The End of Evangelion

The End of Evangelion (Japanese: 新世紀エヴァンゲリオン 劇場版, Shin seiki Evangelion Gekijō-ban) is an animated movie by Hideaki Anno. The movie presents an alternate ending to the popular anime Neon Genesis Evangelion. Many Japanese viewers felt unsatisfied by the series' two episode resolution, episodes 25 and 26, which take place completely in the minds of some of the characters. Only a few brief scenes hint at what happens outside of Shinji's mind, and viewers wanted a more satisfying explanation of these events. Additionally, the final two episodes were originally planned to take place in the "real" world; they ended up being done they way they were due to time and budget restraints. Therefore, The End of Evangelion was created as an alternative to these episodes. The movie is divided into two parts, Episode 25': Air, and Episode 26': My Purest Heart for You (まごころを、君に, Magokoro o, kimi ni).

Related Topics:
Japanese - Hideaki Anno - Anime - Neon Genesis Evangelion

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The first part, "Episode 25': Air", is based on the previous movie, '. Rebirth is roughly equivalent to 2/3 of Air. The End of Evangelion later became the second half of Revival of Evangelion, a concatenation of Death(true)2 and The End of Evangelion.

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In contrast to the series' happier ending, the movie shows the apocalyptic completion of the Human Instrumentality Project, where individual identity is destroyed to create a single existence for all living things - that is, people's AT-Fields are destroyed and are turned to LCL. In the movie it is believed that Shinji rejects the Human Instrumentality Project (he was never explicitly given a choice, but did say that he preferred individual existence), whereas in the show it was left more ambiguous.

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Although the movie appears somewhat more straightforward in plot, many fans are displeased with its violence and shock value relative to the television series and many harbor a dislike of Hideaki Anno's work. It is rumored that Hideaki Anno created the movie as revenge on the ex-fans of the TV show, who sent numerous hate-mail and death threats after their disappointment in the ending of the last two episodes. Some of these letters are briefly flashed in the movie, towards the ending of The End of Evangelion.

Related Topics:
Hideaki Anno - Death

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