Review of Neon Genesis Evangelion

Just rewatched this for the first time since like 5 years ago and really glad I did. Ironically I think there was just certain things I couldn't understand until I was more of an adult. Then again there were probably many things that caused me to lose appreciation for this show when I was younger, such as not even watching the end of evangelion. This show to me is one of the most prime examples of subversion, at least to my understanding. The pseudo-harem, save-the-world job making giant robots fight are some key hallmarks of an action-y shounen superstar anime. But Shinji the main characteris pretty troubled, reserved, and mostly doesn't want to pilot the robot at all. Looking at what's he's up against, it's pretty easy to understand why. It's a lot of pressure for a 14-year old and Shinji's built himself to avoid situations where he could disappointment others. And a lot of other things. But it's also both relatable and insightful; the whole fan-service stuff really drills it in for me too. It's the kind of thoughts and appeals I thought about when I was (around) his age. If I was in his situation, I'd ultimately be the same way. Trying to enjoy what I *think* life is about and spoiling myself away from harsher truths. Unfortunately I don't really know if what this anime did for its time is such a breakthrough, but I really enjoyed how much of the show is like a post-shounen perspective which leads to something bigger.

About the ending, I thought the TV series ending was fine. Even though lots of people think it was stupid. But they easily could've just removed so many filler scenes/episodes and made the ending more comprehensive. Also I will say it's kind of arbitrary w/ respect to what the show's about? In that regard the movie did much better. I see a lot of people say the characters were an issue, but really there were entire episodes dedicated to some of them so idk what that really means. And a lot of people do hate Shinji, but if you don't like/understand him you probably don't like/understand the ending either

Overall liked it and I 100% agree with the message at the end