Hell yes. Neon Genesis Evangelion, the 'love it or hate it' king. 23 years after its first release, Evangelion is still considered one of the most influencial, overrated, incredible, awful, outstanding and obnoxiously bad animes that ever existed. Every person has an opinion on Neon Genesis Evangelion. It aired when anime was in a bad moment, and since that day, it haven't stop growing. Today, we have tons of mangas, doujinshis, novels, fanfics, and the best of the fan theories, that fight amongst the hordes of haters that critizice it. First of all, I have to say something that has been repeated millions of times: Evangelion is NOT for everyone. As Hideaki Anno, the mastermind behind NGE said once, if you don't symphathize with Shinji, you'll probably hate it, but if you do, man, this series will be in your mind forever and ever.
The story is really good. It has been criticized very hard, but I find it enjoyable, not too easy nor difficult. Of course, it has some plotholes and flaws, as every anime or story ever told. The beauty behind Evangelion is that it starts as a normal mecha anime, and it becomes one of the greatest mindfucks ever told. Shinji Ikari, a 14yo kid, goes to Tokyo-3 with Misato Katsuragi to pilot what is said to be 'the last hope of humanity', in order to fight some giant monsters called Angels. NERV, the project his father commands, is the responsible of destroying them and keeping Earth safe. As the plot progresses, he meets the other two pilots: Rei Ayanami, a 14yo girl that pilots the Unit 00, and Asuka Souryuu Langley, the other 14yo girl who pilots Unit 02. Things happens, NERV fights the angels, the relationships between characters develop and something called 'Human Instrumentality Project' starts to get prominence. Gendo Ikari (Shinji's father), created NERV in order to complete that project, supported by a secret organization called SEELE, not to help humanity. Basically, that's the plot, but I don't want to write heavy spoilers, so I won't talk about episodes (18-24), but I will talk about its controversial final episodes. Episode 25 and 26 are supposed to happen in the mind of the main characters. In Episode 25, we see the main characters Rei, Asuka and Misato, like if they were been interrogated. Episode 25 is a desperate cry of help of those characters, asking themselves about their most deep fears, and how to fight them. Rei, asking herself who she is. It's an individual, it's a doll? Asuka wants someone to love her, even when she claims everyone to stay away from her. Misato admits that she hides her problems behind sex, and she was traumatized about losing her father in the Second Impact. The most interesting thing about the final episodes is that every character seems to be in their mind, judging them for who they are and for what they do. Episode 26 is the same, but only for Shinji.
The art, for 1995, is really good. For today standarts looks 'good', a little bit dated. One of the main things with Evangelion's art is its iconic rapid image transition. Because of the budget problems, Evangelion had interesting camera plans, changing really fast. Some scenes were elongated in purpose, in order to create that climatic situation. For example, when Asuka and Rei are in the elevator, that scene lasted like one minute. You could feel the tension and the discomfort between them. Also, when, in episode 4, Misato and Shinji keep looking each other for nearly two minutes, that long plan symbolize what they feel. Misato is regretful about what she said to Shinji, and Shinji knows that, if he had left, he would have fled again. Also, removing any kind of sound, with only the singing of the birds, makes it more believable. That kind of scenes are really climatic and I love them.
The Evangelion's Original Soundtrack is one of the most well known in anime history. It has even trascended to popular culture. A Cruel Angel's Thesis, Evangelion's opening theme, tops 10º in the karaoke songs in Japan even today. In the action scenes we have epic themes like Angel Attack. I love this soundtrack, and I like to listen to it, for example, to focus or to motivate while playing games.
