Neon Genesis Evagelion Review Page

Neon Genesis Evagelion
Type:
Genre:
No. Of Vol:
Released By:
Avg. Of Rating:
Commercial
Sci-Fi
?
AD Visions
8.0

Company Line:

Reviews:
David Seid Subbed Version 8.0

Fansub Rules
Fansub List
Fansub Price
Arrival/Depart
Mailing List
Review Index
Send In Reviews
My Top Ten
Front Page

Neon Genesis Evagelion Review

I don't often review domestic anime releases, but in the case of Evangelion, I feel there is a need to warn the unknowing, before they buy any tapes to the series. While for the most part I enjoyed the series, I have to rate this as one of the most disappointing series ever. The long and the short of it is the ending was absolutely unacceptable in my opinion. The series has a great storyline that gets better and better as it goes on; but the last two episodes will leave most fans scratching their heads, asking "WHY?!?"

I will not spoil the viewing experience for those of you willing to give the series a try by revealing any specifics; but essentially, the ending episodes are introspective and leave many questions for the viewer without any answers forthcoming (or even implied). The subsequent Eva movies make matters even worse. They essentially focus on the same confusing thought processes as in the ending episodes of the TV series, and give no answers to the questions that were left to be answered (leaving the viewer more confused and ANGRY than ever (not to mention poorer)).

I'll skip the description to the series, as this information is widely available elsewhere, and get right to the evaluation.

EVALUATION

ART/ANIMATION

No problems here. The animators used their relatively small budget wisely. The end result is a very nice looking TV series with an original and fresh color palette. Animation is relatively smooth for a TV series.

CHARACTER DESIGN

While these are not to my personal preference, I must say they are very well done. I especially liked the designs of Asuka. As a whole, these are excellent.

MUSIC

I loved the opening song, and was immediately hooked. The ending song "Fly Me to the Moon" is not my cup of tea, but was well performed. As a whole, the music to the series was quite good.

STORY

This is where I have a love/hate relationship with Evangelion. As a WHOLE, the story was great. The problem being that those last two episodes completely ruined it for me, and I suspect will leave a bad taste in mouth of most viewers when they see them. Obviously these episodes in question were meant to be thought provoking, but they had the wrong type of thought provoking effect on me.

OVERALL

Here is where I will mark down Eva, for its less than inspired ending. It is obvious from my opening remarks, that the series was an enormous disappointment to me. I almost wish ALL of the series was poor; then I could have written it off early as a waste of my time and saved a lot of time. The fact that it was a great series until the last couple of episodes is criminal, and the writers should be ASHAMED at themselves. I rate this series an AVOID, only because of the HIGHLY inadequate ending. If you are willing to go into watching the series with the knowledge and expectations that the last two episodes are unacceptable, then the rest of the series is worth watching (although I would advise you to rent it).

Review By: David Seid

Art/Animation:Storyline:Character Design:Music:
8.5
8.9
9.0
8.7