First off, props to Shinji for going into NERV, singing a bar of "Alice's Restaurant", and walking right out. Figuratively speaking, anyway.

I really did like Neon Genesis Evangelion, despite all of the angst and sheer awfulness of the setting, because stories like that need to be told. It's a cautionary tale about missed chances, failure to grow, and not knowing enough until it's too late. Still, I think I had more fun reading NXE.

I'm continually in awe of how EPU broadens the scope of its source material, and in so doing, produces superior stories. NGE is merely about the creation and survival of the human race, where in NXE survival is a part of the heavenly wars from before the creation of man. In NGE personal relationships are dominated by the "hedgehog's dilemma"; NXE has this feeling of intense loneliness too, but adds in love, and hope, and faith, and heroism. And the characters develop because of it. The first time I saw Asuka place someone else's feelings above her own, I was shocked -- and then I realized that her character had actually developed enough that it made sense. Moreover, it was fun to see the process where DJ Croft evolved from a deconstruction of a Mary Sue, then was reconstructed into a bona fide hero.

The same aspects of broadening the scope of stories holds true for UF too. Somehow, combining Revolutionary Girl Utena with Magic Knight Rayearth and Norse mythology causes Utena to make more sense. I have no idea how that happened, but it allows the drama to take place on a cosmic scale, interconnected to hundreds of other worlds and plotlines. And on the character development side -- well, let's just say that The Federation Lives Forever.

Anyway, I can't list all of the times that I've laughed or cheered at NXE, but I just wanted to say, thanks and well done.