my first encounter with NGE was while watching a video on youtube and what i saw was a gaint robot tearing another robot apart savagely and splitting its blood(isn't that cool a robot that can bleed) all over the place ,on the streets and on the buildings it was a disturbing and scary scene that made me curious about this show and what it was all about,so i went to evangelion with high expectations especially after i knew that it is one of the most successful anime franchise and among the most influential in the medium but it was a big disappointment to me.
the story is about teenagers piloting giant robots to save the world in a post appocalyptic settings,throw to this mix some random religious symbolism and a lots of psychological and philosophical babbling that make little to no sense along with very violent and disturbing sequences and of course a good amount of fan service,this was the magnum opus that used by director hideaki anno and it proved to be successfull since it followed by dozen of shows that combine giant robot elements with religion and mysticism ,it was just different so people deemed it to be great and cool,but while watching the show i felt like it was trying so hard to be deep and philosophical ,i found it to be pretentious and bizarre and couldn't take it seriously.
the story at first follow a generic monster of the week formula it helps to introduce you to the characters and the settings then it slows down in the middle then takes a dark turn towards the end,the show has many plotholes for example why did they build the headquarter of NERV(the organisation that lead the fight against the alien) under the largest metropolian area on the planet eventhough they knew it contains something that would attract the angels?why did they call those aliens the angels?from where they come?what interest me the most and keep me watching was the EVA units their origin and what they have to do with the aliens,the concept behind using those giant robots and why they only piloted by 15 years old teenagers albeit convoluted but at least they try to give a reason.
there is a lot of pseudo-scientific babbling that went in the operation room of NERV during each battle it was too hard to follow it.
i have to admit i don't like psychological shows and i don't like teenager protagonists this is why i don't like EVA characters ,since the main trio are angsty driven teenagers,rei has no personality ,no emotions she is basically a doll couldn't they develop her character more and flesh it out ,asuka is an annoying bitch she could have been a great character if they had reduced her tsundere side a bit,and shinji is the biggest emo loser i've ever seen,they try to add depth to these characters by giving them tragic backstories and parental issues but that wasn't enough to make me care for them, the characterization was plain awful many characters spend most of the show angsting and when they didn't going FULL EMO MODE they were yelling at each other,if you want to create flawed characters try to give them a certain amount of likability so we could care for them ,my biggest problem with shinji character is that he's got almost all the attention in the show basically the whole show revolves around him but taking into account the inherent annoying nature of his character, it was too painful to watch him and i don't like his development since he always return to the same point he began from it,his presence feels too forced in the show ,there is so much emphasis on him, each time he is about to die the deux ex machina of his eva come out of nowhere to save his ass,i'd prefer if his character take a back seat for another protagonist while continuing to descend in his depression.
shinji psychological problem and inner struggle minimized when you take into account the situation of humanity in the series,what i mean is that when an angel attack you will forget every thing about shinji and demand him to get his head out of his ass and to do his job.
SPOILER
it would have been better if he got depressed after what happened with toji , refuses to pilot his eva again and maybe commit siucide to end his misery
END OF THE SPOILER
for me the adult characters in the show where more interesting than shinji ,i wish if they had more screen time .
EVA is considered very influential because of its the charcters although i hate that influence since it popularized beta male characters,tsundere and kuudere(whatever shit they call them),many eva fans praise eva and hate anime today even though their favourite show could be blamed for some archetypes they hate so much and call it a plague that must be exterminated ,they hate wimpy spinless male characters yet they consider the shinji as the best anime character,this is what i call hypocricy.
as for the religious symbolism it has nothing to do with the story ,just random biblical names for the sake of it,don't try to dig deep into it only pretentious overthinkers would do that,if you're looking for deep and meaningful religious symbolism go watch movies like" there will be blood" or "the matrix".
the character design is attractive and appealing,the design of the robot is iconic and demonic,unfortunately the animation is bad , it only became good during battle sequences and the las two episodes couldn't even considered a motion picture.
the opening theme is memorable but the use of classical music was just hilarious.
in the end each one has an opinion and this was my opinion about NGE i found it to be highly overrated and silly,before evangelion anime was edgy after evangelion anime remain edgy but became pretentious as well.
