No, Gainax made that right after End of Evangelion, I think.
And yes, it is quite good, but it has some issues. It's a romance anime that doesn't waste your time, so that's good. But it suffers heavily from budget constraints. Anno is a good enough director to work around that, giving the visuals a certain minimalist charm. Get ready for a lot of slow paning shots of banal scenery though, like bike racks and umbrella stands, while characters wax poetically about love and life. I think it's also animated by the same people who would later make Fooly Cooly, and you can already recognize a lot of the expressions.
The characters are likeable, the music is great, and it's pretty damn funny too. Things take a major dip near the end though. There's also a moment where one of the high school girls (16 years old) casually mentions she's dating a 28-year old dentist, which... fucking yikes.