Review of Neon Genesis Evangelion

This show has been reviewed and debated to death and back again, but I might as well add my .02 NGE Could have been brilliant. I like the bones of the story, the lore expanded upon in EOE was interesting and pretty unique. Visually it was excellent for the time and stands up just fine today if you keep the age of the show in mind. The opening theme gets stuck in my head at random and has for years ever since the first time I watched it. But, I have now watched NGE three times over the years. I absolutely hated it the first two times.This third time, it was tolerable until the final two episodes.

I do not like Shinji. You amateur psychologists apparently have an extremely low opinion of humanity when you claim that detractors of the show hate that they see Shinji in themselves, or that most people would react as he did. Most people actually manage to rise to the occasion, or at least try to, even when thrown into some pretty crazy scenarios. The entirety of human history is filled with teenagers thrown into bloody battles where friends and family are being brutally hacked and beaten to death all around them. I won't say those people all came out of such experiences "whole" but they still managed to do more then curl up in a useless ball and whine.

I have always given Shinji a total pass on his first battle. I mean, he had no idea what to do and suddenly everyone expects him to fight a giant monster with a giant robot he's never even seen, let alone used before. But after that he gets training and experience and never really gets better. Later, he has the power to annihilate the enemy and save the girl he...loves? But nah, he sits there in "poor me" mode while she's brutally slain.

I will defend Shinji this far- He was basically born and raised to fail. He is weak. Mentally completely broken. Even if we say it's not his fault because he was intentionally broken, that still doesn't make him an enjoyable character to watch, nor have I ever found him to be relatable. Your mileage may vary, of course.

Shinji aside, NONE of the characters are particularly enjoyable, and that's the problem with NGE as I see it. The basic plot is truly interesting, something amazing could have been done with it. But the cast of characters we're forced to experience it through ruin it. There's nobody to root for. A drunken floozy, a merciless father figure, a typical tsundere covering her weakness with arrogance, the whiner, and a girl with almost zero personality.

The fact that they have the teenage pilots attending school instead of training all day is ridiculous. They spend more time Wasting time than anything else. True, eventually it seems like this was intentional, that the powers that be Wanted them to barely succeed and never get too confident or competent, but it makes for a strange viewing experience, why did no one ever question the pathetic training schedule? Giant monsters want to end all of humanity? Whatever, I have a test on Friday! They are CONSTANTLY in a rush to get back to the base as a monster approaches, why not just, y'know, keep the only people who can pilot your robots, near the robots? At one point they end up locked out of the base and have to break in!

After having gone through it three times, I won't say it's a Bad show. It's definitely Extremely overrated IMO. I don't feel like it's a "must watch" unless you simply want to be able to discuss it with others, or if you're one of those people who watches everything on a top 10 list for the sake of having seen all of the "classics."

If you're still reading this and asking yourself why I would watch this three times over the years even though I hated it the first two times, that's simple. I change. As I change my perspective changes. Shows I loved as a teen, I may find dull or uninteresting now. Things I hated, might now make sense.

I'm a bit more sympathetic to Shinji now, but I still don't Like him.