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NieR: Automata.

The anime.

I refrained from reviewing Part 1 as the story and presentation of the title was literally unfinished there.

Part 2... I am beginning to see why people who know nothing about philosophy and think little to nothing about most things are impressed with this title. This is the same segment of the audience who will surely click "confusing" to this review, by the way. Even so, I intend to express a different reflection of this title's quality to express than simple awe.

To begin, I make sure to state: this is a review of the ANIME -- ignoring any exclusively source-material merits, as ... an anime should stand on its own, at most relying on its prequels. Even if I have source material knowledge, I will deliberately not factor them in. No, I will not watch 3 or 5 hours long of fan-made explanation or head-canon videos and if someone needs to in order to have any points of dissatisfaction addressed, that's not a work standing on its own, now is it?

Moreover, given we are in 2024 and the sound and visuals are nothing impressive for this year, I'll get it over with and say: there's no bonus points to my rating added from merely meeting industry standards. No, I have no complaints about the female designs, in case anyone asks if that's why I'm not giving bonus points. I'm not about to complain about sexy female designs; in fact, I enjoy them, though they never get a bonus point on just this alone; see my criteria for grading anime for more details.

Here we go:

For those watching this anime as it's being released, a huge impact that hurts this anime is timing -- Part 1 was quite a while ago... but Part 2 took too long to release, which numbed a great deal of any emotional anticipation. Yes, this is common in today's animescape, but that does not diminish the effect. Animators, PLEASE! Just release an anime you WANT people to feel is deep or epic in one go. And not 12 episodes; that's hardly screentime to tell a truly good tale; however many episodes it takes, please! Thankfully, this point is not relevant if you aren't watching as it's coming out. In my case, as a reviewer, it gives me a more unbiased and clear-minded approach to analyze the story when any emotional workup is disrupted and neutralized so I can dissect straight into the meat of the story.

Now for the actual story -- even as someone who rarely touches videogames anymore, I heard the praises sung about this title, the game and source material that is. There's all that about how it's deep, PROFOUND! How it explores nihilism, how it explores existentialism...

As an actual living nihilist, this should excite me. Not so much in an elevation of value in the work, but as something simply stimulating for the mind on a purely biological, neurological and psychological level. After all, even people who live by active nihilism, those who actively deny objective meaning and value to keep their gaze upon the world unclouded, are still motivated by the same hormones in our carbon-based data processors called "brains".

Yet, one fundamental problem is, this story is like a college essay that throws a lot of big words and names around, but fails to show true comprehension and ability to explore them, often just falling into pessimistic bias in representation and "FeeEeeeLz".

>>Human emotions are somehow forbidden... for... robots.

Read that last sentence again. Yes. Um... Why not program and make bots to not have them? Why not just program them to be a literal goal-oriented and efficiency-driven protocol? Especially combat units.

GPT can explain why it does not have feelings. It might take a little thinking about why an entity can outwardly behave similar to a human or perform otherwise intellect-necessary actions without feelings. It involves knowing and understanding statistics, probability and linear (tensor) algebra to begin. But, it's quite possible. We only did it this entire time in human history. No, the electronic device you hold in your hand does not have feelings, thankfully. Imagine if your smartphone could cry in pain every time you drop it by accident. Or if it had existential angst when you decided it was time for an upgrade to a new iphone or samsung for better memory or features. Who ever would invent such a feature...

Yet the logic behind machines having feelings is never explained in the show. Were YoRHa making imitation family members and substitute friends/lovers for buy or were they manufacturing combat units to decimate invading alien forces? Same question for the tin cans that YoRHa fights against.

>>Philosophers' names are used. Concepts get brought up.

Yet, all coverage of this is shallow.

A robot is named Pascal but does not touch on "The Wager" (which was about believing in or not believing in god and the associated consequences to believe or to not believe) that Blaise Pascal was famous for. The concept of a "Wager", by the way... involves betting something of value at the risk of something else of value. Nihilism... is about the world lacking inherent meaning and value. Right so, put the last two sentences together. Go on.

