Why Evangelion's Endings Make Each Other Better

[00:06] Which of Evangelion’s endings is the real one?

[00:09] Some background: Neon Genesis Evangelion was a 

[00:15] still felt today. It took a common trope 

[00:20] young boy becomes a man by fighting monsters 

[00:24] turns it into a Freudian nightmare. 

[00:28] but coming of age in Evangelion 

[00:32] violent thing. The robots–biological machines 

[00:38] souls of the pilots’ mothers–serve as a potent 

[00:43] And the heightened stakes that come from choosing 

[00:48] scary and risky that puts you in the path of great 

[00:54] stands in for the sudden psychological weight of 

[00:59] protagonist Shinji will be a hero: It’s whether 

[01:05] world with its people and its pain or retreat 

[01:11] In addition to this existential question, there 

[01:16] but those take money to animate, and by the 

[01:22] episodes, they had none. So instead of wrapping 

[01:27] in on Shinji's character and his decision whether 

[01:33] his own mind. It presents these questions in 

[01:39] solipsism a blank sheet of paper, the pain knowing 

[01:45] And it ends with Shinji accepting, wholeheartedly, 

[01:52] even when it hurts, to seek love despite 

[01:58] applaud and congratulate him. It is, after the 

[02:05] Of course, fans hated this. Dropping the plot 

[02:10] mildly, a bold move, and the death threats the 

[02:16] the worst parts of fandom to come. But because the 

[02:22] a movie, titled The End of Evangelion, to provide 

[02:28] of it has always been that End of Evangelion and 

[02:33] same story, the tone is waaaaay different. The 

[02:41] even the most horrific parts of the TV show. It 

[02:47] of to be or not to be, but it’s not represented as 

[02:53] part of Shinji’s head trip, it is rooted in 

[02:59] known is not a series of angry scribbles: It’s 

[03:06] his selfishness and cowardice. And the rejection 

[03:12] It’s Shinji choking Asuka out.

[03:27] The End of Evangelion follows the same rough 

[03:33] He has to decide whether he wants to brave this 

[03:38] that world to escape it. And, finally, he 

[03:44] agony and ecstasy of other people. But that final 

[03:50] is much grimmer in the movie. Instead of 

[03:55] cast congratulates him, here Shinji wakes 

[04:01] the giant corpse of his friend slash mom slash 

[04:08] The scene is quiet and deliberate and surreal and 

[04:16] time the real Asuka, not a figment of Shinji’s 

[04:22] but her own person and all thrill and terror that 

[04:29] relapses. He chokes Asuka again, tries to bring 

[04:37] caresses his cheek, and he weeps and loosens his 

[04:46] This is the world Shinji has decided to accept: 

[04:52] original series but a strange and silent 

[04:57] undeserved tenderness and scorn earned many 

[05:04] good choice, the brave choice, but the reward for 

[05:10] not a sudden unbreakable will to live, not a 

[05:16] from here on out, things are going to get better. 

[05:23] one where he will stumble and regress, 

[05:27] only slightly less terrible than the 

[05:34] Most of the time, the choice to continue 

[05:38] and survival instincts. But, without going into 

[05:44] life where it has had to be a very deliberate 

[05:50] like Evangelion’s original ending, and I am 

[05:55] that will make my life better. And sometimes it 

[06:00] rising to the challenge but lurching towards it, 

[06:06] spite just animating enough to keep me going. The 

[06:12] of the joys of this world, and it can just as 

[06:20] And this is why Evangelion’s two endings enrich 

[06:26] than they would be alone. By telling 

[06:31] it draws attention to their contrasts while 

[06:37] It’s like one image superimposed on the other, 

[06:43] replacing the original finale but not entirely 

[06:50] ending is and what it is no longer. This is why my 

[06:57] is not anything in either ending, despite 

[07:02] but the space between them, the push and the 

[07:08] similarities and crucial differences. On 

[07:14] no matter how effective that thing is. 

[07:19] This is novel because most stories, with 

[07:24] to extrapolate from the final scene. A moment 

[07:30] while a downer ending suggests a whole world of 

[07:36] uses this to interesting effect by making the 

[07:41] eternal punishment. An ending does not show us 

[07:47] and its inhabitants, but by showing us one last 

[07:53] But the strange harmony of Evangelion’s 

[07:58] extrapolation. That they are at odds with 

[08:02] means that one single tone (sopranos joke) 

[08:07] That, instead, there is dissonance. There is, 

[08:13] to give way to resolution, more conflict. 

[08:19] several feelings within its whole, 

[08:25] And, given what the ending is about, 

[08:30] ultimately, about Shinji’s decision to live, 

[08:37] his decision is yes. But that yes is never 

[08:44] then go on forever. It is a choice you have to 

[08:49] optimism of the series' finale and the weary 

[08:56] triumphantly and worn to marrow, beneath blue 

[09:03] at once a chorus of congratulations and 

[09:09] Either ending, on their own, captures a 

[09:14] they hold its exhausting repetition, its ebb and 

[09:22] The answer to the question we opened with–which 

[09:29] suspected it would be when I started writing 

[09:35] For in the space between them, the arc 

[09:40] is no ending at all. There is none of an ending’s 

[09:47] There is only the story’s middle, stretching