Review of Neon Genesis Evangelion

Neon Genesis Evangelion is closer to being THE classic of anime than anything else in the medium. The amount of debate that follows Evangelion is absurd, from the controversial ending of the TV series, Asuka vs. Rei (clearly Asuka is better), to the craziness of End of Evangelion, discussion follows. There have been so many essays written about certain characters or episodes that it's mind boggling. Additionally, the sheer number of shows that were influenced by Evangelion is almost to the point of incomprehension. No one can deny that Hideaki Anno has created probably the most influential and, perhaps, the most important anime of alltime. (WARNING: There may be some lighter spoilers in the second to last paragraph, where I discuss some of the complaints with Evangelion, feel free to skip that one if you haven't seen the show yet)

Evangelion just did so many things right. It didn't overload you with information at the beginning, it just slowly and carefully fed you information with each episode, not overwhelming you with info dumps, like many shows do these days. I won't say that they never info dump you, but when they do, it's usually something that the watcher has a slight understanding of anyway, making it more digestible. Piggybacking off that point, it doesn't bog the watcher down with characters either. Shinji, Misato, and Rei are clearly the focus of the first 7 episodes and it doesn't deviate much from that. Then, Asuka makes her appearance (And the show gets 10000% better) and the focus shifts. Evangelion is kind of clever that way with its characters, sidelining even Shinji to develop whoever they're focusing on.

Of course, the soundtrack is phenomenal. A Cruel Angel's Thesis is one of the best openings out there, even two decades later. Fly Me To The Moon is a great ending, with all its different versions, keeping it unique throughout 26 episodes. The regular soundtrack is good too, though, I don't have too much to say regarding that. Artistically, you'd never be able to tell that Evangelion was made in 1995. It's just so beautiful and fluidly animated that it's comparable to many of the more recent anime. The color palette is something to be commented on too. The neon (heh) colors used to illustrate the Eva's is beautiful, adding a pop of color to a show that can be extremely heavy at times.

A couple of things to address, however, are two complaints I see fairly often. Those would be the TV ending and Shinji's whining being annoying. Not to be contrarian or anything, but I really liked the TV ending. In my opinion, it suited the message that Evangelion was trying to get across the whole time. The message that you can't close yourself off from people, push them away, and expect them to treat you with respect and kindness. We see Shinji and Asuka struggling with the same problems through the entire show: connecting with others. In fact, that's kind of the overarching theme of Evangelion, illustrated by their struggles with Hedgehog's Dilemma. I just think that Shinji reaching the conclusion that he did was a beautiful capstone to that struggle, closing his character arc in a satisfying manner. Speaking of his character arc, many people complain that Shinji's whining is unbearable. I have one simple statement to make concerning that complaint: He's 14 with the weight of the world thrust onto his shoulders. Of course he's going to buckle under that weight, would you have been able to handle that kind of pressure at 14? It's kind of a double edged sword too. If he had been too capable of handling the burden, then people would complain about him like they do Kirito from Sword Art Online, like that he's a Gary Stu who can do no wrong (Which I disagree with by the way). But I digress.

As a conclusion, Evangelion is phenomenal. Sure, you could debate certain aspects of its story or narrative, but the fact remains that it's objectively really good. I don't like it when people tell me that I HAVE to watch a show, but in Evangelion's case, I may make an exception. It's simply too good and too necessary to pass up.