My friend just recently watched Eva & i'm pretty proud. The irony is that HE made me aware of it a few years ago, but i got to see it before him though

Here's what i meant by the topic heading. He claims(and i regret to say that i believe him though) that he watched the whole series flat out, with minor breaks, in one day! And the movies the next! A two day Eva drill!! But the crux is that he understood virtually all of the main plots and intentions on his first time (barring all those hectic symbolisms of course ~ that comes with research).

Unless i'm just dumb, but I had to watch it a second time to smooth out some rough ends to my knowledge & i'm still a bit rusty. He gave me some really insightful aspects that i never thought of. Goddammit.....AND IT MAKES SENSE

Please don't tell me this is the norm. Cos then I mite as well slit my wrists right now!!

I find it hard to swallow your friends claim that he understood it all after one viewing. I think one has to watch it all 3-4 times just get a real feel for just how subtle and complex the story actually is.
Anyway, try asking Mr Smartypants about these two plot points (which only became clear to me years after I first saw the series:
1 What really motivated Ritsuko to turn against Gendo towards the end of the series?
2 What was Yui's motive in undergoing the Contact Experiment with EVA-01?

Well, there are some rather astute and observent people that can more or less get it on the first try. I don't think anyone will ever truly understand it, not even Anno.

But there are people who can watch it once and more or less get it. But for most, it would take several viewings to really have a firm grasp of it.

I got evangelion the first time through. What I mean is I more or less had a general idea of the various plot threads, characters and conflicts present. I saw most of the pieces on board and how they had moved, but of course I did not understand the subtleties involved in how they reached their final positions. I hadn't yet fully grasped the minute and not so minute details, but I could tell you more or less, what was going on in the series.

I reckon most people, once they reach such a point, will be satisfied with their understanding and won't necessarily want to delve any deeper than that. This is Eva making sense to most people, and that is fine. It's only wretched perfectionists like us that must spend eternity forging our own misery in trying to hammer out the details.

Incidentally, did I ever mention that I had a friend who didn't get that Yui was in Unit 01 after his first time through?

My brother in-law figured out the turning point in the Asuka-Shinji relationship instantly. The day I showed him Ep 15-16 he heard Asuka bitching about Shinji (in the locker room scene in ep. 16) and said "Of course she's actually mad because he wouldn't kiss her."

The first time I saw Eva, I think I was 11 or 12.

Needless to say, I didn't understand it at all. Or, I thought I did, but I really had no clue. I'm still unsure about a few things, and I've watched the series tons of times.

I find it a little hard to believe that your friend understood all the main plot points the first time through. Quiz him.

Okay, I personally did not get eva the first time.

But I do have a friend who is becoming an avid evangelion fan as we speak (Yay! Gabby!) who got a majority of the concepts beforehand. It might be just because I talk about it a lot and she's picked up, but she was pretty quick on several things.

There are some (no names, no packdrill) who would assert that I still haven't got it

I know I got through my first viewing (non-DC) unsure whether Yui's consciousness was executing in Eva-00, -01 or the currently loaded Ayanami - taking, by default, a very strictly materialist approach in my interpretation since the show was obviously about some engineered Transcendence, ever since ep#2.

I've seen a lot of people on the spaniard (iberos I mean) forums who say "I understand everything in Eva, except" [insert stupidity like "Whose soul is in Eva-01?" or "How does Rei synch if she has a soul? I thought pilots had to be soulless!"].

Everytime I hear someone say he understands everything in Eva I mistrust. Those who think they know it all, barely grasp the meaning of "knowing".

I coudn't believe it either, but he is a smart dude.

He mentioned something to me that i surely never cuaght the first time i watched it. You know how certain parts in the series are split up as Rei I, II & III? The first time i viewed it, i thought it just referred to different stages of her life. But i never really looked at literally for the fact that it IS actually clone I, II & III. I didnt expect it to be so literall?

He also explained how Anno tends to allow her to grow emotionally and then at the pinnacle, he planned for her to sacfrifice herself, thus never really experiencing happiness. Ultimately, she can only find true happiness at 'home'.

I tried to extract what he thought about the part when Unit 01 takes the S2 into itself. I asked him why he thinkd Gendo was so happy with this occurance. He looked at it from this view, that emotionally Gendou was more proud of the synchronisation between mother & son and the breaking free of Eva was just at surface value.

I dont know wehter i agree or not, but he is pretty persuasive though.

Your friend must be really smart or so?! I think i get most of the story in my 2nd viewing!! But, as we all know even though we understand it there's still question to be answered!!