Review of Neon Genesis Evangelion
To summarize this review: Neon has good waifus, amazing art, and it sucks in everything else -especially it's main character Shinji. A lot of people say Neon Is one of those animes you have to watch at least once, and they're right. But it's definetly not for its lovable main character, it's convoluted story, or it's absurd realism. Story: Some argue that "you just don't understand Evan" when defending this anime's poor attempt of storytelling. I'm sorry, but as an artist myself, flashes of symbolism and a lore centered around a real world serious topic like religion, does not automatically mean this anime's interperation is goingto be ANY good. Neon attempts to spin a twist around the ideology of religion and divinity, but all it does is become an edgy, try-hard, way too complex for its own good, piss poor pace, idiotic means of being an anime with "religion" as its background.
Main problem?:
Consistency. If you believe for one second that Neon has ANY sort of "this has to make sense and this doesn't," then I'm sorry but you're just going to be like me and screwed over. Because its not about what IS factual in this anime. It's all about what the AUTHOR wants to make factual. Who lives. Who dies. Who develops. Who red cons and doesn't develop. The basics. The sheer fictional basics of giant mecha fighting big monsters itself becomes a victim to later episodes. Like there is no power level to monitor. No power scale. No sense of what is stronger than what. No explanation of how anything actually works. Which is why the Neon is just a piss poor anime to do absurd action scenes WHILE also attempting to gloss over them because of also wanting to have a complex plot.
Shinji, by far is the biggest reason why anyone ever needs to prove Neon is a bad anime. Let's just forget the fact that he's a giant baby wimp. People say "hes 14 what would you do??" or "he has to choose between being in a mecha and or dying if he doesn't"
No. No. No. NO. Absolutely horrible excuses to justify WHY Shinji as a character is 1: a major wimp to place as a hero character, 2: an indecisive wimp that never undergos any learning curve. 3: A shell of a character that his whole purpose is just for the AUTHOR than it is for Shinji's own actions. 4: A character that FAILS his OWN inner motives just to get some screen time of him covering his ears. The anime gave him a backstory, gave him his insecurities, but also gave him his friends, his mother's sympathy, his personality. YET, the bad bad author of this anime says, SCREW ALL THAT. HES GOING TO BE MY WIMPY MAIN CHARACTER UNTIL THE PLOT ARRIVES.
Post Neon:
So if you think, "but wait there's still a movie." Lol, be ready to be slapped with a JK we're starting from 0 with baby Shinji again.
Conclusion:
It's very sad for me to rate this anime SO low when I REALLY REALLY loved the first 14 episodes. Giant mechas, school kids, action scenes. It was the perfect blend. But sadly, this anime starts off with a bang and fizzles into the worst and most edgy anime ever made. The author gets no points from me for being this try hard for its "message."
Neon has amazing Sound, 90'S Art, animation, but that's ALL it will ever be good for.