Let's be honest here. People don't hate Evangelion for its story, or for its art, or for its soundtrack. The main problem with Evangelion, is its realistic, sincere, depressed and human characters. While I can understand why people hates them, I really don't when they say 'they are unrealistic'. Well, let me tell you that's some bullshit. Imagine you're 14yo, your father left you abandoned since 4, your mother is dead and you never had any kind of love, and you're forced to pilot a giant monster in order to fight other giant monsters that try to kill you. Your father, the one who wishes you were never born, treates you like shit even when he orders you to save humanity. You are forced to live with an alcoholic borderline women and a girl with serious trauma and mental issues, receiving from them no more than hostility, destroying your low self-esteem, even if the woman tries his best to love you, but being that impossible because of his mental problems. Well, that kid is Shinji Ikari, one of the most well-known characters in anime, not for representing some deep trauma or for being one of the best characterizations of depression in any media, but for being a 'whiny'. Humans are despicable, dont you think?
I mean, I don't agree with all the things Shinji has done or has thought, but I can really understand why he behaves like he does. He's no hero, he's no god, he's only human, and as a human, he has his problems, real, heavy bags in his back.
As for Asuka, she's a german girl that, apparently has true confidence in its habilities. She really is great at piloting the Eva 02, and I can easily say that she's the best pilot, if we don't count Kaworu. She constantly bullies Shinji and destroys his self-esteem. Behind that bully personality, we find the most destroyed person in the series. When she was a child, his mother, Kyoko Zeppelin, was a volunteer in the Evangelion program. Eventually, the Evangelion stole Kyoko's soul from her body and she became mentally unstable, believing that a doll was Asuka. Asuka witnessed how her mother hung herself, and after that, she swore not to cry ever again. She will live by her own, without any external help. Asuka is the representation of how humans need each other. We can't accomplish everything by our own, and even if she knows it, she will try its best to stay mentally strong. Eventually, its strength will flaw, and she will be unstable until End of Evangelion's movie. But that's another thing.
When I first watched Evangelion, I really hated Asuka. She was cruel for no reason, she cried for individuallity but she wanted anyone (and when I say anyone is ANYONE, no matter Kaji, Shinji...) to love her and fulfill her empty heart. Now I can understand her really good, and even if I don't love her, its impossible for me to hate her.
Rei, the emotionless character. She's a doll that will make everything you want, because that's what dolls do, right? As for Rei, it is clear that Hideaki Anno developed her with no interest. Her character ends in Episode 6, and then, we rarely see any progress in its problems. Ergo Proxy explores with Pino the theme that Rei is responsible of developing: what does it feel to be human? What makes a human, a human? Rei constantly ask herself 'what I am supposed to be', and it represents how someone can change your mind because it treats you like a human being and not like an object. Rei feels Shinji's feelings towards her, not love, but humanity, and develops what I find to be one of the biggest moral of Evangelion: treat humans like humans, not like objets for your own benefit.
I loved Rei, but I found her to be insubstancial. Not because she was a bad character, but for its short development.
Misato... Ah, Katsuragi Misato, the greatest of human creations... Look, Misato is AMAZING. While the bunch of kids I've talked have its issues, Misato has as well. She has, with Asuka, the most heart-breaking story in Evangelion. When she was a child, she survived the Second Impact because her father sacrificed himself for her. Despite of that, she hates him. Misato has a big duality in his mind: 'can I love a man who ignored me and mom his whole life because of his experiments?', but, 'can I hate the man who gave his live for mine, even if I thought he hated me?'. That makes Misato confuse, and she desires to find a man (or a person) that is similar to her father. But when she does, she's afraid and runs, hiding his fear and protecting herself behind a false barrier of work and alcohol. Misato is depressed, and she's broken inside, but despite that, she works his best to love Shinji, to make him confortable, to fight the Angels and to save humanity.
I recognize I am being one-sided with Misato. It's because her character is so authentic and so heartwarming, it's impossible for me not to like her.
I could talk about Kaworu, Gendo, Ritsuko or Maya as well, but I think that would take too long.
So, there it is. Did I enjoy Neon Genesis Evangelion? Well of course I did. I was unable to find its arrogance, nevertheless, I was rewarded with an anime that made me interested for anime itself. Could an anime be that deep, that intriguing? Was it possible for an anime to connect with you in that way? As a person that has fought depression, Evangelion is one of the best representations I've ever seen, and I absolutely love it because, even if it has flaws, the message was much more important for me.
