i came into eva late. like, 4-5 years ago. a hardcore fan lent me copies of the dvds.
the first thing that became apparent was where the mecha shows after eva - the ones i had watched - all drawn their 'inspiration.' shows like blue gender and eureka seven glanced over at eva and just did it again without doing anything on their own. eureka seven was particularly frustrating for me even at the time because it meanders so long and then has kind of an exciting finale and then it's over. it's even more frustrating now knowing there wasn't a single original idea that drove its creation.
the following is just a personal interpretation, maybe not what the creator intended, but it's what i choose to believe in and why it left a mark on me.
for most of the show, i was mildly interested in the plot of the angels and the impacts and being one of the first shows to subvert the genre. a lot of it was like uncovering cultural history within the anime world. my reaction was mostly 'oh interesting' or 'huh, neat' whenever something that had been referenced in another show would pop up (invader zim was probably the earliest show i'd seen that referenced eva even though i didn't understand it at the time). as shit started to go down, it was gradually more intense and attention-grabbing, but it didn't reach that classic level for me until end of evangelion.
end of eva shows people in their final moments, mostly alone, mostly looking for someone else. this recontextualized the events of the show for me - as people who are all lonely, fighting with depression, or anxiety, and feel there's no one else around them who can help. who they want to be with or to love them is perceived as unavailable or unattainable and it drives them into further isolation. in the end, shinji is suicidal and given the option between accepting this death, or going back to his life wrought with pain and suffering, where there's only one other person alive who can't stand him - he chooses life. and maybe that just speaks to me having an unrealistically optimistic worldview that contrasts with occasional suicidal ideation, but i took it to be a 'life is worth living' message done through the absolutely harshest lens. it wasn't even until later that i learned the creator suffered from depression when he was making the show, but that just helped cement my interpretation even more.
to be clear, this isn't to force my interpretation on anyone else, but it's the reason why end of evangelion is what really won me over. i think it's beautiful.
