Review of Neon Genesis Evangelion

I feel like most people who watched NGE (even a lot of fans) don't really get the show, and why there are people who praise it the way it is. First off, a lot of people go into it expecting something spectacular, and in the process they miss the important aspects of the show. If you're reading this considering watching the series, please do so, and just watch it as a regular show. It's good, but it's up to you whether it's great. Just as a note, don't let anyone tell you Evangelion is pretentious bullshit. It has been proven by dedicated fans to be athoughtfully written story (the Rebuilds are questionable in that regard, but they're still good).
Don't bother reading the rest, because as I said, the hype kills the show.

SPOILERS

Evangelion is not a purely plot driven show, sure stuff happens, but what matters is what happens to the characters. How they react when experiencing both the otherworldly, and common human difficulties. Our characters have all undergone trauma, and have been formed by their pasts, but their will is very apparent. Even Rei, who's supposed to be a clone rebels against who she's been formed to be at that point. The aspect of choice and the will to go on despite everything is very important to this.

Art is a form of expression, and the director Anno definitely put a lot of expression into this. He painted a picture of a world so torn apart, yet humans find the will to go on in a structured society. Frankly, it's a breath of fresh air compared to the typical apocalyptic anarchy situation.
Every episode is just drenched with the feeling that something unknown is going on.
We cheer for Shinji when he overcomes an enemy, as well as overcoming himself, but what's an Angel? Why are they attacking? What is this giant robot? Why does it have a normal eye?
What was the deal with Rei appearing before Shinji in the first episode in a mirage like manner?

On the surface, it's a pretty typical show (with some weird parts), ending with a pretty anticlimactic (but still satisfying) ending. However, just a small look at the lore, the theory, and the significance behind everything that happens when keeping that lore in mind if pretty damn mind-boggling. It's very impressive for a show with the budget it has to have such a wide reaching canon.

When it comes to the animation and action, it's pretty typical, budget constricted mecha stuff, but it's still really well directed. However, bear with me here when I say that a larger budget might not have really helped it that much. As I said before, this is a character driven story that is tied in with a mech anime scenario.

Let me say one thing about the characters. They start off being very unexciting tropes, but little by little you see more of them. What's behind their masks. Shinji has a problem understanding people, so it wouldn't surprise me that the audience is being guided mostly from Shinji's perspective and knowledge. These characters have believable weaknesses, vices, and pain. Few characters are seen as quite in depth as Shinji, but that doesn't mean we don't get a look at how they are just as conflicted and (yes) deep as him. We see them appear, succeed, happy, sad, fail, destroy, sink to new lows, lose their minds.

I hate to ramble about what I probably could write a 20 page essay on if it was truly worth doing, but there's really so much to say about this show. The cinematography is still some of the best an anime series has ever produced. By the end (and I mean the movie), we have seen many sides of our characters, and even more of what the entire plot was leading up to. It's a show that is meant to be watched at least twice. I too had a feeling of "that's it?" after the last episode of the series, but the movie is so phenomenal.

There are two kinds of people who finish this series. There are those who believe the strange storytelling style and occurrences that go unexplained for the most part to be examples of pretentious filler to appear more intelligently written a work than it's deserved. There are also those who look at that in wonder, and theorize and think about it, reflecting on the series as a whole, the characters and their own feelings.To truly enjoy the show requires a certain amount of immersion that I admit is somewhat hard to do when watching it and feeling justified comparing it to shows that are nothing like it.
It really is one of a kind, and should be watched with patience, enthusiasm, and not so much hype as to ruin the experience.

The rebuild series only expands the canon and what's really going on. Evangelion is not a show you watch the whole way through and say "well that was alright". It's a show that will be up for discussion for a great length of time, and will forever in my eyes be seen as a classic among anime, animated picture, and art.

Evangelion's a show that I have experienced on a personal level. The feelings of failure, fear, weakness, and not knowing one's true self are ones all people are familiar with. It's a show that questions human motivation, science, religion and....I just realized I'm talking way too long about a series that really speaks for itself.

If you're reading this and shaking your head, if you don't like it, that's alright but I will forever think of it as a classic, and my personal favorite.