-Story-
The storyline is very good, very imaginative, very interesting. The plot is very motivating and doesn't stall a lot. There's a bunch of action in the series and a lot of twists and turns in the plot. There's a scene where I actually gaped at the screen in disbelief. I legitimately had to rewind a little bit to make sure my eyes were indeed seeing properly. A majority of the series has the same formula: insert mild issue between the characters and/or possible solution for upcoming Eva battle, Angel descends, Eva unit deployed, Darwinism prevails. The reason I rank the story as a 7 is because I found the ending unsatisfying and rather cheap. Like they didn't know how to end the series. Don't expect the ending of Evangelion to be like Gurren Lagann.
-Art-
Awesome! Beautiful, but not afraid to be gory.
-Sound-
Very good. Voice acting is very good and appropriate. Soundtrack is great. The use of "Fly Me To the Moon," as the theme of this anime is... strange and dreamlike.
-Characters-
So let's talk about Shinji. Shinji is not your hero in this series. I've heard lot of people complain about Shinji because he's a whiny pansy, but I feel the series really makes you sympathize with him. There's a lot of really good reasons for Shinji to behave the way he does. He's some poor 14-year-old kid thrown repeatedly into emotionally traumatizing scenarios due to his uncanny ability to fight in an alien-killing machine. He probably has the world's most pathetic motivation for doing the things he does, but the series gives you opportunities to understand him.
I enjoy how Asuka and Rei are kind of like foils for each other.
Each character is uniquely psychologically messed up. For reals. A friend of mine and I joked about the application for NERV having a questionnaire like: (1) Have you lost at least one loved one? (2) Do you suffer from bouts of depression? (3) On a scale of 1-10, how much angst would you say you have?
Favorite character: Honestly? Eva Unit 01. That thing is a beast.
