Review of Neon Genesis Evangelion

Evangelion is truly a unique experience. Everyone has their own thoughts on it, and its level of influence makes it something that should be watched at some point by anyone that wants to get into anime. Whether you regard it as a masterpiece or a disaster, it's certainly worth your time. Unfortunately, I can't agree with either side, and now I sit in the uncomfortable middle seat in this awkward mech ride. Evangelion is by no means a bad anime, but there are many things that kept me from enjoying it, whether it was personal tastes or just flat-out questionable ideas. When coming into this, I alreadyunderstood that this was about some wimpy kid named Shinji who cries a lot and pilots a mech thing. Evangelion delivers. Great job, everyone. Though I didn't particularly like Shinji as a character, I could understand his feelings; why he's upset, why he's a loner, all that shit, so that's fine. What I DON'T understand how everyone does a shit job at helping him. Particularly in the case of Gendou, Shinji's father, everyone is reluctant or even annoyed and angered with Shinji because he doesn't want to be forced into his position, as he puts it, to the point where they even accept his leave. Isn't this kid, like, super important? Isn't he the only person who can pilot Unit 01? The least you could do is pretend to like him (which could even lead to some more character drama down the line) or get a therapist to talk to him. I don't even understand how Shinji and the other kids are the only pilots anyway; teenagers and their crazy hormones would seem like some of the worst kinds of people for a military operation, but they aren't when you need your anime to appeal to teenagers!

That's kinda like the other thing with Evangelion that I disliked: how little I knew about everything, particularly with the Evas and Angels. Now, I'm not saying that they should dump every bit of info at me in the first episode or I'll rate it a 1/10; in fact, making it evident something is not good but holding most information from the audience would be best and make that reveal more interesting, but the only time anyone even wondered what these things were was around the middle of the show, and it was just a carefree question. Otherwise, everyone just seems to go along with this whole questionable scenario. And even when we DO get answers, they're mostly vague because Evangelion prefers to be deep and symbolic. I could look up all this imagery and symbolism and shit... if I actually cared enough? Being direct is what I want in a story, and I'll only look into the hidden details if I'm actually interested in it. I don't want to look at everything with a magnifying glass to understand the basics. But if that's the kind of art you're into, this show will be right up your alley.

What I also disliked is that EvanJellyMan seemed unsure of what it wanted to be more: a psychological anime, or a sci-fi/action anime. The start of the anime balances these two elements pretty nicely, but after a few episodes there's very little of the psychological elements because reasons, and the show goes into "monster of the week" mode, where every episode for a while is just about a new Angel appearing and the kids needing to stop it. As an action anime, this is somewhat okay because of the interesting fights, but it slows the overall narrative a great deal. The absolutely atrocious ending is another example of this imbalance by being only half of an ending, and... well, I'll get there later. Either of these themes could've worked on their own and made for a 13-episode anime instead, but instead they were combined and got messy at times. I'm not against the idea of an action show like this mixed with some psychological drama, though.

This paragraph is a little spoilery, so skip to the next if you want. The story could be good even beyond those gripes, but the ending will prevent it from ever being good. It is probably the worst ending I've ever experienced in any medium. Fucking Tetris has a better ending than this shit. Well maybe not, but anyway, this is just half of an ending at best. It simply gives Shinji's internal character some resoultion while the show LITERALLY says "we don't have enough time to explain the rest." Never mind that the show wastes a handful of minutes by prolonging scenes as long as possible because the budget eventually ran out. Forget about symbolism or anything; it's one thing to have an ambiguous ending, and it's another to have absolutely no ending at all.

Beyond the bad ending, unbalance of themes, and some lack of details, the story is pretty basic, but passable enough.

Evangelion isn't more focused on its story, though; rather it's more interested in selling its characters, which it does only decently. Shinji is an alright character; he's very boring when he's not depressed, but this is actually okay since Shinji's supposed to be the normalfag who shouldn't be thrust into extraordinary situations like this anyway. Still, there were a couple things that I disliked about him that I'll put below this paragraph, because they're spoilers. Misato is pretty good because of her relationship with Shinji, as well as the drama caused by her past and relationships with others. Unfortunately, that's basically the end of the supposedly amazing cast of Evangelion, as the other characters are basically... well, basic; or at least not interesting or unique enough to stand out. Asuka doesn't fall into either of these categories, but I personally disliked how much of a bitch this character is in pretty much every scene. She's a similar, but opposite character to Shinji: instead of being emotional and not wanting to pilot the Eva, she's emotional and wants to pilot the Eva, at least whenever it's convenient for her. God forbid she has to wear a marshmallow suit or cooperate with someone she doesn't like when she's, you know, saving the world or something. And then everyone in authority just kinda goes along with her bitching. Okay. At least they treat her better than Shinji???

Spoilery part about Shinji: In episode 4, Shinji quits being a pilot entirely and begins to leave home, but at the last moment, he backs out and goes back to being a pilot. They don't say why he makes this choice, he just... kinda... does. Much later, towards the end of the show, he meets a character named Kaworu, becomes friends with him, and then kills him... in one episode. And he's upset about this. REALLY upset. For fuck's sake, man, I'm the one who should be upset here. I'm the one who had to sit through that absolute masterpiece of a scene. Probably the funniest part is that this guy is on the promotional poster. I'm really not sure what was going on with this whole thing, but I also just wanna let it go because this is basically the last thing that actually happens in the show.

I think I've said all I want to say about the story and characters and all, so I'll just talk about the actual production.

Especially given its time, the art of Evangelion is quite good. On a basic level, the character designs are outstanding--yeah, OUTSTANDING, and that includes the designs of both the mechs and the very odd-but-not-silly Angels. Beyond the actual designs, the animation holds up pretty well. The key problem is that many scenes will drag on and on with little-to-no animation required because budget. However, I won't pin this on the art itself and just the overall direction of the anime... it still looks good in the end.

The soundtrack is okay, but it's very repetitive. It's always the same song for an Angel attack, for breakfast at Misato's, and probably some others that I didn't really point out. Nothing in the OST really stands out but it can at least get the job done. Eva's real claim to fame is the opening theme, 'A Cruel Angel's Thesis', which is considered by pretty much anyone that takes opening songs seriously to be one of the best ever... and they're absolutely right. It might not exactly fit the mood of the anime very well, but at the end of the day, it's a damn good song that will cling to your memory for quite some time.

To close with, I didn't really hate Evangelion, and I'm glad I watched it, but I would've also avoided it if it weren't for its legacy. The blend of its elements are what make it stand out, but I didn't think it did anything particularly well. The psychological stuff is shadowed by an overall weak supporting cast, the sci-fi is more about imagery and not actual science, and the action will be broken up by these things. I'd still recommend that most people watch it, though, as you'll definitely have a few things to say about it.

Story - 5/10
Art - 8/10
Sound - 6/10
Characters - 6/10
Enjoyment - 3/10
Overall - 5/10
Favorite character - Misato
Favorite episode - 6