2021. Still waiting to see Dan's thoughts on the whole "Rebuild" series.

“2015 or so when the final movie in the series comes out in Japan” **laughs in 2020**

"End of Evangellion is giving me a headache." Yeah, it'll do that.

Little heads up: Seele is German for "soul", Nerv is German for "nerve", Gehirn is German for "brain", The short form of Evangelion, Eva, is German for "Eve" (like Adam's girlfriend, "Eve") -> plays into the naming scheme of Adam and Lilith as well. Source: German native speaker

I always read the two endings as being contemporaneous. The broadcast ending feels like having the intellectual understanding of what you need to do to get out of a depressive hole, while the movie is a harder look at the work and uncomfortable self-confrontation it takes to get there. Shinji chooses to embrace individuality instead of dissolving into tang with everyone else, which I’ve always taken to be the “I am me, I can be happy here” moment from the broadcast ending. That he immediately wakes up and tries to strangle Asuka... well, sometimes you have a breakthrough and then slip right back into old habits. “It all returns to nothing” etc, etc...

Low-key you missed an opportunity by not renumbering this episode E2.22

the best fan theory I've heard is that the End of Evangelion happens till Shinji finally gets it right (the TV ending)

Hahaha "wait til like 2015 or so when the last movie in the series comes out" Announced 'in progress' 2016! Woo! EDIT: The year is 2021, and despite seeing the teasers for the newest EVA rebuild, i can say that it will be redundant. You see, I made a habit in 2020 of watching the news while listening to Komm Süsser Tod in the background and i think that about captures whatever feeling I’ll have while watching the newest film

Yeah Seele is literally just the German word for "soul". Whenever something in an anime ISN'T English, you can usually count on it being German.

"Shinji is a child lost in the supermarket"

I still don't see why the two ending are for sure not taking place at about the same time. In 25 and 26 there are flashes of scenes that take place in the movie (Asuka at the bottom of the lake/Misato shot dead/dead Ritsuko floating in LCL). These last episodes could be depicting how the characters experience instrumentality; their minds are laid bare to each other because everyone in the world is connected and individuals can no longer censor their thoughts. So the overall plot could have been there, but Anno wanted to use the time he had left to focus on what he needed out of his art and the story. In this case at the time he needed 25 and 26 to wrap up the aspects of the story about overcoming depression, which was the main thing he wanted people (himself included) to walk way from the original series with. I mean from the tang rapture onward it felt like the natural progression of a bad depressive episode. You get lost in thoughts of memories that make you feel like shit to the point that life feels like a constant fever dream and you just want to be alone, but hopefully after you reach rock bottom you start to see your way out. And when you find yourself at the end of it you're not magically all better(hell you probably alienated or hurt the people you're supposed to care for at some point), but you find purpose in living again. From there you try to get back to where you were before the depression or restart society in the case of Shinji. So from the perspective of someone with clinical depression the flow into self hatred, sadness, internal acceptance, and "slummy funk" when dealing with the real world again makes sense. And I'm not saying the End of Eva wasn't also critiquing fans, hell they have that scene they edited in of the audience from the first showing which was Anno forcing his audience to take a good hard look at themselves.

Shinji is a 14 year old depressed and antisocial adolescent boy without any guidance or value placed upon him by his absent parents. Of all the characters, he reacts to his situation in life the most accurately to what a real life person of the same description would. I dunno. People like shitting on Shinji as a character, but he's the most realistic aspect of Eva.

Watching this in 2018, laughed out loud at "in 2015 or so". Hey, at least there's a date now, 2020!

Really late to the party here but new fan of Eva thanks to Netflix. Your line at the end of the vid about Asuka was so refreshing, I have not heard anyone express just how incredibly depressing and tragic her character is in the all the discourse I've been catching up on. Easily one of the most sympathetic characters I've seen, probably ever. Very interesting point about the dub vs sub versions of the characters- I watched it subbed. I wonder what the divide is on people hate certain characters, which version they experienced.

Oh wow, I hadn't realized the difference between the original and dub(s). Very good point, as I found some points of your previous video a bit alien to my experience before.

amazing to find these videos from Dan a decade ago, feel like relics from another era

I think Asuka's "badass" moment really resonates because, on its own, you're not completely sure if her mothers spirit is in Unit 02 or if she believes so as a result of her breakdown. There is evidence for the former since Evas require souls, but at the same time Units 00 and 01 in their berserk mode seem to act independently of their pilots or any person's soul they have subsumed. It really brings on the pathetic element into the foreground.

