But this day and age... I'm mostly a mech anime consumer, so really, really really wanted to love this show as it's one of the most iconic titles in the genre. It's been on my list forever and I never got around to it. For the most part, I did enjoy it quite a bit right up until about episode 22, allowing provision for a couple of character relationships that were just not believable in any capacity.
Then it retroactively told Darling in the Franxx to hold its beer and flew off the handle into 4 ish episodes and at least the EoE movie of absolute mind screw that I completely lost the thread. I get that it was desperately trying to touch on some deep human issues, and appreciate the courage in attempting to take them on. I get that it was trying to do so in new and unique ways. But so many of the options it chose were just sooooo over the top they can't be taken seriously and lose whatever meaning they may have had. They 'worked' but they completely drew the attention from the point trying to be made to the wtf that just crossed the screen.
I can appreciate that it's very viewer and their own set of circumstances dependent on whether a person is going to get anything out of its bizarre approach to thought experiments. But honestly, I can't help but feel that if it would have curbed some of the magic mushroom scenes and instead spent some time building its main character cast past their 3 bullet points, it would have been able to have a far greater reach.
I will re-state, as mecha anime are my primary anime interest, I REALLY wanted to love this show. But in its current state, I just can't bring myself to feel anything other than extremely dissatisfied. Here's to hoping the rebuilds are better, but... I'm not holding my breath.
