"NERV has defeated the last Angel, but their biggest threat proves to be SEELE, which is still determined to initiate the Third Impact at any cost. Sending the Japanese army and nine automonous EVA units to invade NERV headquarters, SEELE plans to realize their goal using Unit-01 as their tool. Misato wages a desperate battle to protect a despondent Shinji from the enemy, whose orders are to terminate the three Children on sight. Meanwhile Asuka wakes from her coma to engage the new EVA series alone in Unit-02, and Gendo summons Rei to put his final plan in motion. But Rei has plans of her own, and ultimately leaves it up to Shinji to decide the future of humanity."
How do you describe The End of Evangelion? When the TV series first debuted on television in JApan it was a breakout hit, a true little engine that could. Produced by Studio Gainax, the indy studios of anime, make this little low budget mecha TV series directed by a nobody, Hideaki Anno who before this only had a few filmography credits under his belt. Gainax gave him the chance he wanted to prove himself and them came Neon Genesis Evangelion. By the third week it swept Japan by storm. Of all the high-budget, heavily hyped anime series on TV, this little noname series that could became number 1 in the entire country.And as it went on, it just grew and grew. Then came the ending.
Episode 24 was the pinnacle of the series. Episode 24 brought all supporting sub-plots together, while at the same time introducing even more questions to the already insane mix. Fans needed a conculsion for it, and they got one. They got a finale they did not care for however, and it's understandable. On a personal note I loved the finale, it's a very psychological approach, spitting in the face of every anime device everyone expects. There's rumors of Gainax running out of money, that End of Evangelion was supposed to be the original ending, etc. but the fans got a barrage of still frames, no action, just a psychological process of the end of the world.
However, of course, the fans did not like. Gainax, and even Anno himself, we're barraged with hate mail and death threats demanding a new ending. These answers went unheeded for 2 years. Then on Jul 19th, 1997, same The End of Evangelion. The derivitive ending to one of the most influential anime series ever. They got The End of Evangelion.
Anno gave the fans everything they wanted such as the big Mass Prod. fight however it was presented to them in such a sad and backhanded way that it left them fulfilled yet morbidly depressed. The movie was filled with constant death, constant destruction, and just a morbid end to the characters they grew to love so much, not to mention all the sexual symbolism, such as a child Shinji playing in a sandbox that obviously represents the womb, mixed with such graphic violence is almost too much to bear at times. As the movie goes on the fans realise what they got themselves into and by the end, they are left with a depressing scene of Shinji, the true anti-hero, strangling the beloved Asuka Langley Soryu on a beach tainted with the blood of the innocent. It is one of the few animes where the world ends. Not like in so many others where some monster kills everything, but in a more biblical sense, life ceases to exist. All souls are collected, nobody is left on earth or in the universe, nothing. A single soul, Rei, is left to show that one day, many years ago, there was something alive.
When I first viewed the movie, I won't lie, I cried like a baby. It was such a hopeless movie, I couldn't help it. I grew up without parents as well so I know the pain, I never had it as bad as Shinji, but I can at least relate to an extent. The "Farewell Mother" scene, where Shinji finally has a chance to say goodbye to the woman he loves so much, is such a beautifal scene, from the animation to the music to the heart-aching dialogue, it is utterly perfect. When the final words, "Farewell...mother" we're spoken, I lost it. Maybe the greatest part of the movie that most look over is the scene of Yui and Fuyutsuki. In the middle of the speech Shinji gives to his mother is a scene in which Yui and Fuyutsuki discuss the existance of man. How if one single soul can survive, maybe the history of mankind will remain in the book of life, all the while the symbol of the angelic Rei stares soulessly at the, now dead, Evangelion Unit 01.
The movie is so deep, with such meaning to everyone, you'll never look at it the same time twice. I've seen it at least 150 times, if not more. I schedule one day a week to watch it, and I will for the rest of my life. Love or hate it, nobody can deby the utter perfectness of it from a directors view.
We are now 5 years later, it's 2002, and Manga has released this work of art on DVD for the mass US audience. Manga licensed the movie back in the year if 1999, officially announcing it in 2000. The buzz began. All across the United States fans we're in heavy anticipation. Like the Japan audience, the US market felt betrayed and unfulfilled by the television series ending, however ADV didn't buy the right to the movie that the fans craved. They didn't buy it due to the insane price tag Gainax had on it. Here comes MAnga to the rescue. For 3 years the fans sat patiently through non-stop delays and promises. That was the big thing, the extras. Through the past year Manga hyped an insane ammount of extras. They eluded to a physical copy of the Red Cross Book, an interview with Hideaki Anno, even a full audio commentary with Anno. Fans put up with the delays in hope that MAnag would pull through, well, they didn't, but we'll discuss that in a sec.
