I haven't watched the series of this yet, but I read the manga and was quite pleased with it. I didn't find Shinji too whiny in the manga so as long as he is about the same in the anime then I should be good. The only bad thing about the manga is that the battles are super confusing and don't make a lot of sense, since you don't really see whats going on. anyways, this is next on my list as a duo with interspersed episodes of School Days, just as soon as I finish Fate/Stay Night and Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei (also interspersed). Hope it can live up to the hype.