As an anime fan, I have seen several series, generally due to word of mouth that they were good. However, for the past three years I have been avoiding EVANGELION. At first I thought that it sounded lame, then by last year I decided that I wanted to see it, but didn't have the cash. This past weekend a friend of mine loaned me the entire series, which I watched all of over the weekend. I had thought, "Hey, now I can watch what I hear is a masterpiece of a show!". After watching it, I was well, VERY disappointed.
Don't get me wrong, I love the starting idea and the basic plot, plus the some of the mecha ideas sorrounding the Evas(The whole thing with the power cables is pretty realistic, look at Gundam. How did mankind find enough fuel for those things?) and alot of the main characters are very interesting. It's just that, there's so much wrong with it. First off, we not only are never told why the 2nd Impact happened, but we never learn what the 1st one was, and why will a 3rd one happen? What are the angels? How did they use Adam as a prototype for the Evas? GAINAX really needs to brush up on their writing skills.
Mystery is a good thing, but it can't be used to justify this many large plot holes. More so, the characters never fully develop and often the problems between them are never resolved. Shinji and his father, Toji and his sister, Toji being the 4th child, Rei's emotional trauma, Asuka's sudden mental switch, so much is unresolved. And there's also characters that either are wasted(Kensuke, Kagi), serve no purpose(Hikari), or are never developed enough(Kouzou, Gendo, Kaji). And of course I must ask why in the name of god does Misato have a damn penguin?! She isn't Major Poppins!(I know, dumb joke.) And the Angels often only appear and disappear so quickly that you can't even feel the threat. The 5th child for example, he came in and left so quick, it didn't have hardly any impact. And as for that "oh so great" ending, well, it was interesting, but it served no purpose and didn't even answer any questions or really seem to finish the plot. It was just an LSD dream version of nearly half of the other episodes where Shinji starts crying(DADDY MADE ME THIS WAY!!) and either runs off or sulks.
It seems to me that either A-GAINAX had originally intended it to go beyond that point, but never got the chance, or B-They don't know what they're doing. I hate to say this to any of you flaming EVANGELION otakus out there reading this, but not only was this show NOT a masterpiece, but it was almost, amatuerish.
EDITORIAL UPDATE (6/6/01)-My feelings for Evangelion have softened, and I have even begun to like it a little. The knowledge that the show was planned to go longer but ended the way it did due to budget problems makes me have a bit of respect for it. That still doesn't change the end result though. Y'know, Disney's 'The Black Cauldron' started out as a good idea too...