"2B" teases the line "To be or not to be" as a nice nod to Shakespeare's Hamlet's famous soliloquy about if to live in suffering, or to defy in death. The show certainly tries to show a lot of "suffering"; I mean, there have only been so many times where a robot was RPing as though it was in great grief, but sadly when humanity coined the concept of suffering, it meant only carbon-based lifeforms, not ChatGPT when it gets bombarded with insults for misunderstanding a user's poorly phrased run-on sentence or that poor baseball you keep swinging a bat at when you play baseball with your friends... But yeah, as there are no carbon-based lifeform sentients, suffering-RP is honestly about it.

Religion, cults, beauty and femininity, perception of reality. Ideas like these get a mere 20 minutes with even less of the episode on some allegories that reference the most superficial layer of these ideas. There is no tie-in to how it even should be connected to the supposed central theme of nihilism and there is no dive into any of these topics at length or any direction of where to go with this. It's much like how someone throws ideas around and hope something is seen as relevant, meanwhile nothing new is added to the literature surrounding nihilism; no new ideas regarding nihilism is being added.

Maybe I should write a book or draw a manga where I name every character after a philosopher with barely any relevance to the philosophy they are known for -- like... all the female characters could be named after a feminist, and all leadership role characters could be named after a thinker from the enlightenment. Will I get seen as a DeEp and PrOfOuNd WriTeR too...? EZ ticket to fame and fortune?

>>9S

Much of the juice and bulk of what makes this story "profound" (and that takes the bulk of the episode count of the anime's part 2) is in 9S's portrayal in that ending where he experiences "existential despair". The "not 2 B" ending where 9S is the main character of it, to euphemistically refer to the gist of that ending versus the first episode of Part 2.

...Here's the problem: in terms of psychological realism, which is what actually makes characters in stories interesting and thus, in most people's eyes, worth it to experience, this... is not how most nihilists come to realize that nihilism is very much real and undeniable. And, for most people, the reaction is first, denial. When someone tells you nothing matters in the objective, you deny it because subjectively, you have painted the illusion of value and meaning all over your own eyes. It's like covering your eyes with your hands and pretending the sky does not exist. Of course, some people will deny the truth until they die; gazing into the void isn't something every homo sapiens sapiens has the mental strength and intellectual rigor to brave. Others come to a mature realization that it's the truth. That it's all constructs that construct the world in our minds and thus are just the illusions we painted into our vision. An intangible thought paradigm that was once advantageous for survival but in lieu of imminent danger, serves as nothing more than a constricting relic of thought. An intellectual enlightenment. Then a decision of what to do with that plot twist of life occurs, often calmly.

That's the usual reaction.

Melodramatic despair when you lose your only "purpose"... is really not that relatable or realistic when discussing nihilism or the realization of it, which is often coined the term "existential crisis". Reality is just not very often that angsty.

Don't mistake the above though.

Yes, you will suffer and despair if the person you love the most dies. There is not a single person, nihilist or otherwise, who does not suffer. This is because, even for the most extreme of nihilists who actively deny objective meaning and value, the body still excretes dopamine and oxytocin which is what the "feel" of attachment and love are based on, physically speaking. Even if you actively know none of it matters, that none of it will objectively have intrinsic meaning or value and thus nothing was truly lost in the grand scale, your eyes will still shed tears because cortisol and prolactin are still secreted by your body to make you cry. How you proceed consciously, intellectually speaking, is what differs between a nihilist and someone who isn't one. A normal person will probably mourn, perhaps hold a funeral, perhaps go over good and bad memories and tell themselves what this meant to them. A nihilist may take a much more pragmatic approach. Some might be existentialists or absurdists who try to be passionate anyway, under the cling of subjective value. Some might take a much more mundane approach. Yet importantly, the reason this does not work when portraying 9S... is because he is supposed to be a robot per the very premise of the show. He doesn't secrete dopamine or oxytocin or any other hormone, and I have no reason to believe the combat androids are the bodies humanity were supposed to transfer into and thus need these functions. So then, why is he acting like someone who is governed by hormonal cycles and systems that form the physical foundation of human emotion? Was he a role-play AI who is supposed to generate emotional character text instead? Maybe RPing enemies to "death" was a combat tactic here?

