Neon Genesis Evangelion is one of those shows you feel you have to see if you spend any amount of time in the anime fanbase. It's discussed constantly, praised endlessly, and analyzed down to the individual frames. So naturally, I went into it with high expectations. And honestly, it's a really good show. But if I’m being completely honest with myself, it didn’t quite live up to the god-tier reputation that social media has built around it.

That doesn’t mean it’s overrated or bad — far from it. Evangelion does things that very few shows attempt. It takes a genre that was once about giant robots and flashy fights and strips it down into something deeply psychological and personal. Its portrayal of depression, anxiety, self-hatred, and isolation is uncompromising and unflinching, especially for a show that was on the air during the '90s. Its characters, especially Shinji, Asuka, and Misato, don't come across as characters in a show so much as fundamentally flawed human beings trying to survive to the best of their abilities in a universe that doesn't care. That's an emotional depth that's rare in anime even now.

Where Evangelion excels most, in my opinion, is in how uncomfortable it lets itself be. It doesn’t offer easy answers. It lingers in the awkward silences, the painful conversations, and the fragmented inner monologues. The visual storytelling is incredibly effective at times, using surreal imagery, religious symbolism, and abstract cuts to convey things that couldn’t be said directly. In spite of some of the metaphors and references being over my head, I could still feel the gravity of what it was trying to say.

But this is also where I started to diverge from the near-universal praise. A lot of people call Evangelion "deep," "complex," or even "genius." And while I do believe it has depth, it's not some impenetrable work of genius. Its themes are actually fairly apparent if you strip away the visual noise. It's a show about human connection, trauma, and identity — intense themes, but not nearly as brain-shattering as the internet would lead you to believe. I've seen shows approach similar subject matter with more subtlety or emotional impact.

Pacing-wise, I thought the first half of the show was solid but not particularly unique. It did depend a bit on the monster-of-the-week formula, which, while necessary for the slow build, didn't always captivate me. The magic happens in the second half, when everything starts to unravel — both in the story and in the characters' psyches. That's what makes the show brilliant. But even then, it wasn't perfect. There were a few moments that felt like they were trying too hard to be abstract, and while I appreciate the ambition, it didn't always work for me.

The ending is something I was waiting to be confused by, yet oddly enough, I understood it — or at least, my own interpretation of it. It was more of an emotional thing than a logical one, and that worked for me. I don't think every story needs to tie itself up in a neat ending, and Evangelion's choice to end in a messy, navel-gazing way was understandable after everything that had happened up until then. I still went on to watch End of Evangelion afterwards, and I think the movie provides a great alternate viewpoint that complements the original ending, though in a much darker and more violent way.

Animation-wise, it stands up incredibly well. The action sequences, while not the focus, are imaginative and intense. The direction during the quiet scenes is where it really stood out to me, however, as it employed minimalism in a manner that drew attention to the inner struggles of the characters. The soundtrack is also deserving of praise — from the iconic OP to the beautiful insert songs, the music perfectly complements the mood of the series.

Finally, I'd say Evangelion is a show I respect more than I adore. It's incredible, thought-provoking, and visually daring, yet it didn't change my life or blow my mind in quite the same manner as it seems to do for others. My rating of 86 reflects as much — it's still a high score for a show that clearly has passion and vision behind it. I just think the discussion around it has become overly mythologized. Evangelion is not some sacred text that only the enlightened "get" — it's a quintessentially human story about quintessentially broken humans. And that, in and of itself, is enough.