Review of Neon Genesis Evangelion

So, I've been thinking about Eva for a while now. Which is not a pleasant thing in my book, as I find the "Discourse" around the show to be extremely tedious, not helped by the fact that its nowhere near as original or influential as it's often made out to be (I mean, Victory Gundam released just a year or so before Eva, so sad, vaguely pedophillic mecha nightmares were clearly in vogue). However, I can't front and say it didn't affect me at all-it was the second anime I ever watched (long ago now, so forgive me if I'm sometimes vague on details) soI feel I owe it some measure of appraisal. Which brings me to the point; I don't like Eva. I never have. But a succinct reason why has eluded me for a long time. And I think I've finally pinned it down.

Evangelion is bad because, despite all the crazy symbolism and great music, it's BORING. And it's boring primary because it is so incessantly, obnoxiously moralizing.


The show's focus is always on one of two things; either the convoluted myth arc that drags on for way too long such that by the time the "mystery" is finally done with all you get is a ten car pile up of vague Biblical imagery and dumb technobabble that functions only as an overwrought metaphor (or a low-rent Shin Megami Tensei cutscene). Or it's the thematic journey of a bunch of traumatized individuals, mostly the kid protagonists, into opening up their hearts and allowing connections to be formed, even if it hurts. Honestly, its not a bad theme, if one that's extremely common when you look close at Japanese media.

The fatal flaw is in it's execution. The protagonist, Shinji Ikari, and his supporting cast of various importance just aren't engaging characters. How could they be? They're defined almost entirely by their trauma, either to begin with, as is the case with Shinji, or at the very least by the show's last third where all joy or hope is left by the wayside. Gendo Ikari, the ultimate antagonist, is the worst example of this- his disdain for his son is never explored in any depth until the very end, when it's long since stopped mattering. The show spends nearly its whole runtime, and the added runtime of End of Evangelion, wallowing in the misery these characters are subjected to, razor focused on their flaws, their Freudian psycho-sexual disfunction, and their navel gazing self-recrimination. Not only does it make the act of watching the show dull and miserable, it ultimately destroys the very message its trying to convey. Be an individual? Make connections with people? Why would the characters do that when not a one of them ends the series with any sort of engaging personality or hopeful future? Having the capacity to connect with others doesn't automatically make you actually WORTH connecting with, and none of the characters have any real chemistry, romantic or otherwise. Only Rei really ends up feeling more like a full person than she starts, and considering she starts at basically zero that's not hard to do.

All this story focus also means that the action part of the show is pretty lacking. The biological Evangelions are genuinely a cool concept that is mostly just used as a plot device, especially if Shinji needs rescuing in which case his mecha mama takes control and solves the problem instantly. The Angels, the monsters of the week, are so vaguely defined in ability and origin that they essentially function via authorial fiat, meaning there's no real tension because the Angels only really lose via technobabble or the aforementioned Mechamum. The art can genuinely be great, and its often colorful, which I appreciate. But even the most hardcore defenders will admit that as the series goes on more and more cracks begin to show until animation itself becomes scarce and dialogue overtakes everything. The music is consistently good, at least.

So, where does that leave us? Honestly, as much as I dislike the show, like I said at the start, its not uniquely bad. It's a product of its time and several trends that have mostly either diminished or have long since transformed into something more consistently engaging. Eva's reputation I think stems much more from just being the "first" example of such trends to many people, especially outside of Japan, who, like me, were often just starting out with anime. And I think that's why its become such an albatross around the neck of the community. Like a lot of "classics", it dominates discussion and pushes out both older shows just as worthy of examination and newer shows that have improved much since 1995. I just....don't think its worth all this damn trouble.