Review of Neon Genesis Evangelion

Giant epic robots AND depression? This show really had it all. Overall, my experience with Evangelion was largely positive and just went way further in some dark, compelling directions than I'd expected, with some considerably more abstract moments thrown in for good measure. The strongest part of the series was definitely the way it handled its characters, not only giving all prominent ones some real depth to them that made for better understanding the various decisions made throughout its runtime, but the way that there was a very strong thematic link between them all. At their core, the characters in NGE feel like representations ofhow different people process trauma, grief and adversity and the way these formative moments in their life end up shaping their actions and outlook. Stuff like this is what ended up making a lot of this so good, the way that even during scenes near-entirely composed of someone's inner monologue, the way the viewer is constantly able to gain new insight into them as more information was revealed or further contextualised makes for a constantly engaging watch. Ignoring this, you still have a lot of stuff about the series that manages to be great as well, especially the way everything's able to convey such a sense of scale. Anything that ends up happening feels absolutely massive and foreboding, especially in the last half where almost anything that occurs from either side just carries a profound sense of "nothing good can come from this", with each action feeling as if it further and further digs a deep, inescapable pit.

All this said however, I still had a few issues that I feel stopped me from truly loving parts of the series. The first issue is how while I understand that the first half of the series contributed to setting things up for everything to really find its stride, it still felt a bit like your typical monster of the week sort of deal. While I didn't really mind this aspect, I also personally didn't find it to do anything particularly special or deeply engaging either, it was just sort of vaguely pleasant, containing both the positives and negatives that I associate with this sort of mainline anime series. My thoughts on the ending were also quite mixed, where on one hand, I considered those final 2 episodes to be an absolutely excellent piece of introspection that made me further consider all which I already knew about the character, but on the other hand, it just left me a bit disappointed.

While I won't go any further into it since I don't like putting in spoilers, I just felt that while it elevated one aspect of the show, the way it felt as if it abandoned other parts of it left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth where I feel like if End of Evangelion didn't exist, I'd end up disliking the ending here for how much I feel doesn't get addressed. With all this said though, no doubt in my mind that this was an excellent watch that kept me completely glued to my seat throughout a lot of it.