The same thing applies for discovering that what you were doing the whole time did not matter. Biologically and psychologically speaking, there will be a reaction. It will be tailored to what that specific situation is. But again, 9S is a robot. And for an android designed to fight, even in a scout role, I cannot see the advantage of having it secrete and be affected by dopamine, oxytocin or any other hormone let alone engage in what can be observed as role-play behavior when you talk to AI that are programmed and trained to act like fictional characters. The narrative logic here simply does not compute for why combat units need emotion.

This is why 9S's portrayal when he is the focus and in grief is problematic because it is pure theatrical, emo angst. There is no exploration of a realistic realization of nihilism that would be typical of a normal human being who is undergoing an intellectual enlightenment of their view of the world or an exploration of the psychology of loss, even if we ignore the narrative flaw that a robot somehow has the hormone secretion and effect cycle called "emotion" as if he was just a naive boy until the big despair happens.

"Nothing matters" and emo screaming with tears, the trope.

...And that's all there is to it.

So, how does this impact the story?

Well, once you stripped all the "profound" down, this anime boils down to, two robots who take orders from a super powerful organization, they do missions, and then in various ways, things went poof.

This isn't profound.

My reaction to the entire thing was blasé.

9S's emo and angsty portrayal had me laughing at the attempt at illustrating a philosophy I know as well as the taste of bread. The stereotype that "nihilism is despair", is too old and so poorly represents the rare individuals who are truly nihilists in life. I for one find it quite liberating to not be fettered by the prescribed meanings and values of the world around me, by the way. And, I'd choose no other way of life than to abandon definitions and paradigms meant to have me submit.

To its credit,

At least this anime is not another isekai or reverse isekai where the main character, male or female, is effectively god, or the avatar of popularity. It's at least trying to do the thing I loved about some older anime: having a theme, something to think about.

Unfortunately, the lack of depth and the stereotyped portrayal of nihilism as despair, coupled with the fact that the characters themselves are just robots with unrealistic melodramatic reactions to stuff that occurs and say stereotypically emotional lines, the experience of watching this anime is truly closer as an experience of reading to a shallow forum post. It’s akin to an ENTP or INTP debater on a forum who writes the first sentence of every point he wants to make but fails to complete the paragraph for any of the points and then goes on a rant in the middle, ending up with a shallow, scattered post that then loses the debate altogether because it lacks the actual focus and incisiveness their INTJ debate partner can muster. Or, maybe I should consider this public domain philosophy texts, the commercial -- with 2B as the marketting waifu to entice those who would otherwise be too bored to study philosophy.

4/10

Note: There was no reason for me to write this review, nor a reason to not write it. If there is a term you don't know here, look it up by yourself. Oh and, feel free to copypasta this over to Chat GPT and ask for an "unbiased psychological analysis of if or not the writer is truly nihilistic" if you doubt my claim.

KKTHXBB
&
/H ave
A
N ice
D ay!

I am the viewer of my screen
Pixels are my body and frames are my blood
I have watched over a thousand animes
Unknown to Trash
Nor known to AOTY
Have withstood boredom to watch many episodes
Yet, these eyes will never see any value
So as I pray, Unlimited Bullshit Works!

...I literally had more fun making a UBW-style meme out of this show than watching episodes 2 through 11 of this anime. Never touched the source material, by the way. Maybe it's better but I am an anime reviewer, not a defender of bad adaptations nor a supporter of the notion that an anime adaptation's quality should stand by the ... quality of the source rather than its own merit.

If you, the reader, are in a hurry to judge this anime by my review, take my recommendation to watch episode 1, 11 and 12 and you will be done. It'll be just as rushed as going through all 12 episodes. If you want to read more of what I have to say about this show, read on.

Jokes aside, this show has a promising premise. The idea of a cursed prince seeking a witch to lift his curse and falling in love with the witch is not a bad one. In fact, done well it can be an excellent story.

