Review of Neon Genesis Evangelion

I ended up watching the entire series probably about 8 times due to the fact that my brother was a big fan and so was a couple of my friends back in the late 1990's. At the time this was basically THE anime to watch both in Japan in around the world. Despite huge fan fare, and a cult following, I didn't seem to like the series as much as other people have. Story: 5/10 - Now I know people will blast me about the low rating for the story but the main problem is that the story is pretty simple especially early inthe series. In essence it's robots vs creatures with a twist. Not much is a surprise, with only a few plot elements that keeps you wanting to watch more... which other shounen anime like bleach and DBZ does all the time. The other thing is that later on, the story gradually mixed with amateur psychology, and some of the episodes ended up just purely about the characters' internal struggles with no end in sight. Japan loves psychology for some reason, and a lot of anime does have it. Some do it well, others do it horribly, and this anime does it mediocre. Then there was the last 2 episodes. Many see it as a work of art. I see it as a cop-out. It is something akin to a rambling thought process of a socially withdrawn person. While it does make sense and I understand why the creators made the last 2 episodes like that it doesn't complete the story and leaves everything hanging. While the later movies fill the plot holes, I don't think this type of ending is acceptable. Don't get me wrong, I like endings that purposefully don't tie everything up and leave it to viewer interpretation, but this ending doesn't make you "think" it just makes you feel cheated.

Art: 8/10 For an anime in the late 90's it had crisp animation and I loved the character designs. Some parts of the animation were choppy and awkward especially in some action sequences but that was expected of animation of over 10 years ago.

Sound: 10/10: I love the music, and the BGM. It adds a lot of atomosphere to the show, and it can't help but feel excited when you hear the eva launch sequence music, and many of the action music.

Characters 6/10: Overall the characters were interesting. None of them were particularly deep ie. first impressions tend to be pretty much on the ball for most of the characters. example: Shinji is withdrawn, shy, timid in the first episode. Shinji is still withdrawn, shy, timid in episode 22. Because he doesn't want to hurt others and be hurt by others... a theme that persists for that character for the entire series. Other characters have the same issue, and the level of development that occurs for all the characters is minimal at best. You learn more about the characters and why they are like that later into the series, but that is not the same as character development. In the case of Asuka, you learn different aspects of her personality, but nothing fundamental changes with her.

Overall: 6/10 The series overall is enjoyable. As a mecha series it's one of the better ones out there... but the characters and the story for me was the weak point, that they could have given more polish.