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Forums - Movies & TV - The End of Evangelion Movie is trash and makes absolutely zero sense.

 

What did you think of it?

I haven't watched it. 2 11.11%
 
It was cool, but made little sense. 6 33.33%
 
It was cool, and I understood it fine. 6 33.33%
 
I didn't understand it, and it wasn't cool. 4 22.22%
 
Total:18

I like the show and movie a lot. Among my favorite anime if not my favorite of all time and among my favorite stories in all media. Upon my first viewing, I didn't think they made zero sense, but I had a feeling some of my thoughts might be wrong. I've also watched the rebuilds which are more divisive and I think deserve to be. However, "the curse of Eva" (a video essay on youtube) does a good job explaining those movies. When I first watched them I thought the Red Sea was suppose to be a sequel to the original and was super confused (and didn't really like it), but 3.33 is my favorite now and better explains what the movies are about. It's still possible I'll end up disliking the rebuilds if the ending of 3.0+1.0 drastically changes the meaning of End of Eva and the show. Ultimately I still don't view the rebuilds nearly as high as I view the show or End of Eva which I consider masterpieces, but I could love them just as much depending on how it all ends. However, I didn't really need video essays for the original story or end of Eva. I more or less looked into the Eva universe to confirm thoughts and just because I was a fan of the show. I thought they were pretty easy to understand in comparison to the rebuilds. 

The writers and director hint at many things throughout the series that the core messages are about overcoming depression, escapism, and moving forward in life despite the nature of life being suffering and misunderstanding. The ending scene depicts Shinji and Asuka overcoming instrumentality and given special privilege from Rei who priorly joins with Lilith and is given god-like power over humanity. Gendo and SEELE's plans both fail because Rei doesn't like them or believe in their goals for humanity. This is hinted at in certain scenes and heavily proven in other/expanded media.

SEELE basically only wanted instrumentality for themselves because they represent the elite or illuminati conspiracy and Gendo wanted to be with Yui and to convince Rei to prevent instrumentality because he represents a god complex. Instead life is rebooting through Asuka and Shinji as they are alive erasing the eugenics that SEELE intended, but instrumentality does begin which means Gendo failed. The council was not placed inside Eva-01 as SEELE wanted, instead it floats into space as an empty vessel. 

Rei has grown to see the good in Shinji and Asuka and the negative in Gendo and SEELE. As she chose to link with Lilith on her own terms she is granted god-like power without Gendo or SEELE having any say in the matter. Ultimately Rei chooses to use her power to aid Shinji, Asuka and humanity as a whole in a sense by allowing all of humanity to enter instrumentality and exit it at their own will. She shows sympathy to Gendo and SEELE in this way as they aren't explicitly shown being destroyed or separate from the rest of LCL, but their power is completely eliminated from their intended goals. 

The way I interpret the ending is through combining the show and movie ending. Shinji rejected instrumentality. This is somehow still a debate among fans which blows my mind. I thought this was the case upon first viewing of the show and movie, but it's explicitly stated in text via the manga if people are still skeptical about that.

For what happens after is up to interpretation. Now someone might say the feeling of the end of the show and end of Eva are totally different because of Asuka and Shinji vs the clapping scene. I view the clapping scene more or less being a spiritual thing that happens before Shinji comes back to life. However, even after Shinji comes back in a better state he's still human after all and I actually assume the scene we see in End of Eva not as directly after Shinji comes back to life, but some time after resting. I remember reading an alternative version of Eva which elaborated on the graves we see. It stated that Shinji made them and Asuka kicking over hers when she comes back to life. So some time has passed since Shinji originally woke up from instrumentality and Shinji seeing Asuka alive is shocked and surprised.

I stated that Shinji grew and escaped instrumentality and yet he chokes her? Well why would he do that if he grew as a person? He chokes her because he's still not fully overcome instrumentality in a sense and this scene is actually the final climax. There's many possibilities for why he is choking her and they aren't necessarily mutually exclusive. Maybe he thought she was dead from the mass production units or that's he's going crazy. He just can't believe she would choose to leave instrumentality for him. I've always viewed them as meant for each other so to me it all added up as an inverse tragedy that was meant to be overcome. I view the ending as a good ending and that Asuka and Shinji will survive this post-apocalypse hellscape. As for how they eat and survive well that would require a sequel to flesh out the details, but the movie poster shows they are both okay in a scene that takes place after the choking scene and given Rei's godlike powers I think it was already foreseen and planned for. I love end of Eva and compared to all the nihilistic media out there I think Eva actually flips into something beautiful and hopeful.

