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Neon Genesis Evangelion: Thrice Upon a Time FULL LENGTH Reaction! (Patreon)

Published:
2022-11-10 14:00:10
Edited:
2023-02-20 22:51:14
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Content

**HEADPHONE WARNINGS ABOUND**

So, this ended up two seconds shorter than my End of Evangelion review. Hm. 

This is by FAR my favorite of the Rebuild movies! Is it perfect? No, but it of all the Rebuilds, this has felt the MOST like the original series. Long, silent wide shots; character arcs and development; trippy imagery; strong thematic elements -- and it just has that "touch" of Anno that made me really enjoy it! 

These movies, despite any debatable points, have been a real joy to watch! I'm so glad, though, to be starting the manga journey next week but these movies, especially this one will definitely be one I will re-watching a LOT in the future! 

LINK TO REACTION: https://share.vidyard.com/watch/5Tj7YtgULuWKcrLXLcJwz3?

Thank you for Watching With Me and for the Support!

Files

Neon Genesis Evangelion: Thrice Upon A Time Reaction!

LINK TO REACTION (starts at 14:46): https://share.vidyard.com/watch/5Tj7YtgULuWKcrLXLcJwz3? **HEADPHONE WARNINGS ABOUND** So, this ended up two seconds shorter than my End of Evangelion review. Hm. This is by FAR my favorite of the Rebuild movies! Is it perfect? No, but it of all the Rebuilds, this has felt the MOST like the original series. Long, silent wide shots; character arcs and development; trippy imagery; strong thematic elements -- and it just has that "touch" of Anno that made me really enjoy it! These movies, despite any debatable points, have been a real joy to watch! I'm so glad, though, to be starting the manga journey next week but these movies, especially this one will definitely be one I will re-watching a LOT in the future! Thank you for watching with me and for all the support! Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/RomaniaBlack My Anime: https://myanimelist.net/profile/RomaniaBlack Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/RomaniaBlack You can mail me a letter or anything (except food, please) at this address: Romania Black PO Box 768 Harrisburg, IL 62946 USA

Comments

Matthew B

omg I forgot this was coming out today! There are many problems with the rebuilds, but I still love them.

romaniablack
>>95351227

I 100% agree -- there's lots of problems, but at the of the day, I am very glad I watched them -- they've been so entertaining and this one especially had some moments DEFINITELY worth fangirling over! <3

Matthew B
>>95351227

I want an entire 12 episode slice of life anime of just Rei going about life. And I also want a 12 episode anime of asuka being a police officer in a dystopian ghost in the shell/psychopass setting. Weird fetishes I know. Oh and a medical drama series for Tohji, where he is like House MD.

Alex Kornejo
>>95351227

"I want an entire 12 episode slice of life anime of just Rei going about life." Don't we all? Make it a Yotsuba&! type deal, have Rei encounter a new thing or idea each chapter and take it from there.

