Evangelion 3.0+1.0 Ending Explained
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- Опубліковано 16 сер 2021
- This video breaks down the three main ways I feel people could interpret the ending of the final Evangelion Rebuild film. I do believe there are basically countless interpretations though, so tell me yours in the comments if you feel like it.
- Фільми й анімація
Don't worry, the test isn't that complicated
The test:
I felt that the meta narrative of the last movie was them telling the viewers that you should not focus to much on the pop culture and instead explore the real world. Which is why shinji and mari literally runs into the real world in the end.
Just like the previous 2 endings did
yeah totally agree, message was loud and clear on this last movie, grow up move on leave a "fake" reality behind and experience the "real" world that is out there, but cant blame ppl the franchise is so trippy that you can have plenty of material to interpret it whoever you like, what was clear for me might not be even the intention of the author but that's how I see it.
@@morid0 But what happened to Asuka
@@s133p3r0 what I understood is that grown up asuka also moved along and ended up with Kensuke but that's not really explicitly shown more like you can infer it, the asuka of the reality with out Eva's that shinji creates just started fresh, as well as Rai and kaworu, they will experience a normal life not knowing anything of the past with evas so it's anyone's guess what will happen to them only shinji and mari seem to be on the same page on that reality, Mari is the "foreign" element that helped shinji not to dissapear as he was about to do before she came for him (basically commit suicide), so he finally took a step into the "real" world and move forward from all his trauma with the help if Mari.
"Touch grass"
I personally think Shinji at the end is a stand in for Anno and Mari is a stand-in for his wife... she helped "unlock" him from his depression and let go of evangelion.
Yeap, letting go of Evangelion is the whole point.
I think this too, I believe the ending isn’t meant to be thought on for hours, it’s just a simple, happy ending
@@izindle3239 I agree man. I watched EoE when I was an angsty and confused teenager and it was a great gateway to start exploring some baseline philosophical concepts. But man, I'm 30 now. Life is good, I don't need escapism anymore. I'm glad shinji and 'The Asuka' aren't left on that beach in my mind forever.
Shinji was always shown on the train in the show - you could take it as symbolism he’s finally gotten off the circular trap of the train and for once he’s in control to write his own fate. I think you’re reading too much into the ending with the other characters. It may have just been fan service to give all fans a conclusion. No matter who you thought the hero of the story was.
@@vecistus
I agree.
Plus! There’s other anime with plenty characters to ship-off, making okay to let go of Evangelion.
I think the rebuild movies represent Anno's experience with NGE
1.0 You are (not) alone - is about the original series and not being alone in loving or obsessing about it.
2.0 You can (not) advance - is about the end of the series that was polarizing and left many unable to move on
3.0 You can (not) redo - is about the End of Evangelion where he tried to redo the ending but still ends up leaving people disappointed
3.0 + 1.0 Thrice upon a time - is about the Rebuild series which marks the third time he is using NGE universe to tell his story. Asuka, Rei and Kaworu probably represents the different fans of NGE. By Shinji saying that he understood why Asuka wanted to punch him could be his way of saying he now understood why fans were upset after the end of the original series. Instead of struggling against fans like he did in past, he chose to both listen and accept their love with the Rebuild series. He is fine with fans wanting to continue riding the NGE train if that that's what they want to do and sends them off with his best wishes by giving all the characters happy endings. The movie also serves as his goodbye to NGE with both him and the train leaving in opposite directions.
In any case, other interpretations are possibly correct too because the series could have multiple messages.
Wow really well said I really like this outlook on it.
I fully agree that that last 2 movies are about Anno, but i dont think there is some grat plan to it.
To me its him throwing in the towel, accepting defeat and pushing out what ever after years of development hell.
The ending of this video sums it the best Anno tries to "eats his cake and have it to", trying to wrap up a series but also leave it as open as possible since he just dosnt know what to do.
To me the movie stands as a mark of a failure of a creator, someone who allowed his hatred of his own success to get in front of his creative opportunities, instead of being a celebration of the franchise its a shameful reflection of the society his generation fucked up.
@@googleslocikThis is incredibly harsh, but IMO you’re closer to the truth than most.
@@daddygrasshopper Reality is incredibly harsh. @googleman take is very needed breath of fresh air in the sea of overromanticized takes/reviews/interpretations of Evangelion Rebuilds, especially when many of those are fundamentally and objectively wrong.
My interpretation:
In all eva endings, Shinji always had the ability to create different realities or send characters anywhere he imagined. However, only confined within anime.
The ending beach scene went from anime-> rough animation-> sketches. This was how Shinji was going to say goodbye. He was planning to disappear along with the anime itself.
but Mari "makes it just in time" before it all disappears and reverses it back from sketches-> rough animation-> anime. Meaning Mari also has Shinji's ability.
This time Mari sends Shinji to a real life location but it's still anime form. She needs Shinji's hand so that they use their ability together and enter not another world of fiction but a real one
he takes her hand, they run up the stairs and Shinji is finally able to leave the anime
so you´re saying shinji can create a entire universe when the ancestral race (that is above basically everything in the series) could not
Uuh, I like the anime - pencil drawing - anime explanation!!! Don't agree with the rest though :) .
(Mari just snapped him out of it I think)
I don’t think he created somewhat real world, it is just to show people that the station exists in real world
@@thechosenone5421 the ancestral race doesn't give the Life and inteligence fruit for a reason lilith wasn't supossed to be there
that would of made more sense if the train scene was filmed with live actors, in fact that's so genius i wish anno did it.
Maybe he didnt do it cause he thought people would think he was ripping off the Spongebob movie...
I'm here to debunk the dream theory.
My primary focus will be the beach and train station scene at the end of the movie; On the beach, Shinji is ready to basically, restart the world without Evangelions and potentially without himself. But, Mari stops him saying she "Made it just in time" where the animation returns. My guess is, Mari offered Shinji a new path, a way to rewrite a world where he and everyone would be happy. So, he rewrites the world so Mari and him are aged up, the world is cured, no impacts, no angels, no evas, everyone he knew is alive but don't recall him or anything that happened. Mari and Shinji know what happened, and him "waking up" at the train station is him waking up into his new life. Mari takes the collar off of him which I think represents the burden of the knowledge they have that no one else will believe or understand. Cause, she doesn't just take it off, she takes it off and puts it in her pocket. The collar is a burden shared by both of them that can't just be discarded. You can't throw away burdens. But, Mari will be there to help Shinji handle it all the way, which is why she took it.
Anyways, next to the train station analysis.
Since Shinji rewrote the world, Asuka, Rei, Kaworu, ect don't know him anymore. He knows them, he's met them, but they are living in other places all across the new world with their own lives. I see this as Shinji... letting go of them and moving on to this new life in Neon Genesis. The train and the others are all in his mind. Not delusions. I mean, its Evangelion... it's all very symbolic and bends the laws of anime, doesn't need to make sense. It's probably like, emotional hallucinations. Anyways, trains for Shinji have always been viewed in a negative light. A setting where he's running away and drifting down the tracks, away from his problems blocking out the world with earbuds. But, his problems still haunt him even if he's on his runaway train. (Take the train scenes from Evangelion and End of Evangelion for example.) This scene shows how much Shinji has changed. He isn't boarding the train to runaway, instead he's letting those he knew board it and leave him, letting go, moving on from them, and then going forth into a new world unafraid. He doesn't need Rei, Asuka, Kaworu, ect anymore, he's grown independent and more mature than he was in the past. He doesn't need acceptance of other people, because he accepts himself. Self-hatred and dependence turned self-love and independence. This is what I think the train station scene means.
the comment section is saving me from existential crisis bless you
Thank you so goddamn much for this. I really needed the clarification
In the NHK Anno documentary (1214 days extended cut), there's a scene with Anno sitting at *this* station deep in thought (same location as Shinji). Then his childhood friend randomly and unexpectedly walks up to him and they chat. I think Anno was sitting and thinking about Eva, but then his friend brought him back to reality and was the inspiration for this scene.
Yooooooo. This is such a good catch! Can't believe I never picked up on that.
