>>211558125 (OP)Sopranos. I genuinely don't understand how people can like Eva to the point where its one of the biggest media franchises ever created. Just a series of pointless mystery boxes and superfluous characters with zero development. The middle of the series is the strongest part, and you actually get the sense that Shinji is becoming less of a self-loathing worm, and Asuka is toning down her oppressive personality/narcissism but by the time the movie "End of Evangelion finishes everything Shinji shows he has undergone zero growth and acts on his own self-loathing tendencies to the point of near rape. The series obsession with solipsism and metaphysical angst is incredibly dated - a ton of '90s music/movies/novels were exploring these ideas, so Evangelion isn't unique on that front. The symbolism is pointless, and doesn't move past the stereotypical Japanese "foreign = cool" nonsense that a lot of anime is plagued with, especially back then.
Anyways sorry for the blog.