Neon Genesis Evangelion - The End of Evangelion

Starring:Megumi Ogata, Megumi Hayashibara, YÃ»ko Miyamura, Kotono Mitsuishi, Yuriko Yamaguchi, Fumihiko Tachiki, Akira Ishida, Motomu Kiyokawa, Mugihito, Takehito Koyasu, Hiro Yuuki, Miki Nagasawa, Spike Spencer, Amanda Winn Lee, Tiffany Grant, Allison Keith, Sue Ulu, Tristan MacAvery, Aaron Krohn, Amy Seeley
Director: Hideaki Anno, Kazuya Tsurumaki, Tsuyoshi Kaga
Studio: WEA
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Amazon.com
When the first Evangelion feature, Death and Rebirth, proved no more satisfying than the last episodes of the original series, Hideaki Anno brought his watershed epic to its conclusion in this final installment. End of Evangelion begins where the series ended: with the Angels defeated, the sinister cabal SEELE attacks NERV headquarters to seize the Evas and realize their plan for humanity. Misato and Ritsuko fight from inside while Asuka decimates a new Eva series. But when Rei merges with Lilith, and Shinji seems to fuse with Unit 01, the final traces of a coherent storyline dissolve into a protracted collage of fantastic images, played against discussions involving Rei, Shinji, Asuka, and Kaoru. Anno's dazzling apocalyptic vision forms a weird but oddly logical finale that ultimately means whatever the viewer chooses to read into it. This unrated feature, suitable for ages 17 and older, contains considerable violence, profanity, grotesque imagery, and sexual situations. --Charles Solomon

Neon Genesis Evangelion - Death & Rebirth/The End of Evangelion Two-Pak
Average customer rating:

Continuation of neongenesis - Evangelion

A must for the Evangelion fan

End of Evangelion is a must...

The Brilliant Conclusion to a Most Profound Series

"Some of the most beautiful and poignant animation ever created..."

Neon Genesis Evangelion - Death & Rebirth/The End of Evangelion Two-Pak
Starring: Neon Genesis-Evangelion
Manufacturer: Manga Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0009S4J5K
Release Date: 2005-07-26

Amazon.com

Death & Rebirth, the bizarre ending of the television series Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995), pleased no one, including creator Hideaki Anno. Shortly after it aired, Anno began remaking the final episodes as an OAV and then decided to release them as a theatrical feature. At the climax of the series, Shinji met and destroyed Kaoru, who was both the Fifth Child and 17th Angel--then collapsed into schizophrenia. Death retraces these events through clips, many of them set to new dialogue performed by the same English cast as the series. Rebirth depicts the aftermath of Shinji's victory over the final Angel: Seele attacks NERV headquarters as part of their plot to advance human evolution. The feature ends as inconclusively as the series, with Rei in limbo beside Dr. Ikari, the traumatized Shinji nearly catatonic, and a reawakened Asuka fighting Seele. It sets up the final film, The End of Evangelion. Unrated; suitable for ages 14 and up: Violence, brief nudity, profanity.

Anno brought his watershed epic to its conclusion in the final installment, End of Evangelion. It begins where the series ended: with the Angels defeated, the sinister cabal SEELE attacks NERV headquarters to seize the Evas and realize their plan for humanity. Misato and Ritsuko fight from inside while Asuka decimates a new Eva series. But when Rei merges with Lilith, and Shinji seems to fuse with Unit 01, the final traces of a coherent storyline dissolve into a protracted collage of fantastic images, played against discussions involving Rei, Shinji, Asuka, and Kaoru. Anno's dazzling apocalyptic vision forms a weird but oddly logical finale that ultimately means whatever the viewer chooses to read into it. This unrated feature, suitable for ages 17 and older, contains considerable violence, profanity, grotesque imagery, and sexual situations.

