I agree it is a classic, but I don't know if I would recommend it nowadays... I had a friend recently watch it and they could barely get through it because of shinji, and I know it is a common complaint... There is a lot about it that is great, especially for the time it came out, but I can see some thinking the characters suffer from so much time being devoted to shinji and how they interact with him.
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To be fair though, it might still hold up for me, I haven't watched it in 15 years lol. It is one of the few anime I have watched multiple times. But I would preface a recommendation of it as it should be watched more for the impact it had on anime culture, than on its own quality: it doesn't stand out as much as it did today, I would think.