Picture and sound are amazing. The Evangelion DVD's released by ADV we're plagued by jittery picture, color flops, and even the audasity of using overlays. ADV has reissued the defective DVD's since then, but the damage was done. This is a great improvement. The picture is a vibrant, widescreen presentation with not a single skip or jitter. Meanwhile, the sound has 6 different tracks, 7 if you include the commentary. They provide English and Japan all in Stereo, Dolby 5.1, and even Dolby 6.1! It sound absolutely amazing, absolutely no complaints there.
The menus are done equally as good. It opens with the scene of the camera ascending the EVA spinal chords while beutifal symphonic music plays in the background. The menues are set up very well and organized, you can tell it was very thought out and planned.
Now we get to the nitty gritty, the extras. After all the rumors and promises, we get a commentary by English Language Director Amanda Winn Lee, her husband Jason C. Lee, and Taliesin Jaffe. This is literally the soul extra on the DVD. 3 years of wait and hype, and that's all we get.
To add to it, in truly selfish fashion, Amanda Lee added in sound effects. Not like gunshots or something like that, but a cartoony "splatter" sound. It's in 2 specific places. When Misato shoots down the SEELE guards and when the Mass Prod. are impailing themselves and the lances explode. It's completely out of place and sounds childish. Other changes are 2 uses of the F word, once in the opening scene and again before Misato's demise. The second use is almost needed to show the anger in the scene, but the first is after Shinji sees his semen, where every fansub ever produced translated it as "I'm disgusting" Lee felt it necessary to throw in "I F'ed up". It's not apalling or anything, buit a definite annoyance. Then there's the obvious script changes that seem almost for comedy which are completely not needed in this context.
Another big video change is the replacement of the ending credits. The original has snow flakes/sakura leaves falling down while Beethoven's Third plays over it, superimposing this beautifal melody over the saddness the audience just witnessed. Manga saw fit to replay Thantos over a generic white on black credits roll.
On a side note, in some versions of End of Evangelion, in the first strangling scene, when Asuka says "no" there is no sound, but a kanji for "no" but I've seen it with the voice in there so I can't complain about that.
The dub is once again attrcious. One of my favorite scenes ever, the first strangling is just murdered by the horridness of the US voice actors. Tiffany Grant ruins the character of Asuka for me. The dub fanboys often use the excuse that Asuka SHOULD sound annoying, but Tiffany takes it to a whole nother level. She transcends annoying and approaches, no, breaks through the barrier of irritating. Her voice is so screechy and just mindnumbingly annoying it literally makes me wnat to skip scenes. To add to it, Spike Spencer can NOT present emotion worth a damn. It's hard to put into words, but where Megumi Ogata presented a sad and helpless little boy, Spike Spencer gives us some 16 year old who's voice is still cracking. He sounds older, yet still can't read a line while making it sound as if he cares. Once again, just completely murdering an amazing scene.
The commentary is the big seller here for most fanboys however. Where do I start.
First off they mixed it horribly. In most scenes you can't hear the commentary track at all, it's so muffled by the music and action, you just can't hear. Second they really laugh way too much for such a sad movie. Plus Wendee really acts kind of pompus at times, taking credit for adding childish sound effects as if she's proud of it.
It's not all bad however. You can tell they really love the movie. They go into great detail in the religious symbolism. It was obvious that they did some severe research. Plus they, once again, go into GREAT depth into the sexual symbolism of the movie, even pointing out something I never saw, which is the scene at the sand box being a naked female. Plus they have the advantage of heavy duty video equipment and point out freeze-frame fun such as in Misato's death you can see her head flying through the air. THe commentary was fun and I wish more anime DVD's would do it.
End of Evangelion is a masterpiece all should own, Manga's presentation is a letdown from all the promises, but a solid DVD none-the-less, plus the movie is worth it anyway.
My EoE explanation
Before I start I want to say these are OPINIONS!When it comes to EoE odds are I am not right,Ramen is not right,and Rossman sure as **** aint right.
First off the endings do synch and what follows is a list of how.
