Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995) is a 26-episode anima set in 2015 Tokyo-3. Earth is being periodically attacked by Angels and it's up to NERV and its Mecha to stop them. The story kind of centers on Shinji (Casey Mongillo), teen Mecha pilot draftee and one of the very few people who can pilot Mecha (and the other pilots in the series are also teens). Shinji is the best Mecha pilot but is withdrawn and is full of self-doubt mostly driven by his estranged relationship with dad Gendo (Ray Chase), commander of NERV.

The other main pilots are Rei (Ryan Bartley), a quiet girl who seemingly has no life outside her Mech. She is the first pilot, Shinji is the second recruit. Third pilot Asuka (Stephanie McKeon) arrives a few episodes in, a German teen striving to prove herself the best pilot. All three are driven by their own demons and the series goes into it a bit. One of the themes is teen soldiers and how it changes them.

Mecha combat is fairly interesting. Each Angel is quite different so every battle is interesting. NERV Mecha fight plugged into the power grid and once they unhook only have two or three minutes of power. The Mecha are semi-alive and pilots have to interphase with them (hence why you need teens) and later on we finds out the horrible truth of how Mecha are created.

For the most part it's an ok series. Towards the end it gets very psychological as the Angels start targeting the pilots' psyches. The last two episodes are particularly boring explorations inside the mind of each pilot and I'm not sure if the resolution is real or a dream. So a series that starts out promising fizzles out at the end.