Last time I wrote about Neon Genesis Evangelion on this blog (see my post on it), it mostly covered the 26-episode anime series covering the wacky, wild and surreal lives of pilots Shinji Ikari, Asuka Langley Soryu, and Rei Ayanami and their battle against the Angels who threatened Tokyo-3. However, one can hardly bring up Neon Genesis Evangelion without mentioning End of Evangelion – an epic finale of grand, twisted and visually shocking proportions. So, rather than review another X-long episode slice-of-life anime series for this week, the 20th edition of Anime Review will cover this mind-freak of a film instead.
Note that, since I’m reviewing a film instead of a series, I will leave out the Characters and Music section; they’ve already been covered in my post about the Evangelion TV series.
If you haven’t seen the series yet, DO NOT READ THIS POST, THERE WILL BE SPOILERS. Also, abandon hope, all ye who enter here.
END OF EVANGELION (FINIS EVANGELION)
Widely revered as one of the greatest animated films of all time, if not the 1990s, this film has also had its share of notoriety amongst Evangelion fans regarding its subject matter, the extra-philosophical themes within it, and, not to mention, its ending, which I will get to during this blog. My personal history with it begins on 6 November of 2017, right after I passed my driving test to get me my G2 (yahoo!). I foolishly decided that, if I ended up passing my G2 test, I’d treat myself to this film. And so began a midnight screening of End of Evangelion – and certainly not my last one yet.
PLOT
End of Evangelion picks up right after the events of episode 24 in the TV series: Shinji has just killed Kaworu, an Angel disguised as a human, and the only person that has shown Shinji any kind of affection in his entire life, sending our lead protagonist truly at the rock bottom point of his life. With Rei exposed as a clone of his mother, Asuka in a coma, and the rest of Tokyo-3 (including his friends) evacuated, all hope within Shinji has found its resting place…
What better way to express his utter depression and frustration with the world than to visit his incapacitated co-pilot and… (for lack of a more appropriate word) choke the chicken?? (begin rant) I’m not kidding, we’re only 5 minutes in, and already Shinji’s trying to release his sexual tension towards Asuka. I get it, she’s pretty attractive and all, and I’m pretty sure that you’ve shared a lot between each other seeing how you practically live in the same house. But WHYYYYYY. WAS THIS EVEN NECCESSARY??? Even Shinji himself is disgusted by what he’s done, he just goes out and says, “I’m so f**ked up”. I remember hearing this scene and thinking, “DAMN STRAIGHT YOU ARE, KID”. (end rant) Little did I know, how much that one line muttered by Shinji would greatly describe this film…
Meanwhile, the rest of NERV, minus commander Gendo Ikari, faces an attack by SEELE, their rivals, who send out the entire Japanese military on them so that said organization can seize control of the headquarters, and quite literally, become God (through a plan called the Third Impact). This plan is somewhat thwarted by Misato Katsuragi, who manages to rescue Shinji and Asuka, sealing the latter inside her Evangelion unit while successfully managing to convince the former to man up, start taking responsibility, and for the love of God, get in the damn robot, sacrificing her life in the process. Oh yeah, and this also happens:
Why.
Nonetheless, our focus shifts to Asuka, who manages, thanks to the help of her mother’s entrapped soul, to snap out of her comatose state, awaken Unit-02, and singlehandedly brings about the beginning of the greatest anime battles of all time – beating the living crap out of the Japanese military strength. Talk about a comeback – nothing can stand in the way of this infuriated German girl, except for SEELE’s Mass Production Evangelion units. Despite putting up a good fight against them, Asuka is killed when she gets impaled by a flurry of counterfeit Lances of Longinus (no, not the one that pierced Our Lord’s side). Which sets the stage for Unit-01’s awakening, Shinji witnessing Asuka’s death, and all hell breaking loose.
While all this is happening, Gendo is in the basement, standing before a crucified figure of NERV’s greatest treasure, Lilith, with a completely naked Rei by his side and an embryonic First Angel embedded into him, as he tries to fuse himself with Rei, become God, and change the world forever through the Third Impact. Unfortunately, EVEN THAT plan fails, as Rei finally decides she’s had enough of Gendo’s antics, and fuses herself with Lilith, which causes her to grow into a giant, naked version of herself, and begin the preparations for Third Impact – and who better to pick to determine the fate of the world than our resident depressaholic, Shinji?
