As a guy who has also suffered from the whole "My friend really fucking loves NGE" (That friend is actually the one I was just talking about), I'm just going to go ahead and say that I don't think NGE is actually as good as people claim it is. I watched it. I didn't really like it. I then watched it AGAIN at a later date and started to understand more of what was going on. I then read up online and had several long conversations with my friend about NGE overall and only then did I start to find some respect for it.
Generally I say that if you need someone or something to explain to you why a series or show is good then it isn't good. It failed to deliver its message and therefore failed as a medium. Nevertheless I'm gonna give it another try and probably power through it because it's a cult classic and I wanna know what's up
Nanoha. First season (13 episodes) is a bit slow-building, and there's a tendency in the first half for ...awkward... transformation sequences (she's nine), but around episode 6 or 7 it hits its stride and just does not stop. Season 2, Nanoha A's, is also 13 episodes, but it's around this point where the show went from "good, but not particularly standout" to "holy crap that's cool." StrikerS (season 3, 26 episodes), is way more action-and-mech-oriented, at the cost of some character development (three of my favorite characters got shunted aside). It's still good, just a different kind of good. That said, A's is probably my favorite season, and it catapulted the show as a whole to my third favorite anime ever (#1 being FMA, #2 being TTGL). Also, season one has a villain who, within eight seconds of their intro, froze my blood with how outright scum they were.
I'm not too big of a fan of anything with over 50 episodes. I'll keep it in mind though
If you haven't already, go watch Welcome to the NHK.
I definitely will. I finally have a week off next week and with uni bringing me close to a burnout for the last months I can't wait to be a useless shit and watch anime all day