Hmmmm........ I can see where your coming from if you're not looking for all the subtle and underlying themes and smybology. The surface of the series may be rough but if you're willing to look for the meanings in all of it, It's really quite though provoking. As for remakes there is only one remake and that's the rebuild movies, Death and rebirth is just a compilation movie of the series End of Evangelion pairs with the last two eps. of the regular series and as for the dvd series releases they were just a directors cut of the series aired on TV no different than any other anime series that releases special editions or directors cuts they have to make their money somehow.

I think the main problem for a lot of people is it's the kind of show that doesn't want to explain itself to the audience, it wants the audience to figure it out on their own(or via the help of the internet). If you don't have the patience to try to figure things out, both in terms of the plot and the characters, you're not going to like it.

I've also heard some people say they couldn't relate to the characters because they weren't exactly the best people, but I personally found it made them more relate-able as they all had very human flaws and failings.

Yea I think that's why I like it so much, being spoon fed throughout an entire series is completely boring at least for me anyways...........

I hate it with a passion, Anno said anime fans were forced autism which is quite insulting to me and my friends who have some form of autism. I will leave my criticism at that.

The movies are quite nice compared to the actual series, less fluff which equals less shinji rage which also equals more enjoyment...

less fluff = more enjoyment

holy shit...........

Add me right in there with you.

I don't know Anno from a hole in the ground.

But Evangelion for all it's flaws and all the 'depth' and 'art' attributed to it 'emperor's new clothes' style, remains the anime that provoked a qualitative change in how I... consumed anime. I found even the characters I disliked fascinating... Perhaps because their faces belonged above the chapter headings for the psych text I was studying for Nursing... Perhaps because they weren't just flawed they were broken...

I'm normally about content over merchandise but the few bits of anime merchandise that didn't get as part of a boxed set are overwhelmingly Evangelion (particularly Rei Ayanami) based. Perhaps because she's a like a Rorschach blot of a character who will be whatever a given fan believes her to be.

The directors cuts are officially viewed as the canon episodes for the series, since they have added scenes that tie in with End of Evangelion movie. As for Rebuild, I'm pretty sure everybody is not going to die in the end. The direction the story took in Evanglion 3.0 compared to 1.0 and 2.0, greatly (and I mean greatly) differs from anything in the original series or the End of Evangelion. Overall, the end of the Rebuild films will be less depressing from the way it's going I assume. As a side note, Shinji did get training daily as an Eva pilot (as well as the other pilots) and in his first fight he fell down before even getting two steps off the launching pad, then all of the sudden is an Amuro Ray with his Mobile Suit Gundam kicking major ass. First fight that wasn't him controlling it, it was his mother's soul (You know, after he got practically tossed around by the Angel).

I'm actually very passionate about Evangelion. It's probably my favorite anime series ever. A reason why a lot of people don't like it, is that they don't understand it. If your don't get any of the judeo-christian references, it takes away the likeableness of the show. Also, it's probably the most blasphemous thing I've ever seen. Like, basically, angels are destroying the world, man-made machines save us from angels, no one can exist unless we are all one god-like being in a soup matter with an Eva as the medium, oedipus complex, the angel of 'free will' is 'gay'..yea lots of thinks like that..
If you are new to the series, and you don't wanna sit through 26 episodes and the EoE, then watch the movies. Of course you would have a much different, and better, understanding if you've seen everything from Evangelion. With the movies, people that have been following the series and the movies SHOULD know by now that the movies do not follow the series BECAUSE:...

(PLEASE DON'T CLICK if you don't wanna know what happens in Evangelion 3.0 YOU CAN (NOT) REDO, if you do don't get mad at me cause I warned you!) though big Eva fans would not be surprised as we all probably guessed this especially what Kaworu said at the end of 2.0

Eva 3.0 Spoiler:

Yup, that's pretty much the whole plot of the movie!

Sorry I just had to click on the spoilers.

Damn now I'm a lot more interested. 1.1 just seemed like a reader's digest version with updated anime. But it seems the further they go into the plot the more it changes. cool.

Yea, now that you know the plot, go back rewatch both movies and it'll make sense and come all together and it'll be so obvious that 1.0 and 2.0 were building up to this point in 3.0

Oh yea, I forgot something about Evangelion 3.0

Boring Show.

Watch the movies