Review of Neon Genesis Evangelion

“Liar. Anyone will do”,”Man cannot erase this sadness, because all men are fundamentally alone.” Neon Gensis Evangelion was a hit. One of the few classics before the 2000s to still survive the test of time. As one of my favorite animes of all time, it leads to an amazing finish. It transformed anime as we know it and set a precedent to what the medium can achieve. Neon gensis is not flawless, but no anime is. What NGE did was use its flaws to its advantage, to create one of the best psychoanalysis films to have ever existed. Quick synopsis: Art:5 Sound:5 Characters:10 Story:7 Pacing and Execution:9 Enjoyment:10 Overall:9Review(Spoiler free!):
As for the technical aspects, NGE does not exactly have the best art or sound. However, the limited art and sound was used very efficiently to carry out its themes. Both the art and soundtracks build the story effectively using very limited motion and sometimes banal music. But this is not a necessity, as psychoanalysis of depression and execrable human behavior is the main premise. (To an extent escapism, if you happen to watch rebuild, you would know escapism was the main premise for the rebuild series, not as much for the original). All the characters are so flawed, from their background to their actions. Yet we still connect to them because it's almost a reflection of ourselves. Shinji is probably the worst of the bunch, probably also the least. But understand what he does is almost courageous and exceptional considering the circumstances. Understand hating him is almost the same as hating yourself. (Although he’s very unlikable). NGE is closer to reality than most animes, even given its highly fictional premise. It shows the end of the world is just horrible, that the end will come anyways.
Eva’s story comes short. But again, it doesn’t matter. It ended with its goals accomplished. Most of it is symbolic, a metaphor. Most of Eva is pretty open ended, which often leads to confusion. But like other shows like flcl, it was not meant to be understood. Eva is the sole embodiment of healing from one self, “Your all you have and you never even learned to help yourself”. I highly recommend this anime.