It’s time to, well, bring an end to my look at the original Evangelion series with the big film finale, not that it was ever actually planned to exist (Hideaki Anno was happy with the more… unconventional ending of the TV series) and frankly that shows. While it has the visual spectacle and great soundtrack you’d expect from the series it also doubles-down on the more downbeat aspects of the series, especially putting poor Shinji through the wringer, as if Anno said “You want a different ending?! Well here: have THIS!” and projected how unhappy he was onto his own characters (he apparently tried to take his own life at one point, so… yeah.) It makes for interesting, if uncomfortable viewing, but does it make for good viewing?

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My review of the first half of the series can be found HERE.

The second half of Neon Genesis Evangelion is a hard one to crack. It has several episodes that are a bit more “introspective” which some fans try to spin as completely intentional but the creators themselves have admitted it was born out of necessity due to running out of budget and time. The most obvious example of this is the final two episodes, which when I first saw it back whenever it aired on the Sci-Fi channel I was pee’d off at how… nothing it was, but what about now? Has mentally maturing and being armed with the knowledge of what the ending was supposed to convey made me go easier on it? Let’s find out, with once again a “warning” that this is a very surface-level review, so no deep dive into religious themes and analysing every scene, I’ll leave that to those more engrossed in the series…

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As promised (a while ago now, stupid busy summer!) it’s time to finally tackle this behemoth. “Neon Genesis Evangelion” is not only massively influential but it also has thousands of pages, podcasts and videos analysing every frame, slight story nuance and every potential reference, meaning I didn’t know whether to really bother reviewing the series in my more casual format, but you know what? It would be weirder if this site never had Evangelion on it at all, so now I’ve watched the official blu-rays its now or inevitably later, so may as well be now! The first half of the series is undeniably great, which won’t take any of you by surprise, so let’s take a look!

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