Review of Neon Genesis Evangelion

Story – 5/10 The two aspects of the story I am going to point out are the themes aboarded in the story and how that is done. The first , in my opinion, with a lot of potencial and the second which does not uses all that potencial. First of all, the superficial/inicial plot is not at all new. Boy gets to fight to save the earth while he lives a school life together with some girls and new friends. There I put one of my critics. The introduction is very badly done. To me, it just seems the direction was too eager to create that scenarypreviously described. Many aspects of the universe are not explained to the viewer, which ,on one hand, makes it difficult to understand everything but, on the other hand, makes you want to watch more.
With the development of the series, many other themes are added, which contributes to make me think that the middle of the anime is its best part. Trouble of socialization is aboarded with Shinji and Rei; paternal and maternal issues are aboarded with Shinji, Asuka and Katsuragi; existencial issues like the reason why one fights is aboarded with the main trio, mostly Asuka and Shinji, and like the truth of one’s world and how that person reacts to that. That said, the choice of the themes pleased me, but not how mostly of them were exploited. One instance is that the story develops these themes way too fast, not being developed for enough time , which difficults their comprehention. Also, there is a pacing problem because in one moment there is not any substancial development but in the next there is a huge amount of information rushed in the screen, which also difficults the comprehention, resulting in an alternation between a too slow storytelling and a rushed storytelling. Also, other aspect that I dislike is that many events happen, but they do not seem to influence the future.
About the ending, it not a really good one. Although some other existencial aspects are aboarded, which I liked, in this section, also, many informations and events are rushed, which unables them to be well explored, creating a trouble in understanding the anime’s conclusion. By the way, it is not near to be a good conclusion, because it finishes events that happen only in the last part of the anime and does not explain many aspects of that universe, leaving many subjects and characters aside and viewers confused.
Thus, Evangelion ends up being a story that talks about good themes, but that does not give them enough time to be developed and that ends up being confusing and not well finished.

Art – 7/10
In the first two thirds of the anime the art is not exquisite, but is good. The drawning is good and stylish, the animation is fluid when it has to be. Nevertheless, the concepts of the art are a two edged knife. While the city and NERV’s base are very serious and futuristic, the EVAs’ and the Angels’ appearances distune of the anime’s atmosphere. They sure do look awesome, what is a good thing, but they are way to stylish and colourfull to the setting of the anime.
In the end of the anime, putting its difficulty of understandment, there was used some interesting visual effects. The narrative uses a lot of alternative arts like the manga drawnings or simple drawnings in a white screen, with water painting. This results in unique and interesting way to communicate the character’s confusion to the viewers.

Sound – 5/10
First, about the dubbing. The main trio is perfectly enpersonated by the dubbers. Shinji’s shyness, Asuka’s pride and arrogance and Rei’s lack of emotion are completely transmitted by their voices. That also happens to the side characters, although less noticeable. Thus, the dubbing is very good.
About the soundtrack, I can say the direction uses the silence better than it uses soundtrack. The silence and ordinary sounds are commonly, and perfectly, used to express the awkwardness of the situation or the solitude of the ambient. On the other hand , it does not uses music, most of the times, in the best moments it could, like the battle scenes, and when it uses, it is usually a soundtrack that distunes from the anime’s setting and that barely helps the build up of the scene.

Characters – 7/10
As the story, this aspect of the anime had a great potencial, which was not well explored.
The trio of main characters is very good. Everyone of them has a unique personality and issues, and all of them give the story a chance to talk and to develop good subjects. Also, their interactions with one another are really fun. Nevertheless, they were not completely explored. First of all, they do not receive a proper ending. Also, they lose screen time in spite of the development of side characters and events that are neither as interesting nor as important as they are. Thus, some of their characteristics and story are not as developed as they could be.
About the side characters, they are not all bad , but they are indeed worse than the main trio. Also their development was a bad call from the direction because by the end of the anime, they try to implement and to create importance and background to a lot of characters, which results in little screen time for any of them and , thus, in a superficial development.

Entertainment – 6/10
Again I am going to praise the trio of main characters while I think the most of the rest of the anime is just satisfactory.
Shinji, Asuka and Rei have different personalities. During the anime, they clash and interact with one another. It is really fun to watch this process, mostly when we have Asuka’s spontaneity and pride facing Shinji’s shyness and Rei’s indifference.
Other cool aspect of the series are the EVAs’ scenes. Most of them are really cool and, besides almost always having the same “Angel appears and we stop it” formula, they manage to have some diversity of in how the problem of the episode is solved.
Nevertheless, there is one big defect, at least in my experience watching the anime, that is one retrospect of the story. While the plot is being developed and you are being overwhelmed by information, the entertainment of the anime is seriously jeopardized by the confusing narrative, mostly in the end of the series, because of the difficulty in understanding what is going on.