Why is NGE, despite it's cultural impact across entertainment media, is rated an 8/10 at best among western reception?

[WunderBah]

I see it across notable review sites such as Imdb landing it an 8.5/10 and whatnot, even anime community sites aren't that better either.

For something as acclaimed and groundbreaking as NGE, I just find these results rather odd.

[Blockio]

Because rating sites are generally terrible at actually representing what people's opinions are, and usually the only people bothering to give ratings at all are vocal minorities on either side.

[The Killer of Heroes]

Eva also has its divisive elements, which means some people are going to react really strongly against it and give it a lesser rating as a result.

In general its not worth putting much stock in numerical ratings IMHO.

[AdamMalkovitch]

It's very divisive, most who watch it love it, but there's also a large portion of the audience who found it pretentious or unintelligible and hate it for that. Hell, I love NGE but I'd still only give it a 9/10 if I had to assign a number, just because the animation can be limited at times and not in a way that enhances the storytelling- the intentionally uncomfortable elevator scene, or that long drawn out shot of Shinji holding Kaworu in Terminal Dogma, are both great sequences accomplished with very few frames, but something like the fades between Shinji's hand turning purple and then green while kissing Asuka, or the static shot of the glass of water on Misato's bedside table during her final night with Kaji before his death, or even super early on, the ending of episode 4 when Shinji decides not to get on the train and then it's just him and Misato staring at each other for like 40 seconds with no movement, all just feels kinda jank.

[dzzthink]

It is difficult to rank Japanese animation on a /10 ranking system and only Spirited away is given the honorific title of 'one of the greatest movies ever made'. It is honestly a difficult tv series to get into and with so many of the younger generation focusing on other genres of anime like naruto and one piece, Evangelion usually gets sidelined as an 'outsider anime' or those with niche tastes in serious psychological anime.

[FelipeFritschF]

Eva isn't that huge in the West and many Western fans have little to no idea of how big it is in Japan. A lot of fandom discourse is also informed by this idea that is an undeground cult classic made by a recluse misunderstood auteur, not this cultural and commercial behemoth made by a high-profile prestigious director with hundreds of interviews and separate media dedicated to him.

Moreover I'd also reiterate that this is even more of an Anglophone phenomenom as anime and manga and by extension Evangelion are pretty much as mainstream as any other media can be in Spanish, Italian, French or Portuguese-speaking countries just to name a few. I'm not sure about Germany etc, but outside of the US/UK you had anime entering the cultural scene decades earlier than it did in, and even now anime and "weebs" are too much of a subculture and not just, you know, cartoons and/or regular entertainment. France and Italy also received a wealth of translated official material that the theoretically larger US market never got. So the perceived cultural shock and lack of appreciation towards this specific media definitely influences your average reviewer. As an example I love the NYT and LA Times reviews of 2.0 and 3.0, they really treat it as this quaint silly little thing, even using rather childish language as if it was made for 5 year olds.

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/m ... story.html

[MuscleRobo]

What media is universally beloved in general? The Beatles? I'm hard pressed to think of much else. I mean on most anime ranking websites I visit Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood is the highest rated anime and I don't even think it's even the best Fullmetal Alchemist anime!

It's kind of funny but I like discovering a lot of things as well. A lot of the anime that got me into anime are very low rated on MAL but I still love visiting them. It's odd because a lot of people who don't even like a genre feel a need to tank scores. Some of my favorite anime comedies are in the 5's and have 1 star reviews that just say something like "Anime Comedies Suck." Video Girl Ai is just barely over a 7 and a lot of reviews talk about how they don't like
romance anime.

I think the fact that Evangelion is almost 30 years old and still has such a dedicated fanbase that is willing to watch it and discuss it is proof of its legendary status alone. There have been shows in recent years like SSSS.Gridman and Muteking that really moved me that I wanted to discuss with people but due to the glut of anime that comes out every few months now it just gets lost in all the other discourse. I'm just glad Eva has such a dedicated fanbase we can all discuss it and learn from each other!

[Gendo'sPapa]

An 8.5 out of 10 is a pretty remarkable score all things considered.

Especially for a show like NGE that takes a lot of creative risks and swerves that go against normal storytelling conventions.

The real proof of Eva's worth is that it's still a cultural impact 30 years after the fact.