I finally watched Neon Genesis Evangelion. And I have
opinions.
Possible spoilers, but nothing specific. Also the anime is like 25 years old, so... you've been warned.
1: A lot fewer giant robot fights, and a lot more hardcore... psychological torture and philosophy than I expected.
2: I found every main character, with the possible exception of Rei, to be massively unpleasant and unlikable. But I guess that makes them more realistic characters?
3: Speaking of, these are probably the most accurate depictions of 14-year-olds I've seen in media. In lots of anime, kids tend to be just smaller, sillier adults. Not here though, here the kids are rash, dumb, annoying, selfish jerks, barely able to grasp that their actions affect the world around them; just like I was at 14!
4: I think I get roughly what the philosophy of the show is. I don't know how specifically it relates to the actual story though. Some episodes seemed kind of random and confusing. "Is this a dream? Whose dream? Hallucination? Somewhere else where a person's brain just goes 'whatever man, I'm going on a tangent with this chick's brain'?" What are those last two episodes supposed to be depicting, literally?
5: Why everything? Why the Angels? Why Seele? Why NERV? Why The Council? Why 14-year-olds exclusively?
6: What is everything from point 5?
6b: So is the whole thing a metaphor? Is it not actually a story about giant robots* stabbing each other and philosophical overtones and metaphor? Is it all metaphor and the giant robots* don't even exist?
7: I haven't seen End of Evangelion yet, maybe that'll help?
8: Watched on Netflix for the first time ever, so didn't get the Fly Me To The Moon ending. I don't feel like I missed it. Also, this may be sacrilege, but I feel like Cruel Angel's Thesis is just ok, and doesn't deserve "legendary OP" status.
9: It's kind of weird watching this
after I've seen Darling In The Franxx. I was aware going in that there were... a number of similarities, but dang. At least as far as big robot battles goes, I feel like Franxx does a better job. Also I prefer having answers to my questions, even if the answers are "Because of 11th hour space aliens".
*
Technically not robots, I know. But can't resist the "Get in the robot, Shinji!" meme