First Thoughts

I was waiting for the right time to watch this anime, but if I had kept waiting, I would never have watched it—so I just did. Neon Genesis Evangelion is a pretty dope anime with complex ideas, deep characters, and their beliefs about the world around them.

Story

The story revolves around Shinji Ikari. His father is the leader of an organization that has developed the Evas—giant robots piloted by children who can sync with them. The organization is tasked with protecting the world against the “angels,” beings of immeasurable power whose motives, at first, no one understands.

The Evas are made to fight these beings, and the story starts when Shinji’s father asks him to move to their city so he can pilot and sync with Eva-01. Eva-01 was piloted by another character, Rei Ayanami, but due to her injuries, she was becoming unable to continue piloting the robot.

Characters

What surprised me the most is how much I can relate to Shinji Ikari. He sees himself as a complete failure and is unable to like himself. The world around him contributes to everything happening in the story. Shinji only matters in the story because his father is one of the most important characters in the entire anime—without him, there would be nothing.

His father brings him into the story so it can happen. Then we meet Misato, the woman who works at Nerv (the organization Shinji’s father commands), and Shinji ends up living with her. After some time, we get to know the other Eva pilots, such as Rei Ayanami and my favorite character of the anime, Asuka Langley. Rei pilots Eva-00 and Asuka pilots Eva-02.

Misato is a pretty cool, beer-addicted woman who works at Nerv. She serves as motivation for Shinji during the story and becomes someone who dives too deep into the organization’s secrets.

Asuka

She is a German girl who became the Second Child, and due to her skills and sync with Eva-02, she is also a powerful asset to Nerv. Dedicated to being the best, she doesn’t accept losing at anything. Misato also becomes Asuka’s guardian, so she lives together with Shinji, Misato, Asuka, and a penguin—yes, that’s right, a fucking penguin.

I don’t know exactly why, but she became an instant favorite for me. Her visuals are pretty cool—redhead and wearing the red plugsuit for her red Eva-02. Visually, she reigns supreme.

Her humor and sense of superiority are always present. She hates it when Shinji or anyone else is better than her in test results and such.

The relationship built between Asuka and Shinji is one of the coolest things about the anime. They keep making fun of each other, although Shinji does some weird, creepy stuff toward Asuka.

What Made Me Watch

Well, I started watching this anime while I was on my spinning bike, so one thing led to another and it helped a lot. I watched some episodes while riding the bike, and after finishing the anime, I did the same with the movies.

Although I was watching it only because of the bike exercises, I ended up liking it a lot, as I mentioned before. When the episodes were ending, I felt sad that there was nothing else to watch. The anime makes you think about yourself, your life, the people around you, and how you interact with the world.

My Score

I’ll give this anime a score of 10 and categorize it as a masterpiece. There have been others that tried to copy or mix some aspects of Evangelion into their own stories, but it just doesn’t feel the same. Evangelion is different from other animes—it isn’t just plain action, there are things happening in the background that make you think. I like the universe, I like the timelines, I like the characters (especially Asuka), I like the mind games, and everything around the universe.

Recommendation

I definitely recommend this anime to everyone. You should dive deep into this crazy universe and get your psyche affected by it. Just remember that you need to see all of the endings to have a full picture of what the hell is happening.

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