I think this opinion is interesting, and I want to dissect it a bit. Starting with "I think that [Evangelion is] a case of a show being really popular not of its own merit". At first, this sounds the exact same as saying that the show is overrated, but I think this is a little bit different. This is person is essentially saying that not only is the show overrated, but the reason its beloved is not because of the story, the characters, or the visuals, but because of something else. Something completely outside of Hideaki Anno or anyone else who worked on the show's control. I think this idea isn't ridiculous, in fact I have an example: BBC Sherlock. That show, as far as I know from my time on the internet, was not popular because it was actually good in any way, but just because it basically gave the fanbase some visuals with which they could essentially create their own narratives with. Maybe I'm misrepresenting that show's popularity and how it manifested, but that is the way I see it anyways. However, with Evangelion I don't think this is an accurate thing to say. Calling the show overrated is one thing, and a thing I might even agree with, but I don't think you could ever substantiate that the reasons it is popular is not due to its own merit. In my experience, most of the Evangelionfanbase is deeply rooted in the show's story and characters. People obviously care about the characters in this world, and that is due to the show's own merit as a compelling narrative. Again, in BBC Sherlock I don't think most people cared that much about the story and characters outside of how it furthered their own headcanons and ships. Evangelionships sure are popular, but they tend to be grounded within the narrative of the story.
Now, onto the other main statement: "Definitely though any aspect you like of anime that NGE fills, there's other shows that are more interesting in that respect". Now this is just odd to me. This almost seems like making the argument that for a piece of media to be great, it must be the best in everything that it does. Let's think about what this person is suggesting. If what I'm interested in is a Mecha anime with surreal horror elements and religious symbolism, I think it is safe to say that Evangelion is the main choice. But then this person would go, well this other anime did surreal horror better so you should watch that instead. Or this show did religious symbolism better, you should watch that instead. In my opinion, this is a silly way to look at media. A piece of media is more than just the sum of its parts, it is how those parts interact. If this person is right and there is a better anime for every part of Evangelion I may find interesting, then they are basically saying that instead of watching one anime that has all the things I want, I should watch like five shows that all do one of those things individually better. Again, what if someone wants surreal horror visuals and Mechs (who knows there may be another anime like that but I don't care I think its irrelevant for my argument).
Finally I want to look at the first thing they said: "Don't watch it honestly". Okay, so I value media criticism a lot. I think its very important, and an artform in its own right. I believe that even very negative reviews are useful and worth considering. I don't subscribe to the notion that a lot of YouTube commenters and Redditors seem to have where they think negative reviews are toxic and useless. However, I don't understand the merit behind including "don't watch it" anywhere in a review, even in the most negative review of the most garbage piece of media ever made. I think its disrespectful, not to the creator of said media, but to the person you are targeting your review towards. Especially when it is the first thing you say. You are basically saying something along the lines of "don't consider what I have to say about this and make your own judgements, just listen to me and share in my opinion". It is okay to not like Evangelion, it's okay to think it doesn't deserve to be popular. But I think you are a bit of an asshole for trying to stop other people from getting into something they might love. (There are a lot of good media reviews that may have lines like "You shouldn't watch it, just take my word for it" but in my experience these are usually presented in a joking manner and aren't really what I'm talking about here). It's totally possible that my opinion on this is kind of crazy though, I don't think most people have an issue with this. It really just rubs me the wrong way, especially when you don't even really back up why someone shouldn't watching something with anything other than vague statements.
Also, imagine your standards being so high that you can write "Don't watch it honestly" and then "It's alright" immediately afterwards. There are so many movies worth watching, albums worth listening to, games worth playing and stories worth reading that aren't amazing or even overall good. A good example I can think of is Repo! The Genetic Opera. The movie is honestly just alright in my opinion, I don't know if I'll every watch it in full again unless someone else puts it on, but I would still recommend watching it. It has a really cool aesthetic and a couple really good songs that make it worth watching. But again, it's just alright.
So, in conclusion: I have too much free time. I don't know why I decided to write almost 1000 words about some random person's opinion in a Discord server, but I did. I probably extrapolated a bit too much from these five lines of text and probably just argued against a strawman, but oh well it was interesting to think about. If you read all of this, I hope it was at least funny that I went in on this person so hard.
Can you tell I've always wanted to make a really long video essay? Been thinking of doing one for either Red Dead Redemption 2 or Cyberpunk 2077, but I have other projects (*ahem*, the King Gizzard essay) I need to finish first.
Update: LOL I'm in a voice call with the guy right now. Weird NGE opinions aside, he is cool.
Update 2: We spent like 2 hours playing co-op Geoguessr over Discord LMAO
