It may be obvious from my site, but I love Neon Genesis Evangelion and it's one of my favourite anime. The first time I had tried watching it, I quit after ten minutes of the first episode from boredom, but something had made me want to go and try it again. I gave it a few more episodes, and was drawn into the series. The world of Evangelion is mysterious, the characters are complex, it had heavy philosophical themes and religious symbolism -- it was everthing I liked in one series.

Kaworu Nagisa

Whilst I've always liked Kaworu, he wasn't my favourite character at first, but over time he's grown on me to the point where I'd say he ties with Asuka as my favourite. I feel drawn to him as a character, with how mysterious yet charming he is. He's the only person to unconditionally love Shinji: Gendo is neglectful, Rei is emotionally distant, Misato tends to only praise him after he does missions, even Asuka, who has more in common with Shinji than you'd first assume, treats him poorly. Kaworu is the only character who loves Shinji for himself, not for his accomplishments, not for piloting an Eva.

And as I've said above, I love religious symbolism, including Christ-like characters, who end up dying for humanity (another example being Persona 3's Makoto Yuki). One of the core themes of Eva is that due to each person being an individual and different we have conflict and result in a deep alienation from each other, but Kaworu dies for humanity, he deeply cares about Shinji and so feels joy from pushing aside that individual will resulting in no alienation. You could also say, that with Kaworu having to die, it's to say that Shinji having unconditional love is unrealistic, as we're all individuals and will have to face conflicts with our opinions, world views, etc, just like the hedgehog's dilemma. Regardless, I love Kaworu's character.

Asuka Langley Soryu

Previously my favourite, now sharing "favourite character" status with Kaworu, I love Asuka. Starting off as an arrogant, bratty girl, you gradually see this facade broken and torn off layer by layer as the series progresses. Whether or not you liked Asuka at first, I think we can agree that her downward spiral was tragic and pulled off so well. I'd even go so far as to say that it was disturbing, how she was already broken yet as the events of the series go on even her image of confidence is destroyed. She may be one of, if not the saddest Evangelion character to me: she's left with nothing.

I find it interesting how she has a lot in common with Shinji, having a troubled (to put it incredibly lightly) relationship with her parents, piloting the Eva for validation and struggling with depression. Unfortunately, due to her nature of masking these feelings with an arrogant tsundere attitude, she never opened up to him. I have to wonder what would have happened if they confided in each other.

Two of my favourite moments:

Rei's poem (episode 14)

This felt like one of the moments where you realised that Evangelion was definitely not just some sci-fi mecha anime, but something much greater. After this, we truly saw the characters being stripped down to their core. Even though Hideaki Anno had actually forgotten Rei, I think he still managed her character well and this scene is proof that even if a character isn't being prioritized, Evangelion manages to give them such depth. I find Rei's poem to be haunting yet strangely soothing and very impactful.

Freedom, the self and the role of others (episode 26)

I love the original Evangelion ending and I love this scene in particular. I think freedom is a word which many people use, but don't think much about what it actually means. If we were truly free, we wouldn't have societies, we'd be free of all social ties as having relationships restricts what you can do, I think many people wouldn't enjoy true freedom. I find the original ending to have such a positive, beautiful message and it upsets me that some dislike it and even claim that it's somehow "bad".