The End of Evangelion (Japanese: 新世紀エヴァンゲリオン 劇場版, Shin seiki Evangelion Gekijō-ban) is an animated movie by Hideaki Anno. The movie presents an alternate ending to the popular animated series Neon Genesis Evangelion. Many Japanese viewers felt unsatisfied by the series' two episode resolution, episodes 25 and 26, which take place completely in the minds of some of the characters. Only a few brief scenes hint at what happens outside of Shinji's mind, and viewers wanted a more satisfying explanation of these events. Additionally, the final two episodes were originally planned to take place in the "real" world; they ended up being done the way they were due to time and budget restraints. When the studio could afford it, the true ending, The End of Evangelion, was created as an alternative to these episodes. The movie is divided into two parts, Episode 25: Air, and Episode 26: まごころを、君に (Magokoro o, kimi ni, "My Purest Heart for You").

The first part, Episode 25: Air, is based on the previous movie, Rebirth. Rebirth is roughly equivalent to 2/3 of Air. The End of Evangelion later became the second half of Revival of Evangelion, a concatenation of Death(true)² and The End of Evangelion.

In contrast to the series' happier ending, the movie shows the apocalyptic completion of the Human Instrumentality Project, where individual identity is destroyed to create a single existence for all living things - that is, people's AT-Fields are destroyed and are turned to LCL. In the movie it is believed that Shinji rejects the Human Instrumentality Project (he was never explicitly given a choice, but did say that he preferred individual existence), whereas in the show it was left more ambiguous.

Although the movie appears somewhat more straightforward in plot, many fans are displeased with its violence and shock value relative to the television series and many continued to harbor a dislike of Hideaki Anno's work. It is rumored that Hideaki Anno created the movie as revenge on the ex-fans of the TV show, who sent numerous hate-mail and death threats after their disappointment in the ending of the last two episodes. Some of these letters are briefly flashed in the movie, towards the ending of The End of Evangelion .

Plot summary

This summary only includes the main events of the movie, and not any of the characters' personal or emotional journeys.

The movie begins with SEELE hacking into NERV's Magi super-computer; Gendo Ikari duped SEELE- he had his own agenda which involved the Human Instrumentality project. Ritsuko Akagi sets up a protection system for the Magi that lasts for 62 hours; as time is short, SEELE is forced to send in the army (the JSSDF or Japanese Strategic Self Defense Force). The JSSDF directly infiltrates NERV, killing all personnel they come across. The NERV staff make a last stand in the Command Center where the Magi is located. Asuka, after realizing her mother's soul has always been with her in Unit 02, awakens from her comatose state and defends NERV HQ. After the JSSDF forces are repelled with the aid of Unit 02, SEELE then sends their mass-production Evangelion units to the Geofront (exposed after the detonation of an N² weapon). Misato drags Shinji to Unit 01 and convinces him to pilot it once more before she dies in an explosion. Unit 02's internal batteries become depleted after battling for five minutes with the nine mass-produced Evangelions, and much of it's body is eaten by them. It is sometimes interpreted that Asuka dies in this segment, but no confirmation is ever given.

Gendo Ikari secretly intends to perform Instrumentality in a different way than that proposed by SEELE, allowing him to

This is Instrumentality starting, possibly initiated on Shinji Ikari's decision from within Evangelion Unit 01. The Egg of Lilith rises from the Geofront, into Lilith's hands, who has grown to planetary proportions and takes the form of Rei Ayanami. The souls of all human beings, represented as a red, marble-sized dots, make their way back into the egg. At the last moment, however, Shinji rejects Instrumentality and decides to live his life as a separate individual, thereby undoing all Lilith had sought to create. Lilith's physical form dies and decomposes, and the egg explodes. Shinji returns to earth with his physical form, but Unit 01 and the Lance of Longinus, drift off into space, seemingly for the rest of eternity. The mass-production Evangelion units fall to Earth in crucifix-like postures. For a time, Shinji inhabits the barren earth by himself, but is eventually joined by Asuka.

