Review of Neon Genesis Evangelion

Neon Genesis Evangelion is one of the most well known anime of the 1990s. Whether someone recommended it to you or you happened to read the name in passing, Evangelion is a name that’s impossible to escape if you’re a part of the anime community. However, with its fame also comes controversy. The show has got to be one of the most divisive anime ever made. Many love it and consider it to be one of the greatest anime to come out of the 1990s and others consider it to be a pretentious mess with irritating characters. Well based on the score I’m pretty sureyou can see which category I fall under. So without further ado let’s dig in.

The show is basically set 15 years after a global cataclysm and revolves around a secret organization called NERV which combats mysterious creatures known as Angels using things called Evangelions which are essentially mechas that are piloted by 14 year olds. Sounds simple enough right? The show starts off with a “monster of the week” narrative as Angels arrive in Tokyo 3 to fuck shit up and our three heroes use their Evas to combat them while employing different strategies each episode depending on what the Angel can do. These early episodes give us a basic albeit solid understanding of the setting as exposition is given through older characters as well as TV news reports, newspapers and the like. The early episodes also give us a solid understanding of a lot of major characters as some episodes don’t even feature any Angel battles and are just there to flesh out characters and their relationships with other characters. This is also done through fantastic character interactions that are, a lot of the time, filled with subtext. And speaking of subtext, there is a lot of foreshadowing in the show’s first half. It can be quite apparent when you eventually get to what it was foreshadowing later on or it can be oh so very subtle and thus the show is something that should be viewed more than once. It’ll set you up for a different experience each time knowing what is revealed to you later in the show. The tone of the first half can be very tense during its battle scenes considering what’s at stake and certain variables can get thrown in that make it all the more tense. Couple this with top-notch fight choreography and entertaining strategies and tactics and you have yourself a hell of an entertaining viewing experience. In contrast to this the moments off the battlefield are highly entertaining as well with well timed and very amusing comedic relief as well as the occasional dosage of fanservice (yummy).

The show’s second half however is where shit gets real and the tone gets darker. The tense and entertaining battle scenes are still there, but they’re a lot darker and have more psychological implications than those of the first half. The encounters with the Angels start to reveal the personal flaws and mental states of the characters as well as force characters to make tough decisions and witness traumatizing things. The comedic scenes are still there, but used a lot more sparingly and the fanservice virtually disappears from the show altogether. The show begins to get inside the heads of the characters and peels back their layers, revealing them as more complex than we were initially led to believe. The second half of the show also contains a lot of revelations, many of which were foreshadowed during the first half so as not to feel contrived. The conspiracy subplot involving NERV’s true purpose that was very briefly touched upon in the first half is now a lot more prevalent, character motivations are revealed, key plot points and mysteries are explained and tragic backstories are revealed.

The show is rather vague with certain story details and those looking for straightforward answers might be disappointed but it dangles the carrot close enough for the viewer to reach without it being too confusing. It goes for visual rather than verbal exposition at times and this is yet another reason the show should be watched more than once.

The show’s ending is…perhaps the most controversial thing about the show aside from the characters. The original TV ending for the show was made due to Gainax running out of funds and thus having to scrap the original ending for a more minimalistic one. While this ending does provide fantastic insight into the characters’ motivations, goals, emotions, wishes and fears it does leave quite a bit to be desired with regards to the story. Key plot points are left unexplained and this does leave the viewer feeling somewhat confused and maybe even a tad pissed off. However there is of course the film ending that is just as if not more controversial than the TV ending. That film is The End of Evangelion. It ties up the loose ends left by the series and provides us with fantastic and much needed closure for the character arcs. It also provides a context for the ending of the TV series, and the two surprisingly go hand in hand very well.

Now lets talk about one of the most divisive aspects of the show; its cast of characters. In my opinion, this is where the show shines brighter than most others as it has one of the most complex and fleshed out character casts I have ever encountered in any story.

