"Neon Genesis Evangelion"

Reviewed by Citizen Bleys
02-05-2002 7:38 PM

Producer: Noriko Kobayashi (TV Tokyo), Yutaka Sugiyama
Subber/Dubber: ADV
Genre: Science Fiction (Giant Mecha)
Length: 26 Episodes, 2 movies, and more fan fictions than a shinjuku whore has STDs.
Review: The year is 2015, and the Angels are back.  Evangelion opens with a giant monster rampaging through Tokyo, just to be different.  Sure, it's Tokyo-3, but let's not split hairs.  The future is placed upon the shoulders of a 14-year old boy, who promptly gets stoned, grabs some shoplifted porn from the local convenience store, and forgets about the whole issue.  No, wait, that would be what would happen if this were reality.  No, no, they tell this 14-year-old to risk his life against 100:1 odds, and the boy doesn't respond with more swear words than you knew existed.  How odd.  Mankind's greatest weapon is Evangelion, which is a fancy way of saying giant mecha which, for reasons it would be too silly to explain, can only be operated by 14-year-olds.

Under the surface, Evangelion is very much a show about the human mind.  You get to delve deep inside the minds of the 14-year-old protagonists, and find...remarkably little sex.  I know I was thinking about sex when I was 14, but all these daft buggers think about is "duty" and "responsibility", and "I hate my father".  Well, one out of three is realistic, anyways.

Primarily for the purpose of pissing people off, I will now do a character study--covering only a few of the characters.

Shinji Ikari:  The pilot of Evangelion Unit-01, and the son of NERV commander Gendou Ikari.  If you didn't know him better, you might think he's a self-absorbed whiner.  Shinji's primary interests in life are the cello, piloting Eva even though he really really really doesn't want to, and hating his father.

Misato Katsuragi:  A captain with NERV, she's in charge of the Evangelion.  Perky, cute, popular, and very pushy.  Her interests are not being in love with Ryouji Kaji, drinking, and hitting on Shinji.

Gendou Ikari:  Shinji's dad.  He's the anthropomorphic personification of "asshole".  I like Gendou.

Rei Ayanami:  The obligatory quiet girl.  Albino.  No soul whatsoever.  Apparently has some deep connection with Gendou Ikari.  If you look real closely, you can see the wind-up crank in her back.  I like Rei.

Asuka Langley Sohryu:  Bitch.

Toji Suzuhara:  Introduces himself to Shinji by punching his lights out.  Naturally, he turns out to be Shinji's best friend.

Kensuke Aida:  Gung-ho bugger, wants to pilot Eva more than anything else in the world.  Apparently hasn't thought of Shinji cosplay yet.

Ryouji Kaji:  Misato's old boyfriend.  Always calm, seems pretty wise.  Not as smart as he thinks he is.  I like Kaji.

Now for some non-doctored screenshots

Introducing Misato Katsuragi, who has command of the most powerful  weapons on Earth	Military men at their finest
Misato trying to be subtle again	NERV is even smarter than the military

Follow ups:

None