people hate what they cant understand
granted that Akira was butchered badly and is not a prime example of good anime, i didnt find it all that hard to understand.
I worked Evangelion out after the second go thru it, and found the storyline excellent and a cut above the conventional anime storylines of its time.
some ppl like their anime clean cut with all the bells and whistles they come to associate with anime over the years. which is why brain dead anime like Dragonball and naruto are (still =P) popular.
however alot of ppl (including me if it isnt already obvious) like our anime to have abit more substance. so we applaud efforts like the aforementioned AKira, NGE, Lain , Jin Roh etc etc.
which is better? i dont know.
the point?
if you dont like an anime then its completely up to you. but if you come to a public forum screaming "OMG this is TEH SUX bcoz I AM NOT UNDERSTANDING TEH WORDS!~!!~!~" or some reasonable facsimile, then you just look stupid.
PS MD Geist needs to be forever interned in the anime hall of shame.