However, where this show suffers is entirely in the execution of that romance, where not only does the prince fall in love at first sight, the girl is practically a literal god all by herself. The prince was about as useful as Sailor Moon's Tuxedo Mask, except worse. Everything is about how OP and "wise" (when she states the obvious in her monologues) the witch is. Everytime the prince does get screentime, its how much he simps her. Even if he decides to do things to prioritize his waifu at what should be the perceived expense of other characters, such as his father the King, there is minimal objection. Just a 2 line joke scolding. It's cringe-tier bad. I genuinely was reminded of the trash quality often observed in fanfiction by amateur writers.

Story rating: 0.5/3

Then we have to dive into the characters -- to get it over with, of course there are no memorable side characters! Unless you mean the outfits some of them wear or if you only care if they do or don't look hot.

So, left to carry the weight of the characterization are the two main leads: The prince -- Oscar, and the witch -- Tinasha.

Oscar is the cursed prince, if he doesn't break the curse, he can't have an heir, that's a problem for his dynasty. This is all episode one. Good, good... until he finds the witch and just becomes her simp. He's always either amazed with her OPness or amazed with her self-sacrificing-ness or just amazed... because. Is this a representation of the writer's idealization of a waifu in Tinasha ala Takeuchi/Saber...?

Tinasha is a witch... who is effectively a god. Or goddess, rather. She can off an army by herself- OKAY BUT MAGIC IS SUPPOSED TO BE HER FORTE!! ...so is swordsmanship. And "wisdom". And nobility. And selflessness. And knowing everything. And purity! So pure she doesn't realize by herself without the help of a whole group of NPCs that she has sexual attraction towards the prince! And oh she just gets hurt so often, please feel bad for her!! It's literally over the top.

The silver lining is that the characters are not caricatures typical of today's anime scene. They do fulfill shoujo tropes though! Like the two girls who wants Oscar out of the blue who never get any characterization to justify the attempts at him other than "oh he's hot"*. Why not? Right??

*not in these exact words

Character rating: 3.5/5

There's nothing to say about the art or the sound other than that sometimes, the combat animations are a bit lame/static. That bit is pretty average though.

Art and sound bonus: 0/1

Themes/Exploration: There isn't much of a theme. It does try to explore something meaningful at the end on the very last episode so I'm obligated by my own criterion to bump the score +1.

Thematic and Philosophical Exploration: 1/2

Total score: 5/10

Final comments: if she were real, Tinasha wouldn't be a bad wife by the way. She's not even a bad person. The problem is, she's terribly handled and so is Oscar. There is never a moment of romantic tension of any kind. Nothing to really challenge the couple with the last episode offering a sliver of silver lining.

You know all those cute-girls-doing-cute-things the anime that float around every season?

Introducing.... Hot-Dudes-Doing-Hot-Things the anime!

Yes.

By the way the above is literally all you really need to know to decide if or not to watch this show.

No, there's not really any story. It was a rather random experience from episode to episode.

... No, there's not really any characterization/character development. Just enjoy the hot guys doing hot things on the screen each episode with little to no relevance to the episode before it.

The visuals are ikemen, I guess. If they weren't, there would be nothing at all worth watching for anyone. The sound is ok.

Yes, this is the whole review.

No, I am not writing a full length one like I usually do for other shows.

Have a good day!

2/10

True to the shoujo genre, the artstyle and overall visuals of this anime are very pretty, dialed up to 11 with the princess's frilly dresses and the endless bishounen characters with tall and slender builds that appeal to many of (Japan's) shoujo fanbase. Of course, being an animated work, the art will never measure up to the manga, and that's fine; I'm usually lenient with artwork not measuring up to still images in anime.

For other mostly superficial aspects of the show like sound, it was mostly okay. Nothing about the soundtrack stood out or was particularly grating, bar the constant senpai-you-to-death tier of high ... pitched frailness in the main character's voice acting which got annoying after a while.

However, when it comes to what counts, this show fails on multiple levels.

Yes, I acknowledge that sex appeal sells and so do escape fantasies. However, I believe it is possible to have a bit of this without making a show 90% this and 10% substance.