Alex Kornejo

DANGER WORD TSUNAMI INCOMING: I think if the previous rebuilds would also have had Thrice’s runtime they would have benefited so much from it, don’t even add too much stuff but just to let thing dwell and linger. The first hour of this it was just so good, reminded me of the first 6 episodes of Eva; Everything being so thoughtful and deliberate. That hour alone plus the Gendo stuff is what turned me around to appreciate the rebuilds. It took the chance 3.33 didn’t want to take and let us watch these characters some of us have known since we were teenagers ourselves and let us watch them grow and move on with their lives. Too bad the pilots were stuck with the curse of Eva from 3.33 but seeing their classmates nearly made up for it. Even if Kaji was dead, I like how his spirit was imbued in this movie, his whole thing about Gardening and making something grow being good for the soul expanded into the whole society going back to an agrarian state and everyone being much more connected to the earth and each other even though technically they’re in a dying world and the things keeping them safe could collapse at any moment. It gave me Breath of the Wild vibes, you wake up from a slumber and realize the civilization you tried to defend is gone, It’s a post apocalyptic world, but one that’s starting to grow back, and that can look striking and beautiful at times. Gives weight to Yui’s words in EoE of ‘everywhere can be paradise if you got the will to keep on living’. I wasn’t a fan of what they did with her in the previous movie where she had no connection to the previous Rei and she really was just a flat piece of bread, but her becoming her own person in this, more than made up for it. The new Rei blossoming in this society that Shinji sees as scraps of the civilization he destroyed and living embodiment of his fuck ups while for her, she has no conception of ‘normal’ so even if for him the world got a whole lot smaller for her it’s gotten a whole lot bigger, he’s opened up a whole new world (cue Disney music) compared to the Josep Fritz type basement she and her ‘sisters’ been locked in all her life. A world where she can exist for no reason and for no one’s goals. I think I can finally come out and say Rei’s my favorite character. When people get existentialist they feel aimless and ask stuff like ‘what’s the point of life?’ Rei’s a nice inversion of that dilemma. The only reason why she exists at all is because there is a goal for her existence, as she put it ‘That man won’t let me die’. The Aimlessness that usually destroys Shinji and others, instead is actually good for her soul. Her realization that she could exist to exist. The aimlessness doesn’t need to be a curse but a blessing. But that’s why it rubs me the wrong way when they go out of their way to say she’s programmed to like Shinji, so somehow none if it is authentic, that and curse of Eva are the worst things about Rebuild. But that first hour was wonderful. But then comes my main critique of Rebuild, NGE made sense, it was obtuse but it made sense if you thought about it. Evas were cutting edge technology and even major repairs could sink a nation’s economy, it was still a fantasy world but one you could he have it’s own logic, here, we got and Agrarian society fighting against two old guys in their basement and somehow they have the resources to have space battles in a sea of Evas? It’s silly, awesome looking nonsense. But that first hour and the Gendo stuff are so worth it. P.S. In between kissing Shinji in NGE, hooking up with Toji in the deleted Live Action sequence and Kensuke in Rebuild she really plowed through that whole friend group didn’t she? And in between Kaji in NGE and Kensuke in Rebuild, she really has a taste for highly inappropriate relationships. Same goes for Mari, girl you introduced Gendo and Yui to each other and now you’re dating their child? That’s not a crack pairing, it’s a felony. P.P.S. Personally, I’ve always liked the Rei/Kaworu ship, Two beautiful God-like beings hooking up with each other? What’s not to like? The only fail there is that Shinji needed to be the meat in that primordial sandwich. At least it’s nice to know Adam & Lilith have finally put their Aeons-long feud aside and are back dating each other and can finally put this whole Eva fiasco behind.

May

I watched all of your reaction videos for NGE, and I had so much joy watching them! It was so fun watching you explore its plot so deeply, thank you for this series!

romaniablack
>>95391294

Thank you so much for the kind words and comment -- I am SO happy you all have got me to watch this series! It's really been a game changer and altered the way I look at narratives and character arcs -- it's so good and I have a feeling I'll be re-watching so many NGE moments for years to come! :) I'm glad you all have enjoyed the ride with me -- now for the manga to round things up...for now! :)

romaniablack
>>95351227

A House MD drama for Touji, a Slice of Life Anime of Rei learning to co-habitate with society, a miniseries of Asuke and Aida being detectives/lovers -- the wish list would be immense! :)

