Neon Genesis Evangelion was the second anime I watched when I first got into anime, and right off the bat it became one of my favorites.

I have recently re-watched the series with the expectation that it wasn't as good as I remembered, but boy I was wrong. Your appreciation of Eva benefits from multiple re-watches as pick up on all the subtle character moments and the whole point of what Anno was trying to get across with the series. The show can be slowed paced at times but it keeps your attention through out.

The Plot

The basic plot of the series is that these monsters deemed “Angels” that trying to destroy the world by trying to initiate an event called the Third Impact. The anime starts 15 years after the Second Impact which destroyed Antarctica killing half of the worlds population due to the subsequent climate disaster and wars. The protagonist of the story is Shinji Ikari, who is called to pilot a mecha known as an Evangelion designated Unit-01 to protect Tokyo-3. The plot from there develops into a complicated intrigue between different agencies all vying to control the fate of the world.

The Main Cast

Eva is tale of dealing with human isolation caused by trauma. All of the main characters are broken in some way. Shinji is inherently self isolating due to his father abandoning him when he was young. Asuka is traumatized by fact her mother replaced her with a doll and then later killed herself. Rei is dealing with fact shes an artificial human. Finally, Misato was hurt by her father abandoning her for most of her life. Her only means of connection with other people is through sex.

Unlike with any anime I have ever seen the characters don't just get over there past trauma either it stays with them. There is no arc where they are magically fixed but rather there arcs are them struggling against themselves. Shinji is able to become more confident in himself over the course of the first half of the series only to regress due the never ending horrors that is piloting an Eva. Asuka starts out brash and confident but due a series of slip-ups while piloting her Eva she is reduced to a catatonic state. Rei's arc is coming to terms with her humanity, she is shown through out the series to have no emotion or agency. Only occasionally showing embarrassment and anger do to her interactions with Shinji. This all culminates in her self sacrifice to save Shinji in episode 23 and her identity crises and desire for death during the ending of the series. Misato is mixed about how shes feels about her father and her arc is her coming to terms about why she can't seem to connect with people like Shinji.

Animation

Evangelion for its time had a relativity high budget and its shows. All the fights are unique and fluid and angels have all unique design, the highlight for me being the fight with Israfel. It has the 90's cell shaded charm with hand painted backgrounds that anime past the early 2000's just lacks. There only only couple of points where scenes are still frames but it comes across as intentional and didn't bother me.

The Ending

The ending of Neon Genesis Evangelion, that being the last two episodes, contrary to popular belief was not mainly due to a lack of budget but rather due to a lack of time. Anno wouldn't be able to explore his full vision until the The End of Evangelion but that's outside of the scope of this review. The ending takes place in Shinji's mind where he goes through a journey of self realization. This involves him sitting in a chair mostly getting grilled at but, also a change in animation style through quick cuts, text, and fluid simple art. On my first watch through I did not get most of what was said in these two episodes but a subsequent re watch allowed me understand its point about accepting the pain of life through the promise of a new day. With ending scene in particular making smile and cry at the same time.

The best episode of anime ever made

Episode 24 I think is the greatest episode of anime every made. Let me set the scene for you, due to the explosion caused by the 16th angel, Armisael, Toyko-3 is completely destroyed. From that all of Shinji's classmates and friends have left, Asuka is in a coma, Misato emotionally unavailable after the death of Kaji, and he is afraid to see Rei after her consciousness was put into a cloned body. Shinji is completely and utterly alone. Here steps in Kaworu Nagisa, he his a kind, friendly, and charismatic boy humming Beethoven's 'Ode to Joy'. Right off the bat he shows interest in Shinji as they immediately get on a first name basis with each other. Kaworu and Shinji bond through out the episode with Kaworu at one point outright telling Shinji he likes him and is worth is affection. This culminates at the end with Kaworu revealing he is in fact an Angel not a human. With Beethoven's 9th 'Ode to Joy' blasting in its full glory Kaworu commandeers Unit-02 and heads into bowels of Nerv to find Adam and set off the Third Impact. Shinji repulses Unit-02 and grab holds of Kaworu with him telling Shinji to kill him, that life and death have no value to him, and finally that he was glad to have met him. The audience is then subjected to a minute long still frame of Eva Unit-01 holding Kaworu. This works here while in a lesser anime it would have been seen as a lazy attempt to pad the run time because of the following reasons. First off the music went from being bombastic to the orchestra going quiet and only the bass voices singing. This builds tension and seriousness of the moment. But that's not all, up to this point in the anime Shinji as been shown to be completely neurotic, agonizing over every decision he has to make. Without even showing it we know that Shinji is tormenting himself over what to do, until he makes his decision to snuff out Kaworu life. Cut to the sound squelch of Unit-01's hand crushing his body and then the clip his head falling into the water. Immediately followed by Unit-01 getting hosed down still having Kaworu's blood on its left hand. This is moment that Shinji finally breaks as a person from all the trauma he has experienced culminating into killing the one person who should interest and affection in him.

Final Thoughts

Now as the summary suggests I think Eva is not just one of best mechas, ever made its one of best animes ever made. There has been nothing quite like it and I doubt there will be anything like it to come.