Plotwise, given the interests of the main characters is to get together and be married in a royal setting, if there was any threat to that, the first 2-3 episodes were enough to clear up the misunderstanding about the female lead being a convenient stand-in fiancee. Yes, there is a girl who wants to be princess and Elianna is in the way. Yes, this is typical. I can forgive this tropey setup given the setting if it was just this. Problem is, throughout the show, the conflict is basically just mostly this on some kind of repeat -- some other noblewoman wants to be princess and does things and MC is too helpless to deal with it and just cries until her prince saves her.

Characterization-wise, the show tries to sell Elianna's booksmarts as some sort of strength and don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with being knowledgeable. However, this is basically her only redeeming quality as a main character. As a main character, she has nearly no agency, is barely a heroine of her own story, and can be summed up as a Cinderella who had a loving and supportive family with a love of books. Throughout the near-loop tier repetition of plotting noble girls who get in her way, she exhibits nearly no growth of character and remains as frail and helpless from beginning to end. The prince and support cast is no better.

To sum this up [aka tldr]:
This show is the ultimate escape princess fantasy for women who want to live in a world where they are hot and rich, have a hot and rich and powerful boyfriend who is blindly loyal to them, be loved by literally everyone with any ability to influence their life and all the other good stuff. The only thing missing now is magic powers and sparkling fairy friends.

To be clear, there is nothing wrong with liking this show. However, it would be a travesty to consider this an objectively good anime. 3/10

Normally, I don't even bother to review isekai anime as most of them are copypastas with slight tweaks of each other. However, this one hits a new type of low.

With nothing sound- or graphics-wise to stand out, this one relies completely on its plot and characterization to shine and manages to tank both categories pretty hard. Characterization-wise, the MC's character development comes down to "Oh I realize I would've done better before I isekai'd if I had friends." Plot-wise, guy-isekai'd-into-world-and-saves-it is pretty much sums up the entire 12 episodes.

As for the reason I bothered to write this review: The new low this anime managed ... to hit is making every action scene summarizable by "mahou tensou".

Why animate any fight? Just make it a wordgame. Least an isekai where the new world is just a forum board would be pretty hilarious.

2/10 (see rubric on my user page if you care about how this was broken down)

Why am I reviewing this...?

Okay well, there is only 1 other review as of the time I'm writing this and I do feel strongly about this show even though the rating itself is rather mixed.

So the shallow stuff out of the way: this show was made in 1985. Let me repeat: NINETEEN EIGHTY-FIVE. Graphically, comparing this show to anything contemporary to the time of writing this review would be unfair, ye? So I'm going to compare it with other shows from around this time: Macross, Gundam, etc. Graphically, this show is ok. It's in fact got its own charm for what it is and actually ... a little reminiscent of disney cartoons. Yes, graphically, this show will remind you of disney... A LOT.

A stern warning on the graphics: This show takes place on the start of World War 2. If you are sensitive to controversial symbolism, the symbols used by a good deal of the villains might put you off. I will note that the whole goal of pretty much all of the protagonists is to resist them though.

Sound wise, this aspect does not stand out either. It's rather forgettable unless you like the style of music offered here (classical, the more bland kind, not the kind with dramatized flairs). Alpenrose is pretty much the only track that is worth noting but keep in mind how many times this tune plays throughout the show. It's not likely you will sing it or want to listen to it after the show's over though.

Now the plot and characters...

I'm going to start by noting that there is something charming about the main couple. Jeudi and Lundi (or Judy and Randi, depending on who's subbing it) are cute together. This is also all there is to them. This show has a lot of tropes precisely because it is old. The characters do not really grow either, they basically get chased their whole screentime.

However, as simple/cliche as they are, they DO have their charm. This is further enhanced by the side characters, some of whom evolve their morals, others realize their feelings. Some never really grow but there are enough that do that all the story arcs have some sort of charm to them to keep you watching.

The main issue in the story is that, the main couple being chased/hunted by various villains is also more or less all there is to the story. The staff totally did try to spice this up and add more depth and complexity; this is obvious given how the show could have ended on episode 11 or 12 but dragged on all the way to 20. However, given the chase-run nature of the premise, the story is basically stuck having to tell everything in separate arcs, some of which do not really have enough depth on their own to be interesting.