Extras in this set include a gallery of still artwork, short biographies of the main characters, descriptions of the Angels and Evas, and a glossary of terms used in the series. In the voice-over commentary, Amanda Winn Lee (producer-director of the English dub and the voice of Rei Ayanami), co-producer Jason C. Lee and "anime enthusiast" Taliesin Jaffe make a lot of dumb jokes that suggest a lack of respect for both Anno's work and the audience. --Charles Solomon

Description

Three young pilots are faced with the final fate of humanity and their Evangelion vessels are the world's last hope!

Customer Reviews:

Continuation of neongenesis - Evangelion.......2007-05-13

It continues the story, but makes it very difficult to understand what is going on. It has no clearcut answer to all the loose ends from the ordinary series.

A must for the Evangelion fan.......2007-05-12

The two part movies Death and Rebirth and End of Evangelion sum up the television series well. Not visually and intellectually disappointing. Some of what is actually happening between Rei/Lillith and Unit One is a little convoluted as to what actually any of it really means. Seeing the Evangelion Platnum Series Director's cut footage will shine a little light on some of the questions the movie will pose.

End of Evangelion is a must..........2007-04-26

You can do without Death & Rebirth if you own the series. The End of Evangelion is the ending the series, in many ways, needed to have: while the original ending was adequate, Evangelion was never just a story about Shinji and, with all the talk about Adam and Third Impact, it needed something bigger than complete introspection. That said, both this "film" ending and the one occuring in the series do compliment each other and aren't entirely at odds. The difference between Third Impact and Human Instrumentality isn't quite so clear...as maybe it shouldn't be. Nonetheless, we get both. Oh, and Asuka gets a finale worthy of her character. I rate End of Evangelion a 5 star flick; Death & Rebirth, basically the entire series edited into an hour with the idea that Asuka, Shinji, and Rei are "performing/dreaming" this collectively, is beside the point. Still, if you want a proper ending to Evangelion, The End is a must own.

The Brilliant Conclusion to a Most Profound Series.......2007-03-03

For those turning to this film to answer all the questions that the last two episodes of the Evangelion (NGE) series didn't answer, I suggest you look elsewhere. If anything, this film will provide you with precious few answers but a multitude of new questions. For those wanting a highly provocative, thought-provoking, intelligent and most poignant conclusion to the NGE series, then have no fear. I will try to explain some of the more perplexing elements in this film, without giving too much away, as well giving my thoughts and opinions at the same time.

The film is structured to be the final two episodes of the series. So the first half, Ep. 25 "Air/Love is Destructive" is concurrent with the series episode 25 "The World Ending/Do You Love Me?". The second half, Ep. 26. "My Purest Heart for You/One More Final: I Need You" is concurrent with the series episode 26 "The Beast that Shouted Love at the Heart of the World/Take Care of Yourself."

Much like the NGE series, the End of Evangelion (EoE) weaves a complex story where images and dialogue are closely related to the philosophy and symbolism. These themes are played out through the psychology of each characters' own mind. It is essentially a microcosm of the entire series. The opening scenes before the "Air" title card of Ep. 25 of Shinji overlooking the ruins of the city, and then entering Asuka's hospital room and, (I'll leave it there) set the mood and atmosphere. Showing effectively and very disturbingly that this is NOT going to be an easy film. As the first half roars out of the gates at breakneck speed, we see the hostile takeover of Nerv by the Seele organization and each Nerv member's desperate attempt to hold it at bay.

We also see the mental states that the two main Eva pilots - Shinji and Asuka - have been reduced too. Shinji is severely depressed after killing the last angel, Kaworu, whom he had formed a close bond with. Asuka is in the same mental boat as Shinji as she sits at the bottom of the lake in her Eva, which she feels she can't pilot anymore. What's interesting is the paths that have driven these two characters to this point. The ideas of finding one's self-worth (examined perfectly in the final two series episodes), and what happens to a person when that is taken away.

