Evangelion is an incredibly overrated anime. I used to be a big fan, but now it just seems like a mess of half-assed ideas and inconsistent tone that thinks it’s way smarter than it actually is. It would be a genuinely great series if they just made 3 changes: flesh out the background lore and side characters, tone down the awful humor and creepy sex appeal in the early parts of the series, and replace the pretentious esoteric monologues with more of a “show don’t tell” approach to exposition. But in its current state, I wouldn’t call it a “cinematic classic” like everyone else does.