Neon Genesis Evangelion

Cowboy Bebop’s idiosyncratic story-telling and cool style impressed me enough that I went looking for other well-regarded anime to watch. Neon Genesis Evangelion was widely praised, so I picked up the Blu-ray set.

I had thought Faye Valentine’s outfit in Cowboy Bebop was crass but it’s got nothing on the obsession with boobs and general sexism in Evangelion. Yes, the protagonist, Shinji, is a fourteen-year-old boy, but there is no reason the show itself needs to follow his pubescent gaze so slavishly. This mistake is part of the wider problem of the series: following his teenage desires and angst is just not that compelling after a while. By the latter half of the series I had had enough of Shinji and wanted him and the series to grow up; watching him to continue to yell and sob time after time became irritating rather than profound.

The original TV series ending (not the one in End of Evangelion) weren’t great episodes, feeling like heavy-handed psychoanalysis, but they made sense for a show that was ostensibly about giant mechs but really about the mental struggles of their teenage pilots. The film ending added bombs and bombast but doesn’t really change the fundamental direction of the story. It does have more of Shinji yelling and sobbing, if that is your thing.

On the more positive side, the visual designs of the Angels and the Evas are wonderfully weird, and the music is memorable (the “Decisive Battle” drum theme tribute to John Barry’s 007 scores being my favourite). ★★★☆☆