At the same time Seele is trying to initiate their plans for Third Impact using Unit-01 and the downright creepy looking Mass-Produced Eva Series, Gendo has his own plans involving Rei and Lilith. As Asuka, (with a little help and inspiration from her Mama) rages an extremely violent battle with the Evil Evas, Gendo takes Rei down to Lilith. He does this to unite the souls and bodies of Adam and Lilith only to find his scorned lover, Ritsuko there. It's interesting that two of the most shocking and violent scenes (the Asuka/Eva battle and the Gendo/Ritsuko confrontation) are played out to Bach's beautiful "Air". The infusion of the music in this film is truly brilliant and a major reason why many scenes are so effective.

However, this is the point in the film where most people will start to become completely lost. Without a really good understanding of the NGE story (and perhaps even with one), it's hard not to. It's very difficult to make the extremely complex simple, however I'll try without many spoilers.

Suffice it to say that Seele were trying to initiate Third Impact and reduce humankind back to its original form - the Primordial Soup of Life where all souls and beings are one. Gendo had different plans and just wanted to see his 'dead' wife, Yui again. Neither Seele's or Gendo's plans go exactly as they were meant to. Unit-01, along with Shinji, ends up becoming the Tree of Life, and the ark in which all souls are ushered through and into Lilith's Egg. Understanding the idea that in NGE, humans - Lilim, as we're called - were born from Lilith, and Rei is essentially Lilith helps make this clearer. What's happening near this point is 3rd Impact is occurring because of the Unit-01 and the Mass Produced Eva encounter. This returns the Geo-Front (the sphere like cavern where Nerv HQ sits) to its original form, the Egg of Lilith (we see this during the "Eye"-like explosion). After the Giant Rei/Lilith forms, Shinji is essentially given reign over the future of the human race by Rei/Lilith herself.

At this point, the tempo of the film slows to a crawl and the most surreal images and scenes begin creeping in. Even the most seemingly simple scenes such as a young Shinji playing in a sandbox with a swing, mountains, and a setting sun in the background is just rife with symbolism (hint: try to relate everything in this scene with something in the show, be it scenes, characters, or themes). Here, the psychological interplay between the main characters is crucial, as Shinji's wishes are played out in the real world. When he feels that everyone has deserted him and essentially says 'everyone can just die' is when the Instrumentality and joining of all souls through Lilith really begins.

What's important to note is Shinji's thoughts after his 'choice' has been made. The place he escapes to - the world of Instrumentality where all souls are one - and his questioning of this choice and all his choices is what we see here. More than just his questioning of the choice, we also hear him questioning the meaning of reality and dreams. This is not just random philosophical ramblings. It's a study of a character's, as well as the creator's, thoughts and feelings. Shinji holds all of humanity's future in his hands or, more accurately, his own mind. When you consider how psychologically scarred Shinji is, the idea that he can completely shape the future of Earth and all of humankind is what makes this so interesting.

Once he is allowed to be in the world he escapes to, he's faced with another choice of whether to stay or come back. As he discusses these things with Rei and Kaworu (Lilith and Adam), we hear his final choice and reasons why. The ending of EoE, titled "One More Final: I Need You" is rightfully confusing to almost everyone who sees it. However, it's also the perfect note to end the series with. Not only does it leave us as uncertain as the characters are about the future, but it also expresses the frustration and realization of Shinji's choice and the culmination of all the struggles that has lead them there.

This film is simply a divine marvel. Much like the series it has to be watched multiple times for one to uncover all of its hidden layers and meanings. But it doesn't lose its ability to invoke emotions and thoughts even after several viewings. There are scenes of immense power and drama in the film - many that match the best of most films I've seen. But I think it's the quiet moments that make this film so moving and memorable. The Sandbox scene is one I've mentioned. Another is the live action shots with the monologue and Bach's magnificent "Jesus Bleibet Meine Freude" (Jesus, Joy of Man's Desiring) playing along on piano with it. Even more subtle moments, such as Shinji's SDAT (walkman type) player out of batteries (more significant than many would think), and Gendo's broken glasses in Rei's place. With the vivid beginning of Instrumentality played out to the appropriate sad-song-with-a-pop-beat "Komm Susser Tod" (Come Sweet Death), it's these scenes that never fail to give me chills.

