Spencer wrote:I've heard that you don't wanna see Neon Genesis Evangelion, but I've never seen it myself.
...
NGE (don't get me wrong, I don't mean to judge the series, but I'm going by what I've heard) -
Well, the show... It's got a heavy dose of fanservice, and some say it's where the term originated from (but I don't think that's true... I seem to remember talking about fanservice in the earliest days of my anime fandom, in refference to "Project A-ko" the Queen Mother of fanservice)
Besides that, it has barbie-doll ism ala Sailormoon, though a little worse. Oh, and I think there is a sex scene that doesn't show anything directly.
What bugs people most about the show are the biblical refferences. Evangelion is a Greek theological term meaning "Message." Of course, "Angels" sticks out like a sore thumb. There's a very seductive woman who wears a cross, there's talk of adam, eve, and lillith (which is from extra-biblical lore... Adam's "other" wife.) Nerv's symbol is a fig-leaf, which connects to the "adam" thing, the computer running nerv is called the magi (in refference to the 3 wisemen) And, oh yeah, there are 3 main units in the Magi. Rei is considered the untainted (sinless) human being, because... well, I ain't gonna spoil it even if I'm telling you not to watch...
The show goes from slapstick silly in the beginning (though decidedly not a parody in any way...) to dark and creepy towards the end. I feel like the last two episodes fixed the problem I had towards the end of the show.
Then I saw End of Evangelion. I couldn't watch it all at once, it honestly made me sick. However, I'm one that I won't judge a series or movie until I'd seen it all the way through (porn excluded, mind you) So I sat through 10 to 15 minute chunks until I finished it... After finishing it, it left me depressed and sick for days. I could not get it out of my mind. It was the sickest, most twisted thing I'd ever seen. (and I'd seen episode 26 of excel, puni puni poemi, goldenboy, sakura diaries, and some other bad anime, so that's saying a lot... of course those were just dirty...)
So, yeah, I'd say don't watch it even for review purposes. If you're young and don't get the stuff that's going on, you may not understand my hatred for this, but please don't test it... It could leave you permanently scarred...