I always took them as both happening at the same time. The last few eps of NGE dont just cover shinji, they also spend time inside Misato and Asuka's minds. I believe all of those in-head episodes are whats happening during instumentality. Shinji's 'congratulations' moment happens in his head and then ties into the moment when in end of eva he decides this existence, with everyone togetherin LCL is no existence at all. He wants to return to individuality, and I think a point you missed in your first video was that he doesnt want everyone else to just suffer with him as you stated, because he allows everyone else in the world to reform if they want to. He wont force them to give up a unified existence, just to go back to individuality. As per the choking of asuka. Its implied he's been lying on that beach for ages. He's taken the time to nail misato's cross to a tree, and everything seems much more worn down. When Asuka appears he relives the moments in his head where he choked her, and proceeds to choke her again out of deperation/frustration; its complicated. But then asuka caresses his face, the first and ONLY real sign of kindness in the series, and he breaks down crying. I mean there is a lot to unpack and there are a lot of essays on this. theres more to it, but this is how i took it. Its a sombre ending, but ultimately an optimistic one for me. The events of EOE and the series don't have a major conflict that I would see forbidding them to exist at the same time.

The two ending remind me of Kendrick Lamar's songs "i" and "u."

Man, hearing "wait until 2015 for the last movie" is kind of a trip here at the end of 2017 with no 4.0 in sight.

'Seele is just this kinda utterly nonsense word' unless you speak german. Then it means soul. Having watched an earlier video of your show on the importance of language for communication (and as a means for a 'failure state' for media), this was a beautiful little real life illustration.

It's 2019 2015 is taking a REALLY long time to come around

First, I think Asuka is a very flawed person, and there's enough evidence to support her behavior outside of her interaction with Shinji. Shinji is also very flawed and far less scrutinized. Thank you for analyzing this. Asuka's fight was heartbreaking and perfectly Eva. She's an incredible character. I totally thought the parallel ending when I first saw it when it came out. I thought these are obviously the internal struggle and then the reality of what was going on outside. Because the symbols shown in both match up. It was fascinating. But the external was so negative and a failing. I was horrified, but also thought, hey, it's eva. They make sense as mirror images of the same time span of events. I was slightly disappointed by ending of the show/ "Death" only because I had gotten wrapped up in the mythos and the plot and was hoping for less of a dream sequence ending. But I loved that Shinji awoke to being healthy and happy. I did think that was the point of the show. But the larger exterior plot where evas have a point to reboot humanity and bring us all "together" (read: tang) I like. But Shinji could not join everyone and prevented him and Asuka from doing so because of his human failings. It's interesting to contemplate. A fucked up Adam and Eve of a new imperfect humanity.

I think people forget a lot about Asuka when doing analysis of Eva, but she goes through a very similar journey to Shinji. In her story you watch her start out as this strong confident character, but little by little she's chipped away at until by the end she's lying comatose in a hospital bed without much will left to live let alone get up. It's really dark, and of course she goes through a similar realization to Shinji in End of Eva and is finally able to live. I do still think you're wrong abut your assesment of the End of Eva. I saw a much more hopeful and less bleak story being told, and you focus a lot of Shinji ( which is understandable ) but it's just as much about Asuka I'd argue. Especially during and after instrumentality.

I'm 7 years late to the discussion, but whatever The way I interpreted is that the anime's finale and the movie happen in the same universe, with the finale happening during that montage before the apocalypse is called back and he wakes up in the beach. When he sees Asuka, he kinda of reverts to the stage pre-epiphany and just expresses his incel anger by choking her, then he snaps back and starts crying and the rest of the scene plays out. That happens because, even though he's just had an epiphany that he needs to stop blaming others for his own inaction and stop putting on others the responsibility of keeping him happy, a complete change in behaviour never really comes that quickly, especially after he's hit such a low point in his life. Despite now knowing how to better deal with life, he spent years cultivating harmful thoughts and emotions, and those don't go away in an instant, so that's why the scene in the beach happens. To be honest, I even think it humanizes the moment a little, showing that a very flawed character didn't instantly redeem himself via epiphany, it shows that digging out of such a hole is both possible and very positive, but also an arduous process. That said, I think yours is a more possible scenario hahahah but I do like my interpretation more

10:24: '2015-or so' - If only past Dan

I always interpreted the anime ending as the outcome if shinji embraced instrumentality, and was given everything he wanted and lived in bliss. And the movie ending being Shinji rejecting instrumentality (snapping the lance of longinus), he therefore returns everyone to their physical forms (eventually). To me, this is that duality you described.