Christopher Pettersson

I really loved this movie and i agree, it's the best one of the rebuilds. It wasn't perfect and compared to the original series the rebuilds are definitely flawed, but in this one all the character moments worked and only some of the excessive battles missed the mark. I could talk about all the deep themes of the movie, the hedgehogs dilemma, ideas of self and personhood, the will to live and finding your purpose, living with trauma, letting go of the past and moving on, growing up and mature as a person, life finding a way, talking to each other instead of using violence, Annos new view of life influencing the movie/ending, all that... but NO, i'm going to start with the most important thing of all, the ships, and i'm not talking about Wunder (technically Buβe), Erlösung, Erbsünde and Gebet 😜 (Looked up the meanings, so in order: Penance, Salvation, Original sin and Prayer). I didn't see Mari and Shinji coming but my first reaction was (and is) that i'm all for it. Now when it happend i thought you would have no part in it, i've seen you shaking your head when Mari interacted with Shinj. 😉 You seemed more ok with it than i would have thought, even if you somewhat talked yourself out of it towards the end. But i have to call you out here, 😆 if Mari and Shinji comes off a bit on the grooming side of things, Kaworu and Shinji is even worse. It appears Mari is older than she seems and with the name Mary Iskariot thrown out there, things seem even more complicated. With the first name of the mother of Jesus (well there are many Mary's in the bible so could be from any one of them) and the last name of Judas, the desciple that betrayed him, something is going on. Is she biblical times old? or Shinji's parents old? Either way, Kaworu is seemingly eternally old, remembering previous universes and always looking forward to meeting Shinji... that's infinitely more "groomy" than Mari ever could be if we find that problematic. Now it's not 100% clear how the "new" world is working but going by their seemingly similar age and no EVA's in existance i think Mari and Shinji are about the same age with no of the "problematic" things of the previous reality. And yeah, i'm sure they are gone for Kaworu too, so if you really want to brake up the happy couple... or they could go polyamorous i guess? Mari also makes sense as she has, as you also pointed out, no baggage with Shinji. Mari is essentialy Asuka without the trauma and always taking it out on Shinji. There was an attraction between Asuka and Shinji (and i'm counting the original series as it's confirmed that it's all been a cycle with ever new realities) but they would never work as they both are to much "hedgehogs" (guess in the new reality they might not be, but i think some of their old personalties must shine through in every iteration), Asuka with the spines outward (mostly) hurting others and Shinji with them inwards (mostly) hurting himself. For a minute theer i thought they would go for the Asuka and Mari pairing, perhaps a thing of the past, somewhere in that 14 year timespan. I never felt that the rebuilds were trying to build towards Asuka and Shinji and i'm glad i was right, when Asuka told Mari that Shinji didn't need a lover but a mother i knew they weren't going to be it. It also might not feel "earned" but love shouldn't have to be (well it might, but you know what i mean), if they're happy i'm happy. Not much point in talking about Toji and Hikari, that one was obvious and who would object to that pairing? Asuka and Kensuke was a bit more of a surprise but i also really liked that one, they seemed to have a nice dynamic and it was nice seeing Asuka interacting with someone with out having all the walls up. Not sure if it's 100% confirmed they actually had a romantic relationship or just hinted what it could become, Asuka was still trapped in a 14 year olds body so it's not like that relationship is without problems either (nothing the next world/reality can't fix). Now on to other things. While the relationships (and the emotional traumas) are the meat and potatoes of this series the battles are the spice, i want some weird excess and "WHY NOT?!" in my final Neon Genesis movie. But as we have talked about earlier, NGE was always superb at building up the fights making them feel meaningful. Here i got some of that Transformers feeling where a lot of supposedly exciting action is happening but it just rolls over you without making a real impact. But at the same time, with all the other goodness it doesn't really matter. So, where does all this NERV stuff come from? I think we can definitely say it's not all built. The wanderers were never built and in this and the last move we see countless apparent EVA bodies all over the world. Towards the end all the souls seemed to have the form of EVAs morphing into headless versions of Rei and lastly turning back to their orginal human (and animal) form. It seems to me the "Impacts" create a lot of weird things like the EVA infinity svarm. Perhaps Gendo found a way hijack all these byproduct soul EVAs to quickly make a "Gazillion" ones that do his bidding. Is it a good explanation? Does it lessen the cheapening of the orginal EVAs and Angels that all these multitudes might have caused? Perhaps not, i'm just trying to find answers here. The original series (and the first rebuilds) seemed much more deliberate with the angels the EVAs and their numbering (and numbers), here they just kinda throw in more and more stuff without grounding it first. I didn't mind Asuka turning angel, it felt perfectly Neon Genesis to me. We have seen many times (mainly Shinji) throughout this show going super saiyan and immediately being harmed/punished for it. So with all the talk of angels, Kaworu and Rei being angels, humanity being an angel, angels corrupting/infecting EVAs, Magi computers and people alike... Asuka "awakening" into angelform and instantly getting trounced seems par for the course to me. Also Asuka being nude all the time, i'm not saying it's a good reason but i think it shows her detachment from humanity, not seeing herself as fully human anymore. Or you could perhaps tie it to Adam and Eve being naked in the Garden of Eden, but that was tied to knowledge so i'm not sure how that would make sense with Asuka at this point in time. One thing is clear, she's been doing it for some time because Aida wasn't fazed at all, maybe he just needs to get naked to, to complete their Eden hideout. About the CGI, i think it was wholly intentional, when the Gendo/Shinji fight started and the CGI looked really off i didn't like it but we learn that the fight wasn't real and we see that the whole city is a stage and that Shinji's EVA crinkles the fake sky backdrop when he is kicked off by Gendo it kinda worked for me. The EVAs look different both before and after this fight and they are often CGI that look much better, so again, i think it was intentional to make it look wrong and fake. The same with Rei and all the bodies, i think they wanted it creepy and thought this weird CGI did the trick: But here i agree, it didn't really succeed and essentially the same thing worked and looked much better in End of Evangelion movie. I'm glad you watched these films so i finally did the same, perhaps some of the reason i didn't watch them all before was that feared how they would turn out. Also viewing the last piece of something you love is a bit sad. But i like this end to NGE, a happy ending? Who would've thunk it? It is somewhat ambiguous, is this the end of the cycle? All of them just normal people about to live their lives? Do they still know each other or do we just see them all standing on the other side of tracks to know they are all here and ok? The weird thing is Mari and the collar on Shinji, metaphorical? or is there still a lot of things left over from before? Are they insinuating this isn't a new world but just the world "fixed" a few years later? that would make the Ark to save species and Misato's sacrifice more impactful, but with the state of the surroundings and Kaworu here i don't think that can be the case. It's all from godlike magic in the end anyways, so it can be whatever we want it to be... Kaworu you homewrecker. 😉 -Edit- I don't like comment functionality here on Patreon, i always manage to hit enter and send it before i'm done. But this will have to be it, it's long enough and even if i find obvious errors it will have to be.

