the first thing that comes in mind, because the main character is portrayed as a weak, self-absorbed and depressed individual with parent issues on top of that, who must overcome his weaknesses. There it is, “overcome”. And the show clearly emphasizes on that single word by constantly proving to us that he’s beginning to change, only of course he doesn’t at the end and stays the same. But we’ll get to that later. A secondary expectation is the action scenes, since it is a shonen after all, even if it tries to deconstruct the genre. Finally, there is one primordial requirement: a comprehensible story. This may sound vague right now, but we’ll talk about it in a moment. Right now, imagine reading a book with torn up pages. That’s how NGE felt like, not just to me, but to everyone who has watched it so far. Some people enjoy this sort of thing, and I don’t mind it either if it’s kept at a minimum level but there’s a difference between “contributing to the story” and “creating your own”. NGE used symbolism and philosophy on top of a somewhat “normal story” to make you confused and lost, but in my opinion it did more harm than good because it didn’t bother exploring those elements. They were just out of context so everyone tried to twist them around to their own liking. Personally, it is a nightmare for me to assemble a puzzle when I’m actually missing some pieces. It’s frustrating, and the only solution is to fill the missing pieces with something else, something that I MADE.

•STORY: Let’s cut to the chase. The story was like a roller-coaster that derailed at the end of the track; this is the best way that I can describe it. NGE begins on a promising premise, becomes a bit repetitive, but gets interesting again, and then finally loses its charm. It jumps from an unusual shonen where the main character has to overcome his weaknesses and solve his relationship with his father (this was my supposed expectation from the show) to a deep philosophical show where every single character whines and talks about his feelings and thoughts. What happened to the story and its objectives? It was thrown away from the window and replaced with depressive materials where the 14-year old characters speak as if they were divorced twice and lost their job. Yes, Shinji is supposed to be the writer’s projection into the show, but this sudden shift from one genre to another was irrelevant to the story. It was tiresome, because we already know how the characters feel and act in the show. We don’t need another set of episodes explaining the obvious.

This is not how psychological drama progresses. We’re supposed to anticipate the person’s feelings and thoughts through his interactions, actions, decisions, and ultimately relationships. And we already did in the first part of the show. It was beautifully presented, I admit. Unfortunately, NGE decides that it’s not enough and continues on its journey by pretty much summarizing the entire thing again instead of developing it. The characters constantly paraphrase ONE single thing. There is no development, no progress in the story. It even gives us a slight moment of false hope when Shinji was praised by his father who told him that he did a great job, and that was it. Shinji remembers this moment again later on, but then nothing happens afterwards. They both stay stagnant and their relationship doesn’t go anywhere. So what’s the point of watching a show if you constantly want to feel let down?

But this is just the tip of the iceberg. NGE had an acceptable story but rushed its ending in an almost comical way. It introduced a Deus Ex Machina character at the last second and suddenly everything was “resolved”. The two last episodes are not even qualified to be called “episodes” (budget issues) and barely tried to convey a message. On the other hand, NGE has a tendency to “tease” the viewer by throwing at him unexplained words. No, not feeding him information. Just words. Like “Human Instrumentality Project”, “Dummy Plug”, “SEELE”, “Angels”, “Adam”, “EVA”… Some of these words are ambiguous as they can be interpreted in a different way each time, but others are just unacceptable. Throwing words at the viewer without at least giving him some highlights makes the story look poor and weak, not mysterious nor deep. I admit that I was so frustrated when they kept using these words without explaining anything at all that I decided to look up the information on the Wikia fandom page. So enough teasing, get to the point already.

So besides the plot being a bit frustrating at some point, the psychological aspect of the show worked at first but was prolonged to fill more episodes. The story began simple but then was filled with useless symbolism to make it look like more than “just a story”. It failed however at delivering its message because everything was rushed at the end and the last two episodes were a joke (there’s a reason why they made an alternate ending and the movies, people!). The story wasn’t some form of allegory, because nothing was highlighted or given any meaning at all. It was pure teasing of religious references, unexplained elements and classical music.

•CHARACTERS: The characters are not bad per se, they just seem analogous. Most of them are heavily depressed and have parent issues, and there’s only one aspect that really separates them from one another. Also, new characters are introduced conveniently and too quickly by a simple phrase: “We found the one!” without a decent explanation of how they were found.

-Shinji: First of all, Shinji is not a bad character. Sure, he has his weaknesses, strengths and dilemmas but this is what makes him special. And this is exactly why many people despise or love him. He’s different than your average main character from any shonen. But this doesn’t mean he’s perfect. Yes, he’s supposed to be portrayed that way so he can feel realistic and more human because he makes irrational decisions, complains about everything yet secretly desires human contact. He has all the right to do these sort of things, but I don’t think he has the right to waste our time. The fate of the world rests in his hands, and what does he do? He goes to school! Instead of training hard, he wastes almost half of his screen time with his school friends when the world is two inches away from being extinct. And ironically enough, he complains that he’s lonely and weak. He also runs away more than once from NERV because he’s actually scared (and that’s fine) but comes back like it was nothing. So his characterization which was excused because he was clearly presented as an “imperfect human being” became underwhelming, even for him.

