Review of Neon Genesis Evangelion

Who Actually Hates Evangelion? (And why that makes sense too.) I want to figure out, through this review, why YOU might hate what I love. Everyone knows Evangelion, you don't even have to be an anime watcher to be familiar with these kids in skin tight suits. Highly praised and consistently popular throughout the years. But what if you don’t like it, do you miss out on much? It certainly isn’t for everyone. What does it take to hate Evangelion? I perused through a bunch of negative reviews and gathered some points. The slug pace to the point of complete motionless scenes, the fact that it has tobe prepubescent kids that pilot the war-bots (and other plot conveniences), the cast that consists of rage bait, the ending. Four points that stood out the most.

There are moments in Evangelion where you’ll genuinely wonder if the video froze, at least three times, a single frame just sits there for a full minute. You’re forced to simmer in the existential dread and awkwardness right alongside the cast. The pacing? Glacial. It’s basically a slice of life with depression, punctuated by the occasional boss fight.

And then there’s Shinji, our protagonist, who has such severe commitment issues he can’t even commit to not committing.

Honestly, I kept avoiding this anime like he avoids getting in the robot—running away, insisting I didn’t care, only to double back and suffer some more. It was actually hard to watch on my first go, because I hate action/fight anime and slice of life! Evangelion somehow mashed my least favorite genres together into one existential casserole, and it’s a surprise I got through it. I just couldn’t care about any of it at first—why are these things even called angels? They look nothing like angels. They’re SO ugly! (I still don’t know why.)

But am I glad that I did keep coming back for more, before I get into why I love Evangelion there’s still a lot more that will help you understand why this might not be the anime for you.

If you’re a critical viewer who loves paying excruciating attention to detail, Evangelion will have you shaking your head. Japanese media often centers around underage protagonists, something you either learn to love or get used to hating. There’s always some convenient plot reason why it’s kids saving the world, and Evangelion is no exception.

The “angels” are very polite to attack one by one, making the fights conveniently fair. Shinji is the chosen one (he was literally just built different), and the pilots’ mommy issues are crucial for sync rates. In a world with colossal biosynths and a trio of ORGANIC supercomputers, nobody invented… therapy? Evangelion goes absolutely nutty on the pseudoscience sci-fi (AT Fields, LCL, S² Engines), a lot of it feels like, “It just makes sense, because it does!” And don’t expect any of it to be fully explained; the characters know about as much as we do. There isn’t even a complete lore bible. No reasons or meaning to be uncovered, just magic Fanta to be floated in. Anyway, I didn’t notice other oddities there, but I am sure there are many more for those that are perceptive unlike me.

The cast consists of characters who can seem unlikable on the surface. You’ll hate everyone if you don’t enjoy rationalizing asshole behavior by digging into the why and how behind both characters’ and people’s problems. Everyone in the cast has an explanation for why they suck—yes, even Commander Ikari. It doesn’t excuse anything, but it makes them human. And that’s what I love: watching someone act like a proper cunt, only to realize they’re just as broken as everyone else.

The ‘Hedgehog Dilemma’ is the real Angel of the series. The angel fights are just background noise to the giant hedgehog in the room: the characters are tragically bad at letting people close. Everyone pushes everyone away, but Commander Ikari does it best—out of fear of hurting others or themselves. The real enemy isn’t yourself, but the self that exists in the hearts of others. Others’ perception of you.

I’d argue the strongest reason why you wouldn’t like Evangelion is if you don’t relate to the fear of connection the cast has. If you think Shinji should just get over his emotionally unavailable father, Asuka should stop being such a bitch, or Rei should just learn to feel, you’ll genuinely suffer watching them struggle. And it doesn’t stop there, everyone is a problem here. If you don’t relate to being a mess, and don’t want to stay for the mechs or existential philosophy, there’s honestly very little to like. Evangelion is depression as an art form: “me fr fr” for the broken people, with monster gore for flavor in an old cutely crusty package.

But it’s not just doom and gloom, there’s a bittersweet message on understanding others, and that you can’t fully understand others when you can’t even understand yourself. But, Like Kaji said, this is what makes life so interesting. Trying to understand each other and… characters for those of us that are still in our hedgehog phase... :)

Evangelion does not have an obvious ending. It was rushed due to time limits, but I still find myself liking it just the way it is. I can’t go into detail without ruining the experience, but the last two episodes will leave you both emotionally and philosophically blueballed, leaving the heavy lifting to the viewer. I won’t pretend I understand what any of it meant—in fact, I hate thinking, and I don’t like open endings. Loose ends are frustrating, and not everyone wants to imagine the continuation. Not everyone is a fanfic writer!

There’s a special junkyard in my brain where all my ambitious brain cells go to die, and quite a few found their eternal resting place there thanks to Evangelion. But I enjoyed it, and I liked weebly trying to understand what the end (and the End of Evangelion movie) was supposed to mean. This series alongside it's ending most likely means different things to each viewer, which seems to be the point. How troublesome.

I hope I’m channeling my inner Shinji with the whininess here well enough, but now let’s finally get over all that negativity and get to why I absolutely call this anime my religion now. Here starts the glazing, get in the robot.
This part of the review feels so much harder to get down—hear me out, but I think my appreciation for this anime transcends words and metaphors. Or maybe I just lack the ability to portray what this anime made me feel. No, it wasn’t ‘life changing’, nothing like that. Surely there isn’t a single story I’d consider having such an impact. But something about Evangelion resonates with the little hedgehog of my soul. Avoidant attachments: the anime.

I probably just love Shinji too much. A character I relate to immensely, who feels so much like ‘me’, yet I could never imagine feeling so strongly for myself. Funny that.

Watching Evangelion the second time, after my great enlightenment, I was hanging onto every single frame and interaction. I had barely paid attention through the first 20 episodes on my initial run, so watching it again was basically like watching a different anime! There are so many small details to notice when you know the characters better. My favorite might be the interaction between Rei and Commander Ikari. They look so… human, for once. Smiling, it’s such a tiny thing, but it felt so impactful. I was screaming inside, just like Shinji was!

And the art, oh the art. The body horror is mesmerizingly unsettling, the violence is beautiful, and the character designs and artstyle are crunchy and oddly cute. It’s not nostalgia, because I only just watched this, this year, it’s just… delightfully artsy. Learning to appreciate the old ways of animation, really opens some doors in what to watch next, does it not?

I’d love to say a lot more, but I realize that a lot of it would just be spoilers, so I’ll cut it short here! Sorry for the blue balling, but it’s the main theme of Evangelion. Peace out!