Alex Kornejo
>>95428318

Discussion of Mari being old enough to be a biblical figure brings me back to early fandom days when the religious takes were really heavy handed and the idea that Keel Lorenz could have been Cain or the wandering jew and wanted to bring instrumentality because it would have released him from his curse of immortality... fun, weird times. And now 20 years later there it is again: curse of Eva & Mari Iscariot are now a thing, the more things change the more they stay the same I guess. It's a valiant rationalization but let's admit it, Asuka was naked for half the movie for no deeper reason than the fan service; I mean, that scene with Shinjihad the most beautifully rendered anime girl in a half torn plug suit anyone could possibly make, it shimmered in a way nothing else around her did. Shinji's suit didn't get that treatment.

Christopher Pettersson
>>95428318

I can't understand that, why would anyone draw religious symbolism and theories from NGE? seems like a stretch to me. 😉 Kidding aside, i've never sought out any theory discussions or fan forums or anything, so i have no idea what theories are/were floating about or what the consensus is about things. I've always felt NGE threw in a lot of religious, specifically christian imagery, for the "fun of it", making it a less used mythology to draw from (atleast in the context of this kind of show/story, we see Norse and Greek mythology used all the time). Makes things seem deeper and more mysterious for free. Never tried to rationalize it but i think they atleast tried to have some justification for some of her nudeness, like the scene with the torn suit at the beach was obvioulsy more sexualized than many others. Now of course any nakedness is the doing of the creators and that it just happens to happen to the female characters is just coincidence i'm sure. 🤔 And yeah, just because we have reason doesn't mean it's a good one. It's like Quiet in MGSV, no, you just wanted a half naked woman in your game. Then again i'm not against sex and nakedness in my shows and games, i guess it just must feel to be more for the characters themself than me the audience. But that will always be subjective where that line lies.

