Review of Neon Genesis Evangelion
The recent slew of negative reviews for Neon Genesis Evangelion that exist here is rather irksome to say the least, if only because of the fact that the people writing these reviews more often than not use superficial complaints to justify why they think Evangelion isn't worthy of praise. Let me make one fact perfectly clear: If you think Evangelion isn't worthy of praise because the story is "boring" or "confusing", the characters are "unlikeable" or "annoying," the entire work is "pretentious," or anything of the sort, you are a complete and total moron with shit taste. If you can't handle this little fact, downvotethis review and get on with the harsh realities of your miserable life. Now that we have all the ruffians out of the way, let's talk about what is bar none, one of the most influential programmes to ever be released.
Before I get on with the rest of the review, let's talk a little bit about depth. A lot of people mockingly say that Evangelion is "2deep4u" but here's the thing: Evangelion IS deep. I like to think that Evangelion (and virtually every single form of entertainment that currently exists) operates on two levels: the "surface" level which deals with the story and characters at face value and the "deep" layer where one can draw parallels between the show and other things if you were to analyse the story a little more than someone else would. It's important to note that the "deep" layer isn't crucial to one's enjoyment of the programme. You can watch Evangelion without having to analyse every single aspect of the show. Unfortunately, a lot of these negative reviews just talk about the story at face value without bothering to factor in some context.
Unless you've grown up in the late 80s and early 90s or have consciously made the effort to go out there and watch older anime, it's hard to see exactly how influential Evangelion was to the industry. Genre breakdowns and meta-commentaries are so commonplace in anime these days to the point where people fail to realise that it was a trend Evangelion pioneered. Why is this? Well, Evangelion is the brainchild of a clinically depressed and extremely frustrated animator who grew disillusioned with otakus. He decided to take the two things that otakus violently masturbated to (in this case, mecha and harem programmes) and decided to shatter their sick, twisted fantasies. What do I mean by this? Well, let's think about it for a moment.
The whole point of Evangelion is to see how things would play out if the world really was in a post-apocalyptic situation and the fate of humankind rested on the shoulders of teenagers who have to put up with the burdens of adolescence and society whilst having to save the world with virtually no sympathy whatsoever. People rag on Shinji all the time for being a gutless coward who runs away from his problems, but guess what? That's the point! He's a kid with a slew of psychological problems being forced to pilot a giant robot with no prior training whatsoever in order to fight otherworldly creatures that could very well KILL HIM. I don't care if you think you're up to the task of becoming a giant robot pilot. If you were in Shinji's exact circumstances, you'd be chanting "I mustn't run away" before every Angel fight.
On that note, let's talk about Shinji. He's not a gutless coward, he's someone deserving of our sympathy and he's a lot braver than people give him credit for. Now that we got the inherently obvious out of the way, let's talk about what a lot of people DON'T talk about in regards to Shinji. A lot of people complain about how anime these days are full of wimpy characters who do nothing but complain and hesitate during fights (i.e. Kaneki from Tokyo Ghoul, Yukki from Mirai Nikki), but guess what? Shinji was the very progenitor of that character archetype. Do keep in mind that I'm NOT saying that Kaneki and Yukki are on the same level as Shinji, I'm merely stating that there's a parallel that can be drawn between them and Shinji.
Before Evangelion was made, the bulk of male lead characters were confident Gary Stu-like characters or just straight-up MANLY. That's all fine and dandy, but the problem is that the bulk of anime fans who watched those shows were the complete opposite of characters like Jotaro Kujo. Instead of being confident and manly individuals, the bulk of anime fans back then (to my understanding, at least) were socially inept introverts who were using things like Jojo's Bizarre Adventure as an escapist fantasy of sorts. Evangelion was the first show to come around and give these pathetic losers their own pathetic loser to empathise with instead of a GAR character that they wish they were. Even though Shinji was a pathetic loser, that didn't stop the pathetic losers IRL from using him as a self-insert character. You see, THAT'S what makes Evangelion so great in the first place.
