To be clear I'm not arguing for a perspective of "turn you brain off" or anything of the sort. I think that is a stupid argument often used to try to deflect criticisms of a work or used by those unable to defend material they enjoy but who still care about others opinion of said work. What I mean is that I've often seen people be dismissive of works simply because they thought they didn't have "anything to say" (regardless of how accurate or inaccurate that subjective assessment may be). It feels a bit like "missing the point" especially for something like anime which, like film, is very much an audiovisual medium and thus has value and can invoke strong emotions without words or specific narratives.
I feel the same way. In fact, it's another reason why I plug TTGL a lot.
A lot of people seem to dismiss TTGL with comments like: "Oh, it's good if you like mindless action, it's good because it's so insane with it's scale, but Evangelion is obviously better because it's much more human and relatable, blah blah blah."
I'm not going to argue the fact that, objectively, Evangelion has better written characters and story than TTGL, no question about that. But what I often see mentioned, at least how I interpret it, in response is that Evangelion is profound in its storytelling while TTGL is not, which I find to be completely false.
TTGL I say really is profound. It puts tons of effort into saying about why humanity is good, why we're capable of great things, why we need to always think positive. It's not like it's ignorant. It knows of the bad things that exist and the bad things that will happen (Rossiu's dilemma, the spiral nemesis, etc). However, one of its major strengths comes from how it says we should continue to think positive in spite of those bad things.
Sure, other shows have made those sorts of argument before but none I believe, have made an effort to do it as much as TTGL has. I feel like it's unfair just seeing TTGL as just "overrated mindless mecha action". It tries so hard to make its message clear. It's a mecha show that does what a lot of mecha shows, or even a lot of anime in general nowadays don't do that much anymore.
It tries to make you feel good about yourself, and who you are as a human being.
So many shows are drenched in cynicism, so many shows do so much to show how evil some people are, how wrong some things are, how there's just so much pain and sadness in the world. And I won't be ignorant and say that some of those shows like those aren't necessary or even unlikable. Like, I love both Madoka Magica and Kino's Journey and those shows have a lot of cynicism in them!
But those shows never forget to show the good as well as the bad. It's why I hate it when praise for something like Madoka Rebellion is given just because people deem it as a "fuck you" to the fans, and "they deserve to be betrayed", without caring about anything else about it. Like, really? That's why you enjoy a work? Because you think it deliberately insults people? Screw that shit.
But I'm getting off topic. Bottom line: Don't dismiss shows like TTGL because you think they're nothing but overhyped well-animated garbage. Take the time and look to see what a show is saying and how it's saying it before you really criticize it.