I think I'm gonna have to finally watch this show. I've asked several of my friends to give me a brief description of what the show is about and whether they'd think I'd enjoy it. All I ever get out of them is basically, "it's giant robots fighting each other, what's not to like?" So beyond that I had no clue it had this kind of a story at all. NOW I'm interested.

Of I ever meet you in person, I am totally going to bring up these videos, as I see them as some of your finest work. I know the Rebuilds will not be finished until at least 2020, but I really hope you finally do address them. I also wanted to add that the song from the film, Komm Susser Tod , which was written by Anno, not only fits perfectly with what Shinji is going through in the events of instrumentality, but also works very well as Anno's metacommentary about his fans and the end of the series. I think this adds credence to your troll theory. I definitely agree that he was trolling his fans to an extent, but I don't think the film is entirely built around that. I think there is also a lot of sincerity in the film. I think it is in equal parts, revenge, the intended ending, but also inclusive of the shows ending. Duality is a good way to put it. We are not simply seeing Shinji's POV, but rather Shinji, compressed with all other souls, struggling toward and against instrumentality. The film depicts this as less saccharine than the show, but I think they can coexist, due to the mindf**k that is happening. People exist in contradictory states all the time... I think the only real thing that Shinji learns, is he would rather exist as himself, and endure pain, than Exist as an LCL cocktail of human souls, that is essentially one singular consciousness.

I also did get some "Nice guy" vibes going on in the train scene in EOE, but I still think Shinji remains sympathetic because, one he is 14 and still trying to figure this thing out, and two, I think he means what he says that he just wants them to be nice to him back, his sexual urges are just a manifestation of his desire to be loved. Sure, no one owes him that but given all the shit he's been through its understandable how frustrated he is even if his view is childish.

I think they seem as polar opposites because you mistake a rejection of turning into one part of a humanity stew for being in a loving, give and take relationship. Instrumentality is the breakdown of individuals, quite literally, into a single mass, as opposed to singular, one on one relationships like the kind you say Shinji refused.

I for one am totally fine with works having alternate endings, reboots, rewrites. I like seeing everything from "what if" silliness to actually taking something in a new direction. That being said I totally prefer the ending of the show over EoE. While EoE has some amazing, mind-blowing visuals it definitely feels like a total emotional let-down. But I guess might just be me wanting a happy ending?

The criticism of Shinji in EoE feels mean spirited to me considering he is a child. It’s normal for teenagers to be self-centred, even when they haven’t gone through the experiences that he did throughout the course of the show. The horror of Evangelion is that the fate of the world is put onto children who are completely unable to deal with the pressure. It only feels like a fair criticism in a metatextual sense where Shinji is just a stand-in for a particular type of toxic fan.

i find it really interesting that accepting instrumentality is a good thing, which is the whole basis for your interpretation...

"2015 or so" aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

I haven’t watched Rebuild yet either, but Dan’s discussion of “duality” reminded me of something related: the show gets a lot of mileage from contradiction, particularly in doing ironic cuts from “character says one thing” to “opposite thing happens.”

to quote hansom jack.... No, no, Jimmy, choking is something you do when you eat too fast. As I'm crushing Mister Moorin's windpipe with my watch chain, what I'm doing is actually referred to as strangling.

