Ikari Shenjin has got to be by far one of the most human and realistic anime characters there ever was. First of all he's a very unlikely hero, doesn't want to save the world, and is constantly finding himself in the very same confusion one would naturally know when growing up. In the very first episode of the anime (and in the first five pages of the manga), he's dragged into a war between humans and creatures simply called Angels. He is forced to climb into Eva 01 - a gigantic robot with which the humans use to fight the Angels for the survival of Tokyo 3 and essentially the world.
--Reviewed by Tora
Together with him are Ayanami Rei, a girl with seemingly no emotions and no connections to the outside, who pilots Eva 00. And Asuka, a girl who tries too hard to stay in the lime-light and prove that she is not simply "a doll", who pilots Eva 02. Their orders are simple: destroy the Angels. But what exactly are the Angels - and why are they attacking Earth?
[four o/f five stars]
