The Angels have finally been defeated. SEELE tries hacking into the NERV's MAGI computer system in order to facilitate a peaceful takeover. When that fails, SEELE tries more drastic measures, and summons the Japanese Self-Defense Force to use more violent means. In the meantime, Asuka is still in a coma, Rei is nowhere to be found, and Shinji is still recovering from the shock of the incident with Kaoru and his own feeling of helplessness with Asuka's present state.
The reason End of EVA exists in the first place is because of the general outcry at the ending of the NGE series ending. End of EVA is a "remake" of sorts of the last two episodes of the series; the movie even sort of treats itself as a two-part OVA as alternate episodes 25 and 26. Was this a "better" ending? I'm really not entirely sure.
Aside from one fairly sweet sequence, there was no classic mecha action in End of EVA whatsoever. The Episode 25 half of the movie was more one orgy of disturbing violence after another with soldiers gunning down NERV personnel in fairly graphic detail. And to top it off, it began with one of the most disgusting moments I have ever seen in an anime. Without spoiling anything, let us just say that it involved Shinji letting go of some built-up sexual tension.
The Episode 26 half at least revealed a lot of the explanations I was looking for in the series, but ultimately never got. Even then, I felt this ending wound up raising more questions than what got answered. As one of my friends pointed out, "That is because Anno Hideaki hates you."
Fans were dissatisfied with the ending of the series to the point where they were even sending director Anno death threats. Ultimately, you can see that End of EVA was Anno's way of thumbing his nose at them; some of said threatening letters and graffiti painted on studio GAINAX's building are even shown in the feature.
Ok, so the storytelling once again is nothing particularly satisfying, but the production values were once again pretty high, although still not great considering this was a feature released in theaters. The animation was pretty sweet (and helping add to the rather unsettling atmosphere). Also, the voice acting once again proved to be one of the anime's strong points, especially with Ogata Megumi's portrayal of Shinji, who has almost completely lost it by the time this movie takes place. So what do I have a problem with? I felt this was a movie that was made on the budget of an OVA. The animation was good, but still nothing compared to other anime movies made around that time, particularly Ghibli productions or the likes of Ghost in the Shell. Furthermore, aside from the end credits tune, the music was largely recycled from the series.
In the end, I would not go so far as to say that the ending of the series was better, but I did not feel End of EVA to be an improvement either. Ultimately, I think fans will have to wait for Rebuild of Evangelion before getting a satisfying ending to the Neon Genesis Evangelion saga.
Score: 2/4
On another note: Manga Entertainment, for the life of them, CANNOT make anime DVDs. I noticed the same problem I did with Read or Die, another Manga release, where I set the language preferences in the menu to Japanese with English subtitles, and then play it only to find the DVD set the language back to English with no subtitles. The only way it seems to listen to language preferences is when you change it using the appropriate buttons on your remote rather than using the menu.
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