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What better way to kick off a series of anime review than with one of the most controversial ones ever viewed? Neon Genesis Evangelion is extremely popular, both positively and negative, receiving both high praise and high criticism. Nevertheless, it is a cIassic, and anyone into the genre of anime should give it a look whether or not they'd actually like it.

Evangelion centers around a world torn from the attacks of the "Angels", a species of lifeform that evolves alongside humans but is trying to cause an apocalypse. Without giving too much away, the story goes far deeper than that and can shock you with ... just how complicated the situation really is. This isn't your ordinary "bad guys are attacking, defend the world" scenario. You're in for it if you think that's the case. The defenders against these creatures? Teenagers pilotingthings called EVAs... "mechs"with the souls of a loved one of the pilot inside. Why teenagers? An event occured before the timeline of the anime called "Second Impact", which leveled most of Earth, and only people born after this event can pilot them to prevent "Third Impact".

As I said, the anime goes very deep and gets very complicated, but it's never actually too difficult to understand. It's just there is much more to Evangelion than what you think when you watch the first few episodes of it. The characters are somewhat standard characters, but they don't act in a boring manner, or act in a way that just doesn't make sense. Their emotions, actions, and everything about them fits with whatever is happening at the time. This helps bring the fictional world to life, however there's a few drawbacks to the behavior of the characters.

For one, by the climax of the show, most characters are all acting in a similar manner, depressed over the tragedies happening around them, but all for different reasons. Even with all the different reasons the characters at this point lose much of their personalities, especially normally cheery Misato or confident yet somewhat annoying Asuka. Rei and Shinji are the only characters who continue to act in a somewhat normal manner than they have been throughout the anime by the time everyone is struggling with their inner turmoils.

The drama and action in the show is exciting and it never lets up. While it starts off like quite a normal anime, by the time Rei is introduced all bets are off and you're in for an anime that will pull you in episode after episode. Whether it's the battles with the various Angels which continue to evolve and become a tougher challenge for Rei, Shinji, and Asuka (the pilots of the EVAs), or Shinji's struggle to feel important even without having a caring father or a living mother to help him do so, Evangelion is intriguing and deep, and I found myself hooked and wanting to watch each episode one after another (which I did, for the most part).

Sadly, the show ends in a disappointing manner. After the defeat of the last Angel, which was disguised as another EVA pilot for the episode (but was actually easily indentifiable as the final Angel if you pay just enough attention), the perspective changes from outside the world to inside the minds of the main characters: Misato, Asuka, Rei, and Shinji. They all try to come to terms with the problems they're all facing, and as interesting as it was to watch these monologues, it left me questioning what was happening outside their minds, as there was still business to be taken care of. Episodes 25 and 26 leave you with a somewhat content feeling, but you'll still be disappointed that the plot wasn't wrapped up the way you would like it to be, as (spoiler alert) a group of people that's been pulling the strings all along is still trying to enact Third Impact even without the Angels, and in reality, the Angels were all just pawns. The last two episodes were made on a low budget, and this is almost waved in your face throughout the episodes, and while the episodes themselves don't deviate too far from the story, they are a tongue stuck out at you if you were hoping for something better.

Even though the main seriescan take a few episodesto get you pulled in, and ends with 2 somewhat disappointing episodes, NGE as a whole is still a great anime, worthy of being watched by anyone that likes anime, even if you will like NGE itself or not.