What did you think of this episode?
5Loved it!
51.4%
2,539
4Liked it!
18.2%
902
3It was OK
12.3%
607
2Disliked it
7.6%
374
1Hated it
10.6%
522
Average 3.9
4,944 votes
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| THIS IS AN ANIME ONLY DISCUSSION POST. DO NOT DISCUSS THE MANGA BEYOND THIS EPISODE. ---------------------------------------- They could've replaced the entire last 2 episodes with that 3 minute School / Comedy / Romance skit and I would've been happy. Worst ending to an anime that I've seen to date. my god >_>;; |
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| I know what you mean. It might have been better if they just DIDN'T release episodes 25 + 26. I would have prefered to see it unfinished than truly messed up. Even the "End of Evangelion" movie doesn't help at all. |
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| One of the best anime endings I have seen to date... I guess I really need to get out there or something D: I just loved the mental breakdown, the pace and everything was perfect, really. Repetition, like every key point flashing through shinji's head, or the collective conciousness... or however you wish to interpret it. Absolutely brilliant, in my opinion. |
asandariJan 25, 2008 7:45 AM
| Hmm, it was easy to understand what they were trying to do, but it's also common knowledge that their budget wasn't the biggest near the end. So, I find it hard to really like this ending with the thought that it might not be what they wanted. And with the fact that they made End of Evangelion (which I love) and are doing the rebuild with possible new endings also lend some credit to the original ending being due to budget constraints. Given this, I don't think the original ending is terrible. It lets us think that Shinji finally made some progress psychologically, which is what I think the whole series was about. But at the same time, there were just so many things left unanswered or partially explained. So, needless to say, I prefer End of Evangelion since the result is similar but with more explanations. And who knows, the rebuild might be the best yet, if they change it. |
algelic said: I know what you mean. It might have been better if they just DIDN'T release episodes 25 + 26. I would have prefered to see it unfinished than truly messed up. Even the "End of Evangelion" movie doesn't help at all. Thats Anno story telling style...subjective to an extreme Anno took a risk when he broke conventions both times in telling Evangelions ending. |
| Thank god this crap is over...finally whew! |
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| Ugh - I don't mind a little introspective from the main character and I kind of like a little existentialism (Ergo Proxy is one of my favorites). But these last two episodes were a bit much. It felt like a cop out to a real ending. I've heard and read that they were short on budget at the end but I would have rather watched a blank screen with written text of a good ending than watched "your world is defined by your perception of it" stretched out for 45 minutes over two episodes. I'm hoping for something better from the movies. |
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| Hmm, I loved the television ending. Maybe if there was no EoE movie I would've given it a lower score, but I like how the last episodes compliment the external happenings in that movie. But I really enjoyed the probing of each of the major character's minds. And even though the obvious lack of budget annoyed me at first, I learned to appreciate it. It's like a minimalist stage play-just like how the art style was bare and raw, so the characters' psyches are laid out bare and raw for us to see. Not to mention that the ending of the episode-where we see that Shinji does progress toward learning to love himself, and then the rest of the cast congratulating him, was touching, for me. |
| Personally I quite liked it, I thought it had a lot of insightful things to say and developed the characters further. It reminded me a lot of thoughts and insights I have had on L.S.D. it was really quite cool. |
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| What the hell was that O_o ? ...this ending sux all the line >.> i was expecting more like answers to some questions like What are Angels ? Where are they come from ? What happened after the last angell was killed ....honestly i dunno what to think about it all O_o im better stating to watch Death And Rebirth and then End of Evangelion... |
| I liked the ending. Ya, perhaps it didn't hold up to any of the other episodes, nor did it explain anything, but it did have some sort of horrible closure that I kind of liked. Congratulations! :) |
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| I loved it, until I found out that it wasn't really what they intended, plus the whole congratulations Shinji thing was gay, but I thought is really unique and deserves some credit for being done on a limited budget. |
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| Is this the original episode of 25 & 26? I haven't been able to watch these 2 episode. I like to actually see it. I read it in wiki, Eva forums. I need to see it >.>; I'd probably understand better why the Japanese audience hated the ending haha! |
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| Although I like the ending, I still see it as the director trying to cover his ass with an unconventional ending peppered with philosophical (or just solipsist?) ramblings. He knows he has run his story into a brick wall, his narrative is shot to hell, but he's got enough pride that he doesnt want to turn it into a generic action climax, so he goes the other way and into the mind of the protagonist. He betrays the consistency of the series, which is a big no-no in my mind, unless you provide little indicators along the way that this is where we're going to end up, but everything we've had to that point was in one style, and the ending was in another. Why do you think we've got numerous movies that keep retelling the ending? Sure, the fans and popularity had some influence on that, but I think more stronger than that was the director's own dissatisfaction with how he ended the series, so now we get endings that are more in line with the rest of the series, in style, tone, and yep, action too. The EoE ending is superior in that it doesnt break consistency, but still retains the unconventional approach and shows us the inside of these characters without patronising voice overs, we see it through their actions and reactions, as it should be. EDIT: Of course budget is a big reason for the ending too, but I think just blaming the budget is a cop-out, these people arent clueless, you can still make a tense ending with minimal locations and characters. |