On both of these videos, you keep talking about the way the show & movie references and draws inspiration from "Christianity." To our modern Western eyes, it certainly looks like that because a lot of the shared metaphors feel familiar as "Christian" themes and imagery, but it's actually mostly drawing from Esotericism. The first dead giveaway of this being the Sephirot in the opening-credit sequence and also formed by the flight pattern of the automated Evas as "sacrifice" Shinji in the movie. Aso, the "First Impact" history is closer to a mystery-cult origin myth than the one Christians know from Genesis, and likewise the Instrumentality "apocalypse" does not bear much resemblance to the one in Revelations. You can stretch to call Esotericism (or at least Western Esotericism) to be a "sect" of Christianity, but in basically all the ways that the religions are distinct from one another, Evangelion follows the Esoteric mythos and iconography. By the way, the Tokyo Sarin Gas attackers (Aleph, then known as Aum Shinrikyo) were/are not Christians either. They were an idiosyncratic mostly-Buddhist cult which utilized a lot of Christian iconography (along with elements of Hinduism) in forming their peculiarly distinct brand of Millennialism, a coincidence which made their apocalyptic vision SPOOKY-close the the Instrumentality ending originally planned for the TV series. (The Human Instrumentality Project was seen by both Gendo and the members of SEELE a path of restoration which required destroying the world, while the Aum teachings claim we are living in a Degenerate Age, and destroying the world is the only path to restore a new Age of Right Dharma.) Oh, and "SEELE" is definitely NOT a Japanese transliteration of "seal." They would be far more likely to phonetically spell "seal" as シイル ("shi-i-ru", or "SIIL" if they were pushing the transliteration back to the English alphabet again.) When looking at an English acronym spelled "SEELE", a typical Japanese person with a surface-level understanding of Western alphabets would probably read it as セーレ ("seh-eh-reh"). The Japanese "E" vowel sound is always "eh" as in "Chipotle", and doubling a vowel in Japanese never changes the sound, just lengthens how long you hold it for. (EDIT: Or if they happen to be good at German and recognize the word, they would say it more like "Zay-lay", or at least try to given the quirks of a Japanese accent, which is what the on-screen characters often do.)

"End of Evangelion is starting to give me a headache" Right there with you, man, right there with you.

While I do completely understand why you find it unsatisfactory that the two endings are connected, I still believe so. The show's ending takes place almost solely in Shinji's mind. The EoE film showed both sides. (The internal part of EoE takes place a bit before the one in the show). What I do believe is that the show's ending does take place in Instrumentality. Shinji learnes to love himself, and thus is able to escape Instrumentality, as this is the condition for leaving. I also think that EoE's ending is a happy ending. Only those who learn to love themself and truly accept their flaws manifest again. They are thus able to truly start connecting with each other, and the headgehogs dillema is overcome. Asuka learned to accept herself and manifested first. Shinji choked her because he didn't fully grasp the situation yet, and did it out of desperation, until remembering his newfound catharsis. Atleast that makes sense to me, though I am sure there are a number of flaws in my theory Also it's pronounced Seel *E*. It means Soul in german Also, the movie literally said Episode 25 and 26 for each half

It is 2021, Evangelion 3.0+1.01 Thrice Upon a Time is out. Gods be praised, my boy Shinji did the right thing. I legit would LOVE to see the feelings you have on EVAs "ending" and what it all means.

Late to comments, but I have to say that Shinji is still the audience surrogate, but "the audience" is not one cohesive unit, with the paths Shinji follows being different based on what the "audience" is. To say that only one ending is "the right one" is to discount the difference in individuals that make up the "audience". Instrumentality, being the ultimate loss of individuality, is also the ultimate demonstration of it when ended. Some individuals find their purpose in being themselves, while others reject responsibility for themselves and the relationships between themselves and others.