Postmodernism in the film

The movie contains some highly postmodern sequences, including a scene showing a young Shinji playing in the Geofront with film lights around him (indicating he's on a film set), and some live action sequences including scenes of the voice actresses of Misato, Rei, and Asuka (supposedly posing as their characters), and some footage of a movie theater. In addition, much of the artwork can be considered superflat (a Japanese genre of postmodern pop art) for its depiction of perverse, distorted sexuality of one of the film's main sex symbols, Rei, and its general criticisms of otaku sexuality, such as an infamous scene in the beginning of the film that depicts Shinji masturbating over a comatose and partially nude Asuka.

In addition, there are letters from fans, including a few death threats via the internet, along with graffiti on Gainax's headquarters shown in the film. These scenes are difficult to spot, but can be seen as a quick succession of flashes after the line "this is the end of your dream" and before a giant Rei bleeds from her neck.

The final scene

The closing scene of the movie is titled "ONE MORE FINAL: I need you.", in the fashion of the commercial break titles of the television series.

It is vague and highly interpretive, where Shinji manages to separate himself from the collective human existence, with Asuka following. Their interaction shows a wide range of positive and negative human emotions. The world remains irreversibly changed, however, and what happens from there is only hinted at. This scene has caused several controversies as to its interpretation.

Some fans have speculated that Asuka may be the amalgamation of Asuka, Rei, and Misato because of her apparent red eyes, the same color as Rei's. The eyes could be due to the surrounding red ambiance of the environment, including the absence of the color blue on the new planet Earth. In addition, she is wearing bandages that correspond to the physical damage she suffered during her last fight in Unit-02 (pierced left eye, injured right arm) which mirror Rei's from the opening of Neon Genesis Evangelion.

The closing line, "気持ち悪い。" ("Kimochi warui."), spoken by Asuka, likewise can be interpreted in a number of ways. It was translated on the Manga DVD as "How disgusting", but it can also be translated as "I feel unwell", "What a disgusting feeling", "Feels bad", "I feel sick", etc. This has caused much confusion among Western fans, though the true meaning of the line is undefined for the Japanese as well. A recent episode of a Japanese show dedicated to animation described this final line and its original meaning. Initially the final line was written as, "I'll never

Concerning the final line we adopted, I'm not sure whether I should say about it in fact. At last Anno asked me "Miyamura, just imagine you are sleeping in your bed and a stranger sneaks into your room. He can rape you anytime as you are asleep but he doesn't. Instead, he masturbates looking at you, when you wake up and know what he did to you. What do you think you would say?" I had been thinking he was a strange man, but at that moment I felt disgusting. So I told him that I thought "Disgusting". And then he sighed and said, "I thought as much." ()

Another explanation can be found on a Evangelion trading card: the scene "ONE MORE FINAL: I need you." affirms Shinji's choice to return to reality, and in doing so has separated himself from Asuka once more. His first impulse is to strangle her, to finish what he started during Instrumentality, but once he feels her caress (which is very similar to the one he received from his mother only moments before), he realizes what he's doing. He releases his grip and collapses as an emotionally broken little boy, which disgusts Asuka. This presents a more human response in showing Asuka's opinion over Shinji's behavior, but the act of caressing his cheek may represent a better connection between the two, since it deviates from Asuka's normal response to fight back or slap Shinji.

Another interpretation involves what has happened to Asuka during The End of Evangelion: she has just woken from a long coma, only to be torn to shreds inside EVA-02, die (supposedly) and awaken after Instrumentality's failure to being strangled by Shinji seconds before delivering the line, possibly as an amalgamation of herself, Rei and Misato; it may in turn just be her reaction to what has transpired.

