A Quick Tip by RabidChihuahua
While Evangelion is considered by many anime fans, even by highly-respectable ones, to be the "be all end all" of the anime genre, I honestly didn't like this one at all.
While this anime has a lot of brain-twisting ideas that really make one think (which is a good thing), I felt the execution was really poor because instead of feeling like I watched an intellectually-stimulating anime that felt like it was taken seriously by its creators, I felt like I watched an anime that was absurd-feeling that happened to have intellectually-stimulating ideas. It was precisely this poor execution that kept me from enjoying what good this anime has. Also keep in mind that I gave this anime two and a half chances to impress me, and I'm the type that almost never gives an anime a second chance if I don't like it the first time around.
I say it's "absurd-feeling" because at the beginning, NERV feels like a poorly-run military organization you'd see in a mecha anime series for kids since they're careless about training their Eva pilots, as they send them to school instead of having them master their weapons. Also, the fact that NERV is so careless to let their extremely-expensive Evas get damaged beyond repair feels pretty damn silly. I think after looking at NERV's records, the accountants at UN would be more willing to fund Petoria's space program, which consists of Chris Griffing climbing a tree and reaching for the sun.
To further my point, there's some tonal-whiplash scenes that kill a good deal of drive for me to take this anime seriously (such as Shinji running into Misato's room naked after seeing the penguin).
The characters may look good on paper, but their personalities should have had subtlety implemented because particularly with Shinji and Asuka, I was screaming "Alright, we get it!! They have problems!!" Subtlety in their personalities could have made them among the best-developed characters in anime.
While I don't like Evangelion, I have to credit it for the fact that it's been influential in anime titles that I do enjoy (particularly Ergo Proxy). Also, it's significantly better than a lot of the pap that's been coming in the US anime market in the last 6-8 years.
If you love Evangelion and consider it the benchmark in anime, that's fine by me, but after several watches of this anime, I think it's just something I'll never enjoy.
Here's my list of anime I'd recommend over NGE.
Grave of the Fireflies
Perfect Blue
Paprika
Millenium Actress
Memories
Ghost in the Shell
Neo-Tokyo
Ergo Proxy
Battle Angel
Voice of a Distant Star
Shigurui: Death Frenzy
I use to dare people to come up with a reasoning for the penguin.
As for NERV being poorly ran, one of the strongest themes in this series is man losing control of his tools, and when it comes down to military operations in general, there is always a large margin of possible failure to complete the mission. NGE tends to forsake the common trends in mecha anime where there's always a chance of things not working out. I been planning on rewatching this one over also. I'm not going to say you're wrong, or agree or disagree with you. Instead, I recommend watching Rahxephon. Most of the people who didn't like this ended up loving that and vice versa. Personally, I liked them both. Rah wasn't much of a brain twister in comparison.
That's a good point about NERV being poorly-ran, but even with that, I think it seems too damn silly for the management at NERV deciding "Oh, training our Eva pilots isn't important right now, even with the fate of mankind on the balance, let's put them in school." I know flaws occur with these types of organizations, but you'd think that type of error would be something that anyone would avoid.
I'm glad Suzzane isn't here otherise she'd probably bury me with whole philosophy papers about why I'm dead wrong about not liking Evangelion.
As for the influence, that didn't effect my rating when making this, it's just something I pointed out.
Had the characters been grown ups, then you would be spot on, and NGE would probably be a complete piece of shit. But they were dealing with teens. Imagine what you would feel like if someone stripped away your freedom and told you it was your responsibility to save the world. Why you? Now take these kids, they had to find some way to help them cope with that insane responsibility. What I like about NGE is that it does not follow the typical shonen hero. Characters like these are far more realistic than let's say Goku or something.
Unlike some people, I can understand completely why someone would hate this series. The characters are indeed different from what you normally see. Again, I won't say you're wrong, but there is some misinterpretation in there and I believe it has something to do with your dislike of the characters and the tonal shifts. Those are good reasons.
I guess with me and the characters, they don't have to be perfect and I really don't want them to be, but I just coun't get into the characters because I found them so annoying. I guess it all depends on what you can tolerate. If you can tolerate the personalities of troubled teenagers, then you can find some enjoyment in this, but I personally can't, so that really kept me from enjoying this one.
After giving your responses some deeper thought, I may amend my QT after I wrap up this semester next week.
I would have replied sooner but I just spent the last 14 hours finishing this large 3D animation project (glad I'm done with that shit for good).