I absolutely hate Neon Genesis Evangelion. I think it's written absolutely atrociously. One good thing I have to say about this series is that the Rebuilds and even End of Evangelion, to an extent, are much better. Sadly, Eva itself does not hold up. In this review I will highlight points and explain why Evangelion is extremely bad.

Also, yes, before you ask, this review will be me absolutely MALDING.

Plot - 2/10
The plot is bad but I think most Eva fans know this. At about episode 7 it transitions into a borefest of a Monster of the Week show with 0 positive qualities. Each episode felt an hour long. Thankfully it does improve a slight bit later on but it's still littered with issues.

Characters - 5/10
I'll say it, Shinji is a good character. He has a noticeable amount of depth and is compelling. He more or less carries the cast even though he's better in the Rebuilds. Misato's fine as well I guess. Her backstory was interesting. As a whole the cast is mid though. Some more minor characters are seriously uninteresting and Gendo is only good in the Rebuilds due to his character being expanded and actually making sense. Asuka is one of the more infuriating members of the cast. She is so fucking annoying and you might say "Not all characters need to be likeable" and I would agree to an extent but if your character if just infuriating and is not in the slightest bit compelling then I'd have to disagree.

Lore - 1/10
Sigh, the lore definitely isn't a strong point here. They didn't even really try and just handwave important plot points. It's insulting to the viewer. I've had some Eva fans tell me that "It's not necessary" or "That's not the focus!" I never understood this. You should be able to either explain some of your mechanics and features or just don't have them in the story? Madoka Magica's focus is also on the characters yet they explain plot points about magical girls and witches.

Directing and Fights - 2/10
Combined these because I think my problems are similar enough with both. One of the reasons I hate the fights is because they are impossible to follow or be hyped about because of the Anno's style. Now, I do not how to adequately explain this point well but Eva seems like it's constantly like cutting scenes? You'll probably understand if you watch an Eva fight and then a fight from the Rebuilds or something. It's something that really weakened my experience regardless.

Themes - 5/10
Now, I do not hate the themes of Eva or anything. Maybe they can be empowering to someone else, but I don't feel like they were particularly deep or interesting and, partnered with the infuriating plot made me care a lot less about anything the show was trying to say.

Conclusion: This fucking sucks in too many ways. As I've said probably too many times, you'd be far better off watching the Rebuilds if you want an actual well written story.