Review of Neon Genesis Evangelion

Spoiler free review: I wanted to like this anime but it disappointed me a lot. I found myself struggling to keep interest MANY times throughout watching but kept on due to how much of a cult following it has. First of all, there are so many plot holes. None of the major questions you’ll have will be answered in this series and I’m only reviewing this having watched the anime and none of the movies so I don’t know if things like “Where do the angels come from and what are they?” get answered there but clearly this isn’t an anime you should watch standalone bcs you will be very lost. There’s a huge information overload in all the episodes and the pattern of ‘Which Angel will Shinji fight today?’ went on from Episode 1 to about Episode 20- which is ridiculously shounen like, except without the excitement. The characters are very unlikeable and I couldn’t even be attached Kaworu (one of the most talked about characters) at all bcs he was in a single episode only??? There’s just overall really bad flow to it and it feels rushed and jump cut-y at times. The animation and art is my favourite thing for sure but everything else felt very MEDIOCRE. I liked where it was headed but it couldn’t deliver or carry any of its heavy themes well. It just fell flat on its face and tried to cover something it couldn’t handle. Overall, I don’t recommend this anime.