That said, the show did more or less wrap up all its loose ends and if you can overlook the potentially offensive symbolism from the villains, this show has the charm of your typical disney princess movie.

Ah, the raid event in a gacha game made into a movie because the franchise behind it happens to be rich...

Hip, hip, HORRAAAAAAAAAYYYY!!!

Ok really now though...

Normally, I review anime with no background knowledge of the source material since I treat every anime I watch as a standalone work of art. Here, I'll be discarding what I know beforehand. There are many problems with this movie for those who are watching without having played the game before hand.

First off, plotwise, there is effectly no plot. The backdrop given is effectively just, the Incineration of Humanity is happening, so go forth, child go kill the tentacle army ... to save humanity. You want story? It's split into 9 segments, the Fuyuki Prologue, the Seven Singularities where only 2 of them are animated, and this... uh...last-fight thingy is this title right here. Why are all these figures appearing? Who even are they? Who cares. Who knows. They don't speak except for Jeanne and a little bit of Nero. And Gilgamesh is only here to say one line, not do anything at all. Why? Why the hell not. They are simply an army of Deus-Ex-Machina that appear. The buildup or explanation? Well, you won't get it in this movie because that costs screentime and the previous two anime installations won't tell you either because that'd be spoilers. Gudao (a.k.a. Fujimaru Ritsuka) gets his ass saved. Be happy.

Story: 1/5

Second, characters wise, believe me, it is nigh impossible to get attached to the cast in this movie from watching this movie. The main character is your generic self insert bland male in a harem setting. Mash's characterization got rushed pretty badly here to the point where even her most important scene is executed unemotionally and then flipped around into yet another Deus-Ex-Machina so as to nullify whatever build up they did with her character. The rest of the cast are just literally command room tech support and one dude suddenly talking and then vaporizing and then nothing immediately happening. There are no explanations for any of this or what Ars Nova is even supposed to do or why Goetia is totally freaked out over his master using it.

Characterization: 1/5

Oh and... in case anyone is wondering if the sound or art might give a +1 bonus point carry for this movie's score...

No.

Final score: 2/10

"how to sexually bully the hottest girl in school: randomly chopping limbs off hot girls" the anime.

If your time is precious, the above line about sums up the show for you.

Technically, there is some sort of loose premise in the background that explains why boys and girls are supposed to pair up as Pandoras and Limiters. However, the plot is very, very straight forward of just fighting monsters that chop up girls AND this plot only really exists in the background and is by no means anything intricate. Most of the show is some really unamusing (and at times cringe) bullying of one shy girl ... with a history of sexual abuse at home. The first season does not tell the whole story and spends way more time than necessary focusing on all sorts of ways to bully one chick.

No themes, no exploration of any novel ideas. No thinking involved.

Also, the characters don't really change at all. There is hardly illustration of the main character's inner minds. This thing would have done well if it had sex scenes so it could have been a good hentai but unfortunately, by trying to sell itself as a legitimate narrative with ecchi elements, it really barked up the wrong tree.

This review (probably) contains spoilers.

Neon Genesis Evangelion.

This name has been, for two and a half decades, engraved deeply into the culture of anime. It's theme song is iconic, the voice actors and actresses of its cast are, today, famous, some even celebrated, and undoubtedly, the show has had a huge impact in the anime industry, especially the mecha genre where it has become iconic.

In some ways, this recognition is deserved. Out of the nigh (or above) 1000 titles I have personally seen, Evangelion stands as one of the most depressing (by atmosphere) titles out there. It also has a certain level of abstractness ... which can be extrapolated as artistic arrangement by the staff. It is one of the few works to earn the 9th point on my rating rubric, and to date, there really isn't another work like it in feel (the closest being RahXephon).

All of this praise is not to say that the show is flawless and without points to critique. In fact, one of the most notable problems with the show is its plot, if it can still be called so.

The story presents itself on the stage of a globally devastated earth after a catastrophic event called the Second Impact has taken place in Antarctica. Gigantic beings called "Angels" come regularly to the city where the series takes place and the three main pilots are to fight this off.

