Neon Genesis Evangelion Highly recommended

Publisher
ADV
Director
Hideaki Anno
Production
GAINAX, NAS, TV Tokyo
Country of origin
Japan
Format
Series
Running time
26 episodes
Year
1995

Neon Genesis Evangelion

By Jeremy Price
20th May 04

If you're reading this review, you probably fit into one of two categories:

1. You've already seen Evangelion, and are just reading this to confirm your opinion or see what other people think, or...

2. You haven't seen Eva yet, and want an honest and factual evaluation of the series.

Well, if you belong to #2, then this review should be very helpful, because I'm about to tell you the truth about this infamous series.

I could talk about the animation, the character development, the interesting questions this series presents, etc., because Eva does have a lot of good points, but instead I'll skip to the heart of the matter and tell you the only thing you need to know about this series:

Evangelion doesn't make any sense.

Yes, that's right, I said it. This series leaves more loose ends than you can shake a stick at. I should know: I own the entire series and have seen it a double-digit number of times. And yes, I've seen the movies too (I own those as well). Surprise...they don't make any sense either.

Now some people will say that I just didn't understand the story. I find this insulting. I am a computer science major, and I learned to speak Japanese in Okazaki at the Aichi Institute. I've seen this series a dozen times in both English and Japanese. Perhaps, however, I'm not intelligent enough to understand this convoluted plot? Hmm.

Anyone with any critical expertise knows that leaving loose ends in a plot is one of the cardinal sins of creative writing. Don't listen to those people who tell you that it's "artistic" or "thought-provoking" - it's crap, plain and simple.

This series is as random and incoherent as its director, Hideaki Anno. Hideaki makes his money by producing controversial crap like this. Don't believe me?
Maybe you would enjoy another of his "artistic" works - Love and Pop. It's about teenage prostitution, and features "artistic" camera angles, such as from inside a microwave or a bowl of soup...

Anyway, I know that you're not going to listen to me. You're going to go out there and watch it (just like I did) and possibly even buy it (just like I did). But I promise you that if you're old enough to understand this review, you will wonder why you just spent hours of your life on this pitiful excuse for anime. So if you want to trust the opinion of a 14-year old, go for it. But take my advice:
Avoid this one like the plague.

1/10

-- Jeremy Price 20th May 04

Neon Genesis Evangelion Images