So at first glance, Shinji may seem closer than a human than a fictional character, but in reality he’s just a cheap excuse for the writer to project himself into the story. That’s why the second part of the show only focuses on Shinji’s psychological state. And his nihilistic view of the world remains the same. Why? Because that’s how the writer sees it, and wants you to see it in this way. So I wouldn’t call it “character development”. Even if we clearly notice that Shinji is actually making progress (Meeting new friends, protecting them, having his first kiss…), he denies it! And we’re back at square one. Again, it’s a false promise. His thoughts, emotions and attitude remain the same. Even if he has almost everything that he desired a long time ago, he’s still not happy about it.

-Rei: I wouldn’t call her a character because she acts like walking puppet. No personality, no emotions, no reactions, and this seemed to be the trend back then. Absolutely nothing that can characterize her besides her name and her “true identity”, but I won’t spoil anything.

-Asuka: She doesn’t actually contribute anything to the story. Everything that she says or does is because she wants someone to praise and acknowledge her as a human being. And this becomes irritating because we already have a character like her. It’s Shinji. Asuka doesn’t add anything new to the drama. She just magnifies it. It’s like stacking up several “Shinjis” on top of each other: it’s a character amplification. At some point, the show insists on her being Shinji’s rival as she constantly tries to overpower him so she can get all the attention for herself. So if she adds anything new to her character, it’s jealousy. She can’t stand not being the first and most powerful EVA pilot.
Moreover, some of her actions and decisions don’t make an ounce of sense, like deciding to kiss Shinji because she “was bored”. Sounds like she’s a fanservice material to me.

-Nagisa: A Deux Ex Machina who is conveniently introduced at the end and appears for no more than 10 minutes during the whole show so he can unexpectedly provide a lazy solution to the story. He’s not a character but more of physical key to the story and he was poorly handled. He was forced to interact with Shinji for a few minutes so he can leave a good impression on him. But it was JUST a few minutes, and this made Shinji thought of Nagisa as his own brother.

-Gendou Ikari: He’s always asking for the impossible, as he expects his 14-year old son to pilot a giant robot and fight aliens while he sits in his chair with a dead expression. If he was supposed to be some sort of an analogy of a strict and authoritative father in real-life then he clearly isn’t, because I don’t think any person with a functional brain would ask a child, let alone his son, to instantly turn into a soldier without a proper training or mentor. Sure, some parents push their kids a little bit too much but I’ve never seen a parent asking his kid to pilot an airplane. Have you?

•ANIMATION: The art is decent but the animation is rather disappointing to say the least, even if we take into consideration that the show is more than 20 years old. At first, the animation didn’t look that bad, but then we started starring at static images for up to 2 whole minutes. And it wasn’t to build up tension. It just made 1 second feel like 1 hour. But I wasn’t that annoyed, because the animation budget ran out… that is until I watched the last two episodes. Ah. Another false promise.

Instead of actually wrapping things up in the last few episodes, they decided to throw some poorly made sketches, flash some images here and there, while also adding some voices to still frames on a black background so they can stall for time. At that moment, the animation was no more “understandable” nor excusable. It was embarrassing and barely tried to conclude the story which at this point felt more like broken glass.

•SOUND: Voice acting was good for most characters. The opening is also great but doesn’t really fit the theme of the story. Remember, the second part of the show is heavily depressing and dark. So it’s not your typical, good-ending shonen at all, and I don’t think that the boy “became a legend” at the end, because honestly there was no ending, and the boy remained pretty much the same.

•ENJOYEMENT: I enjoyed NGE at first, especially the action scenes. Most dialogues between characters were somewhat interesting and mature while monologues were constant paraphrasing and a waste of time. I didn’t dislike the characters, but some of them were a waste of screen time and money, especially the school friends, Asuka and even the Penguin guy. Some animated scenes were decent, others were a complete disaster. So right now, NGE seems like any average show. It has its ups and downs. Except…

There was one thing that I, and many others, couldn’t stand. It’s the poorly explained story who barely tried to provide the viewer with information and constantly shifts between psychological drama (which was supposed to be the main theme) and philosophical fiction that mainly focuses on negative and dark themes such as pessimism, nihilism and cynicism.

In conclusion, NGE promised us character development, explanation of the mysterious elements that were continuously thrown at us, and a decent ending (which is the upmost and basic requirement of every storytelling) but gave us nothing in return. Even though it’s highly praised by many, I still can’t recommend it to anyone who wants:

-An acceptable character progression
-A properly explained story with a decent ending – A “Straight to the point” approach

Of course, if you’re still curious then you can try it out, but this is what you’ll be getting as a result:

-Stagnant characters who remain the same
-A barely explained story with no ending – A “Do it yourself” approach
-Unnecessary and irrelevant philosophical elements that become repetitive
-Disappointing animation, even considering how old the show is

However, if you like reading a torn up book and fill the missing pages, this show is for you.

