Review of Neon Genesis Evangelion

Eva is confusing. The plot is complicated and poorly explained. The premise is simple but if you want to understand the backstory, the instrumentality project and all the terminology thrown at you, you have to dig outside of the show. But the plot doesn't matter. The religious symbolism is coincidental. Anno stated it himself. Eva is all about the characters and while they are very well-written, aside from some adults I disliked almost every character, especially the main trio. Eva is a very personal work that opens a door into the creator's mindset at the time, it has iconic imagery, great action animation, great ostand deep characters but I got very little enjoyment out of it. It also has a lot of production issues from scenes that go FAR beyond outstaying their welcome (you know what I'm talking about) and cheap tricks to save money like hiding lips to a complete meltdown of quality towards the end.

I see it as a good show that is immensely overrated and overanalyzed. It's a 7 for me but only due to its merits rather than my enjoyment. However, I would recommend everyone to watch it as it is quite influential and is basically a piece of anime history that anime fans should get to know at some point.