Review of Neon Genesis Evangelion

Overall NGE is what originally got me hooked on anime, and I recently decided to watch the whole series again. It really is not possible to make a decent review of this without including the End of Evangelion anime as well, as is finishes the series of in a decent way. The actual two last episodes in this series (not to mention Death & rebirth, which you should avoid), are meaningless without watching "End of EVA". Overall, this is a great anime. Epic, dep and philosophical with awsome characters and graphics. Too bad there is too much still pictures in it, though. Animation Everything is beautifully drawn, with great characterdesign, cool mechas and unique "monsters". Sadly, there is not much "animation" going on; way too much time is spent looking at still pictures while listening to dialogue/monologoues. Ok, it's almost 15 years old, but that's not a reason not to compare it to newer stuff.

Sound
Neat and catchy intro tune and decent but somewhat anonymous background music. Voice acting is great and sound effects feel well thought out and add to the mood.

Story
Whoo! This is epic! Starting out as straight-forward mecha action, and evolving into really deep philosophical stuff. I won't ramble about the good stuff (most of it is), but I must say, however, that many things could be clarified a bit more in depth. Sadly, this is something you get used to after watching anime for a while. Another downside is the last two episodes. They are a total mess! A lot less so after you have watched "The end of Evangelion", but still a mess.

Character
This is character development at its best. The characters are all likable in their own ways, and throughout the episodes they all get plenty of time to grow. There is a lot of angst in all of them, and it gets worse and worse the further you watch. It becomes clear in the end that this anime is not really about action, it's about human nature. And the characters all feel human.