It took me a while to “get” and especially get into Evangelion, and I realized halfway through that was because I was missing a lot of inherent lore that the average Japanese person, specifically young males, have as a native install. A lot to do with the typical sort of standoffish paternal dynamics I was misinterpreting as exceptional and poorly explained, whereas it might typically be seen as otherwise redundant and poor storywriting there, as well as themes of both shame and societal/filial duty.

I grew up as a western latchkey kid with no concept of most of that, at least as a rule if not the exception. The idea of a protagonist with no agency for “no reason” was extremely annoying for me to parse. And I couldn’t figure out why for the longest time, because I love stories with self-sabotaging protagonists like Bojack and Better Call Saul. It felt unearned and awkwardly paced to me, but that was just my own western lens coloring my bias.

Overall, I still think the anime is trash. But at least now I can respect it lol