romaniablack
>>95368524

I agree that a longer set of Rebuilds could have gotten more accomplished like TUAT does, especially in regards to the third film, that had a pretty short run time in comparison. I LOVED the first hour of the film – I agree, it reminded me a lot of the OG series; that plus the Gendo backstory gave me a solid appreciation for Anno’s work on the Rebuilds. And yes, taking chances 3.333 didn’t I love that note about it! Kaji’s spirit and the metaphor of cultivating life is DEFINITELY at the center of this film and I love that – especially with his son working to get the world back on track and the connection to Yui from EOE! I hadn’t thought of that, but that’s such a great connection to make into these films. And I agree, Rei blossoming was a highlight for me in this film. Her coming into her own while Shinji questions his worth amidst all the destruction he’s caused – it’s a great contrast. I love Rei’s curiosity in this movie and how she TRIES to do better and aims for identity and agency. I still don’t like the whole “clone” and “programming” aspect of this movie, but I like the other parts that they do with her character. I agree, the first hour of this film is so good! I forgot that Asuka hooked up with Toji in that live action deleted scene for EOE @__@ Wow, yeah, Asuka got AROUND and so did Mari – “a felony” – yeah, the more I’ve thought about it post-discussion, the less on board with Shinji x Mari I’ve become, especially with those implications. Although, after your comment, I do like the idea that Rei and Kaworu could symbolize Adam and Lilith, finally free of their feud and able to make amends. There is something nice about that, I suppose! Yeah, I agree 100% though – the OG series had a lot of sci-fi techno babble, but it was all within the realm of realism and could make sense. But here – there’s so much thrown to the wind in terms of realistic sci-fi logic – “silly, awesome looking nonsense” indeed, but that part wasn’t for me. The first hour and the realization of Gendo’s character is what made the film as good as it was in my opinion! Thanks so much for the kind words and comment!

romaniablack
>>95428318

Ahh, the ships! I love that you gave literal information about the ships (thank you) but threaded the comment with that – for what it’s worth, I do agree with the themes and think Anno’s outlook on life being much different than it was in the OG series affected how he structured these movies and especially the ending. Ahahahahaha – oh yesssss, I realized that I can’t quite be on board with Kaworu and Shinji without acknowledging Mari and Shinji for those same reasons in terms of the age, etc. The double standard is real! Haha! I think at the end, as much for crack pairings as I am, they didn’t have enough moments together in the series for me to ship them – with Kaworu and Shinji (grooming and age aside) they had a lot of moments together that are intimate and character developing - the most we get with Mari and Shinji is that conversation they have for two minutes before Shinji goes to face Gendo and the only times before that are her next to him on a bed and falling on him in the parachute. But I’m okay with it in this new world if the age/immortality thing is gone and if they end up together? I guess I could be okay with it fine; I just wish Anno had gave Mari more to do with Shinji during all FOUR of these films. I do agree, though, that Asuka and Shinji never settled well with me as a ship because like you said, they’re both hedgehogs – they just don’t gel and don’t seem like they’d be happy together. They’re TOO similar in that regard (maybe why Mari works so well as a foil to them?). I really thought we’d get Mari and Asuka as a ship, and I was all for it – but honestly, Aida and Asuka is the crack ship that I didn’t expect this movie to deliver on, but here we are. I’m converted, haha! Hahaha, this movie’s tag line should have been, “WHY NOT?!” Transformers was DEFINITELY a feeling in this! I agree that there’s lots of suggestions as to the answers of the craziness on screen – I like the idea of the impact “creating” oddities in the world – that would work – it just drifted a tad bit off from the realism the original series carried with it, but it wasn’t enough to make me dislike the film. It just got a little “jump the shark” at the end, for me, anyway. That said, Asuka having Angel genetic material in her and using it was fine, but it lacked a little bit of the “mystery” that it had in the OG series, to me. Again, not a bad thing, just not my cup of tea in relation to the rest of the movie. I CAN take Asuka being semi-nude in Aida’s home as being symbolic in terms of when she’s with Aida, she lowers her walls around her and is comfortable around him. That TOTALLY makes sense. The ripped plug suit and her suggestive posing in the end scene with Shinji, though? Pure fan service. Someone has a body pillow of that for sure. And I wouldn’t mind it SO much if there was equal treatment of Shinji, Aida, or Kaworu in this movie…but we don’t get that, so it’s off-putting. Again, it could just be me as a female audience member that has a personal history and resentment towards that sort of thing, but it felt like the most blatant to me. Why wasn’t Shinji’s suit all ripped up and shimmery? Where was my sexy Fuyu-chan moment? :P Ahhh, that’s an interesting part about the EVA’s looking intentionally weird in CGI to go along with the moment – that’s a good way of justifying it; but I agree, EOE may have done it better. Good point, though! Kaworu, you homewrecker! Hahahaha! But seriously, thank you for the kind words and the comment – I’m glad I watched these and I’m excited to finish off my journey with NGE for now with the manga! :) Should be fun! There’s so many questions of “what if” with this ending, but I do appreciate that it’s more hopeful and leaves the door open to audience interpretation.