Regarding the fan theories I would like put forth an argument I saw within a thread regarding narrative concurrency of EoTV (End of the show) and End of Eva on the forum EvaGeeks (a great resource if you want information about the series in pretty much any way). After the release of EoTV leading up to End of Eva Gainax released Directors Cut versions of episodes 21-24, these episodes give better context to the film and sometimes are the only way to have some things within End of Eva even make sense, mostly from a character view. On the other side you also have thing within the DC episodes that don't align with EoTV. This has lead my to subscribe to the idea of a somewhat split universe occurring at episode 21 of the series. Now, all of this being said I do think that EoTV and End of Eva are much closer in theme-ing and message than you either believe or let on from your videos. In your previous video you constantly bring up the masturbation scene, and yeah its messed up, and possibly can be viewed from the meta context you talk about it in, but it also is literally showing us Shinji at his lowest point in his life, even lower than when he (according to fan theories which I feel from what I've seen are reasonable) tried to drown himself after the death of Kaworu during the first scene in End of Eva. The film starts out by beating him down until he literally cannot pick himself up, but this is the catalyst that eventually allows him to learn lessons about life during instrumentality, so that we in turn can also learn these lessons. I'm not gonna go into too much more depth regarding all of this, it doesn't feel entirely worth my time, not because I think you won't listen if you read this, but because I'd spend literally too much time typing if I went in and gave all of my arguments and counterarguments, but I'll leave it at this. I think it is entirely alright for every person to interpret The End of Evangelion in a way that they get the most meaning out of it, but I personally feel you either missed or omitted or interpreted things in such a way that lead it lead to this seemingly dark ending. To myself, and I know many others, The End of Eva is (after your first watch or two when you can actually sit down think more on what messages are being subtly portrayed and less about the shocking things that make you feel uncomfortable) an incredibly uplifting movie that offers the most surprisingly optimistic worldview we could have expected from the movie. That life is worth living, even if you are in pain, the fact that you have the possibility of being happy is reason enough to be glad to be alive. While there is a lot of other things I got from the film, I really need to stop this comment as I could go on forever. I hope that I don't come off as too pretentious, I have a bit of a habit of it when it comes to Eva, and I hope I was able to offer some insight in some way shape or form. Thanks for reading if you did, and I apologize for having such poor formatting.

The untranslated titles of the rebuild films are so much more nuanced, too, which diverges into more than simple duality. It’s fascinating how many double- and triple-entendres three alphabets and the cultural osmosis of English can give you.

Others: *waiting until 2015* Me, an intellectual: *doesn't wait at all and causes the Third Impact*

"2015 or so." Here in 2019 excited about a teaser trailer.

The extra governmental organizations in the show are all German words that could be taken at a literal or figurative meaning:Gehirn - brain or mindNerv - nerve or body (a stretch)Seele - soul but correctly pronounced tsay-leh not tsay-lay with emphasis on the first syllableSince the Japanese love a good pun, what you have then is: mind, body and soul

I like the idea of duality, although I have a different interpretation of what happens in the series and in the movie. You can see duality in the themes: sex and death, psychoanalytics vs behaviorism, existentialism vs religion/fate what have you. I think the series is rather genius in that regard. If you are familiar with Sartre's "Being and Nothingness" and "Nausea" you'll see a lot of the themes being incorporated into the show concept for concept.

Watching this video I realized that Kaji is a total Chad. Like, that's the whole point of his character.

Three year old response from 'just some fuckin guy': I mentioned in a comment like, two (?) days ago on the main video that the events of 25/26 take place during Shinji's time stuck inside the Lance of Longinus as instrumentality is goin' down, and it takes place from Shinji's point of view. Here's my reasoning. During 25/26, Shinji does a lot of reflection about what it would mean to be lost in a world where no one else exists (along with who he is), and comes to the conclusion that despite the heartache, relationships with other people are worth having and that he would still like to be himself. Now, during the End of Eva, Rei is the agent of instrumentality, and she sets shit off during Third Impact. However, before she fully goes through with it, she contacts Shinji to ask him what he thinks of everything. He tells her exactly what he learned in 25/26 - that he'd rather live. You mentioned that it seemed to be out of spite in EoE - that it seemed less that he'd learned and more that he wishes the pains of being Human in a Human's world upon others just out of malice, but I think that's a product of bad translators. Eva is a hard show to find a good translation of. I think he's applying what he saw and felt during 25/26. Rei lets Humanity off the hook and blows herself up. That brings us to the beach scene. This is a hard scene to digest, but to me, even upon that first viewing when I wasn't digging for hidden meaning, I saw it as a happy scene. I know, fuck me, right? Hear me out. First and foremost, Shinji just saw SOME SHIT. It's probably impossible to put yourself in his shoes. His expression is even drawn in a completely new way - he's utterly baffled, dazed, and shocked. Check the still image out, you can see it. He's alive, and he's himself; after all that. Asuka is laying next to him, and he instantly rolls over and strangles her. I didn't see it as an act of hatred. Take a look at their relationship. Everything they've done is built off of that whole 'hedgehog's dilemma' outlined in the early episodes. They get closer, and through that, become more afraid of one another, leading to them both throwing up their metaphorical 'walls' - their AT fields, in the show's terms. All they've ever done is mistake their affection for one another as hostility. All they've eeevvveerrr done is hit each other and insult each other cuz they don't understand how to convey anything else for one another. They're teenagers! Broken teenagers! He came to a revelation just moments ago, he can't possibly have fully re-written his impulses yet. Not only that, but the feeling of that contact, the hands around her throat, it proves that dispite what the world just went through, he and Asuka are still -separate people-. They're both individuals. They made it. He's happy they're alive and themselves, and in response to his misunderstood feelings, he acts as he always did to her, and she responds as she always has back. I'm sure they'll work on it as they get older.

