Most of things was Anno has just gotten out of some serious therapy for massive depression issues, and he's been in a phase where he was questioning the worth of living, let alone if mankind was worth trying to save...Shinji kind'a became a soapbox for him toward the end when production budgets got slashed to almost nothing and they still had to finish the series.
I've watched Evangelion back then and I thought it was cool due to the mecha fights but there is something more than that but I don't really get it back then.
I've read that during EVA's time, Hideki Anno is totally depressed during that time, not to mention the death threats that he received due to the last two episodes (the very why
End of Evangelion) and I think he is one of the few directors who criticized the "otaku" lifestyle. It's more like a parody of the Super Robot genre, as someone told me.
My friend said that if you watch the
Rebuild of Evangelion films, what you think about the series is wrong, dead wrong. It seems it reflects more about Anno's present life: he seemed happy, he got married and had a family of his own. And oh, who would forget Mari Makinami? Correct me if I'm wrong: is Rebuild more like lighthearted?