Despite the somber ending, there are clear refrences that there is the possibility that every living thing or person who "died" as part of Instrumentality can be returned to their normal state. In fact, both Rei and Yui comfort Shinji and tell him that people can be restored if they want to, depending on the strength within their hearts. This being said, it is obvious that Asuka is the first person to manifest herself back into reality. Another Evangelion trading card explains:

"In the sea of LCL, Shinji wished for a world with other people. He desired to meet them again, even if it meant he would be hurt and betrayed. And just as he had hoped/wanted, Asuka was present in the new world. Only Asuka was there beside him. The girl whom he had hurt, and who had been hurt by him. But even so, she was the one he had hoped/wished for.."

Many also speculate that because a lambent image of Rei in a school uniform was either present over the bodies of the already dead during the soul collection (as the case with fallen NERV personel) or present at their death (such as Misato and Ritsuko), it could be said that their souls were in fact collected either before or after they died and that they can all return one day. However, Yui's quote may only pertain to those who actually died during Third Impact. Thus, it leaves much up to the viewer to decide whether or not the rest of humanity returns. This kind of choice could be analyzed as parallel to Shinji's choice in what kind of world he wanted, and perhaps was intentionally planned out that way, as it leaves the viewer as "God" of the fate of the post-Third Impact world.

The End of Evangelion: Renewal

A new version of The End of Evangelion was released on June 25 2003 in Japan by Starchild/King Records as part of Renewal of Evangelion, a box set which "compiles new digitally remastered versions of the 26 TV show episodes, 4 remade-for-laserdisc episodes, and 3 theatrical features" and "includes a bonus disc with never-before-seen material". This version of the film conjoins the "recap" film Evangelion: Death with End, omitting the Rebirth segment from the first film (as it serves as little more than a teaser for the second film). The point of interest is the never-before-seen-material, which includes a live-action sequence with the voice-actresses of Rei Ayanami, Asuka Langley, and Misato Katsuragi portraying their respective characters. In The End of Evangelion, some of the live action scenes are from the film's original copy, namely the scene in which there are schoolgirls facing the camera as a track of Rei, Asuka, and Misato lambasting Shinji is played. It is now clear that the theatrical release of The End of Evangelion is not the movie's complete or original form. The live-action sequence in Renewal was indeed part of the original movie, it was scrapped for reasons unknown. One feeling shared by many who have seen it is that it is too ambiguous, unclear, and inconsistent with what is accepted as the story of Neon Genesis Evangelion as a whole; a few of the problems are that 10 years have lapsed (the Eva pilots are all 14 years old at the end of The End of Evangelion, here they are 24 years old), Shinji does not exist in it, and Asuka has a sexual relationship with Touji Suzuhara (in the TV series, they have almost no relationship, exchange no more than a dozen lines, and are very antagonistic toward each other).

The true value and purpose of this live-action sequence remains a widely debated topic among fans. One theory, which is supported by the time that this sequence occurs in the movie, is that Rei, who has merged with Adam and Lillith to form the giant, white angel-entity is showing Shinji (though her reason is not clear) what the world would be like without him. All of this is occurring outside of physical and temporal reality, this is certain. Also, there is no indication of whether the live-action sequence is part of the world after the Human Instrumentality Project has succeeded or the world where it has failed. No conclusions can be drawn for certain about this theory or about the live-action sequence overall.

Trivia

• Half of the film was used in Evangelion: Death and Rebirth, which is a film that told the back story to Neon Genesis Evangelion.
• The song in the credits, which is entitled "THANATOS -If I Can't Be Yours-" and performed by Loren & Mash, is based on "THANATOS", a background music piece used in the series.
• Gendo's final words to Ritsuko are muted and were never scripted. There was originally meant to be an explosion in the background making the line inaudible, but even after it was cut Anno still wanted the line to be unheard. Yuriko Yamaguchi (Ritsuko Akagi) had difficulty delivering the subsequent line "Liar" without knowing what Gendo had said. Anno gave her one small hint as to what the line was, and she knew exactly how to deliver the line.
• The red dummy plugs we see injected into the Mass Production Eva series before they launch are labeled "Kaworu".

See also

• Red Cross Book
• List of Neon Genesis Evangelion media

External link

• at MusicBrainz

엔드 오브 에반게리온