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Hello, thanks for accepting my friend request.

EoE was supposed to be the original ending, more or less of course, bc the movie was made in retrospective.

I'm not sure what makes you say that "none of the fans complained anymore" after Anno made EoE. I personally know a lot of people who hated EoE just as much if not more than EoTV, with a lot of the same complaints (confusing, "pretentious", Shinji is too passive, etc.). That's just anecdotal evidence though, so I guess it doesn't really mean much. In any case, I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree on this whole thing. I find EoE to be much more personal and experimental than EoTV, and I don't think it makes sense to say this is "objectively" false, there's no such thing. I mean, honestly, I think EoTV kinda just spells out its meaning to the audience with little to no ambiguity.

As for 3.0+1.0, the way that I looked at its message was that "if you are in a dark place, you don't have to try to put in any actual effort to get away from it and you don't have to try to improve yourself as an individual, there will always be people out there who will reach out to you and will love you unconditionally no matter what, so just sit patiently and wait for a guardian angel to save you from yourself."
I guess that's a bit too cynical, but that's exactly how it came across to me. I don't think people should expect to be loved by others before learning to love themselves and bettering themselves first, I think that would be both selfish and naïve. No one should be forced to love someone who hates themselves. I say this from first hand experience as someone who used to be extremely depressed and hated himself in the past, I know exactly how insufferable that can be, and I would not want to be close to someone like that.

The ending of NGE and EoE are the exact same, just from different perspectives.

Well, you're free to have any interpretation you want, it is after all very purposefully ambiguous in a lot of ways, but I think you'll be hard-pressed to find any EoE fan who agrees with your extremely pessimistic view of the movie.

The ending scene on the beach is particularly ambiguous. Personally, I subscribe to the interpretation that Shinji was simply testing to see if his rejection of Human Instrumentality had actually worked and if people can hurt each other again, instead of still being trapped in some weird fake reality. When Asuka finally shows a sign of acceptance/understanding towards him, he breaks down crying again, but I think those are more tears of happiness and relief than anything, not to mention just needing an emotional release from all the pent-up suffering that he just went through.

As for the drastic tone change, that is definitely a translation of Anno's mental state during the production of the movie, along with just fitting the episodes leading up to the finale (20-24) much better. His depression was at its peak, and instead of giving the so-called "fans" some epic finale that hands all of the explanations to them on a silver platter and have Shinji saving the day with the power of friendship with the happily ever after generic anime ending that a lot of people wanted, he instead gives us something that is even more personal, experimental, and "arthousy" than the original ending. It's an extremely bold move that you would never see in any other mainstream anime production. I completely disagree with the notion that EoE was made to appease the people that complained about the original ending. In fact, I think it's much more of a middle finger to them, instead of trying to make the kind of people that sent him death threats happy. As you said it yourself, a lot of the stuff in the movie can be interpreted as a direct attack on those fans, and that only increases my respect for Anno.

But again, the depressing tone is all on a surface level. I feel like the bleakness and tragic events of EoE make Shinji's decision that much more impactful and meaningful. Despite going through so much suffering, he still chooses to face reality at the end. I don't really understand how you reached the conclusion that he's going through some "reclusion syndrome", I mean, I'm looking at the subtitles in the movie right now, and Shinji basically spells out that he's moving towards a more positive mentality, learning to face his demons, and accept the struggles of reality at the LCL ocean scene.

"No, this isn't right. I don't think this is what I want."
He then proceeds to have a long conversation with Rei and Kaworu about how he doesn't want to run away from his problems anymore and he doesn't mind if that means he'll feel fear and get hurt again.
"I'm always betrayed eventually. They abandon me. But I want to see them one more time... and I think what I felt was genuine."
I find it very hard to think your interpretation is what Anno was trying to go for. As Shinji himself states to Yui at the end, he still doesn't know where to find happiness. That will always be a constant struggle, and it's naïve to think he'll just immediately have solved all of his problems as soon as he gets out of Instrumentality. Like CriticalShock stated below, it's about taking that first step forward instead of expecting everything to be magically fixed (especially to someone as troubled as Shinji), yet another reason as to why I like this ending so much more.

This is also one of the reasons I didn't really like the new 3.0+1.0 movie, it's exaggeratedly positive, to a point of almost feeling childish. Everyone loves Shinji unconditionally and are always going out of their way to help him and save him from himself. He doesn't go through the lesson of learning to love himself before he can be loved by others. This mindset of relying on others to get away from a dark place is very toxic and unhealthy, but maybe my interpretation of the whole thing is just wrong, I don't know.