I'm sure anyone that's been into anime for some quite of time have heard of Neon Genesis Evangelion and how many people seem to praise it like it's the best thing ever invnted since sliced bread? Yeah, I finally decided to watch it aswell and if I may be honest; I'm not really a fan. Settle down, settle down, I know I can't please everyone. There's a lot things that are just plain wrong with this show, so put on your plugsuit and get inside the robot just because I told you so:


Story: 2/10 (Horrible)
The story as a whole is an abolute mess. It really ... is all over the place and I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not. The show want to be taken seriously, but on the other hand it doesn't want that iether. It wants to be an anime packed with action with a deep meaning, but it also wants to be a ridiculous drama harem show afterwards. Pick your side, please. The story pretty much boils down that a couple of 14 year olds that pretty much get forced into getting inside robots while saving the day of an alien invasion while half of all life forms got eradicated while somehow humanity manage to get around like nothing has happend. It's not realistic at al and it's one of the things that bothers me the most. In reality for instance we heavenly depend on the ecosystem yet we're raping and polluting the planet like there's no tommrow just for the sake of money. One of the other things that I kinda disliked is that the humans always are somehow by a miracle always one step ahead whatever problem they are getting into. Sure, I understand this story is just fiction, but I really hate that mindset and setting that humanity will concur anything that gets trown at us. People really need to learn we're not that special. Sure, we did as a species some impressieve things, but we're still so vulnerable as a species. I can go hours and hours about the subject if I want to. I know this anime also reffers about mental struggles and what not, but let's be honest; everyone has those. I'll pick on this later. Don't worry. So why not add some Sidmond Freud into the mix because we know that guy had a sick mommy fetish and had some huge mommy isseus aswell. Wonderfull! Yeah, I'm not a big fan of Sidmond Freud. Why not add some religous references just for the sake in appearing to be original? Brilliant! I'm not religious iether, sorry. Iether way; no, this anime is not "a masterpiece." Please don't start on the whole "But Hideaki Anno was depressed!" argument just for the sake in trying to defend this anime because honesty that's not really a good excuse. He should be taking care of himself instead of making bad decisions. I know from myself when I have my depressed moments I just withdraw from my work for a while because I know otherwise I will make mistakes or not be happy with the results afterwards. For example: I'm actully glad Hirohiko Araki, author of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure was depressed aswell when he was writing JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Golden Wind (the 5th part), but he understood he was having a dilemma with Pannacotta Fugo at the time. I'm thankfull he understood of himself he would get dissapointed afterwards if he really included that certain part he wanted to include while being in a depressed state. If you're depressed; your decision-making skills are not top notch. Trust me on this one. More on this later...

So what's Neon Genesis Evangelion all about if you might ask? It's just two aliens trying to have a rendez-vous while at the mean time some 14 year old kid screams a lot because it's afterall a smart idea to put the fate of the planet in the hands of young kids. But in reality is just about your average daily suffering like your average wage slave in this postmodernism world that trives on socialism and capitalism. That's about it. Nothing really big to over exaggerate about it like many do for this anime. There's nothing "philosophical" about it or there's no "deep meaning" behind it. Anyone that's thinks that iether a) didn't get it at all, b) tries to hype this anime for what it really is or c) watched this anime as high as a kite. We're really dealing with "a masterpiece" this time, boys & girls. Atleast uncle Timz0r senpai just tells the harsh truth for what it really is. So you're welcome. Now get me a beer so I also can produce chimpanzee like pleasing alcoholgasm sounds like Misato Katsuragi did.

Art: 5/10 (Average)
Animation wise for being made back in 1995 it is pretty OK for the time being. Atleast that statement is treu for the first half of the series, because after that it really begins to show they really probably had budget isseus which is a dissapointment. I agree; the first half was indeed very flashy animation wise for the time being and kept my interest in check, but around the second half is just a big mess with a lot of recycled animations and a freaking still image for almost atleast a minute long in episode 24 which is a huge turn-off. I don't even know at this point if it iether was done on purpose or they really suffered with a low budget, but that doesnt even matter at this point because the end-product became a mess afterall since Hideaki Anno wanted to remake the whole damn thing just to rob even more money from the people. Long live end stage capitalism, baby. Also it's a big shame the designs for the Angels are so ridiculous that it really doesn't feel they were a treat at all. At least make your Earth invading aliens more intimidating, so I can take this anime more seriously. Seriously, they really were THAT ridiculous in my opinion. I can't help it to mention that. Maybe they had that design for a far sought reason, who knows at this point, but in my point of vieuw they really were boring and ridiculous. They were in a way just monsters from a kids show and that's about it. C'mon, even a six year old can design even more intimidating monsters than the aliens we gotten in this anime.

Sound: 6/10 (Fine)
The thing that stands out the most in the iconic intro song. Yes, I admit I also like the intro. It's a catchy song, but if you start focus on it more, you already know how the entire anime will turn out. Yeah, it's one of those intro's that spoils pretty much everything already without even watching it and I don't really like these kind of intro's. Incase you didn't catched that, mind you. But indeed the fate of the planet is putted on the hands of one 14 year old boy named Shinji Ikari and that's about it. Asuka's attempt for speaking German at times was laughable, but I can see that through my fingers because my German isn't that great iether untill I'm influenced from alcohol. Yes, it's cute when Japanese people are trying to speak foreign languages. But in someway I still can admire it. In overall the voice acting was done decent enough. Pretty much the whole sound department was the best part for this anime. I mean; if you decide in using some Ludwig van Beethoven, you really need to know what you're doing right? I wish I could be this positieve atleast about the charathers.

