I finally got around to watching Evangelion, and I must say, I was not disappointed. I don’t think I have ever been more genuinely interested in a cast of characters. Nor do I think I have ever related with a character as much as I did with Shinji. His depression and the way it’s portrayed felt like a mirror of my own issues. The only problem is that he goes around wearing his depression like a crown, constantly shoving it in the face of the other characters. My experience with depression, and generally the way I think depressed people are, is the complete opposite: you don’t show much of your issues for other people to see and your thoughts constantly torment you while you stay quiet. You don’t get depressed by letting people know your issues so they can help you, that’s how you cure your depression. While Shinji had the torment part, he didn’t have the quiet part. Otherwise, he’s a well written character.
After watching this show, the portrayal of depression in Kotoura came to mind. The show has never really left my mind for whatever reason, and my biggest gripe has always been how they wrote Kotoura herself. When you compare the two characters, you see just how badly Kotoura’s depression was written. For Shinji, his depression has made him anti-social and completely incapable of regular, not awkward, human conversation. His own thoughts are a constant torment to him that he cannot escape. Whereas Kotoura’s issues only present themselves when the plot finds it necessary: when there is some big issue and you need her to blame herself and appear super sad or when the show mentions it. Other than those instances, she is completely normal. She never had any issue conversing with her friends and her backstory ultimately comes off as manufactured and nonsensical. Shinji’s backstory is something with real life parallels and, due to the state of the world in the show, is hard not to believe. The world and all the characters are all so incredibly messed up that none of the backstories for any of them feel fake and manipulative.
Asuka is probably the second tsundere character I have really ever cared much about (the first being Taiga). Tsunderes generally come off as annoyingly overbearing and unlikable, but Asuka completely avoids this. Don’t get me wrong, that type of tsundere can work as a character, just not in a serious show. Asuka’s tsundere personality is treated more as a symptom of her mental state and childhood than it is as her personality. You could never get a character that feels real and understandable, that feels human, without treating something like this as an actual issue because her personality is something that a human would only have if they had some sort of trauma or insecurity to cover up.
That reasoning ultimately deciphers how the characters all feel so human, they are shown to be flawed and their flaws, personalities, mental struggles, and actions all link back to what they have experienced in life. Nothing about them is just completely random for the sake of being there.
My only issue with the characters, or really the show’s writing, is the complete focus on Shinji. It just gets kind of tired after a while. Especially since at the end Asuka gets really interesting as her character is developed. I also would have loved to see more development of Ritsuko since her feelings towards Gendo weren’t even hinted at until minutes before she stated them. Rei also could’ve been more interesting. I know she’s supposed to be deadpan and emotionless, but she just never had enough character development. I can tell they tried a little, but it wasn’t enough. She’s the weakest of the main cast. Kaji is infinitely more interesting than her despite never actually having any character development.
Other than the characters, everything else about this show is pretty solid. For the most part, the animation is wonderful. Other than the last two episodes everything is pretty solid and the color palette is amazing. The fact that this was made before everything was on computers also adds a nice gritty feel to the scenes that you just can’t imitate with a computer. The directing was amazing. Even I could tell how vital the directing was for some of those more despondent scenes to work as well as they did. There was one moment specifically where I think things could’ve been handled better, and that’s the scene where Asuka is having a breakdown in her Eva and they just blared Hallelujah. It made me laugh and I don’t think that was the goal there, so maybe that should’ve been done without the Hallelujah.
To no surprise to anyone, I love the OP. It’s pretty well known as far as OPs go so I don’t need to sing it praise, but it’s a joy to listen to. The ED really surprised me though. I really love smooth jazz like that, it was one of my favorite parts of Durarara, and the first episode came out of nowhere with it, immediately drawing me in and demanding me to listen to it. In other words, I loved it. I also felt it was interesting that the person singing the ED was different each time, but it had no effect on my enjoyment of the ED.
I haven’t mentioned the last two episodes yet, and to be frank I don’t have much to say on them. They’re an absolute mess; made mostly of reused animation and powerpoint slides of words and some flashing lines. While they fit tonally with the show, they are rushed and fail to properly conclude the show. There are reasons for this, but I don’t feel like going into them and others can explain them much better than I could. Since these are the last two episodes and there’s The End of Evangelion movie, I can still easily recommend this show and say it’s one of the better anime ever created. In some shows the last two episodes being a mess might be a reason not to watch it, but this show is definitely not one. And for anyone going deep into anime, this show is a must watch–if not for its fame, for its infamy.