Mar 28, 2009
(I promise not to write any spoilers in this review.)
Back when I was eleven, I had heard about "an anime with a kinda cute blue-haired girl, angels and science fiction stuff" around the net, and thought it looked good. I looked it up on YouTube, and- not to sound cheesy- my life was changed forever. That did sound cheesy... nyoro~n...
The story, quite simply, is legendary. It's surprisingly deep, thought-provoking and, in bits of the later episodes and movies, oddly beautiful. I can quite honestly not say just how brilliant it is in words, or in anything else. It goes far beyond the basic idea of
...
alien lifeforms invading the planet, causing the apocalypse and having to be defeated by a group of fourteen-year-olds who are being forced to pilot (what they think are) mechas. Far from being cheesy, pretentious or immature, as it could have been, it is, quite simply, perfect.
Next, the art. This can be summed up in five words. "This is a 1995 anime?!" The art in Evangelion is amazing, in my opinion, beating some modern anime. The style is strangely realistic for an anime style, weird as that might sound- no giant eyes, and no crazy hair color without some reason for it. Even in the non-remastered version, the visuals are mostly crisp and clean, providing you don't watch it on low-quality blurry Youtube videos.
Now, the sound. This is, again, incredible. The voice acting is perfect (providing that you ignore the dub), especially for Ayanami Rei, the introverted, slightly workaholic, mostly emotionless but still clearly human pilot of Eva Unit 00, and Nagisa Kaworu, who I can't explain about without spoiling a lot. The music is, if possible, even better. The mixture of original score, new versions of existing songs (examples; Ode to Joy in episode 24, Fly Me To The Moon as the ending theme to most episodes) and J-pop is just perfect. There's no balance problems or distortion, either.
The characters are among the best I've seen in any anime. They are surprisingly, almost painfully, realistic, and strangely relatable, odd as that might be. None of them come over as excessively emotional, ridiculously optimistic, out of place, or Mary-Sue-ish at all. I have a kind of attachment to all of them. You know you shouldn't like them so much; they're destructive, highly flawed, and, in the case of a few characters, sadistic, but you can't help but love them. I pretty much agree with other positive reviewers on the individual characters, so I'll skip over that.
Now for the enjoyment factor. This is not the anime to watch if you only enjoy cutesy happy fluff. This anime is pretty much tragic. By the end, almost all the characters have gotten themselves destroyed, emotionally, physically or both. However, it manages to be just so enjoyable to watch. For some reason, you find yourself totally addicted to it. In some parts, it's oddly beautiful without you quite knowing why.
Overall, this is one of the best anime out there. If you like drama, sci-fi, mecha, theotech, psychological stuff, or deep stories, you'll love Evangelion. Even if you hate all those things, watch it anyway. And if you hate the actual series, watch End of Evangelion before you consign it to the rubbish-heap. If you watched the series, you pretty much have to watch EoE; it answers almost all the unanswered questions and makes for a much more satisfying ending.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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