Story
As far as plot and lore go, NGE does a fairly good job of building this world that Shinji and friends live in as it slowly uncovers historic events, partnerships, prophecies, and the like throughout the entire show. Sure, it's confusing, but if you're paying attention you'll get the important bits. Just don't get caught up in understanding EVERY LITTLE FACET of what's going on. The value in the lore and plot doesn't come in the lore itself, but the underlying ideas that the lore covers: ideas such as the validity of religion, the importance of individuality, etc. etc.
Art and Animation
It's 1995. Action sequences and general animation (conversations and interactions) throughout the show look average for the time and probably look aged now. The mechs look like any other mechs in mech anime, in that they look cool. The fun stuff, however, is when Gainax supposedly run out of money.
First off, the scene that made them run out of money is probably the only action scene in the anime that I can say was truly amazing, and for that alone, I can say that the general animation is good to great. However, what they do with whatever money they have left is wonderful and I wouldn't want the anime to be any other way. The way the anime portrays the characters' descent into insanity using what essentially become slideshows is wonderful. In the final few scenes of the show, without spoiling anything, the animation works perfectly well in helping to convey the broader, harder to understand ideas that the anime is bringing to the audience. In this sense, no matter what the budget was, the animation did a perfect job of working hand in hand with the anime's themes.
Character
I'm not giving any exposition for this. Understanding the characters and witnessing their development is the best part of the show, and i'm not about to take that away from you. The characters are real people. When placed in unreal situations, they'll do some amazingly intriguing things.
Sound
Watch it subbed. The Japanese voice actors do a wonderful job portraying the amount of angst that their characters rightfully have.
Sound effects are also wonderful, with the gory sounds sounding extremely gross, mechs sounding like gears and whatever else mechs sound like. The gore is what really sells it though.
And the soundtrack is wonderfully weird, ranging from generic action OST to Handel's Hallelujah Chorus from the Messiah.
Enjoyment
Personally, I don't understand every part of the plot. There's a lot and it's pretty confusing. I personally find some of the characters to be annoying (which you'll find that their being annoying is completely justifiable giving their circumstances, but still). When the soundtrack ends up playing Handel out of nowhere, I get a good laugh out of it, but that also means I get pulled out of the action—I'm less immersed.
This show isn't perfect, but it's not trying to be. Its character development is astounding, its ideas are wonderful and for some people, life-changing, its Japanese voice-acting is immersive and believable and its plot is intriguing, if not a little bit dense. This show is a masterpiece that, in my opinion, shouldn't be compared to other anime for the simple fact that it's not trying to be other anime. It's not trying to be successful in the way other anime would try, with heroic characters and crazy action sequences and a unique universe.
Watch it. I cannot recommend this anime enough, and I believe this anime really is one of the best out there ^_^