BeatnikJul 23, 2008 1:24 AM
"I'm starting to think mal is run by Xinil generating electricity on a bicycle." - idklol |
| Ok, NGE. Ending. Six words: I did not understand this anime. Nor the ending. Is that bad or what? That high school thing was great, but otherwise the last two episodes were a huge mess for me. I will watch the movies, though, because I really want to understand it (since I admit that it was a very good anime; yes, boring sometimes for me, but nonetheless very good). |
| That ending was one of the most unsatifying endings I've come across. It did give more insight to each of the characters' minds and it at the same time, summed it all up well to this point I guess. Other than that, it didn't do much else for me. The transition leading up to the final two episodes wasn't done well imo and as Cihan said, the ending felt like it's breaking the "consistency" of the series. I'll accept that it is a very unique ending though and maybe I'll end up liking it once I grasp a better understanding of it. I didn't actually expect a completely action-packed finale, just hoped that they would give us some answers to many of the questions that are left out there. I really loved the deep story and characters though. Time to watch EoE and Rebuild. :D |
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| Well this ending is good in the terms ZarathustraDK said but still it leaves you hanging in the events in the outside world and not in Schinjis mind. But after i saw the End of Evangelion i was very pleased since it kept the atmosphere of the series with out going to just simple action staff and showed us what happen in the world in the same time with the proper action dosage. |
| Shinji's mental breakdown was a realistic element of the show, however it was dragged over too long a period. Of course it's very possible and even very true that Shinji's suffering caused him anguish over a long period of time, but I don't think the audience need's to be given a taste of this over several eps. The ending would have been much better if they simply put blatant emphasis on Shinji's 'craziness' (if it can be called that) rather than try to convey how deeply Shinji was affected by making their message to the audience longwinded and draggy. Although I appreciate that this kind of ending is unique and not seen before, it still did not appeal to me. I felt that by the time the producers reached the end, they had lost sight of half of the original NGE. Half of it is psychological self-evaluation of the characters, and that half was well explored. However, I felt that the action aspect of the anime was completely forgotten by the end. I thought some things I missed about NGE would come back during the eps, but it failed me. Now, I think I'll go watch EoE and the Rebuild movie to have a more informed opinion on Evangelion. |
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| For all the valid criticisms of it, I really like the original ending. Of course, I haven't seen it for six years or so. I remember it felt incredibly cathartic to watch, and at the end I was pretty depressed for about a week. |
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| Just watched the entire series in a marathon. And from 1-somewhere in the 20's this was a 10/10, but these last couple of eps made me lower the score to a 9. I was seriously like, WTF when I finished this. I just kept on saying wtf wtf over and over again as the credits rolled, because that was all I could manage to think of. Wtf. :/ wtf mann... |
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| okay, this episode as an anime episode was truly good. not did it only show aspects of the mind of characters to deepen their personalities, and their mental stuff. i liked that part of it. heck, i loved the short alternate universe. it wouldn't have been a bad anime that way. but as an ending, this was pretty damn bad. not only did it not actually tell us the way eva finished, other than shinji realizing that he killed nagisa (if it was clannad's nagisa, the ending would be perfect, but... too many fantasies). but it actually made me question stuff like, what the hell happened to SEELE, the supposed mass produced EVAs, adam, Rei, Lilith, and the true meaning of angels. it did a horrible job at answering questions that should have been answered in the ending. i could not keep the "what the fuck is just happening" out of my head. i knew some psychological shit was going on, but really... it was too sudden, and too unexplained for it to be an actual ending. tl;dr, the ending as an episode was ok, the ending as an ending was shit. but because i understand budget situations, i guess i can let it go, since there are also the movies... and the whole anime made up for the ending, so yeah, a good anime deserves a good score, 10/10 |
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CanadaAotS said: They could've replaced the entire last 2 episodes with that 3 minute School / Comedy / Romance skit and I would've been happy. Worst ending to an anime that I've seen to date. my god >_>;; QFT. It surely wasn't satisfying. Making this a 24 episode anime would've been better IMO. If the last two episodes were released as OVA, I would say that anime had a great ending and I wouldn't bother watching these 2 episodes. |
| I appreciate the fact that the director tried something completely different with the ending, but I'm afraid it wasn't a great conclusion at all. The movie has a MUCH better ending in my opinion. The movie just left me sitting there speechless as the credits were rolling. This episode just had me confused. |
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| Blame it on Gainax's inexperience with budgets for their series. : p Anyway, the two last episodes and End of Evangelion were created in such a way that they were really parallel stories. Where these last two episodes explained the mental struggles of Shinji and Asuka, End of Evangelion was really the external perception; the characters and their actions based on these mental struggles and how these actions affected those around them, and ultimately, the world. I felt the last two episodes were great considering Gainax's budget problems at the time (it was noticeable from much earlier on), but it was still mediocre at best. |
