It's a typical evening, lying in bed, getting ready to sleep and I decide to listen to the piano version of Jesus Bleibet Meine Freude. I glance up at my End of Evangelion poster (the one with Asuka and Shinji looking over the LCL ocean with giant Rei on the horizon) and perhaps unusually, gain a sense of tranquility and calm.
Neon Genesis Evangelion was one of my first animes and changed my life permanently. It sparked an interest not just in anime, but in psychology and more pungently, philosophy. Without NGE I would have never discovered the works of some of my favorite philosophers like Schopenhauer, Cioran, Nietzsche, etc (OK, I might have found Nietzsche unaided :D). I would also have never been able to reconcile many of my negative feelings of social anxiety, loneliness and the depression that can accompany them. Despite the month of emotional turmoil that proceeded my first viewing, I know feel happier, more certain of myself and more at peace than I did before.
Has anybody else had this kind of intense life changing experience after watching a particular show? Or at least has an anime introduced you to a subject you otherwise may not have stumbled across? (history, politics, science, etc)