Agree with the two other guys below me, I personally think it's pretty obvious that EoE has a very positive and uplifting message if you look past the surface level depressing tone of the movie. I find EoE to be a much less naïve ending than EoTV, because Shinji ultimately reaches the same conclusion as in the TV ending but he actually needs to face his flaws as a human being, and also because he realizes that the world is still gonna be a difficult place to live in and that you will still be hurt by others, but as Yui said, "anywhere can be paradise as long as you have the will to live". He realizes that rejecting the escapist fantasy of Human Instrumentality is still the correct choice, because even if he will inevitably go through negative experiences in the real world sometimes, he will only be able to learn to love himself and find true happiness there.

It's a much more mature message, and this bittersweet ending is a better fit for Eva in my opinion.

Happened to see your comment: I don't see how the Shinji of EoE could face reality, when the first thing he does is to try and kill the only person remaining in the world (and failing, because he still lacks motivation).

The fact that Shinji has materialized in his physical form means that Shinji has decided to face reality and reject instrumentality. This is almost explicitly said in EoE.
While not a happy ending it's far from sad and depressing.

In both EoE and NGE Shinji rejects Instrumentality and decides to return to the real world even though that means being hurt, basically he decides to stop running away from reality and start facing it. Shinji strangling Asuka is deliberately ambiguous and open for interpretation, I think the whole purpose of that scene is to show us the beginning of a more genuine relationship, they're coming to terms with their hidden feelings for each other (Shinji strangling Asuka and her caressing his face). This scene shows us that Shinji is back in the real world, struggling, with the possibility of rejection but also the possibility of happiness. What matters is he took the first step towards self-improvement rejecting Instrumentality.

Shinji comes to the same realization in EoE that he did in episode 26 of NGE, the only difference is we see the events leading up to Instrumentality and its aftermath. EoE is just a more complete ending, one in which worldbuilding and lore are still part of the equation instead of solely consisting of introspection. It's a bittersweet and more realistic ending for such a broken character as Shinji, I prefer this ending to the overly optimistic endings of the manga and 3.0+1.0. World resets are such cop-out endings, they don't belong in Evangelion (which has an anti-escapism message).

that pfp!! fucking awesome ,man!

Grazie mille, sarà un piacere e quando finalmente vedrò Eva ti dirò assolutamente qualcosa :D

Questo è vero, non sono troppe le serie come Nichijou, però rimane davvero bello riuscire a trovare un'opera così una volta ogni tanto.
Tanto la possibilità di vedere qualcosa c'è sempre, le serie non scappano da nessuna parte

Nonostante la situazione non sia delle migliori direi che comunque per adesso sto abbastanza bene grazie di avermelo chiesto, di la speranza è che il tutto finisca quanto prima ma per ora non possiamo fare altro che aspettare, invece tu al momento come la stai vivendo?

Okay almeno adesso sono sicuro, se dici questo allora dovrò impegnarmi per far venire almeno una cosa presentabile per non deludere le aspettative xD
Posso capire la mancanza di tempo in alcuni periodi, visto che in ogni caso ti interessa queato tipo di opere allora spero che in futuro tu abbia il tempo di recuperarle (anche se vedere anime come nichijou non è una cosa così brutta)

Si in effetti ho in mente di recuperare Eva in futuro anche solo per il suo valore nell'industria, però io scelgo l'anime da vedere completamente in base a come mi sento in quel preciso momento pensando a cosa ho voglia di vedere quindi alcuni anime rimangono in lista d'attesa per parecchio tempo, però hai ragione nonostante questo arriverà il tempo per Eva

Beh in questo caso grazie per esserti fermato ahahaha, da quanto ho visto sei tornato su mal dopo un bel po' di pausa, in quel caso bentornato :D ; e prima di tutto davvero bello il layout del profilo con l'immagine di tomoe gozen (e l'avere "hic et nunc" come location è perfetto), inoltre grazie tante per la recensione su Kataku, mi ha attirato moltissimo e l'ho già messo in lista e cercherò di vederlo il prima possibile, ho un enorme punto debole per questo tipo di opere che sperimentano tanto sul lato artistico creando un'esperienza davvero particolare anche sul piano espressivo (l'esempio che mi viene in mente è 1001 nights) quindi non posso non recuperarlo.
E il vedere la tua lista con Eva con 10 mi ricorda nuovamente come io debba ancora vederlo.

Mi fa piacere che anche tu sia d'accordo, ho trovato che questo sia il modo migliore di rappresentare questo voto e di dare il giusto onore alle opere che lo meritano, il 10 deve pur sempre rimanere qualcosa di speciale e che pochissime serie possono raggiungere (altrimenti il voto stesso perderebbe il suo significato); però penso che tutti almeno inconsciamente lo sappiano, ma è vero che molte persone non lo realizzano, almeno in teoria con il tempo dovrebbe essere un concetto che diventerà a loro più chiaro.

I wrote everything on the assumption that you are italian and I am pretty sure you are (for the comment you wrote, the Hic et Nunc and that in your review you said how you don't usually write in english) but sorry if for some reason I misunderstood you

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