Neon Genesis Evangelion is probably the anime I regret watching the most, I've watched many animes, some I liked, some I didn't, but despite not liking Evangelion I kept watching because the public made me feel like I was missing out on something if I didn't watch it, so I kept going until the very end.
A lot of people claim Evangelion is a classic and a must-watch, but the truth is, it's not. Let me explain why that is, a lot of shows mark their medium and genre for generations ahead, sailor moon did that, but sailor moon still stands out, it's not the best, but has its strong points.
That's not the case with Evangelion, what Evangelion does is poor and uninteresting, and the whole time I watched I couldn't help but think about how I've seen it done better. Evangelion might have been unique and might have inspired a lot of things that came after, but if everything about it can't even be considered average then I have to ask, why not watch anything else? I learn a lot by comparing, I've seen ideas work well in some places and bad in other places, by comparing things I learn more about how things work, and sometimes to explain my view I exemplify to be more clear, I started realizing how much I disliked Evangelion when I started bringing up Evangelion for things that don't work.
I even started using a dumb term I came up with as a joke so it was more tolerable to think about Evangelion, I called it the Evangelion syndrome, and here's what it is, a lot of shows have evil or chaotic characters that are sometimes opposing forces to the protagonist/s, sometimes supportive figures, sometimes the protagonist/s, and that the show tries to make the audience feel empathy for, like Voltron, infinity war, joker, code geass, to name a few, but those work because we can feel empathy for them, not in Evangelion tho, Evangelion tries to walk in 2 different directions at once, trying to have a controversial and hatable cast while also trying to make the audience feel bad for them, you can't make people feel bad for monsters, you can't justify wrong actions with suffering, the most you can do is explain. knowing that a murderer was abused growing up explains what he did, it does not justify it, and if your character has no redeeming qualities and you try to make people feel bad for them just based on suffering, you're not going anywhere.
One thing I like in animes is consistency, Evangelion has that, here's the issue: from episode one it looked like the show was gonna move fast since they introduced almost everything at the start, I then assumed it was because the anime wanted to hurry to get to the good stuff, but then every episode afterward was the same, except we already knew everything, they try to give hints for something hiding behind the scenes, a big plot that we don't understand yet, and that gave me hope, made me feel like the anime was going somewhere, but that's where I was wrong. every episode feels the same. and in the end, the big thing that was gonna be super important is not even used it's just there to trick you into thinking the anime is deeper than it is. I felt like I was left hanging at the end, there is no climax, you'd think the anime was building up to something, except nothing ever happens so it cant be called build-up, it's just a string of boring and irrelevant events.
On to the stuff that isn't as bad, visually it looks good, and I don't even care about animation, design-wise, it looks good, it looks old of course if you're not a fan of old anime styles you might not like it but I doubt from all that I've said that's what's gonna make you not want to watch it. I don't really remember the soundtrack, which means it's good, not good enough for me to notice it but not bad enough to break the immersion. And of course, the opening, not my favorite opening, but it is definitely on my top 10, it's outstandingly good. it looks great, it sounds great, it's one of the best openings in all of anime history, it's by no coincidence that even people that haven't watched the anime recognize it or at least find it familiar.
One more section of me complaining, not because I wanna end on a bad note, but because I have been delaying the inevitable by avoiding mentioning these. you might have heard that Evangelion is a serious anime, and that's true, but it also has some light-hearted moments too, but not like code geass where those were used to explore the characters and their interactions amongst each other and to better flesh them out and establish them, no, in Evangelion its just pointless attempts at being funny or having fanservice, both of which are impossible because it sucks at being funny and because even fanservice already being a garbage trait for an anime, it's even worse in Evangelion because just the idea of fanservice from these characters makes me sick, both because they are horribly disgusting people and also because some of them are kids.
I wanna conclude this with my overall thoughts about the show. Evangelion is not a good show, far from it, the plot doesn't work, the characters don't work, the lore is boring, even after hours of research and knowing what everything behind the scenes was I still find the anime pointless and boring, sometimes the show tries to be cool, it fails, sometimes it tries to be serious and deep, it fails, sometimes it tries to be funny, it fails. I respect Evangelion for the cultural impact it had, but that doesn't make it good, I respect the attempt at symbolism, but that doesn't make it good. to the first one I already gave the example of sailor moon, but to this second issue lemme give a different example. JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken Part 5 has a lot of symbolism around fate and death and it plays with them both and how sometimes they are combined forces of nature and sometimes they are used against each other, the symbolism there is only some subtext that keeps the story tied together while also not forcing the plot into motion, it is just something that once you find out you realize how impressive the writing is since it manages to create an interesting story while also keeping it all accurate to the symbolism, Evangelion doesn't have an interesting story and the symbolism doesn't work, It was a noble attempt, but it fell flat. I respect creativity and bold ventures, but Evangelion is a perfect example of when those fail and I have a hard time understanding how people still praise it this much.
As I said before, Evangelion tries a lot of things, but none of them stand out and are not worth watching, in my opinion, you're better off watching anything else. Acknowledge it exists, respect it for what it attempted, but don't praise it like a classic when it truly isn't. If you like it, great, you can enjoy something I don't and id love to know why, if you don't, that's fine too, if you haven't watched it, you're not missing out.
Sincerely, Spoon
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