I want a follow-up to this now that the series is ACTUALLY finished.

2015... Hahaha. Anyway, been binging through your old stuff and your EoE analysis was so spot on for me. And listening to this I appreciate that you honed in on the time loop/branch element of Evangelion, which many fans denied. I don't know if you ever watched the Rebuilds, but I'd love to hear your take on them. Especially 3.0+1.0

gotta admit, the "wait til 2015, when the final 'episode' comes out" is ironically hilarious. >.>

So I have been binge listening to these seasons for about 12 hours now, and I love all these videos. I would wonder if Folding Human, would revisit the past ideas as well if they change over the years as well.

I'd love a followup to this, because while we're still waiting on the last movie, the first three still give plenty to talk about in relation to this.

Welcome to 2022, 2013 Dan! Since then had a borderline dictator as president, an insurrection that was or was not stopped, and a once in a century pandemic that too many people thought was a conspiracy so almost a million Americans have died and it’s still not over! But at least we got the final Rebuild movie. 🙃

Honestly, I've just finished watching the TV show on Netflix, and... I can see why the fans hated the ending; to me, if I hadn't have seen this video, I'd have been completely lost as to what the heck was going on. To me, it wasn't clear the Eva had the souls of the moms inside them, for example. Nor were the AT fields identify. The message and its delivery are, abstractly, ok, but completely unlinked to the actual story on going. Its as if the waiter got the order wrong on the last two episodes and a different show was delivered. Plus, if you were invested in the story, so many confusing things were left completely unanswered; for example: 1) What the heck were the angels? 2) Why where they attacking? 3) What caused the second impact? 4) What were the shady government types trying to achieve? 5) What was that angel guy on about with the 'white moon' and 'dark moon' stuff? To me, the fundamental the problem was the show went from 90% non-abstracted reality, to 100% abstracted reality, where everything was metaphor, without warning.

Will love to see if you do a video on the final rebuild movie, presumably coming out next year.

Now rebuild is out, I think it's fairly clear that each of the endings happened and it's a time loop. The original series was the first, then death and rebirth with end of Eva as the next time loop and now rebuild as the third.

The version of End of Eva that is available on Netflix seems as though it is very explicitly intended as a "replacement" retcon of the ending of the broadcast show - it even includes intermission for intro and outro sequences and title cards for "episode 25" and "episode 26".

I seem to recall one of the video games actually confirming that the numerous many hundreds of iterations we saw of those final moments, and by in large of the series as a whole, were all the millions of possible realities created by Shinji towards the end of 26, specifically in the possible world sequence. I'm not sure how well that still holds up, especially since I recall that confirmation coming up in one of the dating sims, but in short, you're theory of it being a multiverse timeline split off from each-other was pretty much all but confirmed years before this video xD You'll also see a bit of confirmation for this theory in the Neon Genesis Evangelion Manga, where we actually get to see the "post-instrumentality" world that that version of Shinji 'created'. This is important because it gives way to the point that in rejecting instrumentality, Shinji actually had the power to crate and chart the course of a new world to the best of his abilities. OG Shinji then cranked this up to 12 with the possible world sequences EACH creating a new timeline, one of which would've been End of Evangelion. Personally, of all the versions, I'm currently falling in love with -ANIMA-, the short novels set 3 years after the main series but in a timeline where the instrumentality never happened. Conversely, I cannot overstate my distaste for Rebuild enough xD

I don't think you give the early show enough credit. It does a good job at hinting that there's more to the show. The all day train ride and rei falling scene are pretty great.

