Neon Genesis Evangelion The End Of Evangelion -1997- [portable] -

"Kimochi warui." Translation is a battlefield. The English dub famously rendered "Kimochi warui" as "How disgusting." Others translate it as "I feel sick." The most literal meaning is "Bad feeling."

Shinji, drowning in self-loathing, wishes for all of humanity to die. He wishes to erase the pain of "other people." This is where the film becomes a remedial thesis on the Hedgehog’s Dilemma (a concept introduced in the TV series). Philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer posited that hedgehogs in winter need to huddle for warmth but cannot get too close for fear of stabbing each other with their quills. Humans, Anno argues, are exactly the same. We need connection, but connection hurts. Rejection hurts. Betrayal hurts. neon genesis evangelion the end of evangelion -1997-

What follows is the film’s infamous "Third Impact." It is not an explosion. It is a psychedelic, live-action, metaphysical essay. As Shinji sits inside the god-machine, he is put on trial. Rei/Lilith shows him the truth: his friends are not real archetypes, but wounded people. Misato uses him for comfort. Asuka sees him as a weakling. Rei is just a ghost. "Kimochi warui

During the Third Impact sequence, the animation dissolves into scribbled storyboards, crude crayon drawings, and finally—live-action footage of the streets of Tokyo. We see an empty theater, a bored salaryman, and a crying baby. Anno is breaking the fourth wall to scream: This is real life. Your escapism is a lie. Rejection hurts

To the uninitiated, the title is a mouthful of jargon. To the initiated, it is a trigger for visceral memory—the screech of a Mass Production Eva, the sticky warmth of liquefied orange Fanta, or the crushing silence of a beach with a single, bloody kneecap. Twenty-nine years after its theatrical release (and several decades of discourse later), The End of Evangelion remains the definitive cinematic punctuation mark on the 20th century’s anxieties about intimacy, depression, and the shape of the human soul.