Haruhi amuses me. But it's nowhere near as godly as people make it out to be.

Well, pretty much everything is overrated... to me, at least...

I'm kind of part of the last wave of fans right before Rebuild-generated fans, because I started watching with Cartoon Network's Giant Robot Week and then watched the series for the first time by seeing it as it aired on Adult Swim.

I am 14 this year (2007), and I was first introduced to Eva via my one of my cousins (I have 12!), who happens to live in Hakone. (LOL) I went there on a tour and he passed me a box-set of all 26 discs, in Japanese, but with English subtitles. (wonder where he got it from.) I was totally engrossed with it.

Before that, I had knew somethings about mecha from Gundam SEED. But Eva struck me with its careful attention to detail, like making sure that foreign characters (like Asuka) did not lose their original culture, unlike in Gundam SEED, where all characters are made to fit into the Japan culture. (For me, even a line of colorful German language helps.) And also character development is very well-done, unlike SEED, where other than Kira and Athrun, the rest were sloppily done, especially for Shinn, which was meant to be the most important one in SEED Destiny, but then they just resorted to stuffing Kira and Athrun into the line, 'cus it's easy, and saves time. Eva, on the other hand, may have caused Gainax to bleed heavily at first, but it paid off, as after 12 years, people like Asuka and Rei are still unforgettable. When I speak to my cousin about a hot-headed person, we don't say "He's a Shinn", although we watch SEED too, we say "She's an Asuka!" Because Asuka is more memorable than Shinn.

Also, it allowed me to explore a person's mind fully (I mean, only when I watch Eva can I hoodwink people into believing that I'm doing my Philosophy of Discliplines work!) It has helped me to understand people's thought processes better. Even my teacher was suprised when she heard that I learnt some things out of Eva. (LMAO)

Finally, it had more substance, and was more realistic. It had the feel that it was real, and was bound to happen soon, somewhere, maybe not in Japan, but somewhere... :?

The only other anime that can match up so far, is Haruhi. It's a little like the Eva of this new period. Only that, it's nowhere near as godly as people make it out to be, just like chee said.

Fafner comes close, but it feels like a Eva-copy. Gundam SEED is far away in Tokyo-2.

Hi everyone I've just joined Evageeks.com
(finally some fellow fans to talk to)

i'm 15 this year and discovered eva 2 years ago when i rented the first dvd out of a vague interest, It was the second anime i had seen besides FLCL (not counting pokemon etc) and is my favourite anime of all time (until rebuild lol)

I was drawn in by the maturity of the character portreyal, the religious/scientific detail of the show and of course the good ol' robot battles.

i'd like to think that the new generation of eva fans will mostly appreciate the deeper aspects of the show.