Episode 25
-Shinji's beggining soliloquy projects his depression in the movie.This could be palced right at the beggining of Air
-Asuka's 'trial' is in her EVA underwater,where she was throughout Air until the EVA fight
-This may be pushing it a little but Rei sees all her clones just like in the movies
-Rei says "I prayed for the day he came for me but....I fear it" and at the end Gendo appears in front of her,obviously Gendo taking Rei to fuse with Lilith
-Episode title,"The End of the World" nuff said
-Shinji says "It's as though my physical form were dissapearing",nuff said
-We see Ritsuko and Misato's dead bodies
-Gendo's speech explains the movies perfectly
-Misato and Ritsuko's conversation again explains the movies
-The sex scene is in the movie except without Misato,Misato whining could have easily been in the movie and fit perfectly
-Asuka says "Don't kill me" she repeats this in her EVA before her 'breakthrough'
-The characters say Shinji wanted everyone did, the tag line for the movie and he does kill everyone
Episode 26
-"We Will meld with eachother","This is instrumentality" nuff said
-The first 4 minutes before the telephone part is a lot like Shinji and Rei's conversating right after the strangling scene
-When it shows a B&W shot of Shinji with everyones sketches filling in the color the dialgouge is sort of like the dialouge from the scene mentioned above
-Yui giving Shinji his final advise
-Shinji's Breakthrough doesn't really fit in the movies,the movies have a sad ending and the TV episodes have a happy ending
-Overall all of episode 26 until the comedy could of easily been put in the movie during Shinji's mind sequence
I will cover the rest issue by issue
Main plot-OK,the 17 angels were to test man to see if they could go on or not.Shinji is given the choice as to whether to save humanity (aka have them go on/evolve) or just say "**** the world".He is given this because the final angel (Lilith/Rei) realized that he should have the final say.
About the last 2 eps-Think of it like the Albert Brooks movie "Defending Your Life".In it you could only go on (evolve) if you have overcome your fears.Well it's the same thing.The final impact was meant to combine mankind into one entity and be at full peace.Problem is if one bad soul gets by it can all be ruined.They do the trials (and everyone goes through these) to either get a person over they're fears or to see if they can.If not than they are thrown away.
Is this instrumentality/complentation?
Yup
The fist strangling-I'musing a LOT of metaphores but think of this kinda like the Q Continuem in Voyager.For those who havn't seen the episode the Continuem is seen as something it is not so humans can understand it.One example is (and my fav episode of Voyager) the Continuem,which is actually where gods live,is seen as an endless desert highway.Well Shinji had to make the decision and to help him realize it his mind agve him Asuka.Asuka is the world.Asuka/the world has **** on him,lied to him,and overall completely destroyed Shinji in every way possible.After thinking about it Shinji just lifts his middle finger and says he aint puttin up with it no more.This is also the instrumentality/complement failing or being interrupted.
The "sandcastle" scene-Just a flashback to Shinji's past.Once again Shinji is abandoned.He destroys the castle out of anger but rebuilds it since he never gives up (or "runs away").There's lots of sexual meaning to this as well,if you'll notice the hills,sun,and sandbox form a naked female, as if Shinji was reentering the womb. To add to the creepiness of it the whole scene seems to take place on a movie set.BTW,notice the shape of the sandcastle?Seen it somewhere else?
the Rei/Yui conversation-They basically tell Shinji that he commands his life and that it wasn't the world but Shinji who has destroyed his life.Like Asuka had a much worse childhood but she didn't let it control her.Shinji realises what he's done (explaining his sad tone during the Yui part)
The Rei/Lilith throat slit-This happens RIGHT after Shinji strangles Asuka.This is the world going to hell.Because the film is shown semi-out of order it is confusing but like I said it happens right after Shinji strangles Asuka.If I could change 1 thing about the movie it'd be to show the third impact,strangling,throat slit in that order but the thing about EoE is it all takes place in Shinji's mind so the whole movie (except the physical stuff of course) could've been a 2 second blip of his thoughts.
The live action scenes
Mainly Gainax was running LOW on budget.Some of the footage is canned film,some isn't.There are a few worthy notes of interest however.
-The three woman on the sidewalk are the Voice Actresses for Rei/Yui,Asuka,and Shinji (yes,Shinji is played by a woman)
-There is porn in there,about 2 seconds at the very beggining,EoE is suprisingly a very sexual film
-The swing was added days before the film was released,it is supposed to be a reference to earlier in the movie when Shinji is building the sand castle
Yui,Rei,and Kaoru talking to Shinji-Just giving him advice.It is they're souls talking to him.They tell him that he was wrong with what he did but not to worry,life can come back if it has the will, but like they said, it needs to have the will.
Asuka on the beach-I have 2 opinions on this.
