Animelab.com: Anime Reviews: Evangelion

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Monstar

Posts: 0
Score: 1
Rank: 821

Evangelion has now undoubtedly reched it's place among the legendary anime shows that have defined the way anime has evolved into what it is today. Evangelion has influenced an untold amount of tv shows and movies after its release in 1995, and still continues to do so today.

The year is 2015, it's been 15 years since half the world was destroyed by "The 2nd Impact" and now, the world is under attack by mysterious alien creatures reffered to as "Angels". The only thing that stands between humanity and its destruction is the top secret organization NERV and it's bio-organic giant robots named Evangelions, that can only be piloted by a select number of children born after the 2nd Impact. The story follows a young fourteen year-old boy named Shinj Ikari who is summoned by his father at NERV headquarters to become an Evangelion pilot in the first episode. The series then follows Shinji's battles against the angels and his relationships with his fellow Evangelion pilots, his father and his friends.

The first half of the series basically follows the battles against the Angels with gradual character development, and clever uses of exposition and sub-text. However, Evangelion really comes into its element during the second half of the series, which delves into the characters minds and explores all aspects of their personality and starts to reveal why the characters are the way they are. The second half of the series has many philosophical and religious overtones that are explained as the series progresses.

The characters in Evangelion are some of the best characters ever developed in anime or otherwise, as the characters are fully explored to their extremes.

This series is a masterpiece of animation that has many levels.

Contributions: Reviews: 1

Mortified_Penguin

Posts: 0
Score: 1
Rank: 809

This is simply some of the best anime out there. The basic premise of the plot is that a boy named Shinji Ikari is selected by the secret orginisation called NERV. He pilots a massive mech called an Eva or Evangelion save humanity from extinction by the Angels(think big gaint destructive alien monsters). This is pretty standard, but the place where Evangelion shines is through it's charaters. All the characters in Evangelion are based off judeo-chirstian mysticism, and consequentially have flaws and advantages of their own, making them extremely lifelike. A good example would be Shinji Ikari(whom most people tend to hate), who has no self worth, having lost his mother and then ran away from his father. He comes across as a total wuss. This is because who, at 14 feels completely secure and safe(even with parents)? Thus Shinji Pretty much is a little kid running around begging for other people's respect and acceptance. There tends to be a lot of pscyhcology going on and this forms the core of the show and it's charcters. As the show progresses, the religous themes are really fleshed out, and really transforms the show into a work of art. The amount of complexity is simply staggering, nothing is concrete in this show, From SEELE to NERV to the evas themselves, they all constantly tie into the personality of director/creator Hideki Anno. From a technical standpoint the animation and character designs are quite good, if not up to an 'Akira' scale production. Basically, if you like great anime, watch evangelion.

Contributions: Reviews: 1

tweakthemailman

Posts: 0
Score: 1
Rank: 762

Most people would think I need to be shot for giving this anime anything less than a 10 but it didn't appeal to me the same way it did to others. And for 1 huge reason... the characters, namely the main one, Shinji Ikari. He remains my least favorite anime charcter outside of the whole DBZ series. In my opinion he ends the series exactly the same as when we first meet him, he's just a whiney little drama queen. The other characters were not as bad, though most of them lacked what makes one relate to them as a person and not a drawing. The two best Characters are Soryu Asuka Langley
and Misato Katsuragi, not in that order. The only reason why I like Asuka is that she gets her mind cleared out and stops feeling sorry for herself in the movie, End of Evengelion (which is absolutly phenomenal by the way, if I were just rating the movie this would be a 12 out of 10, but no...) and Misato, though she too has her own problems, she seems the most able to deal with them and is still benevolent to Shinji and tries to help him deal with his. The other big annoyance is Kaworu Nagisa's
role in Shinji's life. He was a good addition to the series as a plot device but the impact on he has on Shinji's mind is apparenlty on par with that of Rei, Asuka, and Misato, who were in the whole series, not just one episode. Characters aside the plot really is excellent and has some wonderful twists. Though the original final two episodes (the movie is just another telling of the last two episodes) end it way too early and leave just about everything unexplained, with some thought, you can decipher most of iton your second, if not first, run through the series. The action, though creative is not terribly exciting, except again in End of Evangelion which outdoes itself.

Final opinion, EVERYONE should watch this anime, even if they end up hating it or loving it, it should be seen. And I must strees that even if the series is brutally painful to you, it's worth enduring just for the movie. I relly do like this anime, even if it did sound like a bash fest up there, and I seem to be in the vast minority of opinion about this one. so chances are you'll like it a good deal better than I did.

If you build a man a fire, you will keep him warm for a day. If you set a man on fire, you will keep him warm for the rest of his life.
Contributions: Reviews: 1

Hajime_Saito

Posts: 0
Score: 3
Rank: 355

Evangelion... One of the truly greatest anime's out there. A lot of psychology going on there, as our hero Shinji Ikari has to find out who he himself is while fighting the "Angels".
Shinji, our hero, finds himself requisitioned to be part of a special force in N.E.R.V. This is an agency which took over the national defense system in Japan ever since the appearence of Adam, the first Angel. His appearence destroyed most of the world as we know it and now the world must face periodical attacks from Angels. In order to defend the known world, N.E.R.V. created the E.V.A.'s (I will not spoil the surprise to those who haven't seen the series by telling what the E.V.A.'s really are). Together with Asuka and Rei Ayanami, Shinji battles the Angels one after another to save the world. Many many subplots, with a supremely detailed main plot. Great effects and the introspective of the characters is great. Rei is my personal favourite! On the Saito scale - 9.5. WATCH IT!

Contributions: Reviews: 3

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