Christopher Pettersson
>>95428318

After all we've been through with these characters i think i needed it to end on a hopeful note, Shinji (and others) deserves some happiness. One little thing i forgot to note; I always thought the Spear of Longinus refered to the roman soldier that pierced the side of Jesus with said spear, but now with the name of two more spears revealed that probably isn't it (guess the reference could have changed just for this movie). Gaius Cassius Longinus was a Roman general/senator and one of the people behind the assassination of Julius Caesar. What meaning we can draw from that i don't know, but there it is.

romaniablack
>>95428318

I agree -- after all we've went through with Shinji and the others, a happy ending seems warranted, so I am totally fine with it! It's funny you bring up the Lance of Longinus, because as I am reading the manga, there's actually a segment ABOUT it and it is referred to as the spear that pierced the side of Jesus...there's more in the segment when we get to it, but the fact that the three spears makes the name of that general...is Gendo Julias Caesar, then? :P

Christopher Pettersson
>>95428318

Ah, so it does refer to that and when they needed more names they found another Longinus. And yes, the emperor/dictator Gendo, makes sense. They should just have made Fuyutsuki stab him in the back... et tu, Fuyutsuki?

GSMD

Toji is a fake doctor. In the OG series, Fuyu-chan was a fake doctor.

romaniablack
>>95842258

Oh my gosh, yesssssss! That's brilliant! Except Toji gets the girl and the happy ending here, eh? T_T That's an amazing connection, though! Thanks for that!