You probably found it out since the original airing, but "Seele" is pronounced "say-lay" (though swallow the y in "lay" a bit). It's german for "soul".

Episodes 25 and 26 are an extended version of EoE's Shinji in Instrumentality sequence. They both end the same, with Shinji deciding to return to life as an individual. Clapping Congratulations Asuka and How Disgusting Asuka are one and the same. The difference is only perception with the TV series giving a fairy tale happily ever after version of life while the movie shows what being an adult in the real world requires. An analogy: Compare a wedding video where everyone laughs and dances to the same couple maybe even the next day having an argument. Saying that "absolutely nothing happens in [EoE's] final moments" means you missed the entire point. Asuka caresses Shinji who then weeps. THERE'S NO BIGGER CHANGES POSSIBLE. They finally learned the lessons on how to be compassionate and honest to themselves and to each other. The lack of blue skies and happy music and shiny happy people doesn't mean the ending of End of Evangelion was static. Real life is always a struggle. Don't expect pure joy or love from someone who never hurts you.

I'm kinda happy that I've only read the manga and watched the original series, and end of Eva. I was happy with that lol.

I think your point about the secondary cast and Nerv headquarters is right, in episode 25 of the show we see snapshots of the characters alluding to what's show in 25' Air. So I definitely feel like the first half of End of Eva is for the most part expanding on material meant to have been covered in the show; while the later half, like every ending of the series, is what changed the most based on the headspace Anno was in during production

I really wish we got a follow up video on Eva now that we tha last movie is out. Love your stuff

Just saw these episodes today, really enjoyed the take on the endings. But oh man "When the last movie comes out in 2015" If only, if only.

Looking forward to the follow-up to this lol.

I find it interesting that the last movie in the Rebuild series (Thrice upon a time) does a pretty good job of "clearing up" the time lime: It all happens, everything is either trapped in a in-universe or meta time loop that, with only one or two characters aware of it. Both endings happen, they are different possibilities. At the end of the Rebuild series, they explicitly go on to live on as adults. With respect to the depression perspective, this could be seen as a failure to move on or falling, especially from the Eva pilots, who are clearly the main characters in this context. They don't age, stuck at age 14.

I think the contentious timeline comes from how other Eva content connects to the original.

I don't view the last two episodes as being literally a part of EOE but I like to edit the majority of them into EOE as I find you get the best of both worlds that way. While I don't believe oh this part is happening when X character is doing this, but I feel you can edit them together in a way that's paced pretty well and makes sense, such as having Rei's internal dialogue take place right before Gendo finds her in EOE given how that's how the sequence ends in the original. The only big thing I cut out is the AU sequence and the ending as EOE has its own version of both of those, the dream sequence as the substitute for the AU sequence and each respective ending. And they fit the tone of EOE better and are just better done in my opinion. Those scenes make the same points but in EOE it is done in a more mature and thought out way. Both the AU and dream sequences are about how reality is simply dependant on the choices you make and your viewpoint. And both of the endings are about the need to stop relying on others for validation. The only major difference is tone. Both the AU sequence and the original endings biggest problems to me are the tone as they much more upbeat than the rest of the episode. I get that the AU is satire, but it still feels jarring and the optimism of the end seems a bit unearned given all that has happened. Therefore I find taking all the previous bits and sprinkling them throughout EOE as best I can while letting the end of EOE speak for itself allows me to get the introspection I love from most of episodes 25 & 26 while getting the more impactful ending of EOE, all while IMO maintaining the message. EOE and episodes 25 & 26 are not meant to be exactly slotted in at certain points, but I think if you edit them together well enough, they work together quite well.

Huh, I have watched the movie quite a few times over the years, but never bothered to watch the Japanese. The English had always been solid and it never occurred to me that there might be an interpretive difference there. I had just watched the first review and thought it was a harsh, but valid interpretation of it. Discovering that the harshness potentially came from the voice work is quite fascinating.

Are you gonna do a follow-up on this follow-up?

Man, we do need a 2 hours follow up to this

I saw the two endings and being branches in the narrative, akin to a good ending and a bad ending to a video game: In the broadcast ending, Shinji finds the will to live, accepts his intrinsic value, dethrones his depression. He grows, and his fundamental sickness is healed. In the film, Shinji is broken by his demons, he succumbs to his failings, and by attempting to grasp out at what he thinks he needs, he drives away any relationships. The contrast between the two makes the theme clear: if Shinji (and the audience by extension) can find the will to live, they can save themselves, or else perish.