Shinji sees Rei and Kaworu because they represent “hope” and the words “I love you” within Shinji’s heart (he also sees them when he decides to leave instrumentality in EoE and they explain what they represent to him)
They also represent Adam and Lilith accepting humanity and peace between the Lilian and the angels and the end of the time loop
And that explains why asuka is so small. I came here just to find out whether she's dead or alive because I couldn't see her on t.v.
@@MarieAntoinetteBestQueen Asuka was sitting on a bench in the new reality, beside Rei and Kaworu, at the end
and there asuka in the side did you see it to?
I think the movie ending with him leaving the train station takes on new meaning when you remember how many times Shinji tried to run away from his problems by getting on the train. The fact that he’s leaving the station as an adult might suggest that he’s finally grown up enough to find whatever strength he needs in order to stop running away from life’s problems.
Mari being the newest element to the franchise and being the one to leave with Shinji could be a way of saying “If you keep doing the same things and find that nothing’s changing, try something new.”
That is actually a really good point
"Sometimes a Cigar is just a Cigar." - Sigmund Freud :D
Part of the allure of Evangelion is the personal interpretation each viewer can make with it. It's fluid enough to mean so many different things to so many different people. Truely the masterpiece behind the work. However, when diving into Eva, we all can get lost in the "deeper narrative" that each viewer wants to bring forth. I've seen a lot of different analogies applied to Eva over the years. At it's heart, it is what it's creator wishes it to be. While I have watched some documentaries/interviews on Anno, I have never seen one where he directly gives what his interpretation of the story is. (if it exists, please link it here. Would love to see it.) With a lot of anime, but especially with Eva, there is this desire to give deeper meaning to the works. Everything from criticism of Ottaku culture (the big one I always see), to just a film view of a man's struggle with depression (and other emotional states). Not saying any of it is wrong, but it appears to be a lot of personal interpretations being piled onto the all of Eva, when things could be just a simple answer. Big issues is, the man that can give that answer likes to be mysterious and private, leaving us to all our conjectures.
As to the endings, taking all the films purely on face value (info provided just in the films), the closest appears to be your ending #2, with some modifications. First up, Mari. She specifically made sure Unit 8 was "adapted" with the Vessels of the Adams (Units 9-12) to survive within the "Anti-Universe" (which is really just a pure theoretical realm). She even states Gendo's jumping through realms. (English dub, not sure on Japanese translations). She noted that she would find Shinji where ever he was. Second, Shinji stated that he would not rewind time or recreate the world, but specifically create a world "without Evangelions". He created the real world. So none of the events, none of the schemes, none of the Impacts could be sought after, leaving all the cast in this to their own paths.
There are still a few "unanswered" questions, that have "appeared" to be answered in a way. Shinji and Mari seem to be the only two with knowledge of all events. In a way, that makes them Adam & Eve who left Eden after tasting the Fruit of Knowledge. These two essentially destroyed man'kind's keys to the divine/gods/heaven/etc, when destroying the Eva's. Leaving them to fulfill their own hearts desires. While this is my own conjecture, I am at least utilizing what was shown/said in films to reach this conclusion. Which is the crux of my whole comment, so many want to reach for outside information, when all you need to do is simply look within. And that kind of feels like the whole message of Evangelion.
this is beautiful
Has Anno ever talked about his religion? There is obviously a lot of Christian ideas throughout the series, I wonder if he had some influences there (rare in Japan if true)
You cracked it. No joke. I really think you did.
But if Shinji just deleted the Evas, then according to what Gendō was saying atop the Wunder, humanity is soon going to be exterminated…
that is a very well thought out interpretation, I just took the movie at face value as someone that has been out of the loop for years, so for me 2nd interpretation of this video was a clear one, the basic take was grow up/move on leave the old behind and start fresh working trough your own problems, mari is kind of the only variable that was not fitting with my take, it would have been perfect if shinji just moved along alone and left the main cast behind but they had to introduce some external element so that he didn't just fade away from existence like he was about to do before mari came and pick him up, probably also part of the message, if you are deep in depression more often than not you will need a helping hand so you can pick up yourself and face reality, again all this is just taking it at face value I am sure much more deep interpretations like yours can be made and that is really awesome from the eva franchise is just so trippy and confusing at time that anything goes lol.
When shinji refers to a neo genesis. Is restarting everything a new start, no evas, angels, no NERV, no everything. Shinji just want a normal world where everyone live a normal peaceful life
This has to be hands down one of the best anime hypothesis videos of all time. Huge ton of props for the all the theories especially the dream one which I thought was an animation error with the train. Thank you Professor O for the 3rd theory with which my mind is fully satisfied with. Now I can rest in peace.
The train is actually there, at 10:18 you can see a sign (with blue at the bottom) in the middle left side of the scene. However at 10:24 you can see that the train actually stops right before that same sign, meaning that the perspective made it so that the train was kinda hidden
shinji was always in the train when he had an internal crisis. like it statts of with gendo abondening him at the train, shinji rides and has internal debates. he ends up at jis final destination as a healed adult.
Dudes made a whole PowerPoint pres on eva
Man got my respect
First off, I hadn't notice that about the train appearing and disappearing in that scene, great catch!
While I do think your third theory is interesting I've come to a different interpretation. I agree that them being on the other side and taking the train means that they're moving on with their lives without the eva. All 3 on them has used the eva as a crutch for what they needed most in their lives. Arguably their only reason for living was too pilot the eva because they were all clones I believe or wanted affirmation for other people. All 3 of them except for Mari. Mari enjoyed piloting her eva and she didn't really have any psychological problems that the others had. I think the train only appearing to shinji's eyes is because he was the one that helped them move on. Mari is specifically there to help Shinji in this case so she doesn't see the train, neither does the audience. Those 3 are only connected to Shinji in the scene.
I would say I'm more of the 2nd theory camp. Everyone got reassigned a new life in the real world.
Watch the drone footage shot at the very end. The same train is see leaving the station except it's a real life train. It exits to the left of the station.
@@SF7PAKISTAN Great catch in the sense that he realized the train is visually not there sometimes in the footage. I didn't realize myself that the train was not to be seen physically on some shots, that's why it's a great catch.
@@SF7PAKISTAN Which frames are you talking about, your comment didn't make much sense tbh.
@@SF7PAKISTAN But the sign is also missing at 11:26.
@@SF7PAKISTAN But it doesn't really match with the steel column next to Mari as you can see in 10:07. It can't be that far to the right.
Lesson learned this series: "Big boobs fixes everything"
Don't forget the glasses part. It's big boobs with glasses 😅
Here's my personal interpretation of the final scene, I think the "neon genesis" that Shinji made is in fact the reality we live in now, he literally send all the fictional character like Asuka and Rei 1 back to the anime world where they belong and choose to live in the "real world" that we live in now. The last few minutes of the movie, after unit 1 and 13 stab themselves, are showing us the slow transition from the anime world to the real world. The process includes the elimination of all Evangelion and everything Eva related one by one, the DSS choker removed by Mari being last of them.
crappy ending is just about the writer telling us he ditched the anime behind lmfao
i'm expecting a remake sequel not a crybaby throwing away his dirty toy
@@loucipher7782 I think it's just the writter telling us to move on and "touch grass"
@@enterurnamehere27 Same writer who can't move on from decades old franchises like Ultraman or Kamen Rider. xD
Ah the hypocrisy.
@@ReichLife Ultraman and Kamen rider are kinda lit tho, like, they're classical af so I can't blame him XD
@@enterurnamehere27 Neither do I for him liking it, it's his hypocrisy though which is ludicrous. OG Evangelion is also lit, already a classic, yet he has these bizarre statements which oozes with insecurity.
Excellent breakdown of these different interpretations!
Thank you for explaining this bc it confused the heck out of me
Love the last explanation, really good job.
It is really RARE for an anime to have a very clear and conclusive ending.
I salute you Anno.
Even rarer for it to be actually earned, which is not here.
@@ReichLife yeah im hella confused..the fact that i came here is not good..the series was enjoyable..but what the hell were the messages? like the youtuber says..very abstract..had no idea why mari and shinji..were a duo at end and he is just okay with it i mean like..wth? i dont have proper words..i really wish they just kept the narrative simple..
