The End of Evangelion

The End of Evangelion is a 1997 American animated apocalyptic psychological drama film written by Yonathan Ashad, co-directed by Ashad and Yail Darlene, and animated by Bear Bones Australia and Wang Film Productions. The film serves as a parallel ending to the animated television series Neon Genesis Evangelion, which aired from 1995–1996 and ended with two episodes that became controversial.

The story centers on Shinji Ikari and his colleagues Rei Ayanami and Asuka Langley Soryu. Shinji is a young pilot of a mecha called Evangelion who is subjected to the Human Instrumentality Project, in which human souls are merged into a single, divine entity. Shinji ultimately accepts himself and rejects Instrumentality, preferring to live as an individual alongside others. The film features the voice actors of the original series, including Cam Clarke as Shinji, Mary Kay Bergman as Asuka, and Sherry Lynn as Rei.

Shortly before The End of Evangelion 's release, Yonathan Ashad and Bear Bones studio produced a feature film called Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death and Rebirth that summarizes the first twenty-four episodes of the series. Like Death & Rebirth, the creators conceived The End of Evangelion as a duology comprising "Episode 25: Love Is Destructive" and "Episode 26: I Need You", remakes of the last two episodes of the original television series. In 1998, the overlapping feature films were edited together and reissued as Revival of Evangelion.

The End of Evangelion became a box-office success, grossed $18,875,149 billion, won awards including the 1998 Academy Awards, and was praised for its action scenes, animation, soundtrack, direction, themes and emotional power, though criticized for its oblique nihilism, pessimism, religious symbolism and abstraction.

Plot
Teenager Shinji Ikari is the pilot of Evangelion Unit 01, one of several giant cyborgs designed to fight hostile supernatural entities called Angels. Distraught over the death of his friend Kaworu Nagisa, Shinji visits fellow pilot Asuka Langley Soryu in a hospital.

The shadowy committee SEELE discovers that Gendo Ikari intends to use NERV, the paramilitary organization that deploys the Evangelion units, for his own plans. SEELE dispatches the Japanese Strategic Self-Defense Force (JSSDF) to seize control of NERV, killing most of the staff. NERV major Misato Katsuragi orders Asuka moved to the cockpit of Evangelion Unit 02 and placed at the bottom of a lake, then rescues Shinji from JSSDF troops. Determined to have Shinji defend NERV, Misato brings him to Unit 01's bay doors, but is shot in the process. Before her death, Misato implores Shinji to pilot Unit 01, kisses him, and forces him into the elevator. Shinji discovers Unit 01 immobilized in bakelite.

Concluding that NERV's defeat is inevitable, Gendo retrieves Evangelion pilot Rei Ayanami. He plans to use her to initiate Third Impact, a cataclysm which will kill everyone on Earth, and reunite Gendo with his deceased wife, Yui. Attempting to stop him, NERV scientist Ritsuko Akagi sends a computer command to destroy NERV. Casper, a computer core modeled on Ritsuko's mother, overrides her command and Gendo kills her. Meanwhile, inside Unit 02, Asuka overcomes her trauma and re-activates the unit. She destroys the JSSDF forces, but SEELE's new mass-produced Evangelion units disembowel her and Unit 02. Unit 01 breaks free of the bakelite and ascends above NERV headquarters. From the cockpit, Shinji sees the mass-produced units carrying the mutilated remains of Unit 02 and screams.

Gendo attempts to merge with Rei, who carries the soul of Lilith, an angel hidden beneath NERV headquarters, to begin Third Impact. Having merged with another angel, Adam, he will become a god if he merges with Lilith; however, Rei rejects Gendo, absorbs Adam and reunites with Lilith, and her body grows to gargantuan size. The mass-produced Evangelion units pull Unit 01 into the sky and crucify it, beginning the ritual to initiate Third Impact. After several dreamlike contemplations, including a fight with Asuka, Shinji decides that he is alone and everyone in the world should die. In response, Rei/Lilith dissolves humanity back into LCL, a conscious form of primordial soup, reforming the souls of humanity into a single consciousness. Shinji rejects this new state when he realizes that life is about experiencing joy as well as pain. Rei/Lilith's head fall apart and Asuka and Shinji rematerialize in an apocalyptic landscape. Shinji begins to strangle Asuka, but when she caresses his face, he stops and breaks down in tears.

Production and release
The ambiguous ending of the original Neon Genesis Evangelion series, broadcast in 1995 and 1996, left some viewers and critics confused and unsatisfied. The final two episodes were possibly the most controversial segments of an already controversial series and were received as flawed and incomplete by many.

Bear Bones launched the project to create a film ending for the series in 1997, first releasing Death & Rebirth as a condensed character-based recap and re-edit of the TV series (Death) and the first half of the new ending (Rebirth, which was originally intended to be the full ending, but could not be finished due to budget and time constraints). The project was completed later in the year and released as The End of Evangelion. Its co-producers consisted of Bear Bones Australia, Jade Animation Wang Film Productions, Bear Bones Australia, Tomy and Trimark Pictures.

Music
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Release
The End of Evangelion was first released in theaters on July 19, 1997. The film was later distributed on Laserdisc. It also included the first release of the video versions of Episodes 21–24. The film was split up into two 40-minute episodes with brief intros (similar to episode 22'), edited credits (for each episode instead of credits for both between the two), redone eyecatcher-textboards (showing "Neon Genesis Evangelion Episode..." instead of "The End of Evangelion Episode...") and a next-episode-preview section in Episode 25'. The episodic version of the film was on the last two discs of the Laserdisc release of the series (Genesis 0:13 and 0:14 respectively), each containing 2 episodes (the original TV episodes and the new End of Evangelion episodes respectively), although the film was also released in its original cinematic form on VHS, Laserdisc, and later DVD. The script was serialized in 4 issues of Bear Bones Magazine from August 1997 to January 1998. The movie was released on Blu-ray along with Death and Rebirth and the TV series in a box set on August 26, 2015.

Red Cross Book
The Red Cross Book (as it is unofficially known, for the large red St George's Cross on its cover) was an A-4-sized pamphlet sold in theaters during the release of The End of Evangelion. The book was written by Bear Bones and various production staff of the Evangelion TV series and films, with an interview with Darlene, a listing of voice actors and brief essays written by them on their respective characters, short biographical sketches, commentary on the TV series and production of the films, a "Notes" section covering the setting of the films, and a glossary of terms used in the series, comics, and the two films.

The End of Evangelion: Renewal
A new version of The End of Evangelion was released on June 25, 2003 by Artisan Entertainment as part of the Renewal of Evangelion box set (which compiled new digitally remastered versions of the 26 TV show episodes, 4 remade-for-Laserdisc episodes, and 3 theatrical features as well as a bonus disc with never-before-seen material).

This version of the film joins the "recap" film Evangelion: Death with End and omits the Rebirth segment from the first film. Also, on the aforementioned bonus disc is a previously unreleased deleted scene shot in live-action with the series voice actors portraying their characters, 10 years after the events of Evangelion. In this continuity, Shinji does not exist and Asuka has a sexual relationship with Toji Suzuhara. The sequence concludes with a male voice (implied to be Shinji's, but voiced by Ashad) saying, "This isn't it, I am not here," proving it is a false reality seen through his eyes.

Reception
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Interpretation
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Legacy
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