Neon Genesis Evangelion - Movie: The End of Evangelion (DVD, 2002)

Neon Genesis Evangelion. Just hearing this title I can feel shivers down my spine. What makes this anime so great? Anno Hideaki made an incredible post apocalyptic world in which human kind can still find itself today. A use of countless allegories make this anime a must watch. The characters are what make this anime so remarkable: Shinji's, Asuka's and Rei's view of the World and their relationship with all those who surround them makes us remember why we are human and why our inhumanity actually make us more human, more alive, even though we sometimes want to die. The psychological profiles of every character is shaped to make an image hard to forget and we will be able to identify ourselves in some of the characters, or many many.
The End of Evangelion brings the series to an end, and it is quite an ending to a series of such caliber! When the fans were unpleased with the famous congratulations scene on episode 26 (and overall with episode 25-26), Anno decided to give an alternative ending to the series. Nevertheless, it is not exactly an alternative ending. In many ways, this is a complement to the series final episodes. Many of the psychological characteristics analyzed in Episode 25-26 are completely portrayed in the characters in this movie. A tremendous amount of allegories give this series a closure by giving the human kind an opportunity to start again, a Neon Genesis Evangelion. The religious theme is heavily treated in this movie and science and religion converge without differentiating them.
In many ways, this is a movie for everyone, but I highly suggest for everyone willing to watch it to watch first the series. Both of them show an overall view of Anno's view of the World and it's dreams that blind it's own progression and existence. Ironically, The End of Evangelion is in fact a New Beginning.

My first exposure to NGE was viewing "End of Eva" on a VHS screening copy. I was instantly hooked. I found that to understand a few key things in the movie, you need to see the entire series...or at least "Death & Rebirth". The commentary on the DVD of "End..." is essential, to help understand further (and was not on the VHS). We can all look forward to four new anime releases covering the original series but "redone", called "Rebuild of Evangelion". There is even talk of a live-action full feature movie in the future ...

There is no rating that can describe how mind blowing this movie is. This movie as you probably already know is a remake of the last two episodes in the series, they're like two movies each about an hour long. Each equally as amazing. It basicly starts from where episode 24 of the series left off and it goes through what happens afterwards. The movie has a lot of stuff going on all at once which will confuse the heck out of you if you dont have enough background knowledge of the entire show and all its plots, characters, settings, and secrets. If you don't you'll be completely lost. And if you do, you'll probly still be asking yourself "wut the heck just happened?!" its defintely one of those movies you need to watch more than once to understand. Overall i cant say much about what happened without revelaing any spoilers, but i absolutely loved the movie. Everything about it was astounding, the animation, the action, the soundtrack, and the whole movie itself was beautifully directed from begining to end. If you want to know how the ending in the series actually came to be and the process that everything took to make it happen then this movie is defintely, by far, a MUST-SEE. Any fan of the series has to watch this movie if they wish to further their understanding of the evangelion world. Overall its defintely worth buying, theres no debating its a must have.

As a great fan of the "Neon Genesis Evangelion" franchise, I had to acquire the culmination of Hideki Anno's masterpiece, "The End of Evangelion." This film fleshes out in descriptive detail much of the events of the final episodes of the Evangelion TV series. In fact, this complements the TV ending extremely well, giving a fresh take at the psychology examined in episodes 25 and 26. Lovingly animated by master artists, the fights come alive with realism, while horrifically disturbing imagery dives towards your very soul.


One downside to this incarnation of the film is the low-quality DVD transfer, which plagued the entire run of "End of Evangelion." This was eventually fixed in the newer release titled "Renewal of Evangelion," which combines the recap portion of "Death and Rebirth" with "End of Evangelion" in a much higher quality. That title, from what little I've seen, is gorgeous.


If you've only seen the television show Evangelion and were left wondering what had happened at the end, this will definitively conclude the show with a bang. Indeed, based on where the show was headed, one can easily say that the series ends on one of the most positive notes that it could have.


Highly recommended for any anime enthusiast who enjoyed Neon Genesis Evangelion. However, just like the TV show, this is not recommended for children, due to substantial nudity, sexual imagery, profanity, and adult situations.

One of the most controversial endings to any animated series. A stunning combination of beautiful artwork, surprises, and revelations. At times it may be hard to understand, causing many people to dislike it, but the parts that make sense are amazing. I'd rate this as the best finale to any anime ever.