Review of Neon Genesis Evangelion
The all-famous Neon Genesis Evangelion... I spent years avoiding this anime due to it's 'controversial' nature. Finally, a few days ago, a friend of mine convinced me to watch it and I did, if only to see what the fuss was all about. Well, I found out all right. *This review also takes The End of Evangelion into consideration. There are very few spoilers, none of which really impact the viewing experience. Story (2/10): Honestly, I prefer anime that start off alright and end well, as compared to those that have strong starts and weak endings. NGE, on the other hand, started off pretty bad, was bearable nearthe middle... and did a nose-dive in the last few episodes. NGE spends 80% of it's screen-time showing us the escapades of Ikari Shinji, which mostly involves him running away and being a wimp in general. The rest of the time is spent quite liberally on mecha fights and the sexual activities of the remaining characters.
I was seriously wondering what Hideaki Anno was smoking when he wrote the last few episodes... and then I watched The End of Evangelion... and realized that this level of insanity is beyond the capability of any drug.
It is often said that NGE has a lot of Religious and Psychological symbolism, but as far as I could see, the 'symbolism' was basically a bunch of crosses and huge floating vaginas (Yeah, you read that right). I even went as far as to read up some of this, to see if I just outright missed something... but in the end, it seems like everyone is trying to find meaning in something that is obviously nonsense - Feels like modern art.
Art and Sound (7/10):
I'm not much of a critic as far as art and sound are concerned. Both were decent for its time, though they may be relatively obsolete to a present day audience.
Characters (1/10):
What is considered to be the strong point of NGE is actually by far its greatest weakness. It is often said that NGE has some of the most realistic characters in anime history... well, I wouldn't fully disagree - but that doesn't change the fact that I feel like beating some sense into them.
-Ikari Shinji: The main character, who should've been killed as an infant. A 14-year-old kid who spends half his time wallowing in self-pity and the other half leching over all things female. That should be relatively normal for a young teen suffering from severe depression, but that doesn't make it any less annoying, considering how the fate of humanity is supposedly hanging in the balance. Nearly 4-5 episodes are spent on elaborating his escapist nature.
-Ayanami Rei: Development? What development? Some 'shocking' revelations about her origins, but she remains a blank slate from beginning to end.
-Sohryu Asuka Langley: Probably the most understandable of the three protagonists, but that doesn't make her any less annoying than Shinji. Her comments on Shinji are usually quite accurate and you often wonder why the others don't feel the same. Then again, her pride, vanity and disagreeable personality on the whole are hard to ignore.
There are plenty of other characters, such as Katsuragi Misato and Ikari Genji, who start out interesting and end up utterly two-dimensional (no pun intended). In fact, the only character I actually enjoyed watching was Pen-Pen, the penguin.
Enjoyment (2/10):
Hard to express how terrible an anime NGE is... I almost dropped it many times, but went on just for the sake of completion. I hoped time and again that it might do a major turn-around in the last few episodes like Durarara, but what I got was a Guilty Crown 2.0
Overall (3/10):
Frankly, it's not worth your time. Some people (mostly the overly imaginative lot) may find some profound meaning in this one, but I wouldn't suggest it to anyone. For a Mecha series with a good deal of mindf*ck, the Muv Luv trilogy is a much better alternative (pun intended, for those who get it).