I had a lot of expectations going in to Neon Genesis Evangelion’s ending. After episode 24, I was sure that no matter what happened, it would at least be decent. We would learn about the Angels, Seele, the Scrolls. Maybe get a big fight with the Seele Eva Units mentioned before and complete some great character arcs. Sadly, only one of those things came true, at the expense of everything else. So how about we just jump in to what is going to be the most rant-style post I will ever make on this site, eh?
Right off the bat, I have to say, what the fuck did I just watch. Normally I go over each episode independently, but 25 and 26 together are just a joint “what the fuck”. It’s hard for me to even write coherent paragraphs here, because all I want to do is scream bullshit, but I will try my best. So first up, the good. This ending at least manages to tie up Shinji, Asuka and Rei’s characters. Not in a terribly satisfactory way mind you, as we basically sit through an hour of internal monologue from Shinji, but it does it. We see Shinji finally come to accept that he was pushing people away, self-attributing a lot of his worst traits. He believed that no one could accept him and in doing so turned it into a self-fulfilling prophecy as he looked for one-side relationships like Kaworu. Everything else though…
As far as the rest of the story is concerned, this resolves nothing. The greater plot, the Angels, Steel, Lilith, Adam, Gendo, the Eva Units, its all still there. Untouched. Now in an argument with a friend had immediately after this viewing, they claim that none of that matters, it’s all superfluous. That the characters are Evangelion’s focus and ultimately all that matter. However I think that’s idiotic. Yes, the characters are important and a big part of it, but the greater story is what gave those characters context. They exist and only matter within the greater narrative that is Evangelion’s story. And naturally when you build up this greater story over the course of 24 episodes, some people are going to get invested in it. This means that when you fail to actually end any of those plot threads, it just feels… empty. Lacking. Incomplete.
And incomplete is exactly what Evangelion comes off feeling at the end here. It’s as if Anno had no idea how he wanted to end the series, and instead of leading up to it he hard cut it at the end of 24. Jumping straight from the fight to Kaworu to an already started Human Instrumentality Project, skipping everything in between. We have no conclusion as to Adam and Liliths competing children. No answers as to Seele’s plan, the Dead Sea Scrolls or the 13 Eva Units Seele made. We barely even have an answer to Shinji, Asuka and Rei. As while their character arcs are completed and they come to self-actualize by the end, there is no context for it. They achieve this actualization in an empty void, monologuing to each other without any clear goal or conflict. Eventually hitting this breaking point of “Yes, personal connections matter”.
Now, credit where it is due, thematically it all fits together. Evangelion has been about human connection and how each character deals with that from the beginning. All of the characters were looking for some sort of emotional connection, yet all of them were terrified of being hurt. They wanted no-strings-attached acceptance, one way relationships like Kaworu and Shinji had. However that simply isn’t how relationships work and is terribly unhealthy. We saw the results of these relationships in our leads. For instance Shinji was afraid of getting hurt, yet this fear and self-ascribed hatred left him alone. And when someone did come offering a one way relationship, Shinji failed to give anything, only really taking. Leading him to not actually learn a single thing about Kaworu and be ruined on his eventual betrayal.
Meanwhile Asuka had placed all of her self worth on her status as an Eva Pilot. Using that as her way of connecting and getting acceptance from people rather than her own personality and friendships. So when her ability as an Eva Pilot broke down, she was left with nothing. The only real exception to that was Kaji, yet even he primarily saw her as an Eva Pilot, causing his death to hit her even harder. At the same time, Rei was defined entirely by her connections to other people. She didn’t exist outside of them, she had no real inner-self, instead being the “Rei Ayanami” that everyone else saw. It’s another one-way relationship, but instead of only taking like Shinji, she only gave. Leaving her hollow, unfulfilled and ultimately alone because no one knew the true Rei.
Lastly I want to talk about the production, which was another disappointment. The entire thing consisted of still shots, reused footage and text cards. There was one morph cut near the end that was impressive, I can give Evangelion that. But outside of that its obvious just how strapped the production was at this point. Even resorting to pencil sketches, crayon and marker near the end. Some may try to claim that as Anno’s “genius”, and maybe it is in that he did the best he could with the resources he had. But I think its obvious he had no idea and no clear plan on how to end the series. I have heard the term “Gainax Ending” before, but now I am truly coming to understand exactly how bad that is.
So all in all, how was the finale of Neon Genesis Evangelion? Simply put, it was a disappointment in every respect. This short rant basically sums it up for me, saying how it resolves nothing. Evangelion is an unfinished product. And you know what makes it hurt so much, why I am so annoyed with it? I liked Evangelion. Up until this point, for all its flaws, I was having a really good time. And then Anno just sort of gives up. Well to bad Anno. Turns out when you dedicate 24 episodes to an overarching plot, someone is going to get invested in it. And when you fail to resolve that plot, people will be annoyed. Thank god I have a movie to watch after this, hopefully that can at least give me something satisfying…
And that, ladies and gentleman, is a wrap! Thanks for sticking around for another season of Throwback Thursday. Soon, either by this weekend or next week, I will have a full review for Neon Genesis Evangelion up for you all to peruse. That will be followed as quickly as I can by a full review for End of Evangelion, and that will be the end of our journey through a seminal work of animation! Until then you can find the poll for what we will be watching next season HERE. If something you want to see me blog isn’t on there, just leave a post and I can add it to the poll for next time. As for when the next season will start, I will probably try to time it with the start of the Spring Season. Or at least close to it. Thanks for reading and see you soon!
