Name(s): Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion / Shinseiki Evangelion Movie: Air/Magokoro wo, Kimi ni / Shinseiki Evangelion Gekijouban: The End of Evangelion / EoE / 新世紀エヴァンゲリオン劇場版 Air / まごころを, 君に
Format: Movie
Studio(s): Gainax / Production I.G
Related: Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995-1996)
Original Publication: N/A (unknown date)

Neon Genesis Evangelion really would be a lot less without this. Hideaki Anno wanted the series to end ambiguously, but there’s a good way to do this and a bad way. The series did it badly in the sense it abandons plot threads that it teased us were going to have clever, creative, and shocking resolutions to. Neon Genesis Evangelion didn’t set itself up as something ambiguous, as it seemed to be a mystery that was being continuously unraveled through the narrative, until it suddenly stopped.

This made people justifiably upset (some more belligerent fans, not so justified). So this movie patched everything up by giving a very intense, constantly rising climax that answers all of our most pressing questions and shows us the interesting directions the plot seemed to be headed before the lights were switched off. I couldn’t be much more satisfied.

It’s safe to say I would like Neon Genesis Evangelion significantly less without The End of Evangelion delivering on the series’ implications, and although it’s against my policy to rate individual things in the context of one another, I have to do it here, or I feel like I’m being disingenuous about how much I enjoy Neon Genesis Evangelion as a whole.