Xenoblade wrote:bladerj#914976 wrote:btw doesnt Shinji say goodbye to Asuka because he was going to sacrifice himself before yui and gendo saved him ?
so.....technically that was his out....mari is a usurper !
Perhaps, but she makes it explicit to him that she has moved on earlier in the film regardless. Even with Shinji also saved in the end, the goodbye stands. The beach scene was:
One More Final: I Do (not) Need You in a way.
Shinji understands and accepts he must move on, in line with Asuka's decision earlier in the film. Asuka blushing at Shinji's confession (if not at him seeing her ripped plugsuit, which judging by earlier events in the film wouldn't embarrass her) is an interesting detail but she ultimately made her choice long ago. I understand the focus was on our Eva pilots so Kensuke for example can't be there, but Asuka being the "odd man out" sitting alone at the end is good evidence that the goodbye stands regardless of Shinji making it out alive. Even Rei and Kaworu got to chat, after all. Asuka sits..alone.
I'm with everyone speculating that Mari represents Anno's wife in some metaphorical form, especially with how she falls from the sky (like an angel) to meet him. She feels like a "saviour", as clear as day.
Apologies for the old quote, but damn, I dunno. While I completely understand what Anno is doing thematically, it feels like using Mari for it doesn't really work. I've mentioned before that the ANN review and all the Japanese reviews I read mention this: from a purely narrative standpoint, Mari has not nearly enough development, and never forms a connection with Shinji in the scenes they have together (10 minutes or so in the entire tetralogy, including the ending). I wonder if a more obviously open-ended ending would have worked better. Because, if Shinji moves on from the Eva world, why exactly is someone that loves the Evas so much supposed to be his guide? Leaving aside the shipping per see and opposing mother figure/guide/close frend/matchmaker (lol) implications.
It feels weird. I argued in the past that Asuka simply had unresolved feelings for him. I never expected an actual love confession... even in the past tense. Asuka has gotten over him for entirely understandable AND MATURE reasons. This is something that I applaud, because even if the A/S relationship is all about facing hardships blah blah in the real world, Asuka can't just revolve around Shinji. But then Asuka acts super mega tsundere and blushes the hell out when Shinji returns her past feelings? What the hell? Why can't she just smile and say "thanks", like Shinji also does, providing mutual closure? That kinda feels like teasing again, but at the same time it half defeats the purpose of the scene. Yet at the same time, the A/S shippers themselves didn't expect much from the Weebuilds because 2.0 simply doesn't give enough development
to their relationship either. It's bizarre. Asuka just happens to love Shinji but he has barely earned her love either.
A bento?!?Well, either way, like I said, it means that, when the plot wasn't there, they did love each other, inside the narrative. Applies to EoE, applies to NGE, and will probably apply for all the upcoming terrible spin-offs. Or at least be interpreted as such.
Back to the ending, it seems to me to be kinda like the Congratulations scene in EoTV. While it might not get exactly as much backlash as that one (who knows?), I do think the narrative isn't supporting the themes too well. Something blander like them all together at the station walking to the real world would have been more effective. The focus on Mari just feels weird and out of nowhere. And her appearing out of nowhere as a "saviour" is contrary to the generally accepted interpretation of NGE - work on your problems, don't expect a magic saviour, etc. This having been exactly what Kaworu was trying to do and it again not working out - and interesting that this is now framed as a fault on Kaworu's part- I wouldn't quite call it self serving but Kaji says he wanted to make himself happy, and that's an interesting point. Kaworu is more humanized in NTE by way of being misguided instead of more indecipherable and alien. Whereas the "core" with Asuka isn't there at all. They aren't shown to be incompatible, to be toxic together. The problem is that Shinji failed her once, and realized this too late. Remember when Shinji failed her in NGE? He failed to support her when he didn't kiss her back, didn't help he with her deteriorating mental state. There were
character reasons for it. In EoE, those were more or less resolved, and then we have them together in ending, with what will happen from there left to the reader.
In NTE that also happens. with Shinji not helping her against the Ninth Angel, and he also realizes that, and improves as a character.. but he does so 14 years later. For Shinji all that time had not passed, even if it did for Asuka. It's weird.
So I dunno. I'm not sure I'm buying it. I understand it, but it feels somewhat cheap. It doesn't seem a lot of people are either.
I wonder if we'll need a split thread for this specific point.