Remember what I said about Evangelion destroying everything those mouth-breathing otakus loved? Well guess how they did so? By using our boy Shinji to get these losers to insert themselves into this show without realising that their precious little fantasies would be shattered mercilessly. Evangelion breaks down common tropes and archetypes like the aggressive tsundere and the teenage mecha pilot and shows what would most likely happen if they were real people living in a post-apocalyptic scenario. Through this, we find out that being a teenage mecha pilot is anything BUT a walking sex fantasy and that characters like the aggressive tsundere, the bandage chick, and so on and so forth are in fact, real women who don't require a filthy otaku's semen-encrusted penis to feel validated.
All of the extra stuff like the religious symbolism and the surreal imagery have no bearing on the actual substance of the show. Anyone who thinks otherwise is a complete and total moron, and I don't think a lot of Eva fans would beg to differ on that matter. When Hideaki Anno said that this show has no depth, he was referring to the fact that people were over-analysing things that were just thrown into the show because they looked cool. The true substance of Evangelion comes from the many personal struggles that the characters go through which many of us also experience in real life. Unfortunately, this little detail seems to be lost amongst the myriad of negative reviews for this programme.
Speaking of the characters, the other characters on the show like Rei, Asuka, Misato, Gendo, among others were quite delightful. Asuka’s behaviour was certainly insufferable but it was quite interesting to see a studio actually demonstrate how unhealthy being a violent tsundere actually is. The air of mystery surrounding Rei was interesting to say the least, and what’s more is that her characterisation actually shows just how creepy and unnerving being an emotionless and completely submissive person actually is (although it should be noted that Rei actually does have emotions, but she never knew how to express them properly). Then again… the fact that she’s completely and totally submissive might be the reason why Rei was so popular among the otakus that Anno so viscerally despised. Yeah, I suppose it’s safe to say that Rei is the subject of many a demented pervert’s rape fantasies. I could go on to talk about the other characters, but there are a whole lot of other reviews out there that talk about that in much greater detail than I’d care to talk about. So let’s just skip over to the production.
Evangelion was a victim of Gainax’s poor accounting practices at the time, which meant that they were given an extremely limited budget to work with (which was exhausted before the final episodes were ever made). For what it’s worth, the Evangelion producers did a great job with what they were given. Action-heavy scenes are animated with such a remarkable degree of fluidity to the point where it makes Cowboy Bebop look like Oruchuban Ebichu. Seriously, look at any of the Eva battles and you’ll see that the production quality holds up quite well to this day. Of course, this means that there were a LOT of corners cut with the animation (especially in dialogue-heavy and atmospheric scenes). Personally, I don’t really mind this approach whatsoever. It only ever gets tedious when we get treated to nothing but silence and a bunch of stills of Shinji doing absolutely nothing and as the series progresses, we get fewer and fewer of those scenes as it starts showing just how fucked up everything is.
Sound-wise, Evangelion delivers in full force. The OST is comprised of lighthearted melodies that get played quite often in the first few episodes when Evangelion is establishing the setting, but then the focus of the OST changes over to bone-chilling atmospheric tracks and bombastic battle themes that never cease to get the blood a-pumpin’. “Cruel Angel’s Thesis” is without a doubt, one of the most memorable opening themes ever and it perfectly encapsulates everything that this show has to offer. The ending theme though gets on my nerves because of the fact that it just felt so dissonant with the tone of the later episodes. Then again, there are probably a LOT of Eva fans out there that are gonna try coming to Ontario just to find and murder me for making such a statement. Oh well, such is life I suppose.
Would I say that I enjoyed this programme? Well, yeah! Evangelion is one of those programmes that takes a little bit of time to warm up to, but once it gets into gear, you’ll be begging for the next episode to actually air. Then again… if you can’t get past the characters and the atmospheric feel of the first few episodes, you’d be better off watching Attack on Titan like the tasteless casual you are! Anyway, I’m just gonna wrap up this review now. See ya later.
***
If you’re wondering why I didn’t talk about the TV series’ ending, there’s a good reason why. Watch the video to find out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyFQVZ2h0V8
OR, just look at this picture:
https://40.media.tumblr.com/0f94ac9418dd65d70def0f0e0e3db0d3/tumblr_mybunfEOvF1shc3x3o1_500.jpg