Post by solidbatman on Jun 15, 2012 12:52:40 GMT -5
-Details-
Genre: Drama/Action/Mecha
Company: Gainax
Format: 26 episodes
Date: 3 Oct 1995 – 27 Mar 1996
-Visuals- 8.5/10
NGE looks pretty good. It was made in the 90s and certainly looks it, but setting that aside, it is very smooth looking and the mecha fights are extremely well done. In tune with the '90s coloring is bright and vibrant for the most part. The angels and actual background shots are not really up to par with the rest of the show. The background all looks the same and is very bland/generic for a futuristic anime. The angels suffer as well. They could have been awe inspiring monstrosities of.... whatever they are, but instead are flat and usually simplistic. The individual characters look great, and all look unique. All in all, NGE is a good, but not great, looking anime.
-Sound- 9/10
Sadly, I've heard the dub, and I'm just going to pretend it does not exist. Seriously, for a show as popular as this, one would think voice acting would have been better for the dub. Getting back on track, the Japanese voice acting is great and each voice matches the personlity of that particular character perfectly. Rei has a very monotone voice, Asuka is loud and sure to let you know her opinion. Shinji is a whiny little immature boy, and is voiced as such. The music of NGE is sweeping and grand. Using classical themes and music, the soundtrack pulls you into the show but even better are the parts with no music. Those scenes are haunting and gives the viewer a sense of isolation that most of these characters feel. Instead of the hustle and bustle of the city, we hear cicada bugs and the wind in the background. It's an eerie reminder of just how empty the world is after the Second Impact.
-Characters- 7.5/10
While the characters are well defined, outside of Shinji, our main protagonist, I don't feel as if any of the characters are as defined as they could have been. Instead we get snippets and brief flashes of just who the characters are, but Shinji gets the main focus. That is understandable, but when you make a character as unlikable as Shinji, naturally, you want to know more about the other characters.
Shinji is a depressed, lonely boy who is just looking for someone, anyone to acknowledge him and accept him. This will wear on the viewers patience as Shinji is usually apathetic about everything and never seems happy. While he gets a lot of hate, he seems like a realistic character, and maybe the most realistic of the show. He is thrust into a situation that he can't handle and seems to break down. That being said, he still comes across as very selfish and only caring for himself.
-Story- 8/10
NGE tells the story of an Earth, fighting for it's survival against a strange group of beings called the Angels. To combat the angels, an organization is set up by the UN called Nerv. Nerv has built synthetic humanoid mechs called Eva units which are able to destroy the angels. The pilots of these mechs though are always younger teens. Shinji Ikari arrives at Nerv at the request of his father, who runs Nerv, to pilot an Eva unit. So begins one of the most confusing, yet thought provoking stories ever told in anime. At times NGE seems to be plodding along with no direction, and very little explanation, and when it does get to explaining things, it does so in a very confusing manner. The final two episodes of the show are a radical departure from the style of the rest of the series, and have very little in the way of action as well as being very confusing. This angered fans so much, that a movie was released to placate the fans. The End of Evangelion is considered the true ending by most fans of the show. Personally, I thought the final two episodes were entertaining. I appreciated the fact that they were experimental and very philisophical, but I am still going to count it against the show because of the sudden change in style and story telling. A show like NGE should not do that. A warning; NGE plays upon Christian beliefs very heavily towards the end and is not acceptable for more conservative viewers because of this, as well as nudity towards the end of the show.
-Overall- 8/10
NGE is a very well done show, but one that was too ambitious for it's own good. The story telling at times takes massive hits in quality, along with the animation. NGE was over budget towards the end of the show, which caused a much lower level of quality in the last episodes. While I enjoyed it, it certainly has major flaws, as I've stated above. Still, fans of religious story telling, and mecha series that aren't about the fights should watch this show.