Review of Neon Genesis Evangelion
5 WORDS OR LESS REVIEW: Confusing Ending I always wondered why people made such a big deal out of Neon Genesis Evangelion. They always talk about how confusing it is and there was no real conclusion to it. When I first watched it, it didn’t really seem confusing – until the ending. Since I want to keep this review as spoiler-free as possible, I’ll just tell you to watch it yourself to witness the confusion on your own *wink* I rarely watch mecha anime, and it’s even rarer for me to find mecha anime that I like. Guess what? I like NGE. It’s interesting, it’s weird, it’sunique, it’s mind boggling, maybe too mind boggling but I don’t really mind because I like series that require my attention. Another thing I like about it is that it’s not too serious – it has its funny parts too so I rarely got bored with it.
One important aspect of NGE is the characters. Each character is unique and has his or own story, but all of them are yearning for acceptance, I think. My favorite has to be Shinji. I know there are people who don’t like him but he really is my favorite. It’s because I love how he reacts to his circumstances – it’s exactly how I would expect a 14 year old boy to react if he were thrown into a similar situation. In fact, Shinji, Rei and Asuka were all very childlike and acted like their age, which is something you find rare in anime. I also like Rei and Misato, by the way.
A lot of well known VAs for this anime, but my favorite has to be Megumi Ogata. When I first heard Shinji’s voice, I immediately thought it was perfect for a boy like Shinji. I love it when female VAs play male roles, but most of the time you can tell that right away. In this case, I didn’t even notice it was a female VA at first, because he really did sound like a pre-teen boy. Megumi hayashibara was also perfect for Rei Ayanami (and Pen Pen I guess), but then again, everyone was perfectly suited to play their respective roles. I guess this is one of the series I’ve seen that has impeccable voice casting.
I would say storytelling and visuals were great if it weren’t for the last 2 episodes that made me dizzy. It was a splice of different images that seemingly had little connection. Character design was great. I appreciate the wonderful design of the female characters’ figures – unrealistic, but nicely drawn. The colors need some work though, since I thought they were kind of bland and clashed with each other. I don’t understand why Eva unit 01 had to be purple and neon green, but the Evas looked great, especially Asuka’s.
I absolutely love the opening theme. I liked it ever since I first saw a Tagalog dub version of NGE on local TV. All I did was watch the opening credits and when it was done, I wouldn’t stick around for the actual episode. Of course, I watched the whole thing this time around but I still like that song. As for the ending song, “Fly Me to the Moon” and it’s different versions were okay, but I don’t really see why they decided to use it as an ending theme. It’s one of my mother’s favorite songs, and it’s kind of weird for me to hear it each time I watch an episode of NGE.
It definitely was worth it to watch this anime. I guess I can say that Neon Genesis Evangelion changed my opinion on mecha anime. I’d probably watch more mecha after this.