Neon Genesis Evangelion - Platinum: The Complete Collection (2005)

Some people may love or hate this series. It's one of those series that is considered the best of its kind, and when you are holding the weight of something like that, it tends to split the opinions to different ends. For me, this series stands apart from other anime in that it wasn't just another anime about robots. In fact, the Eva's aren't even really robots. The plating around these beasts are merely restraints. Also, the earth is being attacked by things called "Angels", however they are not your ordinary enemy.

It may seem somewhat confusing why they decided on calling the evil force invading the planet Angels. However once you learn all of the main characters situations in their life, it makes sense. I mean they have had it pretty rough. Asuka for example was approached by her mother at a very young age and asked her if she would die with her, and then she found her mother dead in a room (she hung herself) with a "happy" look on her face. This explains why Asuka is the way she is. She's not the way she is on purpose, and can't really help the fact. She has no hope. But the Angels attacking Earth have given her purpose and hope. The same could be said for the rest of Nerv.

The ending to the series is a great artistic statement. Really the series ends at episode 24 I think it was, where the last Angel is defeated. Episode 25 is all about psychoanalysis of some of the characters mainly the Eva pilots. The last episode is more of the same but concentrates on Shinji Ikari, and is a much better episode overall. Shinji is even taken out of his world and placed on a blank page, which is this "nothingness" they are all afraid of would happen. Then they add a line to represent the horizon which adds gravity, and puts the character into many perspectives, talking about how the world is however you perceive it. It takes you into the mind of not only Shinji Ikari but also the storywriter, character designers, director etc.... it serves multiple purposes.

This is one surely not to be missed. It can be too much at times for me, with a lot of tension between the characters and even themselves. It's not as accessible as some other anime, and it's can get pretty dramatic and hectic at times, but it is extremely well done in that aspect.

Some of the artwork is beautiful, or in fact most of it is. There are a lot of scenes which you couldn't really do anything to make them better except add more detail and higher resolution. The direction blows my mind. Most of the English voice acting is bearable and fit the characters well. The characters themselves are quite inspring. I admit to not taking liking to quite a few of the characters, but they explain why they are the way they are. All of a sudden you got a cast that is pretty badass.

I do understand why some people dislike the series, hell I know people that don't like Star Wars and think it's BS. People have different minds and can like or dislike whatever they want, but in my mind this series was a most fantastic piece of artwork.