Review of Neon Genesis Evangelion

Alright, where to begin, Evangelion is sort of like the FF7 of the anime world, it is terribly overrated. I will of course start with the good aspects of the show. As with most gainax productions, art and sound quality are very good, however, these are some of the only things about this show I enjoyed. The story is pretty typical for anime, the world is in danger, and it is up to some random every day teenager to save the day, that is all good and fine, and I am ok with that plot, but Evangelion's problems stem from deeper issues than that. Thesedeeper issues are character development. The characters in Evangelion are just so utterly annoying it makes the show hard to get through. The only thing Shinji is good for is whining, and it isn't like he whines a lot and then eventually accepts his fate and becomes strong-willed. Actually quite the opposite, he whines a lot, and then he whines even more towards the end of the show, it really wears on you after a while. The rest of the characters are so dull, that they don't even really stand out, except when they are whining and crying about how much they hate what they are doing and hate their lives, Rei is the only one who does not do this, but she also seemingly has the least amount of lines in the entire show. On the brighter side, the anime is filled with battles between Angels, which are very cleverly drawn and very unique, and Eva's, that are mysterious Mecha, and this kind of makes up for the characters shortcomings. I am not really going to touch on the "symbolism" that people are so fanatical about, because it is insignificant and does not make the show any better or deeper. Overall, I say Evangelion is worth a watch, but it is very far from my favorite show, and very far from my favorite Gainax production.