Review of Neon Genesis Evangelion

No spoilers or detailed story analysis here. Just my personal thoughts, written down, after re-watching the show after 15 years. The show is a celebration of neat sci-fi ideas, great setting, memorable characters and some crazy fun fight sequences. It's also visual story telling brought to near perfection. A single scene of silence or a change in facial expression in NGE can conjure more emotion out of me than any amount of tug-at-your-heart-strings monologue in an average anime show. But there's a "but" to all of it. Towards the finish line, the story stumbles and becomes so cold and jaded that it starts to feel very hard-to-connect-with.And, to an extent, that was probably the intetion, but it did make the final stretch a little bit of a chore to watch on a binge. The first time I saw the show, all those years ago, I thought it was convoluted and pretentions. I no longer feel that way - I think there is quite a bit of heart to it all - but it's difficult to argue that the final stretch of the story isn't a little undetailed and messy. And I'm not talking about the notorious last two episodes - there are plenty of problems outside of those as well. However, I think there are still more than enough redeeming qualities to make up for the show's problems, so my score doesn't really reflect the show at it's weakest.

NGE is a masterpiece, but also definitely not a show for everybody. I am glad, that on re-watching it, I was able to find the same kind of enjoyment from it that many people said the show was capable of offering. Just don't go in expecting absolute perfection.