Ayaano

I personally think this movie(not the entire rebuilds) is the closest thing to a masterpiece the franchise can hypothetically get seeing as none of the franchise is digestible on its own. It is the pinnacle, built off of everything that came before it. There is a lot that is jarring, but I guarantee you it is intentionally so. All of the changes seen in 3.0 and thrice upon a time were done as meta criticisms of the original, and of it's fanbase, as well as a criticism of his original failures as a director. Much like you say yourself the series was always at it's core about the intense character drama and lessons to be had from it. However for the majority of the anime's history, most discourse about it has been about fighting over who Shinji should have sex with. Are you an Asuka fan? Or a Rei fan? This is the reason for Mari's existence as well as the reason for the grotesque amount of fanservice placed in the middle of serious scenes, if you somehow enjoy having this shoved in your face you're probably disgusting. But anno wasn't angry this time like he was with EOE and he most likely went all out with that fanservice to reach a broader audience(which the final two movies lack due to his massive hiatus) in the same ways he used mecha to do that in the late 90s. It's also perhaps a metacommentary on how the anime industry is only profitable through merchandising and appealing to otaku now, he has used the success of studio khara and ROE to fund major conventions and events like animator expo. ROE largely has to succeed monetarily and have reach so he can carry out his vision of helping aspiring animators and waking up lost otaku. A double edged sword if you will. Also kind of ties in to the overuse of CGI, I don't remember sources but it was said that Anno actually had requirements to meet, probably given to him by the studio board, or franchise investors, in how much action was in the movie, potentially fanservice too. The movie had to meet certain merchandising margins because there isn't an anime in existence more merchandised than Evangelion. This is why the movie is so long, not only did anno scrap the movie dozens of times over, so there is a budget element too. But he refused to spend the precious already dwindling animation budget on required mecha battles, so he kind of just shoehorned them in around the movie he storyboarded, like with the intro fight. I think with this Anno was looking for a kind of balance, because he also wanted get with the time and show new animators that using CGI is not only important financially, but doesn't impact whether or not your film is considered inspiring "cinema". Also the horrible building CGI scene with Gendo, was actually meant to resembleand give a nod to the "tokusatsu" style of special effects using miniature model cities seen in early Japanese cinema, most infamously in Godzilla, Anno himself having worked on a number of Gozilla movies, as well as Evangelion being very largely inspired by the craze for giant city battles. Similarly to the first point, aside from decades of Asuka and Rei fans arguing on 4chan and on every youtube video essay, most "Evangelion analysis" would be bogged down in all of the theory in the show, the mechanics of the angels, the evas, third impact, was EOE a happy ending or a sad one, etc. In Anno's eyes this was as much of a critical failure as the waifu wars. In more recent years, as many fans have aged well into their 20s or 30s, much more mature character analysis videos have emerged, but a decade too late, and most fans that actually get the message of the show, will go outside and seek connectivity. This is ultimately why in the Rebuilds, the revealing of Lilith, his mother being in the Eva, is quite literally relegated to dialogue exposition which is generally considered a cardinal sin in literature. But it works because Evangelion is not about any of that. Further more, Anno increasingly goes out of his way to make it so things don't make sense, to leave things totally unexplainable. It's not so much because "why not" but more because, why do it in the first place if it just distracts people. The effect may not have landed, but for fans who have grown through at least some of the franchises 24+ year run, and researched Anno's intentions with ROE following the 3.0, the effect did land, jarringly, tastefully frustrating, as if it's calling me out. Evangelion ultimately is about growing up and going outside, making connections, building a life. I'm sure countless fans were led to do that, but when you look at the show's representation online, for the most part you are struck by a wall of people who have failed to grow up, who have failed to put the lessons into action. This is the reason for the time skip, and for the curse of Eva, entire generations of emo teens have raised themselves alongside Eva, the younger, the more they seem to critically fail at connectivity. In an ironic way, the cursed children represent the fanbase itself and in someways Anno himself probably, 14 years passing and whether you are shinji, or one of the others who at least lived those 14 years, for one reason or another there is still something preventing you from finally being happy, finally moving forward, as if we're shackled by some kind of generational curse. It would be a really bad joke to say that nobody was moved by the original franchise, but with Eva's huge success, Anno can't help but be shackled to the millions of otaku weeaboos he accidentally created, shackled by his literal crucifixion of them in EOE. Sure with all this meta commentary, the franchise loses much of it's depth for new audiences that don't watch the original, but because of this approach the message is at least clear to all who watch it regardless of whether they come for mechs or anime tiddies or just bc of reputation. Plus I think Anno felt more obligated to make things right with the people it did reach. This movie wasn't just the proper end of the rebuilds, or the end of the franchise. It's the proper ending for fans, and for Anno himself. Also a tidbit more on Mari, she was quite intentionally meant to cuck OG shippers that self insert with Shinji because Eva was only meant to be a shipping show so far as to not deliver on otaku fantasies. Mari was given the "undeserved" victory in the shipping wars because it would be an eye opener and have the same effect as not delivering but in a much softer subversive way. And also reflects some meta analysis of true love and how shipping kind of misses a large part of what makes love work. People being perfect for one another is largely just fun fantasy and not a path to happiness. Some people claimed she was inspired by Anno's own wife, but most of the ROE character personalities weren't directly written by Anno himself, and were rather crafted very closely alongside Anno's own analysis of the show, the fanbase, the shippings, etc. Really enjoyed your reactions to the franchise, all the time and care you've put into analysis and understanding the complicated hot mess that is this franchise. Never seen or expected any new fans fall in love with or appreciate the show quite to the extent you have so thank you for giving it so much love, time, and attention!

romaniablack
>>95875973

I really believe this is the best film of the Rebuilds and definitely a nice closer to the series, that still feels NGE and has Anno’s “touch” on it! I get Mari being this neutral ground; I’m not the biggest fan of her character or that she was “introduced” to be “that,” but it is what it is. The movie itself isn’t perfect, but like you said, it manages to wrap up plot points pretty well throughout. The ending definitely has that “go out and do things” vibe to it, doesn’t it? I feel it gets closer to that message Anno’s been trying to say, like you noted! That is fascinating about the CGI usage – thank you for that information! I definitely want to eventually see Shin Godzilla, especially after hearing some good things about it and knowing Anno’s involvement. Thank you so much for the kind words – this series has been worth the time spent to discuss it and I am so glad that you all got me into the series – it’s one of my favorites, now! :) I’m excited to round up NGE with the manga, but I know I’m going to be going back to this series, referencing it in other series, and talking about it for a while to come! I appreciate the comment and kindness! :)