Charathers: 5/10 (Average)
I mean, what charathers? Let's be honest, the characters are not that great, but aren't bad iether in overall. It's just a big shame the show focus the most on Shinji Ikari; where Hideaki Anno really wants to self-insert himself with. Design wise Shinji Ikari kept reminding me with Tenchi from Tenchi Muyou! Ryououki (1992), the treu harem master of the '90's that was somewhat unsure of himself, but eventually he got his act together aswell. In Shinji Ikari's case, well... He lacks individuality, charisma, presence, personality or a will and is not really a suitable main face of the entire show. While I totally can understand his situation he got himself into, but the overdramatic touch really is a big turn-off. Then we have Asuka Langley Sohryu that is your standard tsundere charather that I have seen in previous older shows aswell, but if I'm honest she's a mixed bag of annoyance and cute, but is also an understandable charather if we finally delve into her own mental struggles due her past. I sort of can relate with her aswell in some extent. I often struggle with impulsive emotions aswell, but I learned over the years just of not letting those go. Rei Ayanami on the otherhand, well, atleast Rei spawned a lot of knock-offs in other anime series. My personal favorite of the whole Evangelion anime is still Rei Ayanami. It's just a shame she gets treated as a disposible charather even she's the one with the most empathy towards Shinji Ikari. Atleast I can agree with a lot of fans that Rei is pretty much the best charather of the series. I pretty much fall into the whole kuudere archetype myself and I really like these charathers because I can relate to them the most nowadays. I also like Misato Katsuragi, a woman that also has a lot of things going and I kinda wished she was the main charather instead. She's bad ass, but she also has her own struggles with her own inner demons. The show has many other charathers, but most of them are just set as a certain role for the show and pretty much don't matter at all, which is kind of a bummer. Atleast the pinguin Pen Pen had some cute moments. I really wished the other charathers were more fleshed out which is not unfortunately the case.

Enjoyment: 3/10 (Poor)
So, we're finally here why I exactly didn't liked Neon Genesis Evangelion like your average watcher would and it's more like a personal reason really. This anime is not about robots, aliens and what not. It's about the struggles with the loss of a father figure. Atleast that's my own assumption. I only come up with this conclusion because I've been through that myself while growing up. To keep it short: I was 11 years old when my paranets divorced, my dad abandoned me and I lost my father figure at an age when I was close to puberty. Years did go by and my mom dies unfortunately and I'm forced back to live with my dad because I had no choice to keep it short. That's in my point of view the struggles of Shinji Ikari - something I wanted to avoid mentioning untill now. The real treu villain of this anime is Shinji Ikari's dad Gendo Ikari. He exploits his son in forcing him to get inside the robot, even when he probably understands he's a terrible father figure. It's one of the reasons why I can't really hate on Shinji Ikari because I've been there myself; loosing my own mother due death and loosing my entire father figure as a whole while growing up from a kid into adulthood and not knowing how to go further in life while being dissapointed in your dad because he doesn't really cares about you. The whole anime setting about aliens and what not is just there as a huge distraction. There's to much distraction going on to broadcast the real message this anime is trying to tell you and I honesty don't like it. Being raised by single parenthood really does damage your child more than you'll ever could imagne. The problem I have with this is that single parenthood is becoming way to common these days worldwide. People really don't think ahead about the future with their selfish actions anymore. Divorces are also skyrocketing worldwide. I know I'll never get married or never want to procreate with a woman because I know that child will have less of a future than I have. I don't want to force my own kid into wageslavery (aka. to get inside the robot even when you don't want to) and become nothing more but a replaceable puppet to keep the corrupt Capitalism x Socialism system going. You're a smart person when you can learn from your own mistakes, but you're genius when you also can learn from someone else their mistakes. I know the mistakes my parents did in the past and I'll try my best in not making those mistakes ever in my own life for the time I have left on this planet. Even I'm aware I'm just nothing but a bipedal primate, but atleast I know my own limits and possibillities if I keep on refusing to follow the herd like a blind sheep. We live in a society. Bottom text.

Overall: 4/10 (Bad)
In an overall conclusion; I honesty didn't liked this anime. The negatieves really outweigh the positieve aspects of this anime in my point of view. Am I going to watch it's movie "sequal" Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion (1997)? Absolutely! Especially since the whole story is not finished at all because of apparanetly budget isseus. But I do have already low expectations, because I know it's going to be a sequal from post-modernist crap. Who knows I might like that movie sequal a bit better as an entry now I finally have my own train of thought out of the way, but I highly doubt it. Am I going to to watch it's movie remakes that only were/are being made to milk out money without all the bad decicions Hideaki Anno made in the orginal series? I don't think I'm willing enough into getting into these entries to be honest. Why would I bother in watching a retelling of the same story just with apparantly less drama in it because of bad decisions? I've seen now the orgininal story. Atleast most of it for now. I understand the main purpose of existence of those remake movies. Do I rececommend this anime to others? Heh, that's up to you to decide. But I hope you can understand now why I give this anime an overall score of 4 out of 10 just because I can.

