The End of Evangelion
Hideaki Anno, Kazuya Tsurumaki
1997
Anime, Post Apocalyptic, Existentialism
Neon Genesis Evangelion is often hailed as one of the most well crafted, and entertaining animes of all time. It sits on the triple seated throne with Gundam, and Robotech as the head honchos of the mecha genre. But to call Evangelion just a mecha anime is misleading, in fact the show rarely focused on the fighting and action, but rather on characters and setting. The universe of Evangelion is a deep and rich world, and if you don't pay careful attention, you may not get the full impact. There are many references to the fields of psychology, religion, philosophy, and science fiction. All the characters are unique, have their own traits and flaws, and all have their own problems.
The setting of Evangelion is in Earth beginning at the year 2000. A event called "Second Impact" has devastated the planet, destroying half of Earth's population, causing climate change, and war. In the year 2015, Tokyo (which in the series is called Tokyo 3, after being destroyed 2 times) is being attacked by an unknown forced dubbed as "Angels". Children born after the second impact are the ones who must pilot giant mechs called "Evas" in order to battle Angels. During the show you follow the actions and events that follow Ikari Shinji, one of the kids chosen to pilot an Eva. You learn about the various factions such as Seele, Nerv, and Gehirn. I will not take to long to talk about all the story in the show, but it deals heavily in conspiracy, conquest for power, and ultimately humanity's existence.
Fast-forward to the end of episode 24, and that is when The End of Evangelion begins. The movie was created in response to the poorly received episodes 25 and 26, which fell victim to budget and censorship issues. End of Evangelion follows the original script laid out for those two episodes. They even go as far as to split the movie in half, and call it episodes 25 and 26.
The first half of the movie contains more action than the entire series. It shows the violent collision of Nerv and Seele battling for their own version of Third Impact to happen. The invasion of the Nerv headquarters shows the violent nature of each side, and their determination to follow through with Instrumentality. Gendo wants to reunite with his wife, Seele wants to merge all of humanity into one single entity, but they both in the end want ultimate hapiness. Part 1 also contains one of the most brilliant scenes in any anime, Auska fighting the mass produced Evas. The ultra violent brutality of the fighting, combined with the soft and relaxing tune of Johann Sebastian Bach's Air on the G String works extremely well, which leads me to another point..
The soundtrack is extremely well done. You have 2 of the works of J.S. Bach that work very well, the song Komm, süsser Tod which is almost funny when you put it into context. You get a cool jazz pop version of Thanatos during the credits for episdoe 25, and some neat original works too.
Anyway, the first half serves as a great action packed introduction to the movie, and it sets up the events to come well. But you're probably thinking "all this action is great and all, but there is the famous Evangelion mind fuck", well Jimmy, part 2 is littered with so much mind fucking that you will probably be considered a patient of a lobotomy.
When part 2 begins, it never stops making you go "what the fuck is this shit" until you reach the very end. But when you actually think about it, it all makes sense. There really isn't a scene that is put in there solely for the purpose of confusing you. The art direction and all that may seem very abstract, and unnecessary, but it is all a part of the pain Shinji is dealing with. Put yourself in his shoes, you just had 2 people that you care about, you have been dealing with extreme mental distress and depression, and now you are taking part of an act that will destroy all of humanity. All the scenes where Shinji is going through Instrumentality is supposed to reflect all that he is going through, all the anger, confusion, and depression.
And after all of this chaos, all of this sad and angry and depressive shit the series has been building up, all the sense of hopelessness, featuring one of the most emo main characters ever, it ends on an extremely optimistic note. The film ends on the message that everything is alright. That even though we go through periods of depression, anger, and sadness, that all those things only make us better in the end. The message is that we can't experience joy without first experiencing pain. And that our identity is more important than trying to be perfect.
So if you are a fan of anime, or someone who wants to watch a good and interesting series, with a ton of complexity and depth to it, then I highly reccomend this. You are almost certianly going to want to watch the show first, and I suggest watching the move before you watch episodes 25 and 26 of the show. The colsest thing I can compare this to is the Half Life series. They both feature a immersive world, all with realistic characters, in a post apocolyptic setting, but while Half Life focuses on action and adventure, Evangelion focuses on story and philosophy.
10/10
https://www.amazon.com/Neon-Genesis-Evangelion-End/dp/B000068OJ1/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1263082505&sr=8-1 
Topic: [Movie] The End of Evangelion (Read 3275 times)