Original Scripts before The Budget Ran Out

[ruffmanl]

I have been scanning these forums for the past few hours going back as far as twenty pages in to get more and more information of Evangelion (as you can guess, I'm a life long anime fan but I had never watched the series until a few days ago and then I subsequently watched the entirety of the series and first two movies nonstop).

I came upon a thread where a user said that "the original scripts for the last two episodes before the budget ran out makes EoE look really positive". After reading that, I became obsessed with the idea that there is ANOTHER alternative ending somewhere on the web.

The idea of a completely different ending to the series, the actual RIGHTFUL ending of the series before the constraints of the budget caused them to create the mindfuck which is the final two episodes, is beyond appealing. But alas, after hours of googling I could not find any pre-budget restraints scripts fro the final two episodes.
Is anyone here familiar with the original scripts for the series? If so, do you know where it is I can find it?
After spending the better part of the week obsessing over finishing the series and movie, now that it's over I really don't know what to do with myself. I would love to spend a few more hours reading new material, so any insight on where I can find this scripts to the "lost" ending would be very much appreciated! Thank you!

[Shinoyami65]

I doubt there is a "lost" ending. As I stated in your thread about the childrens' drawings in Episode 25/26 of the TV series, there is evidence that they had already planned several events in EoE (such as Ritsuko's death and Misato's death) when the TV series was over.

It is true, however, that there is an early screenplay for EoE in existence, with two alternative endings. And very luckily, this forum has a wiki site where a translated version of this screenplay is preserved:

[url]http://wiki.evageeks.org/Resources:End_of_Evangelion_Screenplays#Episode_25.27[/url]

However, the "alternative endings" in this screenplay aren't exactly cheery. In fact, you could say the actual ending is better than both of them. The endings (from the screenplay linked above) are:

*Last A: The prototype of the final ending. It depicts grave markers erected by Shinji, inscribed with the names of the people he'd known (with the exception of Rei). Asuka is shown kicking down her marker. (A stand of grave markers, complete with one that's been kicked down, are still there in the finished film, but no explanation is provided.) The infamous throttling scene is present, but Asuka's line afterwards is different: "Idiot. I'd never let someone like you kill me."

*Last B: Also uses the desolate beach for its setting, and includes the grave markers. The Rei "specter" is briefly sighted. Shinji is lying on the beach holding the hand of a disembodied white arm, and he talks to himself about how he'll "never see them again" but he'll go on living regardless.

[ruffmanl]

[url]http://wiki.evageeks.org/Resources:End_of_Evangelion_Screenplays#Episode_25.27[/url]


*Last B: Also uses the desolate beach for its setting, and includes the grave markers. The Rei "specter" is briefly sighted. Shinji is lying on the beach holding the hand of a disembodied white arm, and he talks to himself about how he'll "never see them again" but he'll go on living regardless.

Ahhh thank you that was very helpful! Now I know how I'm going to finish the rest of my night (reading the alternative endings lol) but to be honest that last one, ending B would have been great. If Asuka, and everyone else really was dead and Shinji had to live on the desolate planet forever. If he really fucked himself over, he didn't even have the power to change his fake reality thru his mind, but was really the only one left outside of the LCL Sea. forever. lol

[Bagheera]

There is no lost ending. There were different endings planned back when the show was first being proposed, but these amounted to rough ideas/spitballing at the time.

Also, the ending we got wasn't the result of budget issues. It was the result of production issues outside of Gainax's control (essentially, subcontracted work -- particularly to Tatsunoko -- wasn't getting done in a timely fashion and the show suffered for it). Their budget was actually okay for the duration of the show.

[Mr. Tines]

One of the extras in the Japanese Renewal box set release was an animatic fragment in TV format, which did look very much like the start of EoE summarised

[NemZ]

The first half of EoE is based on a script for 25 that didn't get used due to production issues (asside from a few stills of the 'real world' sneaking in), but episode 26 was as intended. EoE then took that abandoned script as it's start but edited things as it went along, including retroactively altering the series with the Death&Rebirth flashbacks that eventually made it into the DC episodes, all leading up to a different ending.

Until someone actually finds a copy of that lost script we'll never know just how much of it was changed as EoE was produced.

@Mr. Tines: Remember that EoE was originally conceived as an OAV before they decided to go for a full theatrical release. The animatic might well be planning materials created for the former rather than something for the 'lost' ep25. Possibly the same source as the DC24' version of the "next episode" unfinished footage (which it should be reminded is NOT the same as the broadcast 24's epsidode 25 preview).

[Shinoyami65]

We do see many "fragments" from EoE in the TV Episode 25, including Ritsuko's body floating in LCL, Misato lying on the ground after being shot, and Eva-02 in the lake. These situations were later replicated in EoE, indicating that they were planned long beforehand and not thought up later.

[NemZ]

Yes, but in what context? The same results could potentially happen without JSDF involvement at all, in the same way that some of the EoTV dialog gets reused in different context and with different speakers to achieve a different result. There's insufficient justification to assume EoE was always planned out exactly as it was.

Also Ritsuko apparently got shot in the back in the 25 fragment.

[Atropos]

Seems like the original idea had the best of both worlds, resolving the 'real world' plot while giving us an unedited Instrumentality sequence - I can't be the only one who felt that the EoTV depiction of Instrumentality was superior to the film version.

[EvangelionGodMode]

I read somewhere that the orignial was suppose tp have 28 angels

[cyharding]

^Yes there was and you can read more about it right here.

[LMwanderer]

We had the classified information that fleshed out some of the background story happenings to give the setting better context, but I really want an original series CRC that documents the entire developmental process. It could answer so many lingering questions. Considering that Sore o Nasumono mentioned the unused "spitballed" submissions being made for the series ending to generate ideas leaves room for a lot of material that never saw the light of day. If a translation of it saw was right they had been considering a season 2. I still wonder more what the original OVA they had originally conceived of might have gone.