NOTE: This review is a continuation of my reviews of this series. If you have not seen any of the volumes or my previous reviews, you risk spoilers by continuing.
 
The Intro
 
Irony is a horribly funny thing at times……… and at other times it’s terribly annoying. I spent the first six episode of this series absolutely hating it and then it got good and I started to allow myself to enjoy it a little and then I popped this volume into my DVD player and now I enjoy it a lot!
 
The Story
 
Volume 3 finally picks up the pace with fabulous character development! Three episodes are on this disc as we see the pilots at some of the their strongest and weakest which is a vast improvement over only seeing our characters at their weakest over and over again.
 
The first episode on this volume is absolutely wonderful! Asuka enters the Japanese school system and instantly start making tons of friends and quickly becomes one of the most popular girls in school (among both and girls and guys but especially with the guys who think she’s the hottest thing in their age bracket they’ve ever seen). Unfortunately not all adjustments go as well when Askua makes her Japanese battle debut and ignores procedures so that she can show off………… and embarrasses NERV by getting her butt handed to her by an angel. But not all hope is lost as her and Shinji did manage to damage and stun the angel which gives them six days to learn how to work together through various methods (all of which are hilarious and well worth watching).
 
This episode shows wonderful development of character in everyone as new relationships are starting to develop between Shinji and Askua but also Kaji and Mitsato. To be perfectly honest, all doubts about if this series was going to worth watching to the end were wiped away after watching this episode.
 
The second episode involves Askua and Shinji going after an unhatched (yes, apparently they hatch) angel found deep within a lava volcano. This episode doesn’t have a strong significance towards the main plot of the series but it does show even more development in the relationship, feelings and teamwork between Askua and Shinji even if it does have a lot more fan service than I think is nessacary.
 
The final episode is definitely interesting as the power to the city is cut off just as an angel is approaching. Not knowing what is going on, the three pilots are left on their own to figure out how to get inside the NERV complex and find out what’s going on without any adult advice or supervision. Also a great episode, it ends the volume perfectly leaving you wanting to see more, more, more!
 
The Good and the Bad
 
While almost all the bad points of the previous volumes are continued with this one (slow and confusing story line, bad music, terrible lack of any good extras, etc., etc) it’s almost forgivable because of the character development that they put into this one.
 
Askua, Shinji, Rei and Misato are shown in new lights as they show real growth in their personalities and feelings towards each other and I actually find myself caring about what happens to them but I am most interested in the relationship between Shinji and Askua as they seem to be absolute polar opposites but it’s still not completely unbelievable to see them coming together as a romantic item. That is definitely something that I will be paying close attention to over the next 5 volumes and 2 OVAs.
 
The animation quality is still below where I’d like to see it but after seeing it this many times, I’ve learned to adapt to it and get used to it. I don’t like it and I don’t like that I had to adapt in the first place but at least now I don’t feel the need to whine about it as much as I did before.
 
Music
 
The same crappy music that we’ve been hearing over and over is still here. The background music is nothing to get excited about the main themes are still just as annoying as ever. Do yourself a favor and skip over them.
 
Extras
 
The extras are pretty bad once again.  You have even more trailers that are selectable from the menu. Along with this comes the web site link and character bios. Again, nothing to get remotely excited about.
 
Overall
 
I’m so happy that I can finally say that this series is worth watching! It was getting really annoying with the way I had to keep saying that this series was horrible but I’m finally starting to see what everyone was talking about. I can’t say that I’m as fanatical as everyone else has been but it is at least good now and some of those religious undertones that I was hearing about finally make their big appearance in this volume with Shinji asking the other pilots ‘If Angels are messengers of god, why are our enemies called angels?” Good question, Shinji……… why don’t you answer it for me??