/I might edit this later for typos or clarification. I just sort of ranted this out without much proofreading. 



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eva01beserk said:
I first watched the series and movie when I was like 9 or 10. I had no idea what the he'll I was watching but I loved amd thought it was the greatest show ever made. Mainly for the beserk fight scenes. It wasent unroll much much later that I bothered to look into what the he'll was going on. It was still way to up to interpretation and all.

Since I dint get the show to begin with but still loved it. The main issue I had with the movie is eva01 and shinji not doing anything. Not even one fight or anything. Not having eva01 go beserk one last time and maybe have shinji gain control at the end was for the biggest let down.

Keep in mind which episodes End of Evangelion lined up with in the show. It was very much overlapping and expanding on episode 25 and 26. Also, it showed Asuka kicking ass which was something fans always wanted to see. She only lost because the game was rigged from the start.



FormerlyTeamSilent13 said:
eva01beserk said:
I first watched the series and movie when I was like 9 or 10. I had no idea what the he'll I was watching but I loved amd thought it was the greatest show ever made. Mainly for the beserk fight scenes. It wasent unroll much much later that I bothered to look into what the he'll was going on. It was still way to up to interpretation and all.

Since I dint get the show to begin with but still loved it. The main issue I had with the movie is eva01 and shinji not doing anything. Not even one fight or anything. Not having eva01 go beserk one last time and maybe have shinji gain control at the end was for the biggest let down.

Keep in mind which episodes End of Evangelion lined up with in the show. It was very much overlapping and expanding on episode 25 and 26. Also, it showed Asuka kicking ass which was something fans always wanted to see. She only lost because the game was rigged from the start.

The asuka fight just made it worst. When he just got on eva01 he just saw asuka defeated and eaten and exploded beserked. If that was not the setup for his big final showdown I don't know what is. 



It takes genuine talent to see greatness in yourself despite your absence of genuine talent.

Well the anime is good to watch, but for you to understand the series it is better to read the manga. And if you watched the 26 episodes and just this movie you are missing I think 4 or more movies that will have the info you are missing.



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Just as a reminder of forum rules...

"Do not say that item A sucks, or that item B is better than item C. Give reasons why, and provide evidence (articles, screenshots, technical information, even opinion etc.)."

If you don't like Evangelion that's fine (never even seen it myself) but please make sure your post has some actual substance to it.



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Cerebralbore101 said:



Nothing is explained in this movie. 1. What are the Evas? 2. What is Rei?

3. Absolutely none of this shit is explained in the series at all. I watched every episode of Evangelion before watching this movie.

1. Evas are cyborg mechas used to defend Earth from angels.

2. Rei is one of the primary Eva pilots.

3. I don't know what to say, it was extremely obvious to me.



I describe myself as a little dose of toxic masculinity.

Jumpin said:
Cerebralbore101 said:



Nothing is explained in this movie. 1. What are the Evas? 2. What is Rei?

3. Absolutely none of this shit is explained in the series at all. I watched every episode of Evangelion before watching this movie.

1. Evas are cyborg mechas used to defend Earth from angels.

2. Rei is one of the primary Eva pilots.

3. I don't know what to say, it was extremely obvious to me.

rei is a clone of shinjis mother that has the soul of lilith one of the main deitis. Eva 01 is a clone of lilith. The other evas are a clone of Adam the other main deiti. And I forgot the other boys name, koharu I belive is the soul of Adam.

I had to read up on it to finally put thouse pieces toghether. Something as off each planet had a Adam or lilith but earth had both thats why angels fought humans. 



It takes genuine talent to see greatness in yourself despite your absence of genuine talent.

eva01beserk said:
Jumpin said:

1. Evas are cyborg mechas used to defend Earth from angels.

2. Rei is one of the primary Eva pilots.

3. I don't know what to say, it was extremely obvious to me.

rei is a clone of shinjis mother that has the soul of lilith one of the main deitis. Eva 01 is a clone of lilith. The other evas are a clone of Adam the other main deiti. And I forgot the other boys name, koharu I belive is the soul of Adam.

I had to read up on it to finally put thouse pieces toghether. Something as off each planet had a Adam or lilith but earth had both thats why angels fought humans. 

