Review of Neon Genesis Evangelion

My personal holy grail of anime. There are no other shows that have made me feel as deeply for their characters, have stunned me so thoroughly with their presentation, and engrossed me in their plot/ideas as much as Evangelion has. I'm very grateful to live in a world where I can enjoy a show like this. If I had to really dig deep for nitpicks, Evangelion dances around its main theme(Human connection is messy and difficult, but we are better for having these connections than we would be without them) way more than it needs to. I personally find the surrealism and monologue segments veryengrossing, but it's understandable if anyone else finds they make the entire thing a lot less enjoyable. Additionally, your ability to enjoy Evangelion rests almost entirely on your ability to empathize with and care for its characters. I introduced the series to a friend and he went in under the impression it'd be a cool, lore-focused sci-fi action with horror elements, which it certainly has aspects of, but when the series showed its hand as a character-oriented artistic therapy session he had to reorient his expectations entirely to enjoy the show on its own terms.

Bottom line is, Evangelion is a singular experience when it comes to its characters and presentation, and I cannot recommend it enough to anyone who has yet to see it. I prefer the ADV dub if you're a dub watcher, but Netflix did fine too.