Amazing analysis at the station!
I have to say that Mari may represent the wife that ANNO meet in its life.
I watched te ending one time (missing Asuka at the station lol) but I feels that Gendo, YUI, Shinji and Mari are still in the anti-universe/imaginative universe, living their dreams.
Asuka is sent back to the village and in the while the earth is purified by the LCL sea and the seed will do their works on hearth. The village may be the reborn of umanity after the disaster.
Katsuragi... may be the only dead instead.
Solid break down
interesting! of course the name you give theory 3 had me all: Oh Hell NO, but the i calmed down and listened to it... very interesting and plausible. Anna really did us wrong, he gave us a close to evangelion but not Colsure
He left us with his depression lol
@@SF7PAKISTAN Nah, the part where Mari covers Shinji's eyes shows that the train is directly in front of him. Yet the train is nowhere to be found in front of him in the other angles.
Neon Genesis Evangelion nearly drove me to suicide.
Seeing Shinji suffering is like seeing myself suffer, because at one point in time I was almost exactly like him, especially back in 10th grade when I was bullied to the brink of suicide. I simply cannot tolerate watching Eva. I felt forced to relive my trauma upon viewing it. I’m deathly afraid of it. Twice I had a nightmare where I saw myself as Shinji choking Asuka and starting the Third Impact. I’ve been struggling with this newfound depression ever since.
I was obsessed with the series for over a year to try and outwit the isolation of the Coronavirus pandemic. It only increased the burden, and kept the memory of my friend’s recent suicide alive.
Watching the End of Evangelion was like peering into a broken mirror, and I was viewing the hell I would’ve put myself through had things turned out differently, had I decided to give up living. It still haunts me to this day.
Sometimes I hate myself because I fail to appreciate what so many have claimed to idolize, and I beat myself further for failing to worship what they call praiseworthy, I forced myself to watch a show that reminded me of nothing but pain just so I wouldn’t be alone anymore, I was willing to sacrifice my individuality for some company amidst the isolation of the pandemic.
I sought emotional refuge in the Evangelion fandom on social media, hoping they’d understand me and provide me with answers that would grant me peace of mind. Instead, they downplayed my trauma, going so far as to spread a rumor of my past to shame me of my mental illness, spiraling me deeper into depression, which I’ve been struggling with for over a year now.
I just want Shinji to be happy, so this past self of mine can be laid to rest once more. I’m afraid to decouple myself from him after losing my friend to suicide, which Eva made me feel responsible for, especially when I saw Shinji kill Kaworu, of which I fail to understand how anyone can call it praiseworthy. Until then, I feel nothing else matters.
There’s a reason why I keep coming back to Evangelion; something that reminds me of nothing but pain.
I want to prove to myself I’m not crazy for feeling this way, that Evangelion really did force me to relive my trauma, that my depression is not just a figment of my imagination or another anime plot point. I want to feel that my fear and resentment towards Eva is justified.
But the fact I’m the only one I know in existence who’s been traumatized by an anime makes me feel like I really am crazy.
Whenever I feel this way, there’s something I remind myself with.
But finally, with 3.0+1.0 released, I can rest easy knowing that Shinji has finally reached the light at the end of the tunnel. Evangelion is finished, and I want it to remain that way.
But if things hadn’t turned out that way, I wouldn’t be here today.
Shit, I hope you're okay and doing well right now. I'm sorry you had to go through all that.
This anime put me into a depression because I also saw myself in shinji. Its a powerful show that I have a hard time letting go.
@@Thomdizzle Are you there?
@@hawkeyenextgen7117 yup
@@Thomdizzle i dont get what this "PAIN: is explain..
I think Anno has a lot of similarities to M.Night Shyamalan. As in two directors who early on in their careers were hailed as "geniuses" due to massive cultural phenomenons (Evangelion and The 6th sense).
Then spent the remainder of their careers chasing that success, attempting to recreate that "genius" at the expense of fundamental story telling. M.night would go on to try and recreate the shock twist over and over...not ever realizing it was the compelling characters and fundamentally interesting story that made The 6th Sense so special. While Anno would double down on the techno babble, excessive battles, and ham fisted Catholic references, not realizing, just like M.Night, it was the characters and fundamentally interesting story that made Evangelion so special.
Shinji could have just made a 2nd World for him and Mari to live in that isn't connected to the original world. Then used his powers to purify the original world so humanity could rebuild. Shinji looking across the train tracks could represent him taking one last look at his original world before Mari picks him and they leave for Shinji's new world. That way it doesn't violate Shinji's promise not to turn back time or rewrite reality. He doesn't want to get rid of characters that were born in Village 3 like Baby Tsubame, and that's why Mari said goodbye to Asuka. Asuka returned to the original world, and Mari went with Shinji to the New 2nd World.
Its more that they got rid of the fantasy (the evangelions) which caused all the harm and at the end they used the real life footage to signify that they fully had arrived to a new beginning. Because the theme of the last movie especially is that you need to move forward not get stuck dwelling on the past and seeking escapism from it. That is pretty much what shinji and gendo represented during the final fight too. With shinji having managed to not let his own trauma define him and push him down. Its pretty interesting that there is so much different things you can take from the movies in how the themes have changed. It could also be a jab at nostalgia when i think about it. With how much is based around talking about how good the past is and the future can never be as good as the past. With gendo literally trying to revive the past he lost.
I always thought that evangelion was about deal with reality and don't be scared of it, even when it hurts, so this "back to reality" ending, i think it's very good.
The end of this movie is basically the Madoka ending
Definitely heavy parallels. I noticed that too and even vented about it to a friend, cause I hate the Madoka ending as well. Mainly, because it pulls a self-sacrifice card when it isn't needed? Like, Madoka just wishes to kill herself... for fun? I guess?
@@intermediateo5712 IDK, she did end up being a godess. But Shinji was just a salaryman by the end. Deff got the short straw there jaja
The Last Theory has a plothole though. In the ending real life scene, if we keep watching a bit, we can see a brown train leaving the station (in real life) and Shinji obviously already left the station. So I would assume that them not showing the train in previous shots was just continuity errors made by the producers.
I think it was a mistake as well haha continuity issues, happens all the time, come down to attention to detail
I thought that initially as well, but it seems way too purposeful. Using the same shots with a train and then no train multiple times? Not saying it definitely was done on purpose, but that’s the belief I subscribe to.
i'm quite sure its a different train
I really like the last interpretation and I don't think it necessary means that all of Evangelion was a dream or a delusion. You can also think that the story has two layers, a symbolic one, which is all of Evangelion, and a real world counterpart one. In this case, everything that happened in Evangelion are a symbolic interpretation of struggles that took place in real world's shinji life, but it doesn't mean that he literally dreamed up everything. The human instrumentality sections, both in the tv series and 3.0+1.0, are parts where those two layers blend in together seemingly because it gets harder to keep telling the story purely on the symbolic level, but this last scene on the station is the first and only time we see the real world counterpart layer on screen. Finally, we can even go as far as adding a third layer which would be the actual real world where we live in, and the Evangelion series and movies are Anno's representation of the reality of the viewers lives, specially japanese young men, or even his own experiences. All those layers can also make sense simultaneously.
Another interpretation...... we know that the director suffered from clinical depression when he made the TV series and End of Evangelion and we all know how those turned out. Rebuild however was made after he had dealt with his depression, so that is why the ending is more upbeat and not the nutty insane ending we got with End. Shinji has finally conquered his crippling hopelessness in Rebuild in much the same way the director has moved past his depression. So really the entire Evangelion series and all the movies represents the director's journey from depression to healing. Mari represents the new hope the director found in life when married Moyoko, hence her weird insert in the 2nd Rebuild movie which came out of nowhere and i was always puzzled by her inclusion but makes sense when you understand the mental history of the director.
What do you mean by her insert in 2.0? I didn't catch that
@@efhi I assumed he meant Mari was a new character “inserted” out of nowhere in the 2.0.
When I was watching the train station scene I had this feeling too, with the dream stuff and it's growing on me.
