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NEON GENESIS EVANGELION
God's in his heaven. All's right with the world.
Plot
Evangelion has, easily, one of the best plots I've everseen, with
the POSSIBLE exception of Xenogears (which isn't even an anime,
it's a videogame). I don't want to give away too much, so I'm
only going to give you a basic background of the 
story.
The year is 2015. About half the human race was wiped out fifteen
years ago in Second Impact. Now, the Angels have returned. Angels
are...well, god only knows. Angels take all sorts of shapes and
sizes, but they all seem to share a common goal. Each one takes a
shot at NERV or the Evangelion, giant synthetic, living, fighting
mechs. The Evangelion are piloted by 14 year old children, and
the three we see the most of are Units 00, 01, and 02, piloted by
Rei Ayanami, Shinji Ikari, and Asuka Langely-Sohryu respectively.
NERV itself is a secret organization, controlled by the UN. Its
headquarters is the GeoFront, located under Tokyo-3, a fortress
city. NERV and the Evangelion serve as humanity's defense against
the Angels, which number 18 total. I'm really not sure I could
say much more without giving out SOME little spoiler... So go see
it if you want to know more about the plot.
Characters
Ah, the characters... this is another area where Evangelion
shines. Each character has his or her own backstory, and while
the stories themselves are generally rather simple, once they're
revealed, you know exactly why each character acts as he or she
does. It's got perfect character development, and the character
personalities don't lack at all, either. Each character has their
own unique personality, and except for minor, supporting
characters, everyone is completely
different from
someone else, so you don't have any...well, duplicates where the
writers ran out of ideas.
To give you a little info on the characters, now...
First, we have Shinji Ikari. He's the main character, and as
mentioned above, the pilot of Evangelion Unit 01. He's from
Japan, as many of the characters are, and has been summoned by
his father, the director of NERV, to pilot the Evangelion. Only
certain people are able to pilot them, and Shinji happens to be
one (he's the Third Child, the third person designated as an
Evangelion pilot). Shinji and his father really don't get along
well, and haven't even lived together in years, but I'll leave
that whole story for you to see on your own...
Next up, Rei Ayanami. She's my personal favorite character, and
the pilot of Unit 00. She's the First Child, the first one
designated as an Evangelion pilot. She's really quiet and
introverted, and she lives alone in a small apartment. She's
pretty mysterious. We never see or hear from any of her family,
and everyone's pretty in the dark about her, except the higher
ups at NERV, who know all about her...but again, I'm gonna have
to leave that alone here.
The Second Child, Asuka Langley-Sohryu, designated pilot for
Evangelion Unit 02. She comes off as a stuck up bitch at first,
but you get used to her, and ultimately grow to like her... she
throws something extra into the show, and she's probably one of
the most unique characters in terms of personality. A little
background info, Asuka is three quarters German, one quarter
Japanese, and lived in Germany (in contrast to almost everyone
else, who have all lived in Japan the whole time).
Misato Katsuragi is a NERV officer. At the beginning of the
series, she's a Captain, but later on, is promoted to Major.
She's the one who meets Shinji when he first comes to Tokyo-3,
and ultimately becomes his care-taker when she decides he
shouldn't have to live alone (she's also Asuka's care-taker once
she arrives). Misato usually starts off breakfast by chugging a
beer, and while all the boys at school swoon over her, Shinji
isn't impressed by her lifestyle. He doesn't quite see what
everyone else sees in her, until he comes to the realization that
she's showing him a side she shows no one else, and that she's
like his family now. Misato also knows Asuka from pre-series,
when she lived in Germany with Asuka.
This doesn't do justice to all the other major characters who
deserve to be talked about here, but I think it's about time to
move on...
Animation and
Sound
The animation here is
pretty damned good. It's not choppy, a la parts of DBZ, it's
pretty fluid and CONSTANT (unlike...well, DBZ again) throughout.
Another thing to Evangelion's credit is that it's the only series
I've seen that uses so many still scenes so well. I've seen still
scenes, but they're usually pretty boring and I start to lose
interest (yes, I do have a relatively short attention span...
damned brain), but in Evangelion, they're used effectively.
They'll keep your attention because they actually MEAN something.
The sound is also great. At this very moment actually, I'm
listening to the Evangelion main theme (Zankoku na Tenshi no
Thesis). There isn't a ton of music throughout, but what music
they do use, they use pretty effectively, and it's definitely not
bad music. Well, at least I enjoy it...
Other
aspects...
Well, I guess I could
speak a bit about the series in general here. First off, don't go
in expecting DBZ-esque action every 28 seconds. It doesn't happen
that way here. Evangelion has its fair share of action, but it's
not entirely action-oriented. The action scenes are good, but I'm
glad they're used as sparingly as they are (which really isn't
very). They have it set up 
perfectly, because they give you enough
good action scenes that you're satisfied, but not so many that it
starts to get repetitive and boring. Each action scene has
something of its own, it's unique in its own right for some
particular quality that the current enemy has. As much as I'd
like to get into that... yes, you guessed it. I'm not sure I
would really call those plot spoilers (at least most of them),
but I know most people are either going to have the whole thing
spoiled or nothing at all... I won't take my chances.
Overall
It's one of my favorite anime series of all time, right up there
with DBZ and Tenchi Muyo (actually, I like it a little more than
Tenchi, but they're both great). The only real thing I don't like
about this series is its length... IT NEEDS TO BE LONGER. I hate
it when such a great series is cut so short... So...unless you're
an avid Christian and think you might have a heart attack, I
suggest you get your hands on this series...the whole thing.
Right now. Go.
...
GO NOW.
100%
Other media
from the show...
Listen to the theme
song: Zanoku na Tenshi no Thesis (A Thesis of the Cruel Angel)