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End of Evangelion is an animated movie by Hideaki Anno. The movie presents an alternate ending to the popular anime Neon Genesis Evangelion. Many Japanese viewers felt unsatisfied by the series' two episode resolution, episodes 25 and 26, which take place completely in Shinji's mind. Only a few brief scenes hint at what happens outside of Shinji's mind, and viewers wanted a more satisfying explanation of these events. Therefore, End of Evangelion was created as an alternative to these episodes. The movie is divided into two parts, Episode 25': Air, and Episode 26': A Pure Heart for You (まごころを、君に, Magokoro o, kimi ni). It premiered on July 19, 1997, and runs for approximately 87 minutes. The USA version is published by Manga Entertainment.
Among American fans who recall the days of VHS fansubbing, EoE was one of those infamously memorable titles, often cited as the most popular yet disturbing program they recall as newbies.
In contrast to the series happier ending, the movie shows the apocalyptic completion of the Human Instrumentality Project, where individual identity is destroyed to create a single existence for all living things - that is, people's AT-Fields are destroyed and are turned to LCL. In the movie it is clear that Shinji rejects the Human Instrumentality Project, whereas in the show it was left somewhat more ambiguous.
The movie also contains some highly post modern sequences, including a scene showing a young Shinji playing in the Geofront and some live action sequences including scenes of the voice actresses of Misato, Rei and Asuka (supposedly posing as their characters) and some footage of a movie theater.
The closing scene is vague and highly interpretive, where Shinji manages to separate himself from the collective human existence, with Asuka following. Some fans have speculated that she may be the amalgamation of Asuka, Rei, and Misato because of the apparent red eye-color in Asuka's eye. This could be due to the surrounding red ambience of the environment. (Note, also, the absence of the color blue on the planet Earth.) Their interaction shows a wide range of positive and negative human emotions, proving their individual existence from the collective. The closing line by Asuka was translated by A.D. Vision as "Disgusting", which would have caused much misunderstanding and confusion among english fans, as the original line was kimochi warui which can be translated as "I feel unwell", "what a disgusting feeling", "feels bad", etc. Many still believe that "Disgusting" is directed at Shinji as a result. The world remains irreversibly changed, however, and what happens from there is only hinted at.
Although the movie appears somewhat more straightforward in plot, many fans are displeased with its violence and shock value relative to the television series and many harbor a dislike of Hideaki Anno's work. It is thought that Hideaki Anno created the movie as revenge on the ex-fans of the TV show, who sent numerous hate-mail and death threats after their disappointment in the ending of the last two episodes. Some of these letters were briefly flashed in the movie, towards the ending of End of Evangelion.
The first part, "Episode 25': Air", is based on the previous movie, Rebirth. Rebirth is roughly equivalent to 2/3 of Air.
End of Evangelion later becomes the second half of Revival of Evangelion, a concatenation of DEATH(TRUE)2 and End of Evangelion. It is named "REVIVAL OF EVANGELION 02: Air/Magokoro o, kimi ni (Air/まごころを、君に).