There's a great quote that goes something like "A truly wise man always has more questions than answers." This is a series and film that asks more questions than it provides answers. What it tries to do is make you think about those questions, rather than provide an easily digestible story. Some may call the story incoherent and disjointed, but what many don't realize is that the deep psychological and philosophical leanings behind the show are inextricably linked with the storyline itself. So to distinguish one from the other is impossible without realizing how the two intertwine and effect the other. If you merely try to breakdown the sci-fi storyline, then you will be confused by much of it. This is because the story is so big and so encompassing that many finer details can't be uncovered without diving deep into the inner workings of the series.

In the end, I can only speak for myself when I say NGE did a superlative job of doing everything a great work of art should do. It made me laugh, it made me cry, it gave me chills on more than one occasion.... but most of all it made me THINK. Anyone who wants to enjoy this show as just a meaningless work of science fiction can do so, but will be baffled as they're crushed by the multiple layers of extra contextual meanings. So, if you want to understand NGE, you have to not only pay close attention to the small details within the show (small scenes from many episodes back play a role in the film), you have to really open your mind up to the ideas being presented, and how they effect the story.

However, taken as a film, and the conclusion to the NGE series, End of Evangelion is a staggering achievement and powerful last testament to what is, in my opinion, the greatest visual series of all time.

*DVD NOTES:

Those considering whether to buy just the EoE or the EoE/Death & Rebirth 2-pack, I suggest you go with the EoE unless you don't own the director's cuts of the last several episodes (available in the Platinum Collection). 'Death' is mostly a muddled re-crap of the entire series, while 'Rebirth' is merely the first 30 minutes of EoE. Death also doesn't contain remastered visuals or audio like the Platinum Collection does, so you'll be getting a low quality re-cap at that. Death really doesn't even work as an introduction to NGE, because most everyone not aquainted with previous episodes would be confused by the structure of the recap. The only thing worthwile in 'Death' is something called "The Magi Archives" which provides great information about key people, places, events, and thing in the series. This is very helpful to those who feel completely lost by all the jargon in the series and will help clear some things up, even if it won't answer any of the bigger questions. So just stick with EoE unless you feel the need for completeness to get Death & Rebirth as well.

"Some of the most beautiful and poignant animation ever created...".......2007-03-01

"...I think that this is the great untold story to the world. It is sublime. It is arguably some of the most beautiful and poignant animation ever created..."
- Richard Taylor, Weta Workshop.

There is not much that I could mention here which has not been said many times before, but the TV series and movies combined are among the best on offer in any genre. A masterpiece, albeit flawed.

Hauntingly beautiful, disturbing, thought-provoking and terrifying, all at the same time. Definitely not for younger viewers.

That being said, I am sad to report that the English release of the films "Death and Rebirth" and "The End of Evangelion" were so poorly done that I do not believe there is yet a definitive English translation to be had (unless you count the original "fan subs" by Bochan Bird).

It is clear listening to the commentaries that these films were not taken at all seriously or treated with the respect they deserved. The English director admits to adding campy sound-effects and alternative (incorrect) "humorous" dialog for her "own personal amusement". Parts of the translation sound as if they were made by an immature teenager with a childish sense of humour rather than a professional translator. One might suspect that an attempt was made to turn this mature art-piece into a more stereotypical cartoon aimed at a younger and less discriminating audience.

The commentary offers little in the way of real insight, having very little to say about the underlying philosophies or symbolism. Ignorance abounds, and catch phrases such as "that's Freudian" substitute for real understanding. The producers took little care to spell check the subtitles and even invented words at times ("resonation" instead of "resonance"). If you have any understanding of, or fondness for this series at all, the commentary is beyond immaturity, it is infuriating.

