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After finishing both Movies so far I can say that they are better than the original series up to this point.

The most striking difference is of course the graphics. Modern HD graphics and improved animation technology made the movies look much more impressive than the series 15 years ago of course.
I watched Evangelion 1.0 first, then the series including End of Evangelion then Evangelion 2.0.
So directly coming from the first movie to the series the graphical differences pierced into my eyes. Now there are details never seen in the old version, crisp and vivid making the movies eye-candy you don't want to miss out ... on. It is like switching a game from minimum graphics settings to maximum.

While the first movie adapted many of the original scenes Evangelion 2.0 strayed further from the original plot. Though in a way I fully approve of. There weren't many changes with Shinji in the first movie, but in the second movie I actually liked him. Finally he's bahaving like a hero saving the earth should be.
Asuka got a little more tsundere traits which make her cuter and more amiable than her counterpart 15 years ago. And instead of letting Asuka completely turn into a psycho bitch, they introduced a new quite interesting character: Mari. Although little is know about her, I already like her :D

All in all I can't point out anything that did not improve from the 1995 anime.

But this is the first half. I also kinda liked the first half of NGE.
What I'm really curious about is how 3.0 will turn out.
In my review of NGE I already stated that in the second half, the plot and character development went downhill. Giant plotholes and Shinji's and Asuka's bitching turned the series into something I wouldn't want to do to myself another time. If 3.0 turns out to be something in the lines of ep 25/26 of NGE I'll send Anno some letter bombs +_+

Because of the relatively high score I finally watched this series after years of procrastinating.


Something I liked is the interesting concept of the post 2nd Impact world, with its biblical references and the unique idea of living beings being separated by a wall, the AT-Field.

While it definitely does have a very artistic style of conveying the various characters' train of thought and feelings, the series lacks action, especially in the second half. The characters especially the protagonist, are too busy with their psychological problems that the plot is not really advancing anymore. The last two episodes consist only of high speed flashing of images ... and Kanji and repeating symbolics like the opening of a door twenty times while one of the characters is hysterically fighting with their own past.

I tend to dislike the anime when I dislike the main character. And Shinji is one of the most pathetic characters I've ever seen in an anime.
In the first few episodes there seemed to be good character development with Shinji, but he fell back to being pathetic until about 5 minutes before the end of the series. So practically all the character development happens in a few minutes. In the anime and particularly in the last two episodes everything is going in circles. The characters are imprisoned in their own minds going over their problems over and over again. Then from one moment to another Shinji is enlightened. The End. I was like wth?! What's going to happen to the plot? They built up a complex story of the complementary project and after episode 26 all the open ends are left open.
Luckily there's the alternate telling of the two last episodes in End_of_Evangelion which does at least tie most of the open ends together in an almost pursuable way, but left the character development behind. This time Shinji is pathetic to the very end.

In the end I can only say: Art is different for anyone, and to be honest I just didn't really enjoy it.
It's probably like I enjoy some clean and modern artwork from sculptures to architecture or modern automotive design concepts, but I really dislike the kind of art like some of Picasso's works with intertwined limbs coming out of incomplete bodies at impossible angles, that when I look at them I always ask myself what twisted mind can produce something like that.
If I had to describe Evangelion with one word I would say it's twisted.