The way he looks at Rei, Kaworu and Asuka as seemingly 3 strangers, in a daydream stated, feels like a novelist lost in his toughts imagining some wild scenario with the daily life in front of him.
Mari snapped him out of this day dream stated and lead him to the real world, an actual IRL world. Shinji says goodbye to his imaginary lovers and friends and take a firm foothold on reality.
It doesn't mean the earth revitalized in the eva world doesn't 'exist', Evangelion is in a way more real than reality itself for a lot of people (that's the power of human being and their imagination as stated in the movie). Asuka, Kaworu and Rei are in a good place now, in our heart at least. It's a kind of 'was it a dream all along?' end, a bit dull in a way but it fits the super meta Eva narrative.
Mari 'judas' Iscariot was a real human being all along, Anno's intent for her was to 'destroy Eva'. She was an outsider (and developed by an outsider writer on purpose). She betrayed the eva narrative, making a bridge between eva and reality and helping shinji, Anno and us emerging into real life. Time to move on, go out and touch grass and leave Evangelion behind us, like a sweet distant dream.
That comment should be read by all Mari haters.
She must in a way symbolize Anno’s wife and his final will to let go of his unfinished work. Because we’re stronger when both and supported.
She had to be the strength he needed to go through nge all the way back without falling into depression again.
Mari is not a random color haired anime character, but the real person in this iteration of the dream, who ended it all, maybe?
I wish we would’ve gotten to see more of the world present at the ending.
Things like seeing the children having happy families since evas got removed from the timeline to end the loop.
Things like Yui being alive, Gendo being there for Shinji, Asuka’s another without the insanity.
I wonder why Rei still exists
i wouldve loved that and im honestly glad rei still exists even though it doesnt make sense, since rei has his mothers dna i could speculate that rei is his sister?
ive honestly attached myself to all the characters and i just want all of them to exist in one form or another :sob:
If you think about it Rei can finally be her own person without the Eva, without being connected to Shinji and try her hardest as to make Shinji not pilot unit 01. That is kinda of the point, letting go and moving on.
4th explanation (closer to 3rd): Evangelion is about depression and about Shinji needing to overcome it. The first series and movie is a "Bad Ending" scenario. Shinji didn't actually overcame it so that's why the world wasn't restored. So the loop they talked about in a "Dark" sort of way. As long as Shinji don't overcome it the world and humanity will be extinct. This time around things were different and Shinji did manage to overcome it, Village 3 showed him that even when the world was a piece of shit people wanted to keep on living. So Shinji found a beauty in life and decided that it had a reason to live, even if what he did made things worse it gave then a chance to go on living. So he wanted life to go on, for those people and for himself and not as the first time when he rejected instrumentality because he was afraid. So since he was ok now, he realized he wanted people to be also ok, that's why he visited everyone and tried to help them. He rewrote the world without Evangelion because that would be the only way things could be alright and in a sense Evangelion might have been a phenomenon created by his depression. Also you could see a simbolism in Rei and Aska, even Kaoro. Rei was apathy, she didn't feel, didn't think for herself, she didn't know how to react (the same way a depressed person don't). Aska was the aggression, self violence, she was always saying how stupid he was, that he was worthless a a child and so on. Kaoro might be self love or even God, reaching out to him trying to make him happy. Maybe Mari is love, she always said Shinji was cute, a puppy and so on. And at the end he runs away with her, that last scene may even be hunting she'll be his wife, or in a simbolic way, that he runs away with happiness letting these other emotions go. One thing does not exclude the other. Rei, Kaoro, Aska and Mari, even Misato (the mother figure) could be real, and had a part in this loop ("Dark") and Shinji just reimagined a life were they could also experience being happy away from Evangelion. In the end what I saw was "People can try to help you, however you're the one that need to overcome it" the two loops we say Kaoro really tried to make Shinji happy and even people around him, at the end he was the one that had to get out of the depression he was carrying, and helping others, loving then was the key for a better world.
I like the loop theory as a cycle of depression. Evangelion could even be seen as Shinji going threw a long therapy in the real world (and Mari the physisian that support his recovery :D ).
Even more down to earth, Evangelion was a cope mechanism for Anno to live with depression and escape reality when it is insufferable. At the end he creates a world without eva, he won against depression and don't need it anymore.
I actually kind of agree with this. In particular i think it's about Shinji grapping with cycles of depression whose roots may take place in his parental relations. The original series, he tries to break out of the cycle but ultimately relapses. The rebirth movies I notice one things is after Mari arrives, more major changes happen in the timeline, and though Shinji doesn't interact with her that much, her arrival seems to coincide with Shinji taking greater measures to defy the world around him and fight for what he believes in, from rescuing Rei to trying to undo third impact to trying to finally face up to his father (and eventually come to some sort of understanding), which eventually helps free him from the cyclical cycle.
Omg I do not want to explain this because it would take forever but if you read more into Ano and how he felt about evangelion at different times in his life. As well as how the show basically started Otaku culture with REI. Then the ending is pretty obvious. It's the end. A happy end. He wrapped it all up as best he could gave us a beautiful ending and is literally telling us to go outside.
Mari started off as a character to up the appeal of the rebuilds but ended up becoming an amalgam of different things. Anos climb out of depression. His wife. A plot device. A way for shinji not to end up with Asuka. Many things. That's why she feels out of place. It's a little cheap but I found it works.
I agree with your opinion of the 3rd interpretation. I actually thought the same thing but love how you supported it with visual representation I missed.
I disagree in one sense as it is beautiful he grew up. I too was personally socially distended. I think it would be glorious as a brief story vs a movie.
Please add content with recommend shows to watch.
going over it all. I believe NGE as a whole is an autobiography of Anno. Rei and Asuka represented crushes Anno had in his youth and he saw them go on to live happy lives without him while "Mari" stepped into is life, voiced by a top tier actress that embodies a waifu for everyone across the entire industry.
Anno wanted Evangelion to grow and flourish beyond his own story, like gundam did. He wanted other writers and peoducers to chrime into the universe and tell stories of "kaiju" attacks around the world being defeated by evangelions. Anno created something too personal no one else wanted to touch. The films is Anno waking up from his dream and letting go. So i believe it was all a dream.
Maybe Shinji’s whole thing here is the journey of life in a way where the characters at the other side of the station was people from his past that impacted him greatly as a person but he learns to accept that he has to move on and live in the present, and that’s also represented by the one girl with the glasses helping him move forward and opening him up.
And the whole series is just him trying to accept his past and himself so he can move forward into a better future and that slow agonizing maturity and letting go of a lot of the innocence while also learning from the good and bad things to grow as a person.
Idk just a thought…
the train is either an oversight (most likely), or its a big brain representation of how shinji is putting eva behind him
I personally dont believe that everything up to this point was a dream. Thats such a cop out ending
I saw it again today after a year (they were showing it in my local theater somehow, I live in Latin America so that was pretty surprising). I'm still struggling with the smaller details of it, but I think I at least have a general impression of what the whole thing might be getting at, in terms of grander themes and feelings. The whole Rebuild project makes more sense when you kinda take it a step further from your third interpretation, by going totally meta and completely shattering the fourth wall. Like, it's a fictional story that knows that it's a fictional story. It's diegetically non-diegetic. So the whole thing is sort of like, personal poetry from Hideaki Anno, and the real value of the story lies within the things that the audience can relate to as people and bring back out into the real world. It literally transitions into the real world in the end, and out into Anno's hometown. Shinji, Anno, and the otaku or hikikomori inside all of us, are invited to make peace with the past and touch grass.
A part of my brain still wants it to make sense diegetically as well, but to do that I kinda have to essentially write fan-fiction in my head and pull stuff out of my ass, like yeah, maybe it was all a dream, and also all the characters that we met along the whole journey were representations of people and relationships in Shinji's real life, and Shinji also has an estranged relationship with his grieving father in real life. And all the intense things he feels in the show and movies, the weight of the world, his alienation from other people, loss, grief and trauma, were real things he felt in his life, but represented through daydreaming about giant biomechanical humanoid exoskeletons that can save or end the world, because maybe Shinji was really into Gundam and Ultraman and processes his life experience through what he knows, possibly what he retreated into to deal with all this stuff in the first place.
