Neon Genesis Evangelion

Originally Posted by Lukage

I recall the Instrumentality ending (TV) and the MegaRei (Movie) being different possible endings. At least, that's how I like to view it. TV = Happy Ending, Movie = Continuation of the mode of the series (DEPRESSION)

Except this is a very superficial way of looking at it. Watching it again, the TV ending seems to "fit" the theme of the series more, while the movie ending is only superficially more like eps 1-24 while not being philosophically the same.

It's a lot like Dickens end of "Great Expectations" (sort of in reverse, though). The original ending of the novel was a bit depressing and the fans didn't like it, even though it was thematically necessary. So, Dickens wrote a "happy" ending that didn't really "fit" the novel but pleased fans. End of Eva reminds me a lot of that. It contains a lot of things that please fans but doesn't fit the themes of the show as well as the last couple TV eps, though this time the "happy" ending is the one fans don't like.

Unfortunately, most Eva fanboys only pretend at actually thinking about the themes of the show and think it's about Angels and giant robots or something like that. Eva was only about giant robots fighting giant monsters for the first 10-13 episodes. After that, Anno went crazy or something and it really turned into a show about sick twisted characters being sick and twisted together (which actually worked in a weird way). I don't know how a visually confusing mess like End of Eva that contained a ton of giant robot fights and random violence is supposed to be a continuation of the the last few TV eps, except for containing disturbing imagery. Eps 25+26 really match the psycho-sci-fi soap opera the show became in later episodes.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Rei no Otaku

Analyzing both I think it's easy to see the TV ending is a far more happier one. I don't see how it could be seen any other way. Though in my theory of what it means (he went through with complementation), it could be sad in a way. Also the ending to EoE was just as thought provoking as the ending to the TV series. The first half of EoE is just showing what happened during episode 25.

What does "happy" and "sad" have to do with it? I just stated that the TV ending was thematically more true to the rest of the series. Unless you believe that "sad" is somehow thematically necessary.

There's nowhere I can't reach.