Now this is the part where it gets good. Shinji enters the world of mindfreakish scenes involving:
- a younger version of himself building a pyramid, then destroying it, only to rebuild it
- Misato and Kaji’s personal sexy time
- Asuka, Rei and Misato roasting him while he’s on a train
- and finally, Asuka snapping at Shinji in Misato’s kitchen
All this leads Shinji towards the only logical conclusion about the fate of the world: everyone must die. Which leads to the climax of the film: Third Impact – or, in layman’s terms, the end of the world. And boy, does it NOT disappoint at all. See it for yourself; but be warned, some scenes will be very disturbing. Don’t say I didn’t warn you…
Once more, we are treated to Instrumentality – where everyone and everything is fused as one, big puddle of orange juice (more boringly known as LCL). But we’re not done yet; Shinji and Rei meet once more in this world, but somehow, a world where Shinji isn’t getting roasted by everyone around him, abandoned by his father, and forced into grueling battles with intergalactic aliens just doesn’t seem right to him. Hence, he decides to change his mind and go back into the now-desolated world that he created.
Once he returns to Tokyo-3, now a red-coated, desolate ruin, he finds Asuka by his side, and just to cap off how messed up this film is, he gets on top of her and begins to… strangle her. Only this time, she actually wakes up and caresses him on the cheek, seemingly showing him affection, a gesture which causes Shinji to break down in tears before her, as we hear the final words of the film:
“Kimochi warui.” (How disgusting)
WHAT I LIKED
- As with most of Neon Genesis Evangelion, the animation and visuals were extraordinarily top-notch. High amount of attention to detail, choreography and depth – every scene was built with passion and great care, be it a battle scene, a discourse between Ritsuko and Gendo, or the pre-Third Impact dream sequence. Truly fitting for a finale.
- Talk about the voice acting too. It was phenomenal and really grasped the emotions of the entire film.
- The music was also extraordinarily beautiful. From tracks such as Heisoku No Kakudai, which plays during Instrumentality, to classical pieces Johann Sebastian Bach’s Jesu Bleibet Meine Freude and Air In G, to Arianne Schreiber’s Komm Susser Tod (ironically, also the name of another Bach piece), the music of this series perfectly matched each and every scene played during the film.
- If you were extremely disappointed by the TV series’ finale, this film will be sure to not disappoint. It starts out with a BANG, and ends with a loud, resounding BANG of great proportions. Don’t watch it if you don’t like apocalyptic themes, though.
- I’ve talked about the characters already in my previous Anime Review covering Evangelion, but nonetheless, I have to put it out again, that this film is no exception to continuing the amazing work on characterization that was started from the original TV series. The way their character arcs were completed was fulfilling, flawless, and at times leaves you just sympathizing with them and their actions, even with seemingly irredeemable guys like Gendo himself.
- Speaking about the ending… check out Shinji and Asuka’s final discourse by the lake after coming out of Instrumentality. It’s a beautiful, refreshing breath of air for the series as a whole, and a way of a cliffhanger to end off Evangelion. Furthermore, not only do Shinji and Asuka finally come to terms with each other’s struggles and emotions, but this scene is just so full of much Christian meaning: even though the world around them has been destroyed, and seemingly left desolate, the fact that they both were willing to live within it, and make good of whatever’s left of it, serves as a powerful reminder to live fully in God’s love, no matter how bad the world gets.
WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE
- It’s really hard to pick anything I didn’t like about this film. Probably the closest thing that I could think about, is that Shinji’s voice control could have been toned down a bit.
CONCLUSION
After seeing it, I don’t regret having stumbled upon this movie, and after seeing the original episode 25/26, those two pale in comparison to this film. It’s visually stunning, the story was comprehensive and the overall message was just powerful and resounding. It further cemented Evangelion as a masterpiece of an anime series in my opinion, and was part of the reason why it eclipses my previous holder for overall favorite, Digimon Adventure, by a huge bit. I’ll guarantee you that rewatching any bit of this film will be bound to give chills up my spine, and no matter how many times I watch it, it will still continue to amaze me as if it was the first time I saw End of Evangelion. So please, take my 9.7 gold stars.
SCORE: 9.7/10
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