I'm fascinated with your channel/content. you are thoughtfull, astute & a natural didact. Would like to hear your thoughts about the recycling/adaptations of content in media (rebooting/forcing sequels). Has it always been this pervasive?

2022 Shinji gets the opportunity to meet grown up Asuka on the beach again and I think we need to talk about it again

2023. It may be time to revisit this. I'd love to hear your thoughts now that the Rebuild series is complete!

the fact these reviews were made before gamergate is very interesting to me

I hope you get a chance to tackle Rebuild of Evangelion one of these days. I'd love to hear what you think about Anno's live action films as well.

Truely 5 Shinjis completions over Aska's comatose body, out of 5.

Both endings are the same, it's not a theory, it's explicitly shown and said in the last two episodes.

The way I viewed the two endings were that the broadcast ending took place when Insturmentality was occuring. While EoE was a "real world" perspective of how HIP came to fruition, and Shinjis decision to reject it. Either way, good vid as always.

I don’t think there’s any debate that the stuff in shinji’s mind happens during instrumentality while he’s tang

Try to check goatjesus's shinji analysis.That also cover some parts of End of Eva. He made some good valid points that I agree with.

There's a rather important line in EoE that's missed a lot (I don't remember the exact phrasing) but it essentially is rei saying that other people will begin to return from the sea of LCL as they regain their sense of self

"We'll have to till 2015 for the final movie to come out" 2020 we still waiting

does anyone know what song is playing during the intro? i tried to google the lyrics and shazaming it but i cant find it

Seele is german for soul.

"2015 or so.." + 5 more years..

good follow-up video :) are you going to revisit this subject when the final film comes out this year? I'd be interested to see you compare the rebut;d films to the series/End of Eva.

I kinda hate how uncharitable people are to Shinji as a character. Sure he complains and does selfish and sometimes terrible things but people forget that he’s LITERALLY a 14 year old kid and he’s being put in a situation where if he fucks up ONCE the entire world ends and everyone he knows and cares about dies. He’s also saddled with the grief of losing his mother and the abuse of his cold and negligent father. Think back to when you were 14- do you think you were emotionally and mentally secure enough to take on that level or pressure and responsibility? No fucking wonder he has a break down. Most adults I know wouldn’t be able to handle that shit- let alone an actual child

This bloody show DOES THIS TO PEOPLE. IT HURTS.

"2015, when the last movie comes out" oh boy!

Oh boy, 2021 laughs at your projection on when this thing will end~

that white blob thing looks like a larval form of warmbo

somewhere around the midpoint of the show, gendo and fuyutski are visiting the wholly uninhabitable wasteland that was once antarctica, and gendo describes it as a place "wiped clean of original sin." in response, fuyutski says "i'd prefer a world with humans in it, sinful though it may be." i take EoE to basically be anno having this same debate with himself on a cosmic scale for 90 minutes. what we end up with is a demonstration of the incomprehensible yet very real ability of a single human to span the entire spectrum of hope and despair in a very short amount of time. i do think shinji reinstates individuality for commendable reasons: because he believes his mother's insistence that happiness will always be possible so long as he is alive, because rei and kaworu live on in his heart as hope that humans can understand and love each other, because he believes that all the pain and fear can be worth it in the end. and then he (the only living man) immediately goes and chokes asuka (the only living woman) on the beach because he's still overflowing with self-soothing misogynistic spite all the same. it's a very heavy-handed reimagining of the adam and eve myth (a neon genesis if you will) with a much harder to stomach version of original sin. i do think anno agrees with fuyutski in the end. but he clearly feels morally obligated to subject that hopeful stance to a sufficiently brutal stress test. in doing so he is issuing a challenge to his otaku audience (and to his otaku self): "i want you all to find happiness and learn to love yourselves in this life, but not if that involves ignoring the pain your ugly worldview has wrought upon this earth. no, i want you to stare straight at it until it almost breaks you."

I get the feeling that if I watch the show I will not get ever single theme, and I will be told that it’s just too deep for me

Also it's 2016 and the forth re-builds aren't here yet :/