Serious fans of this work will be tempted to purchase the newly remastered and magnificently restored versions from Japan and subtitle their own (the English releases are not the remastered versions and are not high quality video transfers). For everyone else, this release is "better than nothing", but it should be remembered that it is a poor translation in parts, and that anything that seems childish, stereotypical or cliché are artifacts of translation.

I rate this product 5 stars solely on the basis of the quality of the original films, and without regard to the production standards of the English translation.

Neon Genesis Evangelion - The End of Evangelion

Average customer rating:

Decent conclusion to the show, but not something to watch in polite company
The Brilliant Conclusion to a Most Profound Series
What's so hard about making a real ending?
A baffling end to a baffling series
I still dont get it...

Neon Genesis Evangelion - The End of Evangelion
Starring: Megumi Ogata , Megumi Hayashibara , Yûko Miyamura , Kotono Mitsuishi , and Yuriko Yamaguchi
Director: Kazuya Tsurumaki , Hideaki Anno , and Tsuyoshi Kaga
Manufacturer: WEA
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000068OJ1
Release Date: 2002-09-24

Amazon.com

When the first Evangelion feature, Death and Rebirth, proved no more satisfying than the last episodes of the original series, Hideaki Anno brought his watershed epic to its conclusion in this final installment. End of Evangelion begins where the series ended: with the Angels defeated, the sinister cabal SEELE attacks NERV headquarters to seize the Evas and realize their plan for humanity. Misato and Ritsuko fight from inside while Asuka decimates a new Eva series. But when Rei merges with Lilith, and Shinji seems to fuse with Unit 01, the final traces of a coherent storyline dissolve into a protracted collage of fantastic images, played against discussions involving Rei, Shinji, Asuka, and Kaoru. Anno's dazzling apocalyptic vision forms a weird but oddly logical finale that ultimately means whatever the viewer chooses to read into it. This unrated feature, suitable for ages 17 and older, contains considerable violence, profanity, grotesque imagery, and sexual situations. --Charles Solomon

Customer Reviews:

Decent conclusion to the show, but not something to watch in polite company.......2007-03-04

First, I will describe some of the things I didn't like about End of Evangelion, then some of the things I did like.

Things I didn't like:

I thought the degree of violence and nudity were a bit excessive. While I can understand that the series was somewhat more constrained in that regard by TV censorship and Gainax would probably have made the whole series like End of Eva if they could have gotten away with it, I don't think I would have wanted to watch the series in that case, and I dislike having to tolerate a greater degree of violence and fan service just to see how the show ends. I realize this is a matter of personal preference; in general I prefer to watch, for instance, Miyazaki films and dislike movies like Akira or Ghost in the Shell. If you like the latter, then you'll probably like End of Eva.

Regarding the ending, it suffers from being overly mysterious. The trouble with resolving a plot with some sort of magical transformation is that from the audiences' point of view whatever happens seems rather arbitrary, since the writers can make up any sort of rules they want. Lilith, Adam, the Lance of Longinus, unit 01, and a bunch of production evas seem to all play an important role in the end of the world, but what are those roles specifically? I have no idea. It's also hard to guess what would have happened if events had transpired differently. For instance, if things had gone according to plan for either SEELE or Cmdr. Ikari, would the end result have been any different?

This is a minor point, but I thought that Christian symbolism was overused in End of Eva, even more so than the series. It isn't that it offends me, it just seems kind of silly after awhile to see crosses everywhere, and yet, as far as I can tell, there isn't anything substantively Christian about the show. (As a contrasting example, the series Haibane Renmei has comparatively little religious symbolism, but much more actual theological depth. An odd side effect of watching it is that now I think of Jesus whenever I see a crow. I concede that I'm probably a bit odd in that respect.) I'm not sufficiently knowledgeable to understand references to other religions, so I can't really say if they are portrayed in an insightful way or not.

