>>211984877It's a story about adults who were traumatized as kids perpetuating the cycle of trauma onto the next generation.
We see their handler lose her father in a horrific accident and deal with her loss through isolation. So when the children are in distress her reaction is to wall them off and isolate them so they can sort if out like she did, which obviously backfires and doesn't resolve the issue. She's also an alcoholic who can't maintain relationships.
In the final few episodes we see Asuka the girl coming of age by turning into her handler - By sinking into petulant escapism. Shinji follows suit by disassociating entirely, while the adults struggle to manipulate them further after breaking them down completely.
It's hardly pretentious, it spoke to an entire generation of people who grew up with post war traumatized adults. The message resonated in the 90's with gen X and still carries on today.
You call it pretentious because you do not understand the message.