*You might consider what I'm writing at certain times a spoiler, continue reading with caution. Please keep in mind that this is my first ever review and English is not my native language.
Neon Genesis Evangelion is the worst anime I've ever watched. Now, many of you will probably go ahead and check out my profile and see that I haven't really watched a big amount of anime yet, which is true and brings me to my next statement. I'm fairly certain that no anime I'll ever watch is going to replace this one as the worst one on my list. This review will go over
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Neon Genesis Evangelion and the sequel which is a movie named 'The End of Evangelion'.
I had been hearing lots of great things about this series since I've started watching anime and after it had been recommended to me for the longest time by a couple of friends I decided to give NGE a try. Note that I started watching this well-aware of the creator's situation (regarding his mental state) while writing Evangelion and therefore I consider some of the stuff shown exaggerated and pretentious. I strongly believe that me being in the know before jumping in affected my viewing experience and had a big impact when it came down to me disliking this franchise as a whole.
Starting off with the characters. The main cast which consists of Shinji, the protagonist, Rei, Asuka and Misato. All of these characters have minimal to non-existent character development till the very end of the movie sequel even. Almost all of them, with the exception of Rei which is a bit of a more complex situation and would lead to spoilers if I were to go in depth about her, have tragic backstories, child trauma, attachment issues and so on. You would think as the series goes on that these characters would try and move on little by little to become a better version of themselves but unfortunately that's not the case. Ironically enough, the only character out of those of the main cast that made some progress was Rei and that says it all. The side characters are not much to speak of either. The most important one is the worst father figure ever created in fiction whose name is Ikari Gendou and is an absolute douche-bag who only cares about his secret agenda and for his plans to succeed. Overall, I think the most disliked part of the series in any negative review you will come across, is the characters. Mine is no different. I could write a whole other review speaking solely about the characters and it still wouldn't be enough to express my hatred towards every single one of them. They are all so unpleasant and boring that they make Rei (again, ironically enough) the most interesting and likeable one, which is very frustrating and sad at the same time. Also no, adding a tragic/dramatic backstory to a character towards the end of the series to justify their actions not only does it not fulfill that puprose, it instead makes the characters seem even more immature than they already were.
Before we move on to the story, let me clear something up that I haven't mentioned yet. I'm not a fan of the mecha genre. I only watched Evangelion because I kept hearing that the real point of this anime was its story, the messages, symbolisms etc. and the mecha element of it doesn't play as much of an important role. For the most part it is true, but I would be lying if I said that it wasn't the part I enjoyed the most. So please try to comprehend how horrifying that is, coming from someone who in general doesn't like this genre. As for the story itself, I consider the concept and the idea behind it brilliant but it was executed and delivered very poorly. It's as some of the fans of this franchise say, Evangelion's story and purpose is perceived differently by each individual. You are free to think of this positively or negatively. Personally, in the case of this series I consider it the 2nd worst thing that has come out of it. The reason why I think it's as bad is that Evangelion fails miserably to deliver answers that are crucial to the plot. Speaking of plot, oh boy does it have a lot of holes. If you are the kind of person to sit down and actually try to understand something through rewatching or searching up answers yourself then you are in for a treat. From my point of view, Evangelion's story is a way for the creator to share his feelings and thoughts that were running through his head at one of his lowest points in life which is well, when he was writing Evangelion. Now, if you are a person who is going or have gone through a low point in their life or at least have had a conversation or two with a person that is not doing good mentally, you would understand how unrealisticly this anime approaches all those feelings and hardships. If you ask me, it also got repetitive relatively fast and the cause is more or less how the characters don't develop at all like previously mentioned. The anime ending was one of the most low effort endings I've ever witnessed too. They tried making the characters go from 0 to 100 in a matter of 1-2 episodes in a very lazy way as well while they were at it. The sequel of the anime is a movie, that is considered by many, the true ending of the series. It tried salvaging the previous ending but it also fell short. We reached the point of the franchise where a few of the many questions that might had been created inside your mind through out the entire series are kind of getting "answered" and we see the minimal character developement I mentioned in the characters section above only for it to do a 180 at the very last minutes which makes you think that not even the writer knew how he wanted it to end. While the movie is reaching its climax the team behind it is trying to distract you from all the previous horribly written scenes by presenting to you a huge clusterfuck of nonsense and to be honest if we exclude the part where you don't understand what is going on, it's actually my favourite part of the movie and honestly the entire series. At least visually, considering it aired 27 years ago.
The art and the sound are not too crazy and I'm not someone that cares about them too much unless they are either stunning or really bad so I'm not going to emphasize on them in this review at all. I liked the designs of the EVA units and the Angels, they were decent, but that's about it really. Generally speaking both art and sound are good, especially for mid to late 90s, but if you try to watch it now that we are in 2024 it might be a hit or miss. Although, I must say, the best part about this series is the opening. One of the best ones I've ever heard.
In conclusion, when I finally finished watching the movie I felt something that I hadn't ever felt before, after wrapping up an anime. I felt that my time got scammed. I thought I would never feel this way no matter how bad an anime would be, especially when it comes down to an anime like NGE that has received this much praise all over these years. Hell, I would prefer continuing my one and only (as of the time I'm writing this review) dropped anime than watching anything related to the NGE franchise ever again. The combination of really bad pacing, atrocious characters and most importantly very poor story-writing can not be saved and should not be overshadowed by symbolisms no matter how good or how many there are. Also, it might be true that the things NGE did almost 30 years ago now, were innovative/unique/original however you might wanna call it, but the fact that it was executed terribly, stays. Statistically speaking you probably will like NGE and what it has to offer. If not you will get told that you didn't understand it and that's why you didn't like it. In my opinion, if you truly understand the messages and the situations that NGE shows, or at least tries to, that's when you realize how bad it actually is.
Thanks for taking time out of your day to read my review and I hope I made my thoughts and points clear.
Jan 12, 2024
Shinseiki Evangelion
(Anime)
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*You might consider what I'm writing at certain times a spoiler, continue reading with caution. Please keep in mind that this is my first ever review and English is not my native language.
Neon Genesis Evangelion is the worst anime I've ever watched. Now, many of you will probably go ahead and check out my profile and see that I haven't really watched a big amount of anime yet, which is true and brings me to my next statement. I'm fairly certain that no anime I'll ever watch is going to replace this one as the worst one on my list. This review will go over ... |
