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So a couple years ago I decided to watch one of the most critically acclaimed anime of all time, Neon Genesis Evangelion. "Damn it must be really good" I thought. Well, I was so bored I fell asleep after just 3 episodes and I didn't really feel like watching it anymore so I dropped it. About a month ago I decided to pick it up again, just for the sake of having watched Evangelion, because everyone should watch Evangelion right? The very first episode immediately caught my interest. The atmosphere was great, there were giant robots and these creepy things called angels. I thought "Maybe it's not as bad as I remembered".
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It is.
It's just as bad as I remembered. While I really enjoyed the fights and the mystery behind the human instrumentality project, why the angels were attacking earth etc. I just wasn't able to enjoy the show. The main reason is probably the fact that I had no idea what was going on. At all. Some people might say that my IQ just isn't high enough to understand the hidden, DEEP meaning behind Evangelion but I honestly don't care. Not once do things get properly explained. I watched the entire 26 episodes from start to finish not skipping a single second and what I ended up having to do is watch a Youtube video to fully understand what I just spent hours watching. Keep in mind I have not watched The End of Evangelion yet even tho I maybe should've done so, but here's the thing: That movie came out over a year after the anime ended. So everyone who watched the anime on release knew just as much about Evangelion as I do know, writing this review. Also, even if I end up really liking EoE my opinion of Evangelion wont change. Up until about episode 8 I felt incredibly disappointed. Things weren't moving forward at all and it was just "Shinji get in the fucking robot" over and over again. Also, Shinji was doing nothing but being a little bitch. I'll get to that later. Then Asuka was introduced and my god I hate her just as much as Shinji. She's your typical tsundere anime girl who does nothing but insult everyone around her except the one she is interested in. Then there is Rei who is literally just a fucking NPC and does nothing.
Now, all of these characters have a reason for behaving the way they do and that is made even more obvious once you've watched the last episode. The problem that I have with Shinji, Asuka, Rei and tbh most characters in the show is that they're just annoying. I don't care if Shinji is a realistic character. Yes, he is 14, yes he has to pilot a giant mech and fight against otherworldly beings so he should be scared. But it's just not fun seeing Shinji have a mental breakdown after the second time and it's not fun seeing Asuka insult Shinji after the second time and it's not fun seeing Rei behave like a soulless NPC after the second time when we don't even know the reason yet. Shinji, Asuka and Rei all have personal problems that make them act a certain way, but if those would've been explored earlier, we would actually have a reason to sympathize with them from the start. Instead they save that for the last 4th of the anime so until then we just have to endure it I guess. I hate it. That's simply not a good way to write and develop a character.
Just take a look at Touji Suzuhara. For the most part he's a pretty insignificant side character and the first thing we see him do is beat up Shinji. The difference is that we almost immediately get to know the reason for his behavior (Shinji apparently injured his sister in an accident while fighting in his Eva) and he even apologizes to Shinji afterwards. After a while he becomes friends with Shinji and is a completely different person from what we thought of him initially. Misato Katsuragi is also one of the better written characters in Evangelion. While we don't know her exact problems, we at least know that she has some and at some point she even said to Shinji that she kept expecting unrealistic things from him so she even points out her own faults. This alone already makes her harder to dislike imo. Asuka is just an annoying, rude and obsessive 14yo girl for the majority of the anime until we finally get to know the reason for her behavior in like episode 24 just before the end. Thing is, at that point I almost don't care anymore. The last 2 episodes are pretty much just Shinji, Asuka, Rei and Misato talking about their faults and reflecting upon themselves which I honestly enjoyed. But again, it was way too late into the show already and it unfortunately doesn't make up for all the scenes of Shinji, Asuka and Rei being extremely obnoxious for no apparent reason. So if Evangelion is really all about the characters it's a damn shame, because I'm really not a fan.
Next, I want to talk about the story overall which I've already touched on before. It's also quite disappointing to say the least. It starts of interesting and it stays interesting until the end pretty much. The way it does that is there are all these mysterious organizations and the angels, Adam, the second impact etc. and we keep getting hints of information about these subjects. That kept me interested and wanting to learn more. However, not once do we get a full explanation of anything. Hints of information is all we get. Now, I've heard a lot of people say that most of Evangelion is up for interpretation, but we aren't even really getting anything to work with. It's all so vague that I don't even know where to start interpreting anything. The reason I watch anime is to have fun, to enjoy myself, but when I have to pretty much make up an entire story for myself that enjoyment simply isn't there imo. Again, I haven't watched The End of Evangelion yet so maybe I'll update this review once I have but so far, I think there are way too many plotholes which are brushed off by a lot of Eva fans as free space that's up for interpretation.
As I've said before, it's not all bad. I can definitely acknowledge the amount of work and thought that was put into creating Evangelion just by the love that it's getting from all of it's fans but I just dont think it's for me. I very much enjoyed the fights and the atmosphere even though they kept using the same goddamn combat music each time, but personally, I can't help but feel like Evangelion could've been so much more. The first half is essentially just Shinji killing angels in 10 different ways and then the entire plot is crammed into the last couple of episodes which we are supposed to understand all of a sudden. The pacing is probably the most inconsistent I've ever seen in any anime or series in general, it's just bad. Oh and don't even get me started on the 3, 1 minute long scenes where literally nothing happens.
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I'm giving Neon Genesis Evangelion 45/100 because while there are definitely things to enjoy, it's just filled with flaws and inconsistencies that I cannot overlook, but the ending was pretty good. I will watch the movies though and hope that they won't have the same problems as the anime. Whether you agree with me or not, thanks for reading my review.