Moo's Review of Evangelion: It's Beautiful But It's Irritating

I don't know why everyone loves Evangelion. I have very mixed feelings about it.

I can't stand the melodrama. I can't stand the complicatedness of the characters. And I can't stand the weird/trippy things that happen to them. It's only just the first episode, everyone's already screaming and crying and having a terrible time. Should we be crying along with them? How? We've only just met them. And as the episodes go on, it gets even worse. By that, I mean, someone has a sex-dream about someone who is a clone of their mom. Or, someone tries to strangle a girl who is unconscious in a hospital bed. Or, someone dies by crashing her ship into a giant's eye... all the while, Christmas music is playing in the background. I find this all very confusing and completely unrelatable. I suppose this is the sort of stuff that teenagers love. Stuff that I too, many many years ago, felt an instant connection with. But now it just makes me upset!

But I have to admit, visually, it is stunning. The team behind this creation definitely didn't let any detail go untouched. From the intricate designs on the giant robotty things that fight other giant robotty things, to the coffee cups with the logo “NERV” printed on them, to the bodysuits that the characters wear, that for very specific reasons, come with matching hair clips. You just can't help but be in awe of this world they created.

But does the story have to be so irritating? Is the beautiful inseparable from the annoying? I'm afraid it is in the case of Evangelion. But I suppose you can love and hate something at the same time.