Neon Genesis Evangelion (新世紀エヴァンゲリオン, Shin Seiki Evangerion)…what a lackluster piece of shit.

There’s so much wrong with this tripe, I don’t think I can cover it all; jagged animation, lousy soundtrack, tired plot, abstract imagery that’s tacked on for no discernible purpose. And then there’s the characters…my God, the characters! They are embarrassingly two dimensional. Making a character sociopathic or autistic doesn’t constitute ‘depth’. it’s just fucking lazy writing.

The three prodigal children are annoying, and never develop. Shinji whines from beginning to end, with no variation or creativity in his self-hatred. He’s also a potential rapist. Asuka is a German narcissist who shows no variation ... in her arrogance, and Rei is the autistic girl who should be in a special school, NOT fighting Angels. All three exhibit questionable sexual behavior for their ages…I wanted to take Rei away from her delinquent environs, but other than that, I felt nothing for the characters. Tack on strained relationships with parents and yada yada, and there’s not one ‘real’ person in the mix. I actually wanted the angels to kill everyone post-haste (with the exception of Rei, who should be socializing with other autistic children).

NGE kick started the metaphysical anime fad, spawning numerous, superior copy-cats, but for all its abstract, biblical imagery, NGE doesn’t really try to say…anything. The Chirstian imagery holds novelty in Japan…in the west, people seem to assume it’s some sort of philosophical, low-budget commentary on the human condition. Eva is so much less than that – it barely ventures beyond typical shonen cliches. Each episode has a breathtakingly original formula; Shinji fights angels, has a mental breakdown, goes home, brushes his teeth, maybe has a sexually awkward moment with a narcissistic/autistic girl, then goes to bed. In the following episode, he gets to do it all again! A bit like Japanese cram school, but more boring, and sans the benefit of an education. There isn’t anything that separates this from the likes of Pocket Monsters…in fact, it comes off worse due to its paltry budget and bombastic pretensions.

So where, pray tell, does the hype arise from? Surely there must be some merit? No, but I can tell you why it’s popular among the lower classes. You see, 新世紀エヴァンゲリオン is one of those shows where the amount of acclaim lauded on it by its fandom is inversely proportionate to its substance (ie., little more than a crock of shit). This is unsurprising,and nothing new; most otakus are as thick as a red brick wall, and will profess love for anything that distracts them from their social awkwardness. it’s easy to see the depth and courage of the show’s protagonist, Shinji (*chuckle*), when the viewer himself is so lacking in his social perceptiveness. It is the poor man’s art-college fantasy; the freak misunderstands the gimmcky evangelical imagery, realizes nobody else understands it either, and voila, all of a sudden the overweight otaku gaijin blossoms into dilettante. But for us normal people, Evangelion is about as artistic as a stale croissant.

I don’t like Evangelion very much at all. I don’t care for most aspects of it, and yet, I have watched it in its entirety. It’s an incredible body of work. Its original run is strong enough to stand on its own, and the devastatingly beautiful, surreal, and repulsive End of Evangelion is one of the most viscerally upsetting things I’ve ever watched, and I say this as a fan of not only horror films but of the profoundly abstract, like “The Holy Mountain”. Many argue that Evangelion is a masterpiece, but I don’t think it is at all. Yet my own dislike of the ... series is a statement of preference, not of the quality of the series. I feel that the show is far too subjective to attempt an impartial analysis of its quality. I am not, but many I know are profoundly mentally unwell, and this series reminds me deeply of them. Less so as the iterations go on, but the original series and EoE are, to me, startlingly powerful examples of outsider art, though “outsider” here is an inappropriate term in itself. Evangelion is best viewed not as a show but as the journey of a profoundly broken man seeking wholeness, and eventually finding it. Shinji Ikari is a beautifully rendered mess of a human, an accurate depiction of loneliness, desperation, and unfulfilled need, surrounded by equally broken people, all of whom seemingly reflect some aspect of Hideaki Anno’s psyche. The series is subsumed by Hideaki’s own psychology. Whatever it was when it first began was completely overshadowed by the darkness that consumed him, and eventually, as in 3.0+1.0, by the light. As a portrait of mental unwellness, it is possibly unparalleled in this medium, as it is not so much a depiction of it but an experience in it. Then, you may ask, why is my score so incredibly low?