The stuff with the train station and the train disappearing based on Shinji's POV (and you didn't mention it in the video, but actually some of the people on the other side of the station, too), I did NOT pick up on that until I saw this video. It's also worth noting how the characters from the show are on the other side of the station, but they're like strangers, and Shinji is kind of treating it that way, but there's a lingering familiarity still there, because he's still in his process. And the train that disappears, existing in Shinji's subjective reality, it's like an option that's there, still taunting him to go somewhere else, blending pretty deceptively into reality. But in the objective reality, Mari is the one that's really there, and they go out the stairs and exit the station: an alternative to the liminal environment that Shinji was in. Also, if you wanna take it to a darker place, if the train doesn't exist, what's Shinji supposed to step on if he goes toward the train. The tracks?
And one more thing. I could never place Mari's role in the whole Rebuild saga. It always kinda threw me off that she just seemed to be totally outside of everything. She's an external anomaly, literally anomalous to the original series and standing out completely because of it, that just shows up in Shinji's depressing reality, literally parachuting in from nowhere pussy-first into Shinji's face. Even her optimistic personality and relaxed, sexy confidence stand out compared to the other Eva pilots. But by the end of the tetralogy, she extracts him from the cage that he's put himself in, alleviating him from the burden of the construct that he's surrounded around himself, and helping him live for himself with confidence.
So Mari could be seen as being to Shinji what Trinity was to Neo, and the Evangelion "dream" is like The Matrix, or the Truman Show or whatever. She's like a sexy deus ex machina. And saying this, I kinda see a parallel there between what Mari is to Shinji, and what Yui was to Gendo. But we're led to believe that, even if Mari left Shinji or she suddenly died, he wouldn't completely abandon his humanity the way his father did, because he was able to grow by understanding his father's grief.
Deus Ex Makinami
Honestly, the 3rd explanation really makes the most sense, because it gave closure to why Mari even existed in the first place. Like through out all the rebuilds with mari present; i'm scratching my head, like why is she even here ( not that i don't like her), but her character is such a foreign object to the story taking place and i think she was thrown in as an instrument to play the tune that is your 3rd conclusion. In the same rite, think back to how gendo tells shinji of his past and what yui truly meant to him. She made him whole and able to enjoy life and snap away from the lonely, solaced life he noted as just fine by his standards. Yui snapped gendo out of the life or delusion he was living in! Gendo thought that lonely, dark, and hateful way of living was perfect, but yui made him realize it wasn't and that he could enjoy being like everyone else, that being happy could be a reality he could exist in and that the other side was a mist of delusion. Mari enters the world to snap shinji from the delusion that we saw as his reality. She's constantly saying that she's coming for him, like finding him physically isn't her sole purpose, but she is coming for him in some other kind of reason. Shinji was dreaming and mari was the voice trying to wake him. I used to always think as Gendo to Yui & Shinji to Rei as a parallel, but when you u look at it as Gendo to yui and Shinji to Mari doesn't it feel like there's supposed to be some sort of connection? You're supposed to see the key notes and put it together. I like your 3rd conclusion alot! The 1st makes sense aswell but i feel it would be too simple for such an elaborate series to end on as the point it was trying to make.
One of the first thoughts that came to mind with the ending when viewing the franchise from a sort of Jungian or metastory perspective is that Shinji as a character/concept transcended the bounds of of the world of Evangelion and into the audience's live action reality.
The world of Evangelion that Asuka returns to, the seeds of earth fall back to, and Village-3 continues to be in still exists as a meta representation that the franchise can still be returned to by the audience, but Shinji, the creator, leaves behind/transcends his creation to live in the real with "us" or the "heaven" of the world of Evangelion.
Also as a side note the Golgotha Object is a reference to the crucifix connected to the Christian Messiah. It is written that on the crucifix the Messiah transcends beyond the "physical" world or from a meta perspective it is the point in which the Messiah transcends the bounds of the story he existed in to become a cornerstone in the psyche of the human species achieving a state of being that death could not destroy.
The use of the Golgotha Object within the anti-universe or in Jungian terms, the Collective Unconscious, hints that Shinji ultimately achieved the same level of transcendence beyond the story he was created in like the Christian Messiah, giving his audience the blueprint to reach heaven by mimicking his acts of kindness, redemption, agency, individuation, etc.
Nice analysis, though I would say the main thing the Golgotha Object and Anti-Universe are in reference to are episodes 13 and 14 of Ultraman Ace. The 5 crosses at the south pole also are a reference to these two episodes.
@@intermediateo5712 I definitely agree it's a reference to Ultraman but also combined with that Anno/Eva lore spice of using Jungian interpretation of the meaning of the Golgotha crucifix and the Christian Messiah's crucifixion.
@@MAVERICX.youtube I agree Shinji has a transcendental experience. He is literally coming to our real world, the place where the writers, the 'gods' that create Evangelion, lies. Mari 'judas' Iscariot, by betraying evangelion and its illusion, was the bridge helping him reaching that state.
It is a 'meta' ending. Shinji (as the audience) snap out of a daydream state takes a strong foothold into reality. It is at the end the message that Anno was desperately trying to pass with eva, go out and touch grass. :)
@@syrozzz Another thought relative to the potential layers/dimensions that exist in Evangelion. I wouldn't consider Evangelion merely a dream but a visual representation of the psyche of live action Shinji and on a bit of a higher meta level, Anno. I tend to think that saying Evangelion is just a dream sort of dismisses the impact (har har) that the events of Eva have on our boy Shinji and the message of this earnest story. All three endings seem to strongly hint that Eva has no shame in representing itself as both an epic mythological drama and in a greater sense a visualization of the creators introspection into their own psyche using a Jungian interpretation of judeo-christian mysticism in order to achieve a level of self-awareness and understanding to cope with living in the real. And the judeo-christian mythos I think is not used as an appeal to that particular faith but in using is used as a practical guide for individuation and inner exploration as Jung deconstructed it as.
So the layers in the Jungian model for the psyche:
Live-action: collective conscious, the world of action and the Persona archetype (Shinji). Typically associated with the "real world" that we share with others.
"Physical" Eva world, where most of Eva's events take place: personal conscious, the world of thoughts and "ruled" by the Ego archetype (Gendo). The first layer of a person's mind that they interact with normally during waking hours that is mostly closed off from others unless you open up or they have a strong enough will to manipulate you.
"Dream" Eva world, the place where the characters face their darker parts like the train motif for Shinji or Asuka's mama scenes: personal unconscious, the world of feelings and the Shadow archetype. The second layer of a person's psyche that typically is only interacted with during dreams or daydreaming or deep creativity/introspection. Similarly closed off from the person like the personal conscious is from others.
"DMT" (lol) Eva world, the madness that is instrumentality or the anti-universe: the collective unconscious where human psychology gives way to human biology and physiology that don't require your direct input. The study of metabiology within Eva hints at this given that from the perspective of fictional/psychological characters (those who ate of the fruit of knowledge) the world of human biology is still beyond their comprehension. It is also the world of the Angel's that ate from the fruit of life. This place also relates to the visuals and space people typically witness in altered states of consciousness when they interact with their own physiological systems in the only abstract way currently possible. The world of biology to the world of psychology where "we" mostly reside is similarly alien and yet human in the same way Lilin relate to the Angels.
@@MAVERICX.youtube I agree! I started to think along these lines when Shinji was fighting Gendo. The movie sets felt like a nod at self-awareness. So when Shinji was in our reality at the end of the movie, in a literal sense I assumed the world without Evas he imagined ended up being our reality.. Or just transformed his existing plane of existence into a mirror of ours. It's really hard to tell.
It's been hinted that Mari was the first to discover LCL and that she was the first the receive the curse of Evangelion.
My thought was exactly as you say in the Ending number 2
it made more sense to me, reality is rewritten.
And to explain the dissapearing train it can just be Shinji saying goodbye in his head, to all the person he saved and loved who lived a life without any influence of the EVAs.