1-This is an idea I got off the EVA mailing list. It basically says that the "Asuka" we see in the final scene of EoE is, in fact, a combination of all 3 women in Shinji's life (Misato, Asuka, and Rei).
"That's insane," you're saying. But think it through:
Misato and Rei's bodies were both destroyed in the movie. However, their souls still exist. Rei collected Misato's soul (the translucent image of Rei just before Misato gets blown up), and we see Rei again at the end of the movie. So their minds are intact.
Asuka is just the opposite. Her body was intact (much like Shinji, she was in an Eva during Third Impact. That might have offered her some protection against being dissolved). What about her mind? She was synching with Unit-02 when it was killed. If Unit-02 died with Asuka's mind linked to it, then in all possibility Asuka could've died, too. Why else would Maya have been so disturbed by Unit-02's death, if she didn't know the pilot was dead, too?
Also, Asuka's bandaged eye corresponds with the eye Unit-01 burst out of on the giant Rei. Of course, this could also have just been the lances of the MPE's, but I'm just throwing this one out. Believe what you will.
So, Shinji ends up with his perfect woman: Asuka's physical attractiveness, Misato's tenderness, and Rei's calm manner. I'm full of it, you're telling me. OK, I might be. But then someone else on the Eva Mailing List presented this retort: Asuka has blue eyes. Misato has brown eyes. Check out the color of Asuka's eye in the above picture.
Just something to think about.
2-Simply enough Asuka is completely,mentally drained.We don't know when the scene takes place.It could be 10 billion years in the future or ten minutes later.It's very possible Asuka is in a complete "What the **** happened?" mode and (probably) won't wake up from it.
Second strangling-Look at what Shinji went through in a 2 hour period.He saw numerous NERV personel die,saw Misato die,saw a giant ****in angel that looked like Rei,stangled Asuka,had a vision of Kaoru and Rei telling him about life,saw his mom,and he wakes up on a descelate blood red beach with Asuka almost dead next to him,what would you do?He doesn't believe it's real so he starts strangling her like he did in his vision.Asuka,the women who completely ****ed with him for a year.Asuka carresses his cheek the same way Yui did in his vision and he realises what he did.How he killed everyone.He begans crying because of what he had become.Asuka's final line basically translates to "This is disgusting" (DON'T argue with me,you can give me 5,000 different trans. and they all mean pretty much the same thing) and means what it says,this is disgusting.
I have several EVA card games and after LOTS of searching found this translation to one of them that may help prove my theory.
Part II (movies) Drama card D-88
Title: "Kimochi warui"
Small print:
"Shinji renounced the world where all hearts had melted into one and accepted each other unconditionally. His desire... to live with 'others' -- other hearts that would sometimes reject him, even deny him. That is why the first thing he did after coming to his senses was to place his hands around Asuka's neck. To feel the existence of an 'other'. To confirm (make sure of) rejection and denial."
Shinji seeing shadow Rei on the beach-At the beggining of the series Shinji sees Shadow Rei.Also whenever someone died in EoE they saw Shadow Rei,almost a prophecy of they're death.Now since we can assume that Shinji was the first to see her it's pssoible that instead of being a prophecy of death that since he was the first it means he is the one that is going to rbing death.When he sees her at the end on the beach it could mean any of the following
-He will bring death once again (strangling Asuka)
-They will die on the beach
-He has done what he was born for
It's all subjective
Hyuga seeing Misato,Fuuyutski seeing Yui,etc. before they die/souls are collected-
Angel-Rei uses they're images to try and calm people
What is Hideaki Anno's statement on EoE?
EoE means nothing to him.In one interview I have he says (and I quote)
"EoE was made for me and fans of Shinji.I grew up,well,a loser and I made EoE for people who grew up like me.EoE is one of the few movies where the loser wins,nothing more,nothing less."
Which is exactly why I ****in love the movie to death.Tons of my CD's are just labeled "Manga-Videos" but if I ever find my 3 Anno interviews I'll post 'em.
Is it possible that humanity will reform one day?
Well of course.Yui said "All living things have the ability to return to their original form... and the heart to go on living." so theoretically the last scene takes place hundreds of years and the future and Shinji and "Asuka" are the only 2 to come back.Noone will ever know.
Can people who died before the Third Impact started (Misato,Ritsuko,etc.) to reform?
There's 2 answers,yes and no.
Yes-Rei appeared before them as they died so theoretically they're souls have been collected plus angel-Rei uses they're images to calm people.
No-Only souls after the Third Impact are collected
If you think of another question email me at stanteau@hotmail.com
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