Dec 29, 2007
What more can be said that hasn't already been discussed with regards to Neon Genesis Evangelion? How Gainax nearly went bankrupt in developing this series. How TV-Tokyo chopped the studio's budget. How impacting the final two episodes were, and how they still create a maelstrom of controversy to this day. How Hideaki Anno nearly lost his nerve (pardon the pun) just making NGE. You name it, and the lunatics at Gainax practically did it while working on NGE.
It's easy to attack NGE today - yes, you can strike at the characters and the somewhat loopholed story. But the truth
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is that everything done in NGE was intentional; you're not supposed to relate to the characters as easily as you would in a typical anime, nor are you supposed to interpret the story with a wink and a smile coming from every frame. Neon Genesis Evangelion is to be taken with a grain of salt, and it would be a good idea to throw away all preconceived notions of anime and take it for what it is, which remains to this day one of the finest pieces of animation in recent history.
The best part of NGE is how well it holds up to this day, even though we are now past the year 2000 AD and quickly approaching 2015 AD. Like a good movie, you can take NGE and watch it at any point in your life and find new things about it. The longer you stand away from NGE, the more you begin to truly appreciate the artwork, the soundtrack, and even the voice work. It is still a ton of fun to analyze it like a therapist getting into a patient's head and to try to make sense of NERV, SEELE, Second Impact, Human Instrumentality, etc. (if you don't know what those are by now, you need to educate yourself quickly.) ADV practically owes everything to NGE, and thankfully they have been so generous in treating us fans with a multitude of DVD releases and other products for us to keep appreciating NGE.
There's never such a thing as watching anything right or wrong, but there is such a thing as seeing something in a new perspective. NGE is one of those rare gems that always asks its audience to view it with different eyes each time, to try and understand its message better if you didn't get it the last time. When I first saw NGE, I hated just about all the characters in it, especially Shinji. Later, as I grew a little bit older, I have related myself to him, and now, older still, I feel as if I know him personally. I am nothing like Shinji, but there are times when I feel as if I could be. That is how well I feel like I know NGE.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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