And the colar could be just symbolism, he is also now free.
Thanks for taking the time to do this. There is another video by a channel called NisPlix that just copy-pastes other people's words into a text-to-speech program. So annoying. You on the other hand go way more into depth and obviously put a lot of effort into your analysis.
The train vision is great observation!
But I guess it doesn't matter anymore since we have said goodbye.
Shinji wouldn't turn back the world because it would kill Toji's baby.
Great interpretation, i like the 3rd i was thinking thesame as well because i was trying to associate the movies to the series.
Both movies and the series could actually be:
1. True to life. (Meaning everything did happened)
2. A boy’s imagination dealing with adulthood and trying to cope with it.
It’s awesome that you can have multiple endings depending on how you interpret it…
the father and son fight was so hard they broke through the fourth wall for a moment
Imo it’s a combination. There’s a “real” perspective for the characters and then the symbolism for Anno/Shinji/the viewer. For the characters, I liked how someone else mentioned Kaworu’s words about being stuck trying to make someone else (Shinji) happy and the whole time loop theory. Meaning that the story of Neon Genesis Evangelion have reoccurred multiple times until Shinji and other characters were finally ready to let go of their, what I would call, fears. Then, it’s a combination of interpretations 1+2.
Shinji finally chose to remove Evangelions knowing that the tie to other characters will be gone. He didn’t do it in EoE, so it still not ready to let them go and started another loop - the rebuilds. Removing Evas did rewrite the world of how their lives went without Evangelions, Angels, Nerv, etc. I don’t know why, but I feel like the closest characters to Shinji would remember the reset. Maybe not the previous loops, but at least the last one. Except for Kaworu, he remembered them all. But yeah, everyone else either remembered Shinji but grew apart from him and each other because there weren’t Evas anymore as a common “interest” and they all matured, not needing the unhealthy dependency anymore (ex: Kaworu must make Shinji happy). Or they didn’t, but that won’t make as much sense to me as why Mari did because they didn’t have as much of a connection prior.
The confirmation of the rewrite for me was aging and Shinji’s collar. Since the Eva curse didn’t happen, the characters were of their right age and with the overlap of their new “normal” life and the Evangelion life (that’s probably a lot to handle but so is restarting the world lol). And the collar like transferred since Shinji couldn’t take it off, but was easily removed now that it wasn’t needed. For Shinji and Mary, not having that strong prior connection probably worked out because now they chose to be in each other’s lives without being forced by Evas or something like that.
As for the locations: yeah, I think the beach was this transition point. Maybe all characters had a choice to continue in the Neon Genesis or stay dead/be erased. And for Shinji it was time to make the decision, would explain Mari’s words a bit.
Ok but that’s what “physically” happened to the characters. The rest is symbolism other commenters talked about. For Anno to share his experience, to show Shinji’s growth, and to let the viewers reflect. I feel like Anno is too smart for the it was all a dream move, it’s way too easy. I could see more of a nod towards the what’s happening inside and outside the character of the original series and EoE (even if the inside part wasn’t originally planned). And showing us this combination of both, would explain the switch of the perspective at the end too. And the transition to real life. Which sometimes gives me like “oh, this’s how our current world is created actually.” But probably just an interesting choice to add visual variety and relate Shinji’s and others’ struggles to the viewer aka actual world
Great observation with the train, although I'm not a fan of the idea that it was all a dream, the interpretation I give is that somehow shinji returned everyone to village 3 except him and Mari and what he's seeing is just how he imagines and wishes the others were in a world without Evas
I personally really liked the ending cause I felt as though it tries to retell the original ending (episodes 25 and 26) with a twist. In the original ending. Shinji learned that he has a puropose and finally accepted who he was. However, none of the conflicts are resolved. In the rebuild ending. Shinji not only accepts who he is and everything that happens around him, but most conflicts are resolved. But it’s like the video stated, the ending is up to the viewer’s interpretation
Lol so the Escapism actually turned 180 and told us to go touch grass essentially
this delusion thing is more of a "world view" rather than an literal alussination, like the progection of others by shinji
Thx for the video. As soon as I finished the movie I tried to find explanations on the ending cuz I was very confused. It was bittersweet, how did you guys feel about the ending?
The only ending I can see making total sense, logically and thematically, is that there's two worlds. When Shinji creates his "neon genesis," it's a final work after fixing the world of the series and repopulating it. He leaves, with Mari, to a totally different universe, which is why the train station was used. It's a symbol for transition, going somewhere, a new beginning in all media. The Rei and Kaworu oppposite who actually get a camera focus are the ones he was with in the anti-universe. Asuka, who does not get a focus, is a totally different Asuka, living a totally different life, and is just an indicator that this world probably has a version of everyone, including those who died like Misato.
This leaves the original Asuka, and all the other characters who were not in the anti-universe, untouched and happy in the original world, now healed and repopulated. It makes Shinji's departure closer to the Grey Havens ending in LOTR, and removes the morale issues of him re-writing everyone else's lives without their consent, which would literally kill children like Tsubame if you think about it too much. The idea he re-wrote everyone's world totally makes little narrative sense, because why else would shots of the escape pods reaching the village, and Asuka returning to Kensuke, be something to include if they were only going to erase it all straight after? I'll also note the Asuka seen at the station (who I don't believe is the same one) looks younger than the 28 year old version who returns to Kensuke, with hair much closer to her NGE style. Just another reason I don't consider it the same world.
This is my thought as well, that Shinji left the Asuka and the other characters in the original world, ejected from the the anti-universe, while he created a new world with Mari within the Golgotha object. This new world is free from the Evas, free from the baggage that the other two pilots. Since only Shinji and Mari were able to remain in the Golgotha object, that would explain why they both said goodbye to Asuka before she ejected in the plug. This also explains why they are the only two with memories. I think Mari removing Shinji's collar at the end is symbolic of this, that they definitely carried something over but Mari is removing his restraints to allow him to start over, with her, in this new life.
I wanted to know what other people thought about this and to me it's kind of depressing that Shinji is now pretty much alone with no one to remember his experiences except Mari. Then again, he's now happy now in the real world and everyone else is happy in the real final Eva world. Shinji accomplished his goal, a Neon Genesis, but he didn't drag everyone else with him this time.
I never considered that the world with evangelions would still exist. That's an incredible interpretation!
I understand this movie. It feels over and over back in time like 26 years ago of the images. It feels bizarre, delusion but illusion. And the fact is, shinji is the one escape the mind set of his father obsessed with his wife dead trying to rebirth.
That's the bizarre.
Congratulations shinji Kun
Thank you Evangelion
May as well add my theory too, though I wouldn't say it's too different from most of these. I think that simply when Shinji is sitting on the shore and everything is getting less detailed that's the anti-universe collapsing, or at least Shinji's control over it after Yui uses the Gaia Spear, so he's on the edge of dissapearing for good when Mari comes to save him. Then the final scene is all of them in the Neon Genesis reality, where the loop is finally broken and Shinji (along with Anno) can finally move on and get back to reality. The collar getting removed represents his bondage to Evangelion finally ending, with Mari offering something new for him to focus on as he embraces being an adult in the real world.
With that I'm with everyone else in that it would have been reeeally nice if Mari got even just a bit more character development to justify the ending, other than just that one comment from Fuyutsuki and some half sketched flashes in the anti-universe. But it is how it is.
The train doesn't disappear, it's just a different camera angle. Trains aren't all the exact length of the platform. It doesn't show from the side angle because it's further up on the platform. Look at the blue sign - it doesn't appear where the other people are standing, because it's further down on the platform. This ending makes sense as a rewriting - he said he wanted everyone to live new lives. That's what the other people are - they have new lives, they're different people. Reincarnation is a super popular theme in anime or Japanese stories in general.
Great video. One thing about your final interpretation of the train sequence. Could it just be that from the 2nd person's point of view of Shinji, and seeing Miss. Mari conversing with Shinji - the fact that we don't see the train from that angle is merely because we can't see the train from that angle?
The delusion kind of make sense that would kind of explain why throughout 3.0 -1.0 you would always hear Mari singing in the background ..