Well, you see, I hate it. I hate it for many reasons. I hate it because I despise its story, and its characters, and its refusal to conform to the strictures of storytelling. I hate it because I would, if I could, remove the experience from my memory. I hate it because it is a poorly paced, poorly realized, psychotic, sadistic, and masochistic parade of happenstances that fundamentally fail to tell a story, but succeed at telling us just how deep into depression and almost certainly more its guiding figurehead was at the time of its creation. And more fundamentally than any of this, I hate it because Hideaki Anno is, well, wrong. Escapism is not the reason why anyone is unhappy. Burying oneself in escapism is a symptom, not a cause, but Anno seemed convinced, without evidence, that striving to live in the “real world” without delusion is enough to overcome one’s own demons. It isn’t though. We are frail creatures, and all of us deluded. We believe ourselves rational when we are not. We believe ourselves kind when we are cruel. And we believe ourselves deep when we are pathetically shallow. Evangelion’s message is that it is infinitely better to participate in the so called “real world” than to escape into fantasy, but this ignores the fundamental fact that our own perception of reality is a fantasy formed by an interplay of our psyches and experiences. Our entire lives are an escape. No one has ever truly known another person, be they friend, foe, or lover. Each exists solely as constructs in our own heads. This is eventually brought home, intentionally or not, in “Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time”, but its solution, its “solving” of and “resolution” for Shinji/Anno is just another form of escape. And for all of his railing against it, Anno, the strange, anti-otaku otaku, has also found his refuge in a form that he finds acceptable. And that’s fine. In fact, I am happy for him. We all deserve a pleasant delusion. The very luckiest of us die swimming in the sea of a happy fantasy. What I am less receptive to is the notion that his own haven is somehow more acceptable than those of either others or of his own past self. It is not, it is merely different.

Anno Hidaeki is a friend and in some ways protégé of one of my favorite anime directors, Miyazaki Hayao. And like Miyazaki, perhaps because of Miyazaki, he thinks himself above anime itself. He is not the first or only director of cartoon drivel to think so, and like everyone who shares his opinion, he is somehow stuck in the mire of a genre which he seemingly dislikes, filled with fans whom he actively ridicules, despite being cut from the same cloth as them. Men in their sixties and eighties respectively who can’t stop working in anime are 1000% otaku, whatever their protestations might indicate. The hypocrisy of both Miyazaki and Anno is bizarre, when judged critically. Here are two men, old enough to be the average otaku’s father and grandfather, disapprovingly casting judgement on a medium that they should have, by their own standard, stopped caring about or participating in years if not decades ago. Yet here they are, razzing the culture upon which they have prospered in the name of god knows what.

Evangelion is not nearly as deep as its proponents claim, nor as shallow as its detractors would have you believe. It is the flawed product of a flawed man over decades of his life. Each iteration is a portrait of his own state at the time. It is to me a curio, but it is not a masterpiece. It is one of the most visually striking shows I’ve ever seen, but it is less an exploration of its themes than the result of a man opening his veins on celluloid. However beautiful the spray and splatter may be, I never asked to see it, and I resent having been subjected to it. I am, at least, glad that Hidaeki has seemingly found happiness now, but Evangelion should have ended with “The End of Evangelion”. Somehow, the image of the impotent, miserable, sexually dysfunctional Shinji trying to choke the object of his desire and hatred to death while his mother’s still smiling corpse looms large in the background is perfect. The two most miserable humans alive, seemingly the only two unwilling to join in the eternal, blissfully conjoined soup of human consciousness, stuck together, hating each other, for the rest of their miserable lives, seems to fit the series far better than anything that has followed it. But herein lies my dislike. For a series so hell bent on optimistic platitudes, it misses the mark of hope by not only miles, but parsecs.

While many will pass of this review before ever reading it due to the overall score, I implore you to judge the review on more than "I disagree therefore its bad". I was told that this show was a masterpiece, that it was one of, if not the best anime ever. due to that fact, when I finally watched the show, I was greatly disappointed. While I enjoyed parts of the show, there just seems like there is so many times during the show where I thought, "Does the people who made this even know what they're making themselves?" The story is all over the ... place, and feels like it doesn't know what it wants to be half the time. There are plot-holes all over the place, it's was basically impossible for me not to notice them. And while I believe that it isn't necessary to explain everything in your story, on the contrary, i believe leaving some things open to interpretation can be a good thing, there is a way to do it right and a way to do it wrong. This show was presented as a masterpiece and ended up letting me down on every front, I did not like this show because of how other people presented it.

I have heard so much great things about Evangelion for literal years going in to the point where there was no way in hell it was ever going to live up to all of them but by GOD was it bad and no just because something has deeper meaning does not mean it's good when you introduce all these psychological themes and do literally nothing with them complete with some of the worst character writing I've seen, it confuses being so mysterious to the point where nothing sticks out about them(I'm looking right at Rei and Gendo over here)for character traits, Asuka was just a ... bitch, and Shinji dear god Shinji he might just be the least likable main protagonist in any anime I've ever seen in my life he whines SO MUCH to the point where season 1!Midoriya would tell him to grow up and stop whining. The ONLY good thing about this show was it's influence and thus it spawned a bunch of shows that try to do the same thing but actually do a good job at it and some actually good mecha animes (Shows Gurren Lagann/Code Geass(TBF Code Geass is a deconstruction of Gundam tropes but it owes MORE THAN A FEW THINGS To Evangelion) and tbf the art even if it has a few moments where it shows it's age here and there, and reuses stock footage(which is to be expected in a mecha anime)still holds up nicely, and the soundtrack's pretty good and I do like Eva unit 1's design. Moral of the story it's not as good as everyone acts like

Abysmal. Waste of time. Beginning was promising but it dropped to banal and pathetic characters and obvious "deep" thoughts. Main character is the most disgusting person I've ever seen. And this moron "saves" the world. Don't forget a banal move of having two girls with opposite tempers. And a "father" that makes "tough" decisions. I don't know how I've survived 26 episodes but I honestly want that time back. I genuinely regret watching all of it. I guess I somehow hoped that after a peppy start it will come back to that level but it didn't. By the end I really wished all of ... them were dead. Wasted potential.

