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!!! Warning: Kinda spoils the ending, so don't read ahead if you want
to be in awe !!!
It may not be the best anime in terms of actual animation, but the story line of NGE is amazing. it was
only the second i saw anything of, but I am certainly grateful that Rob a) told me i had to watch the whole thing from episode
one or not at all, and b) lent me the entire series and the films.
To be honest, with the first few episodes, i couldn't see what was so good about it. I mean, obviously,
it was good, but hardly outstanding. But i enjoyed it enough to carry on watching, and by the end, i couldn't wait for him
to give me the nect disc (which was a shame, as the gaps got longer. The gap before End of Eva was about four months long
-_-).
Personally, i find the whole concept of Angels coming to destroy mankind and us destroying themselves with
manmade 'Gods' which we have a certain (if limited) amount of control over.
I find the characters so realistic that it is easy to believe they are real people doing real jobs. It's
easy to become attatched to them, and feel sad when they die. Obviously i'm not suggesting it's realistic to have an angel/human
clone with blue hair and red eyes on your class, but you know what i mean.
I love that i get irritated by Asuka most of the time, and keep thinking that Shinji's pathetic and Gendo's
unreasonably cruel (even if those two characters are more like me than i usually like to admit).
 I love the sense of power you get from Gendo, and SEELE but particularly the Eva Units - especially
Unit-01 near the end, and in End of Eva when he awakens. I'm forever impressed by the depth of the story line, and the months
or years that must have gone into its development. I'm in awe of the number of religios references to christianity present
here. It's just fantastic.
I guess there should be a brief outline of the story for those who haven't seen it, but i stress the 'brief'
and emplore you to go watch it for yourself.
The Dead Sea scrolls predict the coming of 17 angels. If mankind can destroy all these, and then itself
(being the eighteenth angel) then it can allow the forbidden marriage of Lilith and Adam, and effectively sidetrack evolution
straight to God status.
SEELE (an international secret branch of the government) plans to complete this senario, thus bringing
about a new genisis. They plan for mankind to be one great perfect being. However, they left this 'Human Instrumentality Project'
in the capable hands of NERV (a subsiduary of SEELE, sort of, which is run by Ikari Gendo). Unfortunally for SEELE, Gendo
has a differnt view of the future. He wants the race to become individuals again, so he can be reunited with his dead wife
Yui in a world where people do not hurt each other.
The instuments for war are the Evangelion, of which 13 units were produced. These may look like robots,
but they are not. With the exception of Unit-01, they are technically the offspring of Adam (the first angel, and giver of
life to all other angels). Unit-01, however, was cloned from Lilith's DNA. Therefore, he is more powerful then the others,
and (as Lilith is giver of life to man) the synch ratio's are generally better with Unit-01.
So anyway, Man kills all the other angels, and the marriage takes place, only contary to Gendo's plan, Rei
chooses Shinji over him to be the arbiter of mankind. Shinji pretty much chooses what Gendo would have chosen, and leaves
himself and Asuka as the only survivors of Third Impact.
 Ayanami Rei is my favourite character. She's really mysterious, keeps to herself, makes no effort to get
to know anyone really, and only shows anything close to emotion towards Gendo and then Shinji nearer the end. She is a pilot,
good at everything, and (as Rob would say) 'she's hard.' She usually pilots Eva Unit-00.
She is a clone in the image of Yui, with added angel DNA and is key to Gendo's plan for Human instrumentality.
He expects her to choose him as arbiter.
 Sohryu Asuka Langley is the second child after Rei. She is 3/4 german and 1/4 japanese. She is so sure of
herself that her ego is almost palpable ... and then she is attacked by an angel on a psychological level and suffers a breakdown.
Stereotypically, whereas we Brits tend to beat around the bush, the Germans are quite adept at saying what they mean. Asuka
is a perfect example of this, and, coupled with her personality, this makes her extremely annoying and seemingly rude to me.
However, Rob would tell em that i should consider what she's gone through and i would not think so harshly on her. I guess
i did like her a bit by the end.
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