I throughly enjoyed this take.. the one thing I disagree with is enjoying multiple interpretations from art. It always means different things to different people. Art and film can be watched by two people who see fundamentally different themes in anything.
The big thing for me with more complex themes is they are more enjoyable to revisit over time. Eva was a fighting robot anime to me as a kid in the 90s but as I’ve grown and revisited my understanding has evolved overtime.. as to where Dragonball, which I thoroughly enjoy, has more simple themes, and I see more than the humor and fighting as I’ve grown, but it’s a much less frequent rewatch for me.
Thanks for the content! Cheers!
"Sometimes the easiest answer is the obvious one" - Unknown
i think mari was there at the end of every loop to help shinji reset the world and thus they got to be good friends, shinji got his memories back only near the end of the film though.
Although I like your three interpretations, I have another one.
Shinji’s father, Gendo, tried to complete the instrumentality project but Shinji stopped him in the anti-universe. In the process he dies. Notice that his mother saving him is saving his soul only because when asuka is ejected from the Eva 13, she is in a pod, but shinji is glowing blue, spiritually floating watching his “mother kill his father”.
In the process he says goodbye to asuka (poetical license) because her physical body was still there but that asuka is a clone, the real one died in Evangelion 2.0 when unit 01 chew her capsule with her inside.
He says goodbye to kaworu’s spirit since he was already dead, and he went on to leave growing plants with Kaji in the afterlife. Kaworu does mention it’s a cycle but that does not invalidate it
He says goodbye to Rei, but that is her spirit, since the real Rei died in Evangelion 3.0. He tells her to find happiness like her clone found, but that is an allusion to peace for her spirit.
Then asuka capsule is seen in Kensuke cabin in the mountain which means that asuka clone made it out of the anti-verse, the same with Wille’s members, except for Misato, who died with her ship.
Mari is dead, and the key point here is that she promised Shinji she would go after him and Shinji specifically said he would be waiting for her before he disappeared before boarding unit 01. Mari presumably died together with professor Kozo when Nerv exploded.
When Shinji woke up at the blue beach that is an allusion to show that when he was about to lose hope as the animation starts to crumble, Mari shows up, fulfilling her promise of going back for him, even in the afterlife.
At the station he sees Rei, Kaworu and Asuka but those are figments of his imagination. We see that Mari and him are older, which means that they are “living” together. The world is back to normal over there, the neon genesis, because that is not the real world. The real world is the post apocalyptic one where Asuka’s clone, Kensuke and Koji are living, together with Willi’s crew
I took it as shinji leaving his past and going forward with the future
My friend and I actually watched the film last night, and he made a passing remark like "What if all of it was a dream? Haha that would be funny" IF that is what the creators were going for, it feels like a terrible cop out. I hate the "it was just a dream" thing because it means everything the characters did was literally pointless
I am all for number 3. When I saw the first series and then End of Eva years ago I was almost sure that it was all projection/dream/delusion of Shinji who lives in real world and is dealing with depression, remembers painful events from his past and his growing up and is afraid of adult life and realizes that he has to stop being a child and learn responsibilites and hardships of being an adult. He created a world after the apocalypse, big robots and angels to fight with and kind of countdown to the end of the world as a proxy for his inner feelings, loneliness, frustration, fear. Rebuild movies made me sure 100% that it was the case.
So with the whole debate on if Mari is a stand-in for Hideaki Anno's wife, I wonder if it ties in with Asuka's scene as well...so besides it being somewhat implied that when he was making the old 90's TV show Asuka was probably is favorite character, there was a lot of speculation amongst Japanese fans that Anno was having a relationship with Yuko Miyamura (Asuka's Japanese VA) at the time. It was only just rumors from the time, but the fact Anno was especially close with Miyamura during the TV show and EoE's production and in that scene from this last film basically has Shinji make peace with his feelings about Asuka and ends up with Mari (who many people speculate is a stand-in for his wife) does make me wonder...
OMG...
two years late but evangelion staff confirmed that mari isn’t actually annos wife and the scene wasn’t meant to be viewed as romantic
I just wanted to watch the only evangelion that I could.
What have I fallen into.
I know you imply that the whole "rewriting the world instead of turning back time" idea to get basically the same results feels like a cheap cop-out, but I honestly feel like the dream ending is the most cheap since that plot device could be used to justify literally anything. The train disappearing just seems like a continuity error which happens all the time even in big budget productions, especially since it's only absent in that one instance with the sound still indicating the train is real, and the first shot from a distance showing the train is clearly not from Shinji's perspective. When you see Shinji as older(and combined with the transition from beach) that simply just means time has passed, and that long time passage is why they could rebuild sections of the formerly devastated world.
For me it was a very long wait to see this last movie and I just accepted the ending as a simple optimistic ending for the Evangelion franchise when compared to the more self-destructive ending of The End of Evangelion. In a way, it is slightly similar to the manga ending of the train station and the choker replacing Misato's cross.
Just a question about interpretation 3, if this is the case then why do we see mari with gendo and yui in some scenes and why does she appear as a character in shinji's "delusion". Overall the end Anno and crew has given us has really confused me because there are so many valid interpretations that can be believed - this has left me quite unsatisfied after my 9 year wait :/
If anyone could shed some more light on how and which interpretation makes the most sense to them id be grateful!
With Interpretation 3, since it would all just be a dream anyways, you could interpret Mari's backstory as something that Shinji is trying to fit into the puzzle of Eva when it wasn't there before. In a "meta" sense you could say that's why it is so vague and doesn't make sense, because the real Shinji doesn't now how to fit this new person from his real life into his story.
But you could basically use that as a get-out-of-jail-free card to explain away all the things that didn't ultimately make any sense, so it isn't very satisfying to me.
I think that every review misses one big fact.
Mari from her introduction to the end seems to have some knowledge no one else has.
Not just of Eva, but if Shinji, fiutski, everyone.
Remember she is played juxtaposed to Kenji saying “ I hate using kids for my goals”
She says I hate using adults”
But she herself is later shown to be as old as Gendo.
I think the best ( and this is a streach) interpretation is she was from some alternate timeline, reality. Version of EVA. Which has been reset many times ( kuwarus statements. About it all happening over snd over)
And she was moving across time looking to save Shinji.
I think the writers lost the plot snd had no idea where to go.
It’s evident if you watch interviews from 2:2 and 3 Mari was not planned to be such a big player in the show.
They just reused that scene of the train. Your over analyzing
thats because she is the one who helped shinji rewrite the world in each of the 4 loop
Watch Hideaki Anno: The Final Challenge of Evangelion on Amazon Prime Video. It's really informative about the writing process the Anno and his team went through. It's definitely true what you said about the writers being lost but when you watch the 2-part documentary, you will truly understand why.
My interpretation of the ending was that Mari was written (in 3.0+1.0 at least) to portray all the things which helped Anno out of his depression and finally say goodbye to Evangelion. The whole Evangelion saga has always been somewhat of an insight into the mind of Hideko Anno himself. At some point he says that he didn't know what to do with Mari's character other than that she was supposed to Destroy Eva. Anno did not feel like he could write the perfect ending to Neon Genesis because he felt incapable of delivering a worthy ending and it seemed to me that he was still struggling to decipher his own thoughts and couldn't express his thoughts clearly to his writers.
The final scenes where the animation transitions into live action felt like his way of saying that Neon Genesis is over and it's time for him (and us) to go on and live our lives in the real world.
@@jdfutura another thing we know is that Anno had always wanted more creators to create new stuff using evangelion, but then it became a huge marketing machine and i think he was a little horrified by that. But i do really feel that the ending ment that you should not become too focused on stuff like evangelion and instead focus on real life instead, like finding happiness with someone or other thing. But i like that we can see all the interpretations from this last movie since it is open enough for that
its implied Mari is the reason Gendo and Yui met in the first place, there is still the mystery how and when she became an ageless angel like Rei, Asuka and Shinji.
Finally Shinji stop taking drugs!
