Oblithian

First, I highly recommend you skip the final 2 episodes and watch the movies.

It's very much a 'struggles of youth' drama, with a bit of mecha fighting in between. So it has a variety of plot/character development and action, if that appeals to you. Imagine bleach mixed with gundam, but more drama. I enjoyed the reserved and somewhat bleak tone.

It is a bit jagged, in terms of development, you will find a number of jumps and missing pieces of plot, but what it has is good. If you don't mind a bit of a mess, this is worth a watch, if not... maybe go for 'Aldnoa Zero'?

Overall:
If I had evaluated the series and films as a whole it might be somewhere between 7 and 8 out of 10. However, the films are not the part of this TV series and should be regarded individually.

So for the series, I am going to give it a 6 for what it does well, but it has a lot wrong with it. So much so, that a 5 is also tempting.

I rated it slightly lower than 'Darling in the Franxx' because it had an extra dimension of romantic interest, aside from that they have different strengths and weaknesses.

Story: It has a very interesting concept, and a multi-faceted plot that could have been developed a bit better throughout, Major plot points often only had a moment of setup or explaination, where as certain keyframes were dragged out for what seemed like minutes, and a lot of time was spent on internal questions of existentialism. Existentialism is an important piece of the plot, but repeating scenes, slow pacing and shallow depth is what made that aspect seem like a waste of time.

Sound and animation:
It's a mid- '90s anime, so for the time the animation and sound is above average. But compared to now, the present context, it falls well below the worst of the new titles.

The animation is probably better than the sound. While characters may be illustrated somewhat simplistically, Backgrounds are fairly well detailed. Colour is where theanimation seems to shine.

So bearing consideration to age, I thought a 5 was fair. (for those new to my reviews, I evaluate the anime on it's overall appeal not solely by the metrics this site lists).

Characters:
They are good conceptually, and fairly detailed. But, their establishment (with the exception of MC: Shinji) is almost purely by flashbacks not by their actions. Of major concern to me, no substantial character growth exists. For example, the MC starts out being very unmotivated, with daddy issues, and doesn't really stand on his own, that basically follows throughout. His friendships aren't significant enough to give him a reason to fight (something to protect), he doesn't develop any real ideals through hardships or experience, etc.

The characters in general are very narrow minded individuals (which plays well into the story) coupled with each bearing some significant immaturite, they can be a bit annoying. Asuka, in particular is terribly shouty, inconsiderate, and egotistical (unfortunately she does not overcome this, as I said, growth).  But again they all kinda suck at emotional intelligence. Other examples might be a little more situational, like the way Shinji gets in trouble from superiors for things that someone else did and everyone is aware...  Anyway, you get the idea.

The blonde scientist lady was probably the most respectable character, but she was very secondary.

     In summary, it was worth a watch if you haven't seen it and like stories about teens, the end of the world, philosophy, and mechs... this is it.