The protagonist Shinji Ikari gets a lot of shit from both fans and haters of the show for being a “pussy” and an “irritating brat”. Well I’ll let you in on a nasty little fact about me; Shinji is one of my favourite anime protagonists of all time. Granted he’s angsty and whiny but he has good reasons for being the way he is. His mother died under dreadful circumstances when he was very young, his father had been absent for most of his childhood and when he’s reunited with him he chucks him into a situation he knows fuck all about and makes him carry the heavy burden of the fate of the city by making him pilot a mecha he initially knows fuck all about in order to fight a gigantic monster he knows fuck all about. Yeah, I don’t think I’d be a happy chappy either. In spite of this he’s thankfully given more depth than simply “being a pussy”. He’s given moments of levity in order to make him feel more human and said moments of levity make a lot of the things that happen to him throughout the show feel all the more poignant.

Another character who gets a lot of flack is Asuka Langley Soryu. She’s another pilot and serves as Shinji’s foil. While Shinji is shy, quiet and introverted, she’s loud, egotistical and energetic. A lot of people hate her because they see her as annoying, vain and bitchy. Quite frankly I find her obnoxious too and fail to see what all the lonely weeaboos see in her but I digress as that’s beside the point. She is an incredibly well written character and I find her intriguing in spite of my contempt for her personality. Her chemistry with Shinji is fantastic and she too has reasons for acting the way she does, which I won’t spoil.

The third pilot in the series is a girl named Rei Ayanami. She’s a seemingly emotionless girl who is very subservient. Her initial ambiguity is intriguing and she provides us with plenty of foreshadowing throughout the show, including foreshadowing regarding her origin. In spite of her lack of emotion, her interactions with the rest of the cast are interesting to watch and their feelings towards her tell you a lot about them. Much like everyone else, her layers are revealed later on as we get to see what her true motivations and emotions are and the show does an excellent job at making this feel natural and this is tricky to do as suddenly giving an emotionless character emotions can feel very contrived but the show avoids this through foreshadowing and hints.

The cast of this show is incredibly complex as all the major characters have backstories which make the way they act and think believable and realistic. All of the characters have motivations that are more complex than what they initially appear to be and their chemistry and interactions with the other characters is interesting as well as really believable. Overall the cast of this show is an achievement that shall likely go unrivalled for a long time.

The show’s animation is quite inconsistent and easily the show’s biggest flaw. At times (specifically the action scenes) the show can look absolutely incredible and able to rival some of the stuff coming out today but at other times it can be pretty damn lazy. The series was made on a low budget and it shows. It likes to cut corners and this is evident in scenes where a character’s mouth may be moving yet the rest of their body isn’t and scenes where one cell is used for a number of seconds. The art of the show on the other hand is excellent. Sadamoto’s character designs have their own unique flair while maintaining an obvious anime aesthetic.

The show’s soundtrack is pretty fantastic. First there’s the iconic opening, Cruel Angel’s Thesis, which is easily one of my favourite openings of all time. It’s catchy, memorable and really quite powerful. The show’s ending track is the famous Fly Me to the Moon. Hold your horses guys it ain’t the Sinatra version, each episode has a different singer covering the classic song. These covers can range from really good to FUCKING ENGRISH. The show’s OST is absolutely brilliant too. It has some bombastic John Williams-esque orchestral pieces for the battle scenes, giving them a grand scale. The other tracks are great too, all of which are memorable in some way or other. The tracks can range from melancholic and somber to lighthearted and wacky, depending on the scene in question and the tracks fit their respective scenes to a tee. The show’s Japanese voice track is excellent with actors portraying their characters wonderfully and expressing emotion very well. The English dub is a mixed bag however. Spike Spencer, Tiffany Grant and Amanda Winn Lee, the people who played Shinji, Asuka and Rei respectively, really have a grasp of the kind of characters they’re portraying. The same can be said about the rest of the cast. However, this being a 90s pre-Bebop dub some of the delivery is a tad cheesy, particularly from NERV’s ground crew (“Its an Angel!!!”).

Not everyone will like Evangelion. It has a story that’s hard to follow at times, inconsistent animation and characters that some may find obnoxious. However it is something that all anime fans need to see due to its legacy and its impact on the medium of anime as a whole. As for me I absolutely adore the series and consider it to be one of the all time greats. While many see a pretentious show about a whiny kid piloting a mecha, I see a wonderful coming of age story about a troubled kid learning about his place in the world.