Oh my god.
I cried.

This does not quite make me forgive EMK or Evil!Gendo, but I do have to revealuate my relationship with this manga, it was not all bad.

First the implication that he essentially have the world a chance because of HER and their connection. (Weirdly similar to 2.0, in a way; If Shinji was Haruhi, Rei would end up in Kyon's place in the episode where she nearly moved over to a fresh reality, you know. In either continuity, their connection was always one of the most central, process-starting things...)
and then THIS happens.
Just the frame as she fades away smiling...

In a way, I feel reminded of that scene in final fantasy VII where Cloud gets to see/ reach for Aerith's hand as she shows him the way in the lifestream, but can't quite grasp her, and in the end, he obviously lives and she doesn't.
But her last words and the whole ascending to a higher place thing also remind me of the ending of Serial Experiments Lain.
I think Lain gets compared to Rei way too much, I'd say she's way more similar similar to Shinji, personality wise, if he had been the one to be the artificial human, but the relationship between Lain and Alice does have interesting parallels to S/R.
and well, the ending of Lain, yeah.
"I'm still here, so I will always watch over you".
...Yeah. It... hit me as something similar.

Or last unicorn-y, for anothzer comparision, she's back to being the huge, celestial thingy she came from and can't be with him anymore, but they're both changed...

That said, I still stay with the point that Sadamoto often overdramatifies the characters, "I was all empty before I met you" is such a cheesy line. A marked difference in Rebuild is for example the emphasis that Q has recently given a hobby that she had before she met Shinji, because that's sort of the point, at least in the Anime/Rebuild, (this being the version that I personally find more interesting) he didn't sculpt himself a mirroring figure out ofmalleable clay, he found a kindred spirit in/devoted attention to what was already there. I don't think that was sadamoto's intention either, but that's sort of the fridge logic that comes with it.
But meh, with the rest of that scene, I'm willing to live with that line.


Also, what about Gakuen Datenroku? The focus was mostly on Kaworu, but Datenroku!Rei was stated to luv him and they both survive...
Too bad that was a bit cut short, really.
Ah, screw it all.

For all I care, that pretty much IS an R/S ending - just not exactly a happy one.
The story being tragic never precluded Juliet/Romeo or Jack/rose from official couple status, you know?

Maybe it's just... reading this so early after Q, and I would have dismissed it like many other recent manga developements otherwise, but... damnit.
Wanna tissue.


Either way, Manga!Shinji rejecting instrumentality was to be forseen, partially because Sadamoto didn't seem to have the guts to really let it deviate and derailm, but also... if
Manga!Shinji was a bit nobler here, explicitly going anlong with TI for the sake of sparing others pain, while Anime!Shinji was... no, using the words "worse" or "selfish" would be a hugeass injustice, it's more that he was, at this point, no longer capable of such higher thoughts, down to the most primal "It hurts, just make it stop" with everything else stripped away from him - So if he came back, so can his manga counterpart....

Stage.95:
Next stage should have

Gendo won?

Looking like a NGE64 ending.

Sooooo... happy ending for everyone? Even Gendo?

That was unexpected.

Holy shit, Sadamoto.


How do you fuck up the pacing to an ending this badly?

Years of practice.

Raws are on /a/ and that other board

Might TL later

but here's some gendo

Ok, now i'ts definitely going to be (almost) the same beach scene we got in EoE.

Edit: There is about 3mins left from EoE.

Edit 2: fun fact: 2-3 previous chapters contained about 5min material. Dat pacing.

[URL=http://imgbox.com/advebLTJ][/URL]

chee wrote:Holy shit, Sadamoto.
How do you fuck up the pacing to an ending this badly?

I don't get it? What's wrong with it!?

SEELE-01 wrote:I don't get it? What's wrong with it!?

nothing

I hope the pacing is logarithmic, so the process of choking Asuka will be longer than the Mahabharata and the Epic of Gilgamesh combined.

SEELE-01 wrote:I don't get it? What's wrong with it!?

I think he was talking about the fact that untel recently the pacing was very quick, and that since the beginning of the ritual(when the harpy squad captured EVA-01) we're advancing at no more that 3-4 minutes of EoE scenes per chapter.

I like Gendo's conclusion. He was more sympathetic in the manga.

I don't think Asuka will return, unless she does this with everyone else. Among all characters, she was the single one who was taken without any resistance: she happily and peacefully embraced the man she loves. In the anime version, she was fighting for her life when she died, so her return is realistic consequence of her traumatic drive to survive. Misato might because she's one of Sadamoto's favorite characters (look at the conclusion he gave to another favorite: Gendo).

Xiel wrote:I like Gendo's conclusion. He was more sympathetic in the manga.

I don't think Asuka will return, unless she does this with everyone else. Among all characters, she was the single one who was taken without any resistance: she happily and peacefully embraced the man she loves. In the anime version, she was fighting for her life when she died, so her return is realistic consequence of her traumatic drive to survive. Misato might because she's one of Sadamoto's favorite characters (look at the conclusion he gave to another favorite: Gendo).

She did chant her "I don't want to die" mantra but when Kaji showed up she tanged easily. I think it's either everyone or no one in the finale and the former seems more likely considering all of Shinji's reminiscing in instrumentality and Yui reminding him to protect everyone.

colddice wrote:She did chant her "I don't want to die" mantra but when Kaji showed up she tanged easily.

Point, but she was the easily swept over next to Fuyutsuki. She didn't even get to freak out like the bridge bunnies did.

Although who can blame her, Kaji is truly dashing.

colddice wrote: I think it's either everyone or no one in the finale and the former seems more likely considering all of Shinji's reminiscing in instrumentality and Yui reminding him to protect everyone.

I believe so. Everyone who Shinji's recalling in those pictures is getting back, with the possible omission of Rei (unfortunate) due to her snow stunt (and his parents who left him for a honeymoon in the Solar System). I hope that we get a Toji-Shinji reunion in particular, after the shocking resolution of his arc.

Xiel wrote:


I believe so. Everyone who Shinji's recalling in those pictures is getting back, with the possible omission of Rei (unfortunate) due to her snow stunt (and his parents who left him for a honeymoon in the Solar System). I hope that we get a Toji-Shinji reunion in particular, after the shocking resolution of his arc.

That would be pretty good. Though I'll admit Rei always having to dissappear from the world makes me sad.

Darkwing wrote:That would be pretty good. Though I'll admit Rei always having to dissappear from the world makes me sad.

It really, really sucks. But I had the horrible feeling that was a possibility since I went back to re-read and I noticed Quantum Rei doesn't exist in the manga version.

Is there a translated version of chapter 95 already? Its been two weeks since the chapter was released and I still found nothing.