Things I did like:

The audio commentary was reasonably informative and very entertaining. I don't usually listen to commentary tracks but another Amazon review recommended it, so I did. It explained some of the more obscure religious references, and generally helped disambiguate what was really going on. Even better, they make fun of the movie continuously - everything from the pervasive Freudian imagery to Fuyutski's Jay Leno chin. While it's fine to take the movie seriously, it's also a bit of a relief to laugh at it as well. If any movie ever deserved to be an MST3K episode, it's this one.

For some reason, I really like the end-of-the-world "I wish that I could turn back time" song (called Komm, süsser Tod). Though I suppose people might worry about me if I ever sang it out loud where I could be overhead.

I also liked the letterbox format. (I think the "death" part of death and rebirth is just scenes from the series cropped to fit in letterbox format.)

Animation quality is pretty good overall, even though there are still some scenes where it's obvious they were avoiding motion to save on budget (the SEELE meetings for instance). In general, the quality of animation was about on par with the early parts of the series, maybe a bit better.

The major character's stories (with the exception of Shinji's classmates who have all moved or disappeared or died or something some time ago) all reach some sort of a conclusion. We finally get some insight into Cmdr. Ikari's motives. We also get a better understanding of what's going on in general with Lilith, the Evas, the AT fields, and SEELE so the whole series makes quite a bit more sense. Many things are not fully explained, though.

The Brilliant Conclusion to a Most Profound Series.......2007-03-03

What's so hard about making a real ending?.......2007-02-02

It's a shame a good series, arguably an artwork of a series because the themes are so well done before the take-your-pick sets of finales, can't get an ending which is intelligible.

This movie is mildly better than the last two episodes of the TV show, in that it actually describes some of the lead-up in to how the ending occurs. Ok, this is nice, how's are a very good thing to have in coherent storytelling. The only thing is--surprise--this disappears about 1/2 way and you're left with the same psychedelic babble as last time, just with a different direction. The very last scene is a rather ludicrous thing to hang up such a wonderful series on.

I disagree with anyone who says it was a wonderful to make the ending of this series "artsy," and require everyone to come up with their own interpretation. I would accept that if the whole series was like that, but none of it is, it just dumps some half-baked art school masturbation on celluloid stuff on anyone who gave their attention and emotions to a series that previously had a plot.

If you watched the series you might as well see this too for some minor updates on what "theoretically" happens in the end.

A baffling end to a baffling series.......2006-10-14

Having watched the 'End of Evangelion' many times over, I still find it as baffling as ever. Watching this movie is much like watching the climax of 2001 A Space Odyssey where David Bowman enters the 'stargate' at the monolith and undergoes his psychadelic trip to nowhere. After such a bizarre parade of juxtaposed images, events and themes (often splashed around like images in a Picasso painting) you wonder what the hell it means.

The End of Evangelion is the alternative ending to the 1996 anime television series directed by Hideki Anno. Anno produced several works, however Evangelion proved to be the most popular (and controversial).

On the surface the premise of the series is fairly straightforward and similar to many other science fiction anime series; a group of humans living in a post-apocalyptic world are fighting to defend humanity from alien invaders. In Evangelion the aliens are called 'Angels', powerful and dangerous beings who appear to come from another dimension and cannot be defeated except by giant robots piloted by young children.

The main character in the series is the anti-hero Shinji, a cowardly, indecisive, apathetic and introverted character who is frequently depressed and gripped by anomie and acedia and seems to be unable to do the most basic tasks without being forced by other people. As the series unfolds it is clear Shinji and how he relates to others is somehow central not just to the angel-human conflict but even perhaps to the salvation of mankind itself.

Shinji relates most closely to three characters, Azuka, Misato, and his father, Gendo Ikari. As the series unfolds each of the characters is revealed to have a deeply tragic past which has resulted in all having very severe neurotic and psychological problems which border on hysteria and nervous breakdown. Indeed virtually all the characters come to pieces, either mentally or physically, as the series progresses and darkens.

