Kendrix wrote:If anything I'm glad that we see adult Asuka still playing games & not magically transformed into a cheery emphatic person cause it sends the message that growing up doesn't mean you cant have hobbies or a personality anymore, something that particularly women get bombarded with. ("Why are you writing fanfictions? Go get a husband and kid")
But that's such a big leap in extrapolation, we see her for 1 or 2 seconds. And we can't even say if it's not just a smartphone yet, which can make it anything from a boring work email to reading the news to Bejeweled. Many (if not most) people who saw it in theaters missed her, and have reported surprise and even incredulity on learning she was there.
If the film wanted to communicate what you're suggesting, this is not how it would be done. So I just don't think that's what it was trying to communicate. Occam's Razor when applied to Shin Eva's messaging is that it's a goodbye. Instrumentality has Shinji and Mari wishing their friends well, the tone and wording is pretty unambiguously one of parting, and Kaworu anyway only further confirms it when he asks Shinji if he won't be lonely after he bye-byes Asuka, to which he only says, more or less "I'm ok with it."
Yes, as has been argued, Shinji & Mari were in a sacrificial situation and didn't know they'd get out, and you can say they'll now reverse their goodbyes one day into not being final, but the film doesn't show that. So what the film is communicating aside from any extrapolation is at least the possibility they'll never meet again, and that they've not even talked in the interim.
And if the final shot we get is of a hyper-confident Shinji, Kaworu talking with a woman after he's only ever showed interest in Shinji, Rei being talkative and casual whatsoever, and an Asuka who gets the ultimate ambiguity of looking at a screen with no idea of what's on it, it's the film's fault if a viewer concludes "they're all polar opposites now, except Mari, who's same as usual."
It's not that we can't say for sure they'll never meet again, it's just that Shin really really goes out of its way to heavily imply the opposite, and ignoring all of that seems kind of like a labored effort, moreso than assuming he's moved on in the same way Anno has signaled in many an interview. Including the lengthy NHK one that has been airing simultaneously to Shin's showing and so, at least for Japanese audiences, will heavily assist interpretation. No one can feign unawareness Anno burned out and has baggage and wants to leave it behind.
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so hilarious XD 
