I watched it 11 years ago so I'm afraid I'm a bit rusty on my knowledge of it. I do, however, consider it a masterpiece even though it wasn't my favorite series.
I remember Kawaru sort of- I remember him being an Angel and that he was kinda gay for Shinji- Like it was more than implied, I thought I remembered him actually putting the moves on him once ALTHOUGH that could have been in the manga, which I also read like 9 or 10 years ago. The manga was a little different than the anime in that it wasn't really a deconstruction like the anime was.
Also, blah blah it's the deconstruction of the mech genre and shaped anime (particularly the mech genre) into what we know today. It is likely that many series would not exist if not for Evangelion, so it should be revered for that. In fact I believe it was the first notable deconstruction series ever.