A Ryan's Review: Neon Genesis Evangelion

[Nayrman]

Yea, I have another review up so soon, so sue me. In actuality I started watching this show about a month ago and it took me this long to re watch it a few times just to freakin understand it. Oddly this is probably the most famous show I've done so far...at least in terms of name recognition. Oh, and I'll be reviewing the 24 episodes and "End of Evangelion" movie. Holy mind rape batman! It's an angel attack!



Premise: It's a mecha, which means giant robots killing stuff abound. Luckily this isn't about so remedial war or galactic conquest involved (thanks a lot Gundam for making every mecha about that), instead the story takes place in 2015 about a young boy named Shinji Ikari, who in turns becomes the pilot of Evangelion Unit 01 (or Eva 01...whichever). The task at hand is to destroy the "angels"; a group of other worldly aliens out to destroy mankind for one reason or another (it's never genuinely stated as to why...in fact Shinji himself asks this question during the course of the show). Along the way he meets various other people including other members of NERV (the company Shinji, and his father, work for to stop the angels).

I do have to say it's nice to see a mecha more grounded in reality unlike other shows *glares at Code Geass*. Most of the show tends to be at least based of science, especially the mechs themselves. This is evident that the Eva's even have to have a power chord to retain energy, and if severed are only given a few minutes of power. I just like this touch because I'm sick of the massive robots with seemingly limitless power to do whatever the hell the user wants it to do (again, Gundam). However, the mecha battles only tend to take up half of the show, focusing otherwise on the characters themselves and what they're going through. The other premise of the show is the psychological aspects each character is going through. It's safe to say everyone (save maybe Kaji) has some sort of mental disorder that makes them all weird to some extent (Shinji's fear of rejection, Asuka's obsession of self-reliance, etc.). This is where the mind rape comes in, as none of it is explained terribly well with the last two episodes of the show and movie becoming absolutely mind-buggeringly confusing. The show can be figured out, but I'll be darned if I ever understand the movie. I'm pretty sure this is the show that invented "mind-rape" (in fact, Asuka's mind gets "violated" by an angel at one point...so it's mind rape literally).
Premise: 7.5/10


-Eva 01 and Eva 00; power chords and all (as you can tell I love that idea)

Characters: This is where the show does both shine and completely fall apart in terms of good design. On the good part, every character is original and well made, each having their own issues to work out as well as deal with their jobs at NERV in defeating the angels. It's also nice to see that most characters don't exactly get along that well, unlike every other show where friendship and the power of love save all! It's nice to see people who genuinely don't like eachother just dealing with it to reach a common goal (Shinji hates his dad, Asuka hates Rei, etc.). It's also nice to see faulty characters, each having faults that aren't just convenient to the plot of the story in terms of robot fighting. Shinji is shy and timid, Asuka is bossy yet self diluting, Rei doesn't understand how interaction even works (evident by her many soliloquy's in the show), and it goes on. In actuality this stems from the creator being in a deep depression before writing Evangelion, and he wanted to convey that in his work.

However, that's where the character development tends to faulter at certain points. With everyone having some wierd issue to deal with, it makes most, if not all, the characters unlikeable to a certain extent. It almost makes you wonder how the characters even deal with life with some of their issues, and it sort of weighs the show down. Rei tends to be the only manageable main character, only because she tends have little/no personality at many points; even then being rather bland when she does tend to show emotion besides a few key moments. **Spoiler: Meaning you will cheer when Asuka gets ripped apart in the movie** At least at the start of the show it is intruiging, since most anime characters tend to be happy-go-lucky or at least mildly content with their lives...although this all changes once the mind rape begins (basically episode 20 onwards). I don't particularly like this, but I will give it points for origionality instead of following the "yea lets go get em!" mentality of many mechas.
Characters: 8/10 - Unlikeable, but in the good way.


- Hopefully I'm not the ONLY one to make this comparison...I swear the two are so similar at points it's scary... "The Pretentiousness of Mary Sue" or em..."Haruhi" definatly stole this one in terms of personality and design.

Execution: I will say at least the show does what it set out to do. At times Evangelion tends to not do things in the most logical way possible though. Oftentimes during flashback/timeskip episodes so little will actually be unveiled you almost wonder why the bothered, or the information will not be expanded upon (So Gendo Ikari knew something about Second Impact...but it never gets explained for some reason). That's my only real problem with the execution of this show...the information flow seems to be messed up. That would be fine if everything was concluded in a reasonable matter, but the ending seems to make all the information gathered completely pointless other than a few bits you have to watch a few times to pick up after seeing the ending.

At least the fights with the angels are good and easy to follow. Every angel (save one copycat) is origional and has some form of unique way of attacking the three Eva pilots and NERV (yes, involving mind rape at one point). This usually involves shooting or close range with a special knife (KNIFE FIGHT!), but most fights aren't repeated, which is nice so we don't see the same re-used animations for every fight (SHINING...FINGA! I like G Gundam, but why does he do that in EVERY episode!?).

Finally, I get to the ending. Death Note, Fullmetal Alchemist (albeit not that hard if you pay attention), The Sixth Sense, and the Ring COMBINED don't even come close to the "Wait...what?!" that this ending gets. I have to be nit-picky about this since the television show at least had a plausible ending after you understand it to a certain degree. However, this all gets intercourse ed up once the movie hits and all hell breaks loose and the entire continuity is given a big middle finger (reminds me of a certain blue hedgehog and a planet called Mobius...). Basically, if you're satisfied with the show's ending DO NOT watch the movie. It gives an ending and a few questions but otherwise it only gives more questions and fails to explain much of anything about it. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
Execution: 5/10 - only due to a completely messed up ending that makes almost no sense.


-yea...mind telling me what the intercourse  is happening? No? Thanks...jerks....

Entertainment/Overall: At least until the ending this show is entertaining. The basic jist of the show is fine because frankly the combat works and the characters are interesting enough to keep you interested (besides Gendo...he's an poop hole). Luckily this show in fairly short, as anything longer would've been completeley worthless in terms of the series (they beat all the angels by the third to last episode). I will say that this isn't a show for everyone. If you like silly or generally happy anime with a lighthearted plot (Lucky Star, Azumanga Daioh, "Pretentousness of Mary Sue", Dragon Ball); you'll probably not like this show. Not to say that you won't, but basically if you can enjoy Samurai X, Ghost in the Shell, and to an extent Cowboy Bebop you should be generally okay with this show.
Entertainment/Overall: 8/10
In one sentence: "Gundam + Depression/Mental Disorders + Mind Rape - fantasy space robots with limitless batteries = Evangelion"


- Fuck you Gendo... (Yes, I REALLY hate Gendo)