Review of Neon Genesis Evangelion
A highly polarizing masterpiece. As evidenced by that first line...I love this show. I've given it a ten, it's on my favorites list, it's my second favorite anime of all time, hell as partially ashamed as I am to admit it I've even written (some not very good) fanfiction about the damn series. It's obvious that I have a deep appreciation of this series, but it's not a series for everyone. So I'm going to present the show to you, warts and all. If I can convince you to give it a try then great, but if not then the review is still doing it's job. Let'sstart with the plot: The year is 2015, back in 2001 there was an incident called "Second Impact" which killed a good chunk of the population and made the southern hemisphere completely unlivable. The rest of the world was still effected though, the sea levels rose and the world was perpetually stuck in the summer season. If that wasn't enough there are also giant monsters called "Angels" that occasionally pop up. Only the organization called Nerv has a way to fight them. A 14 year old boy named Shinji is called to Tokyo 3 by his Father (the leader of Nerv) and is told to pilot a giant robot called an Evangelion. This isn't your typical giant robot story though, this is a show all about it's characters. So let's talk about them.
Shinji Ikari: He's well...a bit of a whiny little bitch. But that's the point though, it's a realistic reaction to being told to pilot a giant robot you've never seen in your life, fight the terrifying monster, and save the world. He suffers from something the show calls the "Hedgehog's Dilemma" which means he refuses to get emotionally close to anyone for fear of being hurt. This stems from the fact that the father kind of abandoned him right after the death of Shinji's mother, keep in mind that Shinji was four years old at the time.
Rei Ayanami: One of Shinji's fellow Eva pilots. She's completely emotionless, she's very close to Gendo (Shinji's father) though. There's more to talk about when it comes to Rei but that's all spoiler territory. Long story short if you know who Yuki Nagato is then you have a basic idea of what Rei's like.
Asuka Langley Soryu: Yes, she is an anime character that has a middle name. That like never happens. With hair almost as fiery as her personality this red headed vixen is another fellow Eva pilot. What makes her unique is that she actually enjoys piloting, Rei doesn't have any special feelings about it and Shinji is straight up terrified but Asuka revels in the fact that she's an eva pilot. She also has a superiority complex and is a bit of a bitch, being overbearing and what not to everyone around her. However her ego is almost directly connected to her ability to pilot an Eva, so when the notion that she's the best pilot is challenged...well it's not pretty.
The last character I'll be talking about is Misato Katsuragi: She's the one in charge of the Eva's missions and the pilots. However when she's not on the job she's not very responsible, this purple haired beauty spends as much time drinking as she does planning the next mission. She's not exactly lady-like either, passing most of the chores like cleaning and cooking to Shinji since she isn't all that great at doing either.
Your enjoyment of the show hinges on whether or not you can become invested in these characters, even when they're not the most likeable. If you can then congratulations, you've just discovered a great character study about a cast of interesting and flawed characters. If not then you just discovered 26 episodes of whining.
This show has to have interesting characters because it ain't winning any awards for animation. Evangelion was notorious for it's tight budget, especially when they were hit with a budget cut near the end of the shows run. The fights look pretty damn great for 90's anime standards but everything else...eh. That's not to say it looks bad, because it doesn't. But just know that the show tries to keep animation to a minimum at times. With characters tending to cover their mouths so they didn't have to animate lip flaps and the fact that on three separate occasions the show just ceases to animate. In three different scenes the show will just stop and show a still frame for like a minute. The last time it does this in episode 24 it actually works and enhances the drama of the scene. The other two times just look out of place. Like I said earlier though when the show does use it's limited budget to the best of it's ability and the fight scenes are creative and well animated.
The music is also just ok. The OP "A Cruel Angel's Thesis" is the catchiest damn theme and the remixes of "Fly me to the moon" make great endings but the ost used in the show itself is...fine. Nothing wrong with it, but the ost of the Rebuild movies blow this Soundtrack out of the water.
My conclusion is exactly what I said all the way at the beginning of the review, it's a highly polarizing masterpiece. If you can get into the show then you'll most likely love it, if you're turned off by the characters then you'll most likely hate it.