| Personally, I thought they were brilliant. A conventional ending would have ruined the series, IMO. I suppose the director felt this way too, which is why The End of Evangelion makes even less sense but is equally amazing. |
| I've been on both ends of the spectrum. When I first saw it, I hated it and felt like Anno had beaten me up & stole my lunch money. But after seeing it a second time it made sense to me. The whole series was a big fake out anyway. It was never really about the evas & angels. It was always really about Shinji anyway. Everything related to him and his psychology. It only seemed natural that once he reached a positive point and got some backbone that the series would end. As EoE, that's a whole nother can of worms (& primordial soup) that I'll stay away from :-P |
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| I was hoping for answers but I now have more questions than ever... It was an OK ending I guess :/ |
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| I didn't understand the last like, 4 episodes. I'm so confused. |
| (づ°‿°.)づ |
| the last 4 episodes are suppose to be shinji's realization. his destiny and what he meant to the world. that's what they tried to portray but they failed big time. by putting in complex schemes and different philosophies into it. watch the movie its a little more clearer than the original ending. |
asandari said: I just loved the mental breakdown This is my mental breakdown after watching this ending. ................................................................................................................... .................................................................................................................. .................................................................................................................. .................................................................................................................. ................................................................................................................... .................................................................................................................. .................................................................................................................. .................................................................................................................. ................................................................................................................... .................................................................................................................. .................................................................................................................. .................................................................................................................. ................................................................................................................... .................................................................................................................. .................................................................................................................. .................................................................................................................. |
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| I thought the last two episodes were pretty good, except for Shinji's epiphany and the applause at the end. I thought that was kinda hackneyed. I still have a ton of questions, and it feels like they could have been answered with better writing giving more hints through the entirety of the series. |
 Higurashi: Retroactively asserting why scary and cute sound so similar in Japanese. |
| Stupid just stupid ending the last three episodes of this series were BS!!!! psychological BS!! 7/10 disappointing. |
| "Every man shall reap what he has sown, from the highest lord to the lowest gutter rat. And some will lose more than the tips off their fingers, I promise you. They have made my kingdom bleed, and I do not forget that" |
aoio said: The first 24 episodes were the filler. 25-26 are Evangelion. I think it was certainly necessary filler, though. The last two episodes and the movie (End of Evangelion) would not have been nearly as amazing without the first 24 episodes. |
aoio said: I absolutely loved the last two episodes. I've watched them about a dozen times so far and i never tire of them because each time i watch them i can relate them to another facet of life and take a new meaning from them. But it's not just the content which appeals to me, it's the presentation. What seems like babbling to many is to me a rich web of complex ideas linked together by the bare minimum of explanation and left open to the individual mind for a truly personal comprehension. And, as for the art: mind blowing. The first 24 episodes were the filler. 25-26 are Evangelion. You said it. A lot of people doesn't seem to understand what the ending is about. People who can relate to the main character knows what the movie is talking about. The ending was like mind teraphy. I guess someone has to explain more in depth. To me the ending raised the score from 8 to 9. It was that good. |
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| If there is a perfect anime, this is the one. |
| Even thou episode 25-26 was not very enjoyable, seeing the ending made it worth it. I liked it, but my head hurts now. >_< |
| They needed far more funny school scenes in the finally two episodes to make up for all the mindless ranting. |
| What the shit just happened? o_Ø |
| ogrim88: Shinji's mind finally exploded. And was put back together. I enjoyed this ending. More than End Of, at least. As I mentioned in a thread over in the End Of forum, this is the "internal" plot, and End Of is the "external" plot. Given that, by the end of the series, the Angel battles weren't doing much for me, and I was more interested in characterization, I was more receptive to this "internal" plot. Add to that the fact that End Of is a massive downer ending, while episode 26 contains rays of sunlight at the end of a long and dark story. Hey, I like happy endings. ...especially if they star a mellow version of the theme song. |
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