Also maybe just jump into the remake movies first. They are a lot tighter and have a high budget, hitting some of the high points of the series.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evangelion:_1.0_You_Are_(Not)_Alone
Don’t get me wrong, there’s some fascinating history with the eva show and it’s own movie, and it was all so influential that it bled into tons of anime. Its just… probably not as enjoyable to watch the series now. Youve already seen some of its concepts through cultural osmosis. If that’s your jam then go for it after the remake movies
The og show literally runs out of money at the end! It gets kinda weird! The point about tropes is more my reason though. Elevator scenes, big Mecha, etc might be interesting to us, but newcomers have seen these tropes either directly in other media or played as a joke. It makes the show just… less interesting.
And end of Eva is a fever dream that I think mentally scarred everybody and you know it!