Why does The End of Evangelion make me cry every time?

[ElMariachi]

indeed watching the series again just after Q came out

Wait, so you finally saw the Rebuild?

[pwhodges]

No - read what you quoted again!

[ElMariachi]

Oh yes, my bad.

[Ornette]

And Tines: Really? Ten years? Dude...that has to be fixed ASAP.

The last time I watched the movie and the series was a rewatch with a friend shortly after watching it the first time, almost 10 years ago. And like the TV series, never felt the need to watch it again. And with the new movies, I feel even less of a need to bother with them.

Nothing about the movie itself got me all that emotional, the action was good, it managed to tie up at least some of the loose ends, which alone makes up for what I thought at the time was one of the worst endings of a TV series I've ever seen, and the ending was pretty interesting. A pretty valiant attempt at portraying what it must be like to be part of complementation.

[Atropos]

Yeah, I've found that the more I pay attention to criticism and analysis of something, the less I'm able to enjoy simply consuming it. It's why I read so much fanfic.

[ChaddyManPrime]

^
I've noticed the same thing with me but it only happens after reading TV Tropes for a while.

[FreakyFilmFan4ever]

TV Tropes makes everything less fun after a while. ("After a while” usually translates into one 3-hour long first-time visit. )

[ChaddyManPrime]

^
Same here Bro I could spend hours looking at the things on that site.

[NemZ]

TVTropes, much like Wikipedia, is a time trap for those with a love of learning.

[ChaddyManPrime]

^
Indeed Good Sir

[pwhodges]

Also, is that screenshot adjusted? I compared it to the video file I have and the screenshot looks a little bit more polished and the lighting seems slightly different. Is it from a DVD? I don't think there's a Bluray, but there should be for both NGE and EoE.

The US (and UK) release of EoE is notorious for its appallingly bad video quality (I've seen it called "Vaseline-o-vision"). The Japanese remastering is quite different, and has recently been used in new Italian and French releases (I have the Italian one, which was much cheaper than getting the Japanese, and made my own copy with the English dub muxed in). It wasn't included in the Platinum edition because the film had been licensed to a different company.

[AngelNo13Bardiel]

TVTropes, much like Wikipedia, is a time trap for those with a love of learning.

Indeed. Oh, the hours I've wasted on both of those sites...

[Squigsquasher]

I've only watched EoE once. And although I feel I probably should, I never want to watch it again.

Seeing the characters I'd grown to know and love being shat on so viciously was not something I really wanted to repeat. Coupled with the disturbing imagery, hideous violence, psycho-sexual insanity and the sheer unrelenting horror of it all, I was actually, physically trembling by the time it was finished.

And the screaming. Dear god, the screaming. It still haunts me at night.

So yeah. Fuck EoE.

[Grand Duke of Yashima]

I remember waiting over a year after I saw the original EVA series to watch EOE. I had gotten spoilered about some of what was in it and found myself not wanting to go through with watching it, realizing that in watching the original series I had actually become pretty emotionally invested in the characters and really didn't want to go through what I thought was going to be a Tomino-style ending.

In the end I did finally break down and saw the film. And then I pretty much broke down, for reasons that others on this board have already well expressed.

Despite that I found myself finding EOE in very high regard. It's not often that a film can affect you emotionally to such a degree. In the anime world perhaps only Grave of the Fireflies, or maybe Clannad: After Story work at such a level.

Carl Horn once gave me a great quote on EOE: "Hideki Anno promises you the Apocalypse and By God he delivers!" In watching the film you have to endure what the characters go through, you feel the pain, the hopelessness, and the complete fatality of the situation: all things truly do come to an end. The payoff is you do see the total fulfillment of Evangelion - not only are all of the character arcs completely and satisfactory resolved, you see heaven and earth literally come together, portrayed in a way that's never been done before or since on screen. Not even Rebuild has pulled that off to the extent that EOE does.

The other thing about EOE that I thought was profound after I had seen it was how Rei's narrative is completed. While other characters die they are still themselves even at the very point of death, but in Rei's case she not only gives up her mortal life, she gives up who she even is. Rei ceases to become Rei, and instead becomes this merged GNR thing (there isn't even a suitable name or label for what she really transcends into). Rei has to give up being Rei, and for someone who spent the whole of the series narrative trying to determine who they even were, only to have to sacrifice their own identity weighed very heavily on me afterwards.

[Mr. Tines]

this merged GNR thing (there isn't even a suitable name or label for what she really transcends into).

