Review of Neon Genesis Evangelion
Overhype, thy name is Evangelion. Since I started watching anime, it seemed that all anybody could do was talk about how amazing this show is. In a sense, they're right. When one watches this show, they must see it through a lens of how revolutionary Evangelion was at the time, and how largely it influenced anime. However, this review isn't about that. This review is about how enjoyable this anime is to watch. Evangelion is well-written, full of symbols, and smartly deconstructs the mecha genre; however, it is pretentious, at its best underwhelming, and at its worst a complete waste of time to watch. Let me prefacethis by saying that I am not a fan of the mecha genre. However, I was assured repeatedly by fans who swear by this show that this show is a psychological thriller at heart, and that the mecha aspect isn't very important. This is incorrect. Between the lack of cliffhangers, the episodic plot structure, and the fairly predictable mecha fights, I was at times forcing myself to watch the next episode as I so dearly hoped that the next one would become more captivating and finally begin to shed light on why this show is so revered. Unsurprisingly, I was disappointed.
Some would argue that the plot predictability comes from how much this show influenced future shows that I've probably already seen. Even if this were true, it doesn't fix the problem; it only shifts the blame around. Moreover, the episodic plots, predicable or not, still were not compelling in the slightest. This is the real issue, and regardless of what causes these issues, it doesn't change the fact that it makes the show far less entertaining.
Ironically, I liked the last two episodes more than the rest of the show combined. Perhaps it was because the writers couldn't use mecha battles and instead had to write some actually interesting and compelling character or philosophy-driven content. I won't get into detail as to what happens in them, but they were a breath of fresh air and a remarkable improvement to the series (even if their budget was nearly nonexistent at that point).
Evangelion is a tricky case. Yes, the show is filled with symbolism and motifs and other such nonsense, but packing an otherwise mediocre series with symbolic imagery doesn't inexplicably improve the enjoyment of the show. Fans of this show berate others who didn't like it for not "getting" it, and that people who truly understood the show would love it. This variant of the No True Scotsman fallacy is the exact same thing that similar fans use to dismiss those who didn't like FLCL, and it's just as wrong. If you enjoy the mecha genre enough to see a deconstruction of it, and don't mind some predictability, Evangelion will be right up your alley. Otherwise, you are only wasting your time.