Neon Genesis Evangelion Reveiw

NGE is a mecha anime, where a gov. facility called NERV is charge with protecting the world from angels, giant beings that are nearly unstopable. To do this they us the EVA units, which are large mecha's will similar capabilities to the angels. Should they fail in stopping the angels, an event called "the Third Impact" will occur. The Third Impact will cause the destruction of the remainder of the human race, most of which was wiped out by the second impact.(They do not mention a first impact).

An EVA is a bio-mechanical weapon. One is piloted in an entry plug, which is a containment unit that the pilot enters in order to controll the unit. When in the Entry plug, it is fill with a liqiud call LCL, which oxygenates the pilot and allows them to sync with their EVE to control it. For a person to be an EVA pilot they need to be able to sync with an EVA, with the lowest sync being 0% meaning the pilot cannot use the EVA under any circumstance, and the highest being 400%(this only happens once) which cause the pilot to merge with their EVE. Should an EVA be damaged in battle the pilot will feel the pain and, it is assumed, the can receive the injuries as well. Also, the EVAs require constant power from a cable to operate, should this cable be severed they have one and a half minute in combat or 5 mins in low power state, before they shutdown

In most of the anime Shinji(Age 14, pilot of EVA unit 01) is dealing with his issue of not being able to get close to people. The first person he really be-friends his i new gaurian, Misato. She does perfect in keeping everything cheerful, making simple jokes and behaving like a natural jokester. Yet, regardless of this, she is still an very serious character, becoming the mother-figure that shinji never had. The next character Shinji be-friended is Rei. Rei(age 14, pilot of EVA unit 00) is an emotionless girl, who behave like a, for lack of a better word, robot. She does everything she is told, even going as far to say she would kill herself if told so. I would tell more but i would spoil even more of the show. After a few episode we are introduced to Asuka(Age [can you guess?] 14, pilot of EVA unit 02), a german girl who acts like the shows comedic relief. Right when she first shows up, she slaps a guy who was trying to pick up his hat, claiming "That was the peeping fee". She is gonna make you smile more than any other character with her antics. She frequently makes comments in german(I assume she is insulting Shinji). I think the funniest thing she did was in episode 15 when she ask Shinji if he wants to kiss her to pass the time. When they kiss she holds hold so he can't breath, nearly suffocating him, and when he stop to breath the runs to the bathroom to wash her mouth out. There are many more character, but i just mentioned the main ones.

In the beginning it's so light hearted, despite all the depressing things(like shinji being abandoned by his father, and not being able to remember his mother). When i started watching this, i was expecting a mecha anime with interesting characters, and comedy mixed in with all the dark undertones. And i got that. It starts with shinji being called to NERV by his father, who runs NERV. His father tells him the only reason he was called was to pilot the unit 01. Initially shinji rejects this, and Rei is called to pilot instead. At this time Rei is severely injured from a previous battle, with her head in bandages, arm in a cast, and bleeding from an unknown wound. At this time an angel attacks, cause the lights on the ceiling above Shinji & Rei to fall, EVE unit 01 then, with out power nor pilot, quickly moved it's hand to shield Shinji and Rei. After this Shinji agrees to pilot unit 01 to fight the angel. To sum uo the fight, shinji get his ass royally kicked, severing the cable and depleting his power. Shinji pass-out somewhere during the beat-down, and (forgive the cliche) just when all hope seemed lost, Unit 01 Acted on it's own again, and swiftly and easily destroyed the angel. We then find shinji, in the hospital with no memory of what happened after the fight with the angel. After this shinji goes to school(Pilot a giant mech? Check. Save the world? Check. Remember your homework? Dammit.), where it is revealed that during the fight with the angel, his EVA caused injury to one of his classmates little sister. After the school, day the said classmate, Toji, punches him in the face, twice. Soon afterward Togi, and one of his friends Aida, become Shinji best friends. This is just the first few episodes, im not gonna talk about all of them. The show does do a good job in give a comedic yet serious story with subtle dark undertones. That is untill about Episode 19, after that EVERYTHING becomes extremely dark. Asuka, after her sync% droping below Shinjis', becomes extremely depressed and frequenly makes adding comments, claiming her eason for liveing was to pilot the EVE so people would appreciate her. She seriously goes from being the comedic relief to being the most depressed character i've every seen. Shinji is force to kill Toji, without even knowing it until after. And learns something about rei that is to plot import to spoil. Misato is kill off after having a flashback where she is reminded of every bad thing she has ever done, which makes extremely depressed, and all of this after the man she loves is killed for telling her about the plot import thing. She's not the only one who has those depressing flashbacks, most of the characters who are plot important have them.

This is a good anime, that deserves your time to watch it. It does get very dark at the end, but it is still very captivation, even for me, and i generally dislike anime like that.All in all heres my rating
☼=Star
⌂=No star
Story:☼☼☼⌂⌂
Characters:☼☼☼☼⌂
Action:☼☼☼☼☼
Overall:☼☼☼☼⌂