Perhaps you remember what I formerly wrote on the ending of Evangelion. Have I changed my mind? Well yes and no. Basically, I just want to set the record strait. First things first, as of yet I haven't seen the Evangelion movie. I still anticipate that I will not like it, but I will surely watch it... if nothing else just to see the scene where Shinji "visits" Asuka. If you know what happened, you know what I'm talking about. If you're going to see it, It'll be something you remember, believe me.

So after a time I eventually watched the final episodes of Evangelion... and I hated it. Was it truly that atrocious? I don't know, I just felt like somehow that was the stupidest ending I had ever seen. I mean how do we go from funny cute Eva, to dramatic Eva, to this... "stuff" for an ending? It left me confused, and with an incomplete feeling. "This was the ending?" I just couldn't believe it...

So months later, I ran into an anime deficit, and I felt like watching something. So somehow I pull Evangelion from the big tape pile, and I figured I'd give it another watch. Well.... why not? So I watched it. This time I REALLY watched it, and tried to follow it closely. As I watched, I became immersed in it, it made sense... I actually GOT it. Was it the best ending in the world? No, but in essence, it was still pretty good. Now why would I have this change of heart.

As Andrew Forrester said:

"...fans didn't like it because it was a deep, philosophical show or because it was an incredible examination on the human psyche. No, they liked it because, Asuka was funny."

Now it wasn't like this was some revelation that I suddenly understood why I suddenly liked the ending of Evangelion. No... I thought long and hard for a very long time, but the above article basically paraphrased a portion of what I thought. Basically people just want glitz, action, comedy... they don't want anything else. They want a pathetic thinned, dumbed down trendy animation. Yup, people WANT crap. Do I want this stuff? Yes and no.. it all depends on what I feel like watching, and I like to think of myself as fairly diverse, and the sort of person that watches many different things... that's where the problem with Evangelion comes in.

You see, Evangelion is many things, and this is where the confusion comes in. While indeed a mecha anime, there are many different aspects of it that appeal to many different audiences which is why it became so popular. Now many of the 'old school' anime fans really loved the abstract parts, but appreciated the action and humor. the 'newer' generation of fans basically watched it for the humor, and more or less ignored the abstract parts. The problem is that when you START watching Evangelion, you basically only see the comedy and action, along with a bit of drama, etc. As the story progresses, bit by bit these strange philosophical sequences get injected. More and more they begin to take precedence, until the entire end is based off of this sort of abstraction. Basically Evangelion is false advertising. It starts with one direction, and points you somewhere COMPLETELY off the wall by the end. I expected an ending much like the beginning, and I couldn't take the ending I was given. Evangelion started me on the train tracks, and when it through me a curve, I derailed the train. The second time I watched it though, I stayed with the track, and I really found the true ending.

I feel as though I sort of let myself down. As if I didn't want the intellectually stimulating ending,.. as if I just wanted some mindless action. In truth I think I just wanted something consistent. But as I watched it again, I think I'm lucky that I can appreciate Evangelion in nearly ALL it's aspects, not just the comedy, philosophy, drama, or action... I can appreciate it as a whole - and that I think is a good measure of a seasoned anime fan. I think it's almost sad how many people miss the point (like I almost did). Listen to what the show has to say, really THINK about it... It may change the way you think. It may change your outlook on life. If you think anime is just glitzy Japanese animation, your missing the point. Anime is more than just cool animation; any cartoon can do that. The true power of anime in it's purest form is that it can go BEYOND animation, to something far more powerful - something which only the Japanese seem to think is suitable to even put in animation form.

So is it a good or bad ending? It's all about perspective. If you didn't get that much from Evangelion, you need to watch it again. Would it have been better if the final Angel had appeared, and Shinji had just kicked it's ass - end of story? I really don't know. It's very thought provoking, and that in itself makes it a better in one sense than it would have been, and yeah, I guess it really was a better ending in my opinion. I suppose that's what makes Eva a good anime: you don't WANT it to end. Still, the ending "congratulations" scene was corny, so I guess you could say I wasn't all that particular on that part... Thus I present:

What really should have happened ~ by Archen

-- before the 'congratulations' scene --

Shinji Ikari begins to realize.. things could be more than they are. It's all based off of his perception... the world begins to crack... and shatters into an entirely new perception (this is where the last scene would be). Shinji wakes up to find himself wearing nothing but a loin cloth and tied to a large stake. Rei finishes painting various runes on Shinji's chest by smearing the last of the crimson pulp on his chest. She leaves and Asuka appears. Asuka begins to weep and says that she can't live without him. She then passionately kisses Shinji, and is drug away from him while she professes her love to him. The logs around Shinji are started on fire, and the entire Eva cast begins to dance and chant around the fire, while Shinji gets sacrificed to the rain gods.

And that's why sometimes it's better to live in your own little world

The end