I truly cannot fathom the popularity of this show, I sat through all the episodes and I still don't understand anything about what is going on. Whenever a plot point is brought up next to nothing is explained about it.

Maybe I could've forgiven the mysterious plot if the first half of the show wasn't just so repetitive and boring, not once did I find myself cheering on Shinji, Rey and especially not Asuka, they just weren't compelling enough for me to care about them. I've seen a lot of posts about people explaining that due to their severe depression it made them like the show ... because the characters each represented a part of them? If that is the case then I absolutely cannot recommend this show to anyone with a healthy mind, I fell asleep during the final episode during whatever that whole shebang was.

It just never felt like any of the characters changed or evolved even a little, and I sat through the show hoping that the 'masterpiece' title that it had earned wasn't for nothing.

Shinji was frustrating as he never became someone other than a loser.
Rey was not interesting at all as she displayed barely any characteristics.
I would rather strangle Asuka than listen to her incessant moaning and complaining again. She never changed from being a bitch, never.

Though I will give it, the Evas look awesome, and the fight scenes with them were the parts of the show where I enjoyed myself the most.

Okay, here is why Eva is bad. The anime was made for people who hate themselves. Now that is out of the way the actual review is at the bottom.

Story
Neon Genesis Evangelion was extremely popular in its time (some would say, it still is) and I believe the main reason for this is its captivating storyline. While the idea of humans riding around in giant robots wasn't particularly new when it was released, with series like Gundam and films like Roujin Z preceding it, Evangelion does successfully bring new ideas to the "mecha-table". We're given the impression right from the very first episode that the ... Evas aren't fully under the control of the humans who created them - that there is something more to their existence than meets the eye. The same can be said for the Angels, the enemies who seem intent on destroying the human race, though it becomes apparent during the series that they are an unknown enemy. Shinji, the main character, finds himself frequently asking why he is fighting them, and at one or two points, the border between friend and foe becomes noticeably blurred.So why not a higher score? Admittedly, despite the "enemy of the week" format that is never really explained (the attack in episode 1 is said to be the first in 15 years, and then they happen nearly every episode after that - why the increased frequency? Who knows...), it would have achieved a much higher score - without the final two episodes. What ruined this series for me, quite simply, was the ending. Without spoiling (though there's not a lot to spoil), I detested the way the director felt it necessary to alter the tack of the series in order to explain his overriding philosophy. I much preferred the small anecdotal philosophies that had subtly been dotted throughout the series up to that point - but in the home straight, all plot was thrown out the window in favour of some arthouse nonsense, that didn't seem to deserve the time spent watching it.What annoyed me most is that this was considered "an ending" when nothing ended at all. The series ends in stasis. It ended more because the 26 episode limit was up than because there was a reason to end it.

Animation
I'm afraid to say that Evangelion is feeling its age now. I acknowledge the fact that this was the last cell animation of its kind (before CGI was introduced into anime production) but it is found to be lacking at times. A number of occasions, I found myself staring at a still image for what seemed like an eternity for no apparent reason - sometimes even without dialogue! I admit that some of the scenery is still stunning (the forest landscapes and Tokyo 3 when it's in lockdown in the Geofront) and, in its right place, even the "arty" ending scenes could be inspiring - but (and it's a big but) I feel the only well-animated scenes are the Angel battles. If it wasn't for their extravagance, this series might as well be a slideshow.


Sound
One of the few things that Evangelion gets right most of the time. Yes, the music is reused a lot of the time (especially the Angel battle music) but it suits it well, and there's a genuine feeling of menace behind it. I also felt that the inclusion of Beethoven's Ode to Joy was a nice touch and one that becomes weighted between two of the characters late on in the series. The opening song deserves an honourable mention as well, purely because it's a great piece of music, which is quite rare for anime openings these days.


Characters
I'm often torn on this subject, though I feel it's largely because I'm looking at the characters retrospectively. Because of series like Bokurano and Now and Then, Here and There, the idea of depression and trauma in characters doesn't seem as new to me as it did when I first watched Evangelion in the late 90s. However, the motivations are key to what makes this anime worth watching. Shinji's hatred for his father is dissected, analysed and re-evaluated several times throughout the series, and it becomes more interesting than the Angel battles themselves. Similarly, this is one of the few series where you're more interested in how the characters don't interact with each other rather than any possible romance that could form. From very early on, you get a good idea of character and while there's progression, they never stray into the land of stereotype. Coupled with the most reluctant hero ever to grace the screen, and you're onto a winner.My only regret is that Rei Ayanami (who I maintain is by far the most interesting character) isn't explored as much as she should have been. There are a number of revelations about her that are somewhat eye-opening if confusing, but they never really amount to anything in the series, and it becomes a frustration that you never find out what the truth behind her actually is.