Yeah, that's their background information, and while it is interesting stuff for those who like the franchise, they're trivial details in comparison to the big picture and their roles in the plot. The plot really exists to meander through the various psychologically broken characters and how they're coping in an insane world struggling against the impending apocalypse. There's a lot of background information, both implicit and explicit; and with the way film and TV have been since the 1980s, some people just can't digest the implicit stuff - they'll watch a film like Vertigo or Notorious by Alfred Hitchcock and completely miss all of the sexual stuff and emotional/mental abuse in it; sometimes, especially in older films when implicit details were commonplace, it's an artistic expression to get around the censorship of the era, but other times it's an artistic expression just to pack in a lot for viewers to think about. Neon Genesis is that sort of work.

I think, with Neon Genesis, a lot of what the creator was trying to express (outside the plot) was his sci-fi interpretation of Genesis, biblical apocrypha, Daniel, and revelation. But unpacking this stuff is mainly for the people who love it, not for casual viewers like the guy from the original post. It's kind of like Lord of the Rings, there's the story of Lord of the Rings, but then there's the gigantic world of Middle Earth revealed by Lord of the Rings and its additional work (which is primarily in the Appendix, the Silmarillion/Lost Tales, and the Unfinished Tales of Numenor), there is so much about Middle Earth that can be gleaned by the journey through it, the languages, the cultures, the politics, and where the divisions occur; but then, for the more casual reader, there is Lord of the Rings, the heroic romance of the destruction of the ring of power; but that plot really wasn't Tolkien's main goal for the book, he wanted to express the cultures and history of his created universe which in turn is where his created languages reside; but that's for those who share that interest, the heroic romance part is for the transmission to the hundreds of millions of others who have read it - and occasionally he'll hook a new person into the deeper goal of his writing.



I describe myself as a little dose of toxic masculinity.

Jumpin said:
eva01beserk said:

rei is a clone of shinjis mother that has the soul of lilith one of the main deitis. Eva 01 is a clone of lilith. The other evas are a clone of Adam the other main deiti. And I forgot the other boys name, koharu I belive is the soul of Adam.

I had to read up on it to finally put thouse pieces toghether. Something as off each planet had a Adam or lilith but earth had both thats why angels fought humans. 

Yeah, that's their background information, and while it is interesting stuff for those who like the franchise, they're trivial details in comparison to the big picture and their roles in the plot. The plot really exists to meander through the various psychologically broken characters and how they're coping in an insane world struggling against the impending apocalypse. There's a lot of background information, both implicit and explicit; and with the way film and TV have been since the 1980s, some people just can't digest the implicit stuff - they'll watch a film like Vertigo or Notorious by Alfred Hitchcock and completely miss all of the sexual stuff and emotional/mental abuse in it; sometimes, especially in older films when implicit details were commonplace, it's an artistic expression to get around the censorship of the era, but other times it's an artistic expression just to pack in a lot for viewers to think about. Neon Genesis is that sort of work.

I think, with Neon Genesis, a lot of what the creator was trying to express (outside the plot) was his sci-fi interpretation of Genesis, biblical apocrypha, Daniel, and revelation. But unpacking this stuff is mainly for the people who love it, not for casual viewers like the guy from the original post. It's kind of like Lord of the Rings, there's the story of Lord of the Rings, but then there's the gigantic world of Middle Earth revealed by Lord of the Rings and its additional work (which is primarily in the Appendix, the Silmarillion/Lost Tales, and the Unfinished Tales of Numenor), there is so much about Middle Earth that can be gleaned by the journey through it, the languages, the cultures, the politics, and where the divisions occur; but then, for the more casual reader, there is Lord of the Rings, the heroic romance of the destruction of the ring of power; but that plot really wasn't Tolkien's main goal for the book, he wanted to express the cultures and history of his created universe which in turn is where his created languages reside; but that's for those who share that interest, the heroic romance part is for the transmission to the hundreds of millions of others who have read it - and occasionally he'll hook a new person into the deeper goal of his writing.

this was one of the first animes to target an older audience. After it there where many who follow its footsteps. But still being the first I'm gona go on a limb and say mostly kids watched this. Like me I was really young when I first saw this. There was no way for me to grasp any of this. 



It takes genuine talent to see greatness in yourself despite your absence of genuine talent.

NightlyPoe said:
Evangelion gave us Asuka Langley Soryu, one of the best-written adolescent girls I've ever seen in fiction. The level of deconstruction of this young girl is brutal and utterly true to its character. For that, Evangelion was an experience worth watching.

So I forgive the show it getting its head stuck in its own rear. Though I'm baffled as to why her character was one of the most changed in the rebuilds.

Asuka was a great character, but Rei will always be best girl.