Aaaaahahahahahahahahaahh. Aaaaah. Maaan.
I don’t care. No series probably ever did anything like this nor will. Graceful death or crazy troll. And the clapping scene is genius.
Now, on to the true ending!
Yeah I believe these episodes are garbage and I’m glad you agree. Thank god there is the movie. Not sure how Eva fans that watched this shit when it came out didn’t lose their shit.
They *did* lose their shit. Internet rage, death threats, the whole nine yards.
oh man. I also thought these episodes were terrible. On the brightside End of Eva is as good as these are bad. I’m just glad that when I watched evangelion, end of eva was already out. Otherwise I would have lost it
I’ll give you a sneak peak of my End of Evangelion review: I really liked it.
My comment from the start of this series:
“The animation is pretty good up until near the end. They ran out of money near the end of the series, and it becomes obvious. Not Gunbuster levels of obvious, but still pretty obvious. For example, when I first watched this it was on my friend’s DVD player. There is a quiet scene in an elevator that dragged on so long we genuinely thought the DVD had a scratch and was skipping. Turned out they just dragged out the scene due to lack of budget. There are a couple of other frozen scenes in the end that could be interpreted as being “artsy” or “thought-provoking”, but the director admitted were done simply to drag out the time and save what little budget was left.”
Let’s see if this goes through. 3rd time is the charm.
If you enjoyed the majority of the series, then I think you’ll enjoy the End of Eva movie. It was created to retcon these last two episodes and provide the closure everyone was looking for.
Ey got it! Sorry comments are bein a pain. I’ll look into it a bit in the back end.
Simply put, Evangelion episodes 25 and 26 is up there as one of the biggest disappointments in anime history. Anno wildly mismanaged the production. I can’t remember if I mentioned this in a previous comment, but Anno originally had an outline and plan for Evangelion. He then, partway through the series threw it out and went in a totally different direction. Which ended up being an absolute disaster. I can’t recall the exact point where that happened (bigger Eva fans than I can probably say), but obviously watching the show there is a noticeable change to things around the halfway point with the clip show, in particular in the second half of that episode. We see it again for much of episode 20, and it culminates here in the final 2 episodes where so many things are thrown out as if they never mattered. I totally agree with your comment on any defense about the show being about the characters and the other things not mattering. Total nonsense. If that was the case then there is so much that never should have been introduced into the narrative. Any conflict between Gendou and SEELE, the fact that the thing in the basement is not Adam, but Lilith, the Eva series, the true nature of the Evas, the list goes on and on. Those things did matter, and people felt it quite important to get some sort of resolution to those other things. But Anno threw it all out.
Yeah, Anno finds an interesting way to use old clips and some still shots in these final 2 episodes and the background music is pretty decent, but it is not told in an interesting way at all. I’m watching this show expected to be entertained. I’m not here to watch it as an assignment in a psychology class. I’m not entirely sure if I even agree with the final message over Shinji’s character, or at the very least if it really fits with the message the rest of the show is delivering. And the Asuka content I feel is largely repetitive and unnecessary, at least in comparison to the excellent examination of her we got in episode 22, the last really strong episode of the show (to be fair, they did make a lot of changes to that sequence in the Director’s Cut version which may tie into why her scenes now feel so unnecessary).
Now people may say that I should give Anno a chance, that expectations were so high that anything would disappoint, and that what he really wanted to include wouldn’t fit in the allotted running time, wouldn’t get past the censors, and he didn’t have time to get it produced anyway. And in my eyes that is just excuse making. I look at Yoshiyuki Tomino with Mobile Suit Gundam, a show that got cancelled and had its final 13 episodes compressed into merely 4. And not only did Tomino end his show successfully but that compression changed the show for the better. If anything I’d say he was in a far tougher spot than Anno, who got the exact amount of episodes he always knew he was going to have. Tomino took the spot he was in and made the show a lot better as a result. Anno took the spot he was in and threw crap against the wall. He had no idea, and no plan, as you said.
To depart from the negativity, the last 2 episodes have a few outside sci-fi references I like and will highlight, the title “The Beast that Shouted ‘I’ At the Heart of the World” is reference to a Harlan Ellison book of the same name except the word “Love” is used instead of “I”. In the Japanese spelling of the episode, “I” is spelt “Ai”, which could stand for either the English “I” or “Love”. Instrumentality is a reference to “The Instrumentality of Mankind” by Cordwainer Smith. And finally, the line “To all the children, congratulations!” is a homage to “Happy birthday, dear children!” from Space Runaway Ideon, the Tomino show/movies that were a significant inspiration for Evangelion.
Anyway, even if the show totally collapsed in the last third, I enjoyed the journey and following along. Looking forward to your overall review and the movie.
Oh, and for your poll, I actually intend to watch Texhnolyze for the first time at some point in the future, would love to see that as well as Angel’s Egg.
anon: My understanding is they didn’t run out of money. It wasn’t a budget issue. Rather, Anno wildly mismanaged the production schedule and didn’t have time to do a proper ending so he slapped together those final 2 episodes.