Shinji grew up! 😁 Found a better spot in life and accepted his flaws or learned to fight threw his troubles and copped with the trauma
. I guess he learned to love himself again. Life goes in many ways but I guess "keep fighting forward" or "one day at a time" applies with learning to live with the trauma or memories kinda thing. I got this by him seeing his friends grown up, telling him that they missed him. That misato was happy with him being back despite them having a negative moment. That sometimes your overthinking a situation and the problem might of not been as big in the first place. That's theirs always light in the dark? Idk dude 😂
sick vid
When watching the movie i was like wow that was awesome and made sense (mostly) but between you and watching GoatJesus you really see the the flaws underneath the surface. Yeah the ending might not be direct, but I enjoyed it for what it was. It has flaws like how it creates shit out of no where like the black Lilith and anti universe is. The thing with the train that only shinji could see is awesome though i didn't notice that so thanks for opening my eyes.
second one makes the most sence and Mari picking him up is something he wrote into the new remake with everyone
A thing I thought about was, maybe they never came back from the anti-universe. They are still stuck in that realm that doesn't make sense to them, but since it's imaginary they can still “live“ inside of it, while all the other live in the Neon Genesis world (hence why they are on the other side of the train station, basically not reachable for Shinji). And the reasoning for only shinji seeing the train and his friends is because he still cares for and about them while Mari only really had an attachment to Asuka which she already said goodbye to
i agree. and im still mad that he never got to say goodbye
I don’t think this series was ever meant to come to a logical conclusion. Eva has ALWAYS been open to interpretation and with that in mind I’d say the ending follows the exact same structure.
Anno is very intelligent with how he frames his story and he tastefully contradicts himself just enough so that it could leave the viewer wondering/wanting more.
My interpretation is that he just self inserts himself into shinji at times in the story where it fits to. in the case of the last movie, to me what he was saying was that he is leaving this series behind. To him it’s time to part ways and separate. He is choosing an outcome where the characters that have accompanied him all this time can finally be free, in the process of that also frees himself as well.
The moment where shinji and Rae have their last conversation I thought was incredibly powerful. Rae asks if he’ll be lonely and he says no and that Mari will come for him.
While this is being said scenes from the original are playing against the backdrop. And it’s like anno comparing where he was back then compared to now. Back then Rae was the driving force and she represented the freedom anno sought. But that freedom wasn’t true freedom as we came to see. Instead this time we have Mari who is true freedom; she is a path away from everything shinji/anno knows. Rae at this moment knows that and us the (viewer) are able to decide in that moment which of the two outcomes we think is best.
We can follow Rae like shinji did in the past and take original Eva as truth or we follow Mari and interpret her path as truth. And that’s the real beauty of Evangelion, it’s about choice.
And looking back on the series now it feels like we’ve seen everything we need to see from this series. I agree with anno the series deserves to finally rest.
The train never disappears, it's simply off-camera. At 9:35, 9:54 and 10:17 you can see at the extreme left of the shot the white/blue sign of Ube station being cut. At 10:24 just after Mari took Shinji's DSS choker you can see how the head of the train is very close to that same sign, but never went past (the train has now stopped). Because of how khara placed the camera and the cuts, it's only slightly outside of our visual field.
Th-That's not how perspective works though?
Barring Shinji and Mari actually being fish-eyed shaped people at a fish-eyed shaped station, being shot with a fish-eyed lense, we can clearly see no train at the track that is directly across from them. Even if the train were right to the left of the sign, we should still be able to see the corner of it since it should fill up half the width of the gap for the tracks.
I also compared it to a similar (but even tighter) angle from this video of the real-life station (at 0:45)
ua-cam.com/video/koMvxAtqm9g/v-deo.html
And even from that more restricted angle, we can see the part of the platform you are talking about, where the train should be. So if the station is supposed to be 1:1 with the real thing and the train is "supposed" to be right off screen, then it is just a straight up continuity error.
And the train reappears when Shinji and Mari leave the station. Actually they animated it in the real world (as the people) in the aerial (drone) shot... The train is always there.
Mari was there with her father, mother. Everyone is there; Mari represents Nerv and everyone he met there. It’s an ambiguous scene that shows they’re all happy, evas and instrumentality ended
2 years late to this but fuq everything, everyone had their happy ending.ALL GOOD BABY
I was all a "Dream" about his Mother, Father and Friends. And it's dysfunction...
What i think happened and hope that happened is once everyone returned to village 3, life progressed from there. Asuka, rei, etc come back and start to rebuild humanity. That is why the train station scene has everyone look much older, as they have grown up because they no longer have ties to evas.
Hey nice video and interesting concepts :)
But I think your third interpretation has little flaw you seem to have overlooked.
You are telling that the train is only visible for Shinji and is not really there because we can't see it in the perspective that shows Shinji sitting on the bench. But I think that is only because of the camera perspective.
You can easily see this by using the landmarks. In your small clip take the scene at 11 seconds (11:11). Look at the left side of the opposite train tracks. You can see the white/blue station sign. It is a little cut by the camera perspective so that we can see the name of the station but not the left borders of the sign frame. Furthermore we can see that there are bushes underneath the sign and no building immediately behind.
Now stop your clip at 17 seconds (11:20). We see the people standing at the station but we can not see the station sign hanging there and we see the station building right there in the backround. So the reason we can not see the people or the station building at 11 seconds is, that the "camera" or perspective for this shot is positioned slightly behind shinjis left side.
This is the same reason why we can't see the train standing there in this perspective. If you stop your clip at 59 seconds (12:31) you see that the end of the train is not even reaching the left border of the blue/white sign (top right corner). And as already said the "Shinji-Alone-Perspective" does only show the stuff which is towards the right side of the signs left frame.
So yeah, I think this is only a matter of camera angle and perspective and no imagination from Shinji :)
If it is unclear I can try to draw a paint picture and upload it :)
The ending is pretty clear: Anno's leaving behind NGE universe to get back to the real world.
Weird to think that asuka, Shinji and Mari should be around their 40s bcs of their lack of aging for 14 years
The third theory about Mari helping him reminds me of how Yui helped gendo by changing his world...
the ending looks like one of those typical real life depression suicidal shit and the girl pulled him out of it
I'm late to the party, but my interpretation is slightly different: I'm not 100% caught up on the lore and I'm mostly going off on instinct, but since
> in the end of 3.0+1.0 it was important for Shinji to save Asuka and Rei... to make sure they got back in the Tokyo colony of the beginning.
> Shinji said he didn't want to rewrite the world or turn back time, just eliminate the EVAs, so I think that includes the consequences of the 3rd impact.
> if the world was actually recreated from 0 without EVAs, like it looks in the final scene, and we were just seeing another Shinji from this final loop, he shouldn't have the chocker.
I believe that in the end he managed to save everybody but was left stranded in the anti-universe, letting himself go (the scene where we see the unfinished animation), but is then found by Mari. Without the EVA that disappears they can't go back to their friends, but since the anti-universe is malleable, they create their own reality there, where Shinji demonstrates his actual age and everybody is happy. The plot twist of the drone shot could be that our own reality is the one created by Shinji, but I dunno, it does begin Anime style...
That was same thoughts i had
I like the way the wiki puts it. They are living in our world peacefully
4: Anno lets the Fans choose what Ending they want. Both are true, both are existing on different planes of the multiverse. And it's up to us what ending we want.
If this what he wanted to, i will be happy
The train is there. See the blue&white sign up of the train stop. The train is just before that as you can see in time 12:32 and the other perspective is starting from the left side of that sign.
My interpretation is that shinji creates a second world without evas parallel to the one that most of the story plays in.
He said hes not going to turn back time or something like that because it would make all the strugles and all of the hard work in vain that the people like in village 3 put into making the best out of still being alive and he saved asuka and rei and sent them there because they can both find a place there.
He himself then created a world similar to ours where evas never existed and went there, where marie then found him like she promised to. In the Train Station scene we just see them living a normal life showing us how shinji reached happines by just being normal
I have a question, do you think all of them(Shinji, Rei, Asuka, Kaworu, and Mari) still have the memory about the world where the eva exists. or atleast the memory to recognize each other? I really curious about this stuff and still find no answer at any forum lol
I don’t think so. It seems like a complete reset, dream or rebirth.