I had first seen it about 6 years ago, and it really impressed me, and had a tremendous impact on me.
For starters, the use of Western religious imagery was a great choice - it's visually captivating and a generally cool style (and this was before it was used in nearly all anime series). The concept of Angels as monsters was also very unique, and I'm a sucker for stories about an impending apocalypse.
What really impressed me, however, was EVA's focus on psychology. It was the first time I had seen such a collection of dysfunctional characters who were more or less responsible for the fate of the world. Watching the series from beginning to end, you can't help but be drawn into each of the characters' psychosis, and they all had such believable personalities. Much of these emotional problems seem to stem from parent-child issues, as well as gender relationship problems, and this is especially evident in the movie, The End of Evangelion.
Admittedly, EVA is very depressing and paints a bleak picture. While I really love this very hard look at humanity, I think it is a little extreme at times. I'm very attracted to sad stories because they tend to be more realistic, and while the emotional problems of the characters are very realistic, many of the situations in the series seemed to be sadistically designed by director Hideaki Anno to torture the characters. Regardless of this, the pacing of the show is fantastic as each of the characters start to collapse emotionally.
I can understand why EVA is still extremely popular throughout the world, and I don't think this will be the only time I write about it here.
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