When it comes to all things anime, I consider myself a sci-fi and mecha fan. Naturally that meant I had to check out the famous/infamous Evangelion so that I could call myself a proper mecha fan. I've now finished watching the series and I have a new favorite! Despite its age (1995, age doesn't bother me all that much but I felt it was worth mentioning), the show is fantastic. The fight sequences are well animated and the characters are all "delightfully imperfect". Now, despite this being a mecha/sci-fi show it also focuses on psychology. I enjoyed the character analysis bits and the angst (I think we've all been there at one point or another so it's easy to relate with), but the mech fights were great! The fights often connect with the psyche of the pilot (you'll know what I mean if you watch it O_o) and although not seemingly brutal, they aren't what they seem. My only gripe with the series by itself is the ending. Episode 24 (of 26) sets up the plot for an intense and heated ending, but instead we get two episodes of inner monologue and Shinji explores his character depth. However, coupled with the movie End of Evangelion, which was made to elaborate on the actual events of the ending instead of all the psyche examination, does a fantastic job wrapping the series up. I'll warn you that the series is quite melancholy, and the movie is a bit disturbing (DO NOT watch it if you're feeling depressed, trust me you will thank me later!). I credit the movie, although the ending isn't obvious, the whole story touches upon deep themes and at the very least, there is a seven minute portion of the movie that you could consider the climax, in which my jaw remained unhinged from my mouth for the entire scene. If you're looking for a mecha/sci-fi show to watch, I suggest you give Evangelion AND End of Evangelion a whirl. End of Evangelion can be watched in place of the final two episodes of the anime series and it will provide a much more conclusive ending if you watch it that way. If you're interested in watching either, a thinpack box set was released by ADV that enhanced the visuals (it cleans them up and fixes the color some, I'm told it's worth it, plus it's cheaper). End of Evangelion is very tough to get your hands on cheaply, used it's around 30 bucks, so I suggest watching it online.

Now that I have seen it, I understand why so many people love this series. I'll definitely be watching the four movie remake that they're in the process of making right now when it's all out. Bottom line: You should try it !


Here are some pictures from the anime series:



and here are some from The End of Evangelion:

nice review and yes, it certainty is one of the greats.

but while the psychology and inner turmoils of shinji and the other characters - to a lesser extent - play an important role
in the series and the identity of it, i feel as a whole, it takes away from the anime.

the first time you watch this anime you will be utterly amazed but thats only because of the initial shock value. If you watch this anime again (ive watched it 3 times)
you'll most likely realize how fucking boring and tedious all that emotional shit gets! honestly by my 3rd time watching, i was skipping all that
stuff. i found it really quite unbearable.

the movie had some great action sequences, but 90% of it is just all the personal philosophical ideals of the creator/creators, which bores the hell outa me.

in short what im trying to say is - while this is a great piece of work - id much rather watch somthing more along the lines of Gundam Seed.

Yeh Auskas fight is what makes the film IMO. Yeh its a great concept for sure, Id really like them to do a sequel but maybe next time not so much bawing

I havent seen "wing" but i hear compared too SEED, its not so good. Gundam seed is fantastic though, its epic, emotional, funny, tragic, great characters... it just has fukin everything!
where NGEs prominent themes tend to be psychology/religion, Gundams is WAR and equality for both man and (i wont tell you hehe).
anyway, you should definitely watch it.

back to NGE though, lets not get off topic.

YES, Asuka's fight scene was amazing, I also enjoyed Shinji's fight scenes (specifically the EVA eating the angel ^_-, disturbingly epic). They're actually doing a reboot of the series right now which is a four episode/movie OVA retelling the whole thing. The first one has already come out, and it's apparently VERY faithful to the original (remade scenes are sometimes almost exactly the same), but I hear that Shinji does a LOT less whining so far, which makes the series much more accessible of course. Shinji's like the only guy I know of who wouldn't be happy that he gets to pilot a beastly mech O_o...I don't know how recently you've watched End of Evangelion, but the first sequence in the movie (Known to many as the "Shinji fap" sequence) was a bit screwed up O_O. I suppose one of my big draws to the series is the way they accentuate parts of the fight sequences, they feel more powerful and less flashy that way I guess.

Off topic, "wing" was aired on Toonami back in the day, and I've always enjoyed it. It focused heavily on war, as Gundam typically does, but the big message of the show was the pursuit of a peaceful, unified world. Which, we all know, in a mecha anime is often impossible xD. Interesting, I'll have to look into Gundam Seed then. Kind of bouncing off the whole recommending thing, Dual was a really good mecha anime as well. I don't know if you've seen it, but it's a quasi-parody of Evangelion and it is fairly short, you could definitely watch it all in one day if you were so inclined .

Watched it, enjoyed it, understood it, got bored of it, left it.

Enjoy it for as long as you can.

hahahha probably the case with most peoples XD

So Correct me if I'm wrong, but the 4 new Evangelion movies are basically a re-animated somewhat re-writes of the series through movies? (Kind of like FMA-Brotherhood), Thats what I got from what I saw of the FUNimation trailer for "Evangelion: 1.0 You Are [Not] Alone"

Evangelion: 1.0 You Are [Not] Alone
Evangelion: 2.0 You Can [Not] Advance
Rebuild of Evangelion: 3.0
Rebuild of Evangelion: Final

im actually against it to be honest. i think its a waste of time. give us new story! new characters! new ideas!

im not really interested in seeing the same stuff all over again and if some of the original voice actors are gonna be
missing and if the character development as u say is going to be poorer...then why do it?

does franchise really need to be rekindled? if you like evangelion then you like it, i doubt this will have any effect on noobs ether.

so yes im a bit of a pessimist where thats concerned.

yeh, ill admit im only gona watch out of curiosity. im not expecting anything great though. in fact im expecting to be annoyed.

Alright, I know I mentioned that the new Evangelion OVAs/movies are supposed to be essentially the same story... Well, this is partially true, however it appears that the creator is taking the term "rebuild" more seriously than I was expecting. I still haven't seen either of the first two movies yet, however, I've read quite a few pages of plot synopsis and lurked in a few forums. This definitely appears to be faithful to the original, yet at the same time it's retooling things. They're adding in a few new main characters, some different events are occurring, and it appears that character personalities are being tweaked. Shinji is supposed to be less of a whiner, Rei is supposed to show more character development, and Asuka is apparently different as well (she has in eye patch in the trailer for Evangelion 3.0 so something different has to be happening right O_o?) I'm officially intrigued now, I think I'll see if I can't rent the first movie from netflix sometime soon, although the second one isn't scheduled to be out in the states until late 2010 as far as I can tell. Perhaps this series will have a more conclusive ending than the original anime and End of Evangelion? All we can do is wait and see I suppose.