I've had conflicted feelings watching Evangelion. It starts fairly lighthearted (at least in comparison to the grim and depressing atmosphere it creates later on), the characters are mostly likable (exception noted for Asuka, but I won't deny empathy and sympathy for her!) and the series overall feels very nice and epic. Later on we get a lot of existentialism and psychology, and that works as well, and I even liked the ending.

So why do feelings feel conflicted? Well, it's mostly from an outside-the-piece perspective. I don't find the ending to be all that positive (note that I did not watch the movie The End of Evangelion at time of review), I found it to be heartwarming, and very surreal, but I also found it kind of cynical. To reach a point where Shinji can be happy the world needed to reach a state where it is implied to have ended, with hundreds upon hundreds of people dying, it just feels off kilter with what you're supposed to feel about it, you know?

Overall what it presents, aside from that, is a great character study! From the insecurity of Asuka being masked with a lot of toxic behaviors that push everyone she loves away from her (which, may I make it clear, the show does not present as an excuse, but rather an explanation of why she is so terrible to everyone around her), to Shinji's motherlessness (which, to be fair, is kind of an old trope that can be criticized, no doubt no doubt), complicated relationship with his father and general lack of meaningful social contact making him a very complicated person to actually relate and parse out, emotionally speaking.

It's also nice to note that the show is very comfortable to watch as far as sexual content goes! It can be frustrating to watch shows that present male teen protagonists, because it can throw out some very uncomfortable sexual content with no warning, and barely any reason as well, and while there is some of the nudity jokes here and there (Naked Asuka scene, for example) it doesn't really feel like it's overbearing, or trying too hard to do some "haha funny titty jokes". And it's also nice to see that it doesn't really try to sexualize these kids, even with some proximity of Shinji and Asuka, or the bath scene of Shinji and Kaworu.

One particular scene that made me feel moved was the Kaworu-Shinji bed scene. It felt so intimate, so fragile, I felt really connected to it, and the emotionally complicated tone of the scene really resonates with my particular view of affectionate relationships. Just wanna throw that out there.

Overall, still love it, I think it's a brilliant piece of media that does smart and interesting things with somewhat well trodden tropes in sci-fi and adventure genres!