To answer the baffled Evangelion fans, Gainax remade the ending into a two-part movie known as Death and Rebirth, which was to replace episodes 25 and 26 of the television series, which then led to this movie, Death and Rebirth itself being recreated into part one of The End of Evangelion. It begins much in the same fashion, with the final Angel already having been defeated, and the current enemy switching to humanity itself, as SEELE unleashes its own plan for the Evas and NERV... and indeed for the entire human race. What role will our depressed boy Shinji play in this dangerous situation? Will Gendo's plan swallow up all of humanity? Will Hideaki Anno ever figure out how to end an anime? These questions and more will be answered in what looks to be the final installment of Evangelion.
This movie can be taken in three ways if you are a fan of Eva and watched the original series:
1. It can replace the original ending to Neon Genesis Evangelion entirely
2. It can be viewed as an alternate ending
3. It can be viewed alongside the final two episodes of the series
I liked the original ending honestly, but this ending was better if you ask me, due to several factors that is. This was a highly anticipated Anime feature film for it's time, and the experience I had with it is unforgettable. Evangelion is a love-hate type of series, you either love it or you hate it. If you are one of the people who loved this movie, or one of the people who hated it, you cannot deny that this movie did something right at the very least to be memorable.
Gainax really upped their game here with this movie. The first half is very good, there are spectacular action scenes, which were present in the TV series, but in this movie they went full force and all out with the production. You get some amazing action sequences between Asuka and the Eva series. As for the movie's second half, we are given philosophical, metaphorical, artistic imagery and a well thought out dialogue for most of it. I'm not going to go into much detail with this movie's imagery and dialogue, as in I don't want to discuss what I understood and what boggled my mind while watching this movie. I'm just going to say that this movie is a glorious brain wreck that I believe the viewers have to experience for themselves to form their own opinions on it. It is filled with this philosophical, psychological, metaphorical and mind boggling imagery that is a bit hard to decipher, which makes this ending a bit ambiguous for most. It's like the show's original ending, but way more visual.
The animation in this movie is a huge upgrade to the TV show. It looks three times better than the show, and the obvious reason for this is that the movie had a bigger budget than the show, which had a hard time keeping up with the budget. It is done really well for it's time and the action scenes are spectacular in this movie. Gainax really went to a whole other level in 1997, and this film was their beautiful creation. Aside from the beautiful animation, there was a live action scene at the very end. I don't know what the point of the scene was, but I believe that Anno did this to add more deep meaning to the movie, and make it more artistic.
The voice acting in this movie is spectacular. When it comes to voice acting, the Japanese cast goes all out here and expresses the full emotions of the characters. I watched this movie in both dubbed and subbed, and I can safely say that the subbed version was way better here. The dubbed movie was not that good to be honest, the voice acting was fine and did it's job, but it was not as good as the subbed counterpart. I also noticed that the dub added some stuff from their own, rather than just dubbing over the movie. What I noticed was that they added a cartoonish sound effect in one scene, which felt really out of place and did not serve to better the movie in any way. Rather, the sound effect they added made the scene it was inserted in less serious. If you are wondering what scene I am talking about, it's the one where Misato kills a soldier, who was about to kill Shinji during the first half of the movie. The dub added a goo sound effect to the blood for some odd reason, the sub just had a gun shot and a silent death, which was more fitting for the scene, and kept the serious tone going. There are other odd sound effects that the dub decided to add for some reason, all of which made me like the sub more.
The soundtrack in this movie is spectacular and pleasing to listen to. It is not only good, but also feels unique in it's own way. Shiro Saguso, the music producer for the movie, really let himself go all out here. I had listened to some of his tracks before watching the movie, but this might as well be his best work. The tracks here are scary and haunting, and add more depth to the atmosphere that the movie was striving to achieve. Komm, süsser Tod is the the best one and the most memorable track, because it is the only happy sounding track in the whole movie, and where does it play? During the film's darkest moment. Due to it being the only happy sounding track in the movie, it leaves you shocked and surprised when it first appears. Oh, wait, it sounds happy, but it is actually a track that talks about suicide and death when you search for it's lyrics... I've never been fooled by a movie before, but this movie takes the absolute cake. How could I have even thought that something joyful, even as simple as a song, could come out of Evangelion? I thought the song was cheerful not only in the way it sounds, but also in it's lyrics. Congratulations, Evangelion! The soundtrack was great during the first half, and amazing during it's second half.
Overall, the End of Evangelion is a spectacular feast to behold, but it is definitely not for everyone. There are some things people will like about it, and some things they will dislike about it. Some people would call it awesome, while others would call it awful. Some people would call it a masterpiece, while others would call it a pretentious piece of trash. I agree with the former, I don't think that Evangelion is a masterpiece per say, but it is unique enough to distinguish itself from other Anime titles and be it's own kind of thing. It is exciting enough to keep you at the edge of your seat for most of it's duration. It adds everything in an interesting way, from religious symbolism and philosophy to spectacular action scenes, and blends them all together in a unique way.
End of Evangelion is a movie experience unlike any other that I have ever witnessed. It is more brutal and violent than the series before it (which says something), and it has some of the most insane plot elements and imagery that you will ever see from any Anime movie. It manages to wrap up all of the plot threads that were left hanging from the original show, and it ends on a note that can be seen as bleak and depressing for some, or hopeful for others. For a show that has a lot of ambiguous things going for it, I feel that this is a perfect ending for a franchise like Evangelion.
It is a movie that I really enjoyed, and I would recommend you go give it a watch.