Overall
Considering how much I enjoyed the beginning of the series, this is a low score, but I'm afraid the ending just killed it for me. It made me feel as though the director had given up on the plot, that the plot hadn't actually been important at all, and that all that remained was a driven philosophy that I had little taste for. This series would have been so much better with a well-thought-out ending that actually tied together some of the loose ends left from earlier in the series. It's fine to delve into character motivations, but Evangelion does it with a blinkered eye, and all its good points are lost when you reach that final episode.I still recommend Neon Genesis Evangelion, as it is a thrilling watch, and at points, you will be carried away by the story. However, brace yourself for a disappointing ending. The director released two movies to rewrite the ending, so the series is far from complete, and I can only hope that in watching those movies, I will find the conclusion I feel this series deserves.

Waste of time.

The first episodes are boring, repetitive and predictable. You could know what would happen the moment they started to fight.
And then the show just gets confusing, because the elements that are actually important to the story, like the Human Instrumentality Project, are barely mentioned, since they use the time they have to show Shinji running away or having "deep" thoughts and problems that aren't deep at all.
Of course, showing the characters' emotions when facing the reality in the show is important, but in this case we don't even know what's happening, because the questions raised are simply not answered.
The ... show also tries to make the simplistic characters look deep and well constructed, using the most complicated ways to say the most obvious thing: "escapism is bad for you". Asuka, for example, is a simple character who was rejected by her mother, leading to the strong desire to prove herself to others. But all the "subjective" and confusing scenes make it seem like she's absolutely complex and, as I said before, deep.
So in the end, the show is nothing more than something that tries to be deep, but ends up being just boring and confusing.

Yes, I'm very very late to the party. Obligatory when this came out I'm sure it was much stronger due to much less competition.

But this day and age... I'm mostly a mech anime consumer, so really, really really wanted to love this show as it's one of the most iconic titles in the genre. It's been on my list forever and I never got around to it. For the most part, I did enjoy it quite a bit right up until about episode 22, allowing provision for a couple of character relationships that were just not believable in any capacity.

Then it retroactively told Darling in ... the Franxx to hold its beer and flew off the handle into 4 ish episodes and at least the EoE movie of absolute mind screw that I completely lost the thread. I get that it was desperately trying to touch on some deep human issues, and appreciate the courage in attempting to take them on. I get that it was trying to do so in new and unique ways. But so many of the options it chose were just sooooo over the top they can't be taken seriously and lose whatever meaning they may have had. They 'worked' but they completely drew the attention from the point trying to be made to the wtf that just crossed the screen.

I can appreciate that it's very viewer and their own set of circumstances dependent on whether a person is going to get anything out of its bizarre approach to thought experiments. But honestly, I can't help but feel that if it would have curbed some of the magic mushroom scenes and instead spent some time building its main character cast past their 3 bullet points, it would have been able to have a far greater reach.

I will re-state, as mecha anime are my primary anime interest, I REALLY wanted to love this show. But in its current state, I just can't bring myself to feel anything other than extremely dissatisfied. Here's to hoping the rebuilds are better, but... I'm not holding my breath.

i feel like this show suffered by a lot of budget cuts, it has the exoskeleton of something great and has potential . I overall love the themes but they were thrown in, the show feels chunky in the sense of great sections and just something flimsy. I feel the series should've been longer to have time to flesh out what the story was trying to portray. Especially internal conflict and over all plot . I would give it a 5 but i don't think that's fair .

Oh yeah this is spoiler free and also requiring me to make the review longer

Back in 1995 this must have been a good anime.

However,

I have watched this anime and have been detesting this Anime all the way.
The MC (Ikari, Shinji) cries, complains and whines almost every episode.

The story is about him, but at a certain moment you just don't care about him anymore.

Souryuu, Asuka Langley is a great character.
... But Ayanami, Rei who is the poster girl of this series is just a filler, you just stop caring about her.

They never do they explain were the angels come from(they just appear), or why they use 14 year old children to pilot the Eva's
And were did the Spear of Longinus come from?
The penguin is funny, but also they never explain where it came from.

This anime must have cost nothing to make because a lot of the time you are watching still images with the sound of people thinking and talking.
I have watched 1 scene of 5 min. and nothing moved during this scene, it was just a still image.


Friends told me to watch the anime to the end, but wow what a waste of time that was.
The last 3 episodes was all about:
Why I'm i here? Why do people hate me? Why do I hate myself? Who are you? and on and on and on.

and a lot of flashing images
3 episodes long...………………...that's 60+ min

The ending was also pretty bad, I'm not spoiling but just watch it if you must.

Maybe they explain everything in the movies, but if they can't peak my interest in 26 episodes. I'm not going to watch 2 more movies

This must have been a masterpiece back in the day, but don't waste your time on this.
There are so much better anime to watch.

Never have the word Overrated been as fitting as for this Anime. It's almost as if the word was invented just for this anime.

The story is about how extraterrestrial beings called Angels are attacking Earth. It's an interesting story but it never evolves beyond the basic premise. We never learn the how and why.

And why is that? Why do they neglect the story? They do so in order to focus on the main charater Ikari Shinji. A young boy whos ONLY problem in the whole world, is that his father won't read him bed time stories. Seriously... thats what the entire anime is about. ... One spoiled and pathetic boy being angry over his father neglecting his fatherly duties... that the world is set afalme all around him dosn't matter...

Overrated it was, Overrated it is, and Overrated it will forever be.