If i ever had to get into a argument discussing why anime should be respected as a art from, I would have to pick out NGE as one of my top 3 examples. Its something that will keep you up late at night or have your attention anytime it is mentioned. With that being said it is in need of a Blu-Ray Re-Release as you can tell how much attention to detail was given to all the action sequences. There are some "questionable" sections where the animation tanks into some downright still-frame set pieces (and yes they are set pieces because you sure as hell don't forget them).
Coming from a much longer history of film, I don't see NGE all that hard to understand which almost puts me into a minority of the fan base. I only say this because i have watched films that are purely designed to be confusing and make you look for answers where there are non, or maybe. The characters may seem like they are the traditional tropes we seen in anime but back in 1995, Evangelion set the bar and is still being copied till this day. Were the characters as developed as the archetypes today that took ques from NGE? Of course not, its not the goal of a pioneer to become the greatest of all time in character development, but without this, many great characters we have today would most likely cease to exist for the lack of popularity alone.
The weakest point of the entire show is its sound and it probably due to a long list of limitations that happen to all older anime for the time. Voice acting is not the greatest at first ether but soon seems to fit better and better as time progresses. The art keeps a timeless charm that sits well into the 90's culture it came from but 20 years later in 2015, this show still feels relevant. The enjoyment of the show isn't about the fun and wacky things that a team gets into like a typical shonen show today but rather how much deeper the rabbit hole you get into. Trying to piece together the events to a vague foreshadowing of whats to come, leaving you confused enough to wonder what the fuck your watching, but intrigued enough to make you think about it long enough until you ether hate everything or love how much it speaks to you long after the credits roll. This is something that is beyond anime, its a zeitgeist of the generation X that asked why is there any meaning to anything anyways... And the truth is that there isn't. Sometimes things just need to be asked and not answered because the goal of the question was never to be answered but be discussed.
That is real art.
NGE is not as complicated as Under The Skin or Enemy (both films have more brain fuckery than this and the movie combined so relax) but it does speak on or at least touch on elements of depression, loneliness, pride, sex, shame, individualism, god, hatred and love. It isn't made to give you answers but rather showcase these terms in a somewhat realist point of view. What would you say as a abandoned child and being forced to become a warrior? What would you do if you have to kill something you don't want to? How numb do you become when enduring the worst of your fears? This is what NGE is about, the robots are only a plus to this classic deconstruction of the mech genre in anime. Still to this day it feels like its ahead of its time but one thing for sure is that anime would not be where it is today if it wasn't for Evangelion.