The label Shekhinah has been used before now in the discussions here. Just that GNR is the simpler superficial label.

[Archangel]

Seeing the characters I'd grown to know and love being shat on so viciously was not something I really wanted to repeat. Coupled with the disturbing imagery, hideous violence, psycho-sexual insanity and the sheer unrelenting horror of it all

This!

For all the "feels" of Misato's good bye to Shinji, shortly after we're treated to Misato getting blown up and the two halves of her body can be seen exiting the left and right of the screen.

For all the awesomeness of Asuka's triumphent return to Eva pilot glory, she is horribly and unexplainably outclassed, defeated, butchered and eaten.

For all the build up of Eva 01 taking the stage we bare witness to Shinji checking his testicles at the door and wussing out like a gimp.

Then the second half, where we're privvy to cinematic marvels such as...

More trippy inner mind sequences; Anno wanted to make sure we hadn't had our fill with episodes 25 and 26.

Crayon drawings of child abuse victims; cos why not. You already had a scene were Shinji masterbates over Asuka, might as well throw in even more disturbing images.

A happy song about suicide; the fact that a lot of people who succeed at suicide seem relieved or almost happy shortly before the follow through, makes this song even more sickening.

A live action scene; I still have no idea what any of that has to do with 3rd Impact.

And the coup de grâce; right in the middle of 3rd impact, just as it all looks like it's going to work out and everyone who was horribly killed would be saved by this new existance, Anno breaks the fourth wall by flashing the Eva fan mail and death threats he recieved after the series finished. Rei/Lilith's neck is cut, Shinji decides that everyone should just die and everything fails... With Rei falling apart like the over used fanboy doll "she is"... Honestly, a more blatent message of "fuck you Eva fans" I have never seen.

Everyone is offered the chance to return, thanks to Yui Ikari and Unit 01, who saved the characters from the wrath of their own creator... Yui then gets entombed in Unit 01 for all eternity as a reward for her kindness.

Then comes the finale; a cryptic scene, with a single line of dialogue which ultimately doesn't really mean anything because that's the very end of the story. She could have said "congratulations" and finished on a joke at least.

Ergh... Sorry for the rant. But I honestly can't see anything but Anno flipping me the bird when I think about EoE. Ironic really because I used to really like it -which in turn makes the percieved message of the film feel even worse; insult to injury.

[ElMariachi]

^
Just some precision :

- contrary to popular belief, the movie was not a fuck you to Otakus, of the letters shown in Instrumentality, most were word of encouragement, only two were death threats.

- the moment Rei/Lilith fall in pieces isn't when all of mankind is tanged, that already happened when Shinji choked Asuka, that moment was when Shinji rejected and destroyed Instrumentality.

- the chance to return was offered by Shinji himself, Yui and Rei were simply the executors, their only contribution was to ask to Shinji if he was really sure of what he wanted them to do, and not-so-subtly tried to convince him that Instrumentality sucks, which he finally attested first hand after giving it a try.

- Yui wanted to be entombed inside EVA-01, that was her plan all along, to be an "eternal monument to mankind's existence" that will still exist long after humanity disappears (if they disappear). Yes that's completely fucked up, but we're talking about a woman who fell in love with Gendo!

[Archangel]

I said "fan mail and death threats"; meaning positive and negative feedback- my point still stands.

I've read the translations of some of those positive messages and they come across as "I'm a massive Eva fan, but I didn't teally get episodes 25 and 26. Please please please make a better ending" or things along those lines. I doubt anyone would bother emailing Anno just to say "love your work buddy". And even if they did, why on earth would you flash it on the screen in the middle of a movie? I've never seen James Cameron flash emailed fan mail about Titanic in the middle of Avatar.

By flashing those messages just before Instrumentality fails seems like Anno is trying to say that being too much of a fan -for good or bad- is a bad thing. It all fell apart because we all wanted it to succeed... And Anno figured that was bad.

It's the same reason all the cool stuff happens, followed quickly by some horrendous failure or defeat. Because we, as fans, all wanted to see Asuka return in badass style and she did. And then right after she gets horribly killed.

We asked for it. Anno gave it to us. Then he destroyed it.

EDIT: for the record; I like episodes 25 and 26. They're abstract and a little confusing, but at least it's a happy ending where instrumentality succeeds and everyone obtained happiness. Sure as heck beats Asuka and Shinji sitting on a beech "making out".