The End of Evangelion seems to complement the interior fragmentation and destruction of the selves of the main characters by telling the 'narrative' of events in the external world. NERV is invaded and destroyed by a human invasion after the last angel is defeated in battle and the main characters are killed, including Azuka (in a rather horrible and gruesome way). Shinji, trapped in psychotic shock at the death of Azuka, enters his evangelion but is then taken by other evangelions who seem to undergo a bizarre ritual which reforms the 'Tree of life', the central symbol of kabbalastic mysticism. This leads to a giant Goddess-figure called Lilith rising to life, who proceeds to bring about the end of the world by merging the souls of all individual humans back into an undifferentiated unity, while Shinji looks on.

For some reason the process seems to fail and Lilith dies, perhaps because Shinji exercises his free will to remain an individual being rather than to re-merge his self into God. Azuka, perhaps also merged with aspects of Rei and Shinji's mother, also reemerges beside him along a deserted shoreline, while the rest of humanity and life remains as a red soup, an undifferentiated unity from which all things began. At the end Shinji attempts to strangle Azuka but relents, and then Azuka says 'How disgusting.'

The ending of the world and the 'recreation' of a new world seems to contain some very complex themes, such as free will, the relation of humans to the Absolute, how we relate to the 'Other' and existence in an incomplete world where the paradox of reality is where we suffer but suffering is also part of growth. Anno seems to draw deeply on Kabbalistic mysticism, Existential philosophy (many of the themes in the end are allegories of themes explored by philosophers like Heidigger, Sartre, Gadamer and Emmanuel Levinas) and Christian symbolism. Why Anno chose to use symbols from the Judeo-Christian tradition (in particular Kabbalah) for the series and the end I am not sure, but perhaps Anno felt the Zohar's profound sense of exile in a world where the divine is deeply hidden and absent and associated existential themes of angst, alienation, being in relation to death and nothingness were appropriate when dealing with psychological themes such as repressed emotions, the unconcious, introversion and extroversion, sexual desire, and frustration of our dreams and goals, and suffering.

I get the sense the ending of Evangelion is open, and I think Anno intended it to be so. To 'close' Evangelion where everyone is happy and gets what they wish seems to negate the deeper premise of the series which pointed to the universality of human suffering in the inner and outer worlds; the extremes of torture and pain all the characters endure to the point of death seems excessive but perhaps makes the important point there is no safe refuge in this world of change where the divine seems absent. While using Christian/Jewish imagery and western philosophical themes, I get the sense in the end Anno's message is Buddhist; we learn to grow through suffering, pain and evil and by accepting ourselves as we are, and we must accept there is evil and pain in all of existence and there is no escaping it, as evil and good exist even in the Godhead itself. In this sense Anno approaches the Gnostic systems of Jacob Boehme and also some of the more radical forms of Kabbalah, where humans must restore a broken world by experiencing good as well as evil.

Certainly the End of Evangelion is a multilayered world with extremely complex imagery, and cannot be watched as most other ordinary movies would be.

I still dont get it..........2006-10-05

ok so the last 2 episodes of the t.v series were not great at ALL! they sucked. so i thought the "end of evangelion" was gonna sum it all up. it did, until the last part of the movie. when Asuka rubs his face to show she loves him, and so Shinji stop strangling her and realizes that she does love him back. Now why would you end the WHOLE thing, after all that just happend, with Asuka saying, "How Disgusting". I almost fell outta my chair. that threw the whole thing off. after that i was kinda pissed off! so if anyone can tell me the meaning behind that, i would appreciate it.

Neon Genesis Evangelion - The Death & Rebirth + The End of Evangelion Movie Box Set

Average customer rating:

Neon Genesis Evangelion - The Death & Rebirth + The End of Evangelion Movie Box Set

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Binding: DVD

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