At this point, the premise is fine and good. Once past the first or second episode which gives a taste of the depressing and mopey feel throughout the show, the series is not really that different from the majority of mecha anime out there. The show does enter a long phase of mostly monster-of-the-week mixed with what can effectively be described as a slice-of-life of Shinji's puberty cringe. When it becomes obvious that there are more clandestine operations and intentions in the backdrop, the story even seems to get more interesting.

What starts to earn the audience's ire is when the supposed "plot" hits what could be considered the climax -- when all the character's issues are running at their highest: Asuka can't pilot her Eva because Shinji's successes so far have triggered her own insecurity and Shinji just failed to prevent the crippling of his friend for life/killed someone he believed to be his friend. Rather than resolving each of these and the other side character's subplots/issues, the show goes into an abstract soliloquy for each major character round-robin.

On one hand, these soliloquys greatly spell out each major character's internal thoughts. Their id, ego and superegos become explicitly exposed to the audience. Everything bothering the character, their hopes or dreams, their psychological needs, and their individual decisionmaking is shown in great detail through this soliloquy where the characters exchange dialogue with what seems to be their perceived version of the people in their lives. For this, I do award this show with a full score for characterization.

However, these dialogues by no means conclude the series' plot in any way. So what has happened to humanity now that the Human Instrumentality Project is in place? The actualization and merge of souls of mankind into one entity is effectively the equivalent predecessor to Charles Zi Britannia's Ragnarök, which, while the concept facilitates next-level interpersonal communication and thus forever eliminates interpersonal conflicts, does so by eliminating the concept of the individual, which in turn does not necessarily mean a happy ending for anyone or even humanity itself. In fact, that would be a form a stagnation of mankind and a sort of dead end.

So is the ending trying to say that the characters are suffering so much that it is better if the world just ended and all the problems people go through should just become irrelevant?

Perhaps.

Yet, whatever the case, this is one of the parts that splits the viewers. There will be those whose mental health conditions will incline them to argue that indeed, that is the ideal solution. Yet, the split exists because there are also many whose mental health is sound enough that they will say that this solves nothing and just adds a brand new problem into the mix where nothing at all is solved.

Further complaints about the show lie in its presentation of its themes. While indeed, this show has themes and can be summarized as a growing up story of sorts, the themes in this show are mostly just dialogue in the last two episodes and some episode titles. Whereas some shows juxtapose events as a way of exploring different faces of an issue or idea, Evangelion is mostly depression in the form of unearned tragedy for various members of its cast without really any exploring. Sure, the theme of puberty troubles and the general idea of being insecure is prevalent, and the individual insecurity problems of Asuka and Shinji are shown, but two cases hardly qualify as an exploration. As such it would not be inaccurate to say that the work is the writer's scream of anguish to voice his complaints over (his personal) life's woes and the overall work, somewhat like an artist splattering paint on a canvas in vague shapes, leaving everyone to examine and try to make sense of the subsequent mess of colors.

As of the time of writing this review, the craze in the anime scene is isekai. As of the time of this title's release date, (one of) the craze(s) was the success of massive genre defining titles like Sailor Moon and Cardcaptors -- the mahou shoujo genre.

This anime original is pretty much exactly a cashgrab akin to today's filler isekai titles that get an anime adaptation. The show's episode and plot structure is episodic with little to no continuity between one episode and the next. The show is effectively a computer virus take on the battle-mahou-shoujo with the same ditzy heroine tropes and other ... 90s comedy tropes. There is virtually little to no backstory or even plot besides transforming every episode to fight monster-of-the-episode about 50+ times.

Characterization-wise, there are pretty much nothing but caricatures of the memorable characters of genre.

I suppose a child of maybe age 12 or lower may enjoy this anime but for the most part, this show offers nothing that another title of the same genre cannot offer. Moreover it's take on the year 2020's scene of computers is pretty inaccurate (not that the low score had anything to do with this, for more details, see my profile page for the exact rating criteria) and for anyone watching as of the time of this review, you will have a good cringe at what the anime's idea of a computer or advanced AI/technology is.