Review of Neon Genesis Evangelion

I HATE NEON GENESIS EVANGELION. I wish i could scream that at the makers of it, not to mention THE WHOLE FREAKING WORLD. Okay. Let's get this over with. I really don't want to think about this anime. Crud.Lemme try again.

Neon Genesis Evangelion is, if you couldn't tell from the scores I gave, pathetic. At least to me. The goal of this review/rant is not to convince anyone to hate it, just to show why I hate it. Let's start with the beginning. In the beginning, NGE showed promise. It had a good story, good potential for character growth, and a believable situation, as far as fiction goes. And the main problem i had was the character growth, or lack of it, rather. Shinji Ikari was great raw material for a protagonist, he had his problems, his secrets, his weakness, and his strength, the ability to be an exceptional EVA pilot. And it seemed that he was well on his way to becoming my next favorite character. But do you know where that went? Downhill. The infamous episode 16. He goes into the angel, is trapped, his friends try to save him, he gets out, and immediately begins to go berserk on the very city he is supposed to protect. And I am proud to say that I remember very little of it. I skipped most of that episode, and every episode thereafter. From then on, every episode had a tedious session of him messing with his own head. From then on, angel fights were boring and/or overtly violent. They were obscene bouts of attempted action and they didn't work for me. From then on, Shinji's personality, which had actually seen some positive growth, became completely twisted. You don't get much more twisted than having fantasies about a comatose girl, jerking off to them, then killing her at the end of the alternate ending, which was just as confusing, just as irritating, and just as pointless as the original.

Speaking of Asuka, she was another good character that I loved. For a short time. Then she went in the same direction as Shinji, becoming a bathtub inhabiting girl who had "I hate the world" issues, just as Shinji had "The world hates me" problems. Her tomboyish attitude, her skill with an EVA, her possible love for Shinji- DOWN THE DRAIN. And you might be thinking, "Now wait, you can't hate the entire anime, as well as the makers of the anime, because the characters didn't develop the way you want, and the story didn't have the ending you wanted." I agree, it's not fair to hate an entire anime because of the characters or an unexpected plot. But this is beyond that. Hating a character is proof that the anime is good. It makes you realize that you feel the hate that the characters themselves have. The anime has successfully drawn you in. This is different. An example of an anime making me hate a character by drawing me in is Holland from Eureka Seven. This, on the other hand is me hating the makers of the anime and the anime itself because of what they did to everyone in the story. And an example of an unexpected, unwanted plot turn is the death of Lelouch in Code Geass, or the repeated death of Mayuri in Steins;Gate. This, however, is taking a good anime and killing all purpose, sense, and likability. Seeing Shinji and Asuka kill the angel in episode 9 was very satisfying; seeing Asuka tear apart the angels in The End of Evangelion was not satisfying at all. And it has come to my attention that according to some, Asuka didn't die at the end; these some are liars. Not only does Asuka receive extensive wounds from the fight, she was strangled by Shinji; even if he doesn't actually kill her all the way, he still tried.

Sigh. I really don't want to keep going. But I need to get this out of my system.

Then there is Rei. Possibly as disappointing a character as Shinji. Out of the three, she has the most potential. But not only do they kill her, they kill her, bring her back, kill her again, reveal that Shinji's dad loves her because she is a clone of his wife, kill all of her other selves, make her appear naked in every episode past 16, and basically spit on my hopes for her. The more I saw her in the beginning, the more screen time I wanted her to have so that she could become a person, a character that might be up there with Yuki Nagato, Kallen Kozuki, C.C., Lucy from Elfen Lied (not Nyuu, she doesn't really fit), and everyone else who was unapproachable at first but became greatly beloved by all. But, just like Shinji and Asuka, Rei's personality went down the drain. Completely.

As for the other characters, they didn't disappoint me nearly as much; Misato was one of my favorites. The only stains on her soul were the extensive sex scenes near the end. Same goes for Ryoji. Toji was a great character in and of himself; too bad he died. Gendo Ikari is one of the non-EVA pilots whom I hate; he is, among other things including a shameless, selfish lunatic, a pedophile. Ritsuko is not as bad as him, but she, as with her mother, are stained and imperfect, which wouldn't be so bad if nearly everyone else wasn't as bad as they were.

I could go on, but it is getting late, and I really don't feel like going on. Maybe I'll finish up later.

Peace out. May the blessing of Haruhi Suzumiya be with you always.