Movies

Q:  Are the movies ever coming out commercially in the States within my lifetime?
A:  Manga Entertainment has  announced that they have the rights to the Evangelion movies! It is  unknown right now just how much they bought them for (rumored to be  Euro2million!!! Where ADV bought the entire tv series for Euro1million @_@).  They plan to use ADVision's dubbing actors to do the German language  version though. Expect them to be very vocal about their plans very  soon:)

Q:  Why did SEELE order the attack  on NERV in the movie Rebirth?
A:  Because NERV had  outlived it's usefulness. SEELE had only set up NERV to combat the Angels  and keep them away from Adam (to keep them from initiating the  "destructive" Third Impact) and to insure Lilith's safety. After Tabris  was destroyed, Keel was free to initiate his own vision of the Third  Impact (the "constructive" Third Impact) and continue mankind's evolution.  But, the only way that he could do this was to capture NERV HQ and its  most precious possessions (and especially EVA-01). First SEELE tried to in  a peaceful manner (by using the other Magi Supercomputers of the world to  hack into the Three Magi in Tokyo-3), but when it realized that an attempt  on the Magi was futile, it had the JSSDF attack and subdue my GeoFront in  a hostile and violent manner by claiming that we were going to start the  Third Impact on our own (which I was, but that is what SEELE wanted too -  Lorenz just wanted full control of it with either Rei's help, or the  EVA-01[which showed that it could call the Spear of Destiny back to  Earth]).

Q:  Did Gendo and the rest of NERV know  that SEELE was going to turn on them?
A:  Yes. Those in high  posts, (Fuyutsuki, Ritsuko, and I) knew that they would do anything to get  Lilith and the means to start the Third Impact in their possession. There  just wasn't much we could do, or wanted to do as most of the NERV staff  was expendable.

Q:  What elements were needed to launch  the Third Impact?
A:  First of all, there are  two kinds of Third Impacts: The Destructive Impact (within an Angel would  return to Adam and every man would simply die);  and the Constructive  Third Impact (where Lilith is the key Angel and every man becomes a single  component and "evolves" into the ultimate of beings).
  In  order for the Destructive Third Impact to occur, a being known as a Shito must come into contact and return to Adam.
  To  simply let the Constructive Third Impact take place, mankind needed:
-to defeat all 17 Angels through a variety of difficult means, each  one more complicated or intricate than the previous
-to contain Adam  and Lilith (Adam to keep him from taking Lilith away and to in turn get  the prophesied seventeen Angels to make their appearances, and Lilith to  begin the Impact [while also combining with Adam])
-a manmade Angel  with a human soul (or an Eva)
-and have the Lance of Longinus (also  known as the Spear of Destiny) in their possession.
(Note, it  has been proven that simple contact between an EVA, the Lance, and Lilith  cannot cause an Impact before the Seventeen messengers from God have been  vanquished and Adam is brought together with her. And even then, the EVA  and the Lance (the Lance penetrating the EVA's core) must start the Impact  before Lilith can combine with them to complete it.)

  Or, a pure  Angel coming in contact with Lilith would do the job (which is why SEELE  tried to trick Kaworu into touching her after the Lance was lost).  However, the Angels do not want to come in contact with Lilith, they  simply want to return to Adam. It's a game of deception and tricks in  which SEELE is willing to play dirty at, especially after Keel Lorenz  finds out that Rei and Adam are my own trump cards in deciding the fate of  the world. (EVAs themselves cannot be used as a key to Lilith. They are  not "Angel" enough. Only with the Lance of Longinus do they have enough  "Heavenly Material" to start the Impact.)
  In order to have my vision of the  Third Impact take place all I needed was the above ingredients (except for  an Eva and the Lance) Rei, and Adam with whom I would merge and control  the Impact and therefore be reunited with my wife, Yui (who was my only  Complimentation and the reason for me doing everything I could to initiate  the Human Instrumentality Project). However, Rei refused to combine with  me and then Shinji and Eva-01 refused to combine with her therefore  destroying mankind's only hope of evolving past its Darwinian dead end and  my personal salvation....or maybe it did  proceed

Q:  Why are all of these components needed  to start the Third Impact?
A:  The Constructive Third  Impact is the path to mankind's final evolutionary form..... You wouldn't  think it would be a cake-walk to get to it, do ya? It has to be complex in  order to test man's stamina and perseverance, and so that it could not be  accidentally triggered. This was something that had to be  deliberate.

Q:  So SEELE was helpless without the  Lance of Longinus in beginning the Third Impact after Rei and Eva-00  hurled it into the moon?
A:  No. Keel Lorenz makes it  clear that when the Lance was thought to be lost that they still had  another key to our evolutionary jumpstart. All SEELE had to do was use an  Angel like I was planning to use Rei or the EVA-01 with its new S2 Drive  instead of Lilith herself (but with the Unit-01 nobody was sure if it  would truly work). It is obvious that he originally wished to keep some  control of the Impact by using an EVA, the Lance, Lilith, and Adam. But  when the Lance was gone he just wanted to get it over with. He must have  decided that eternal sleep was at least a consolation prize for his long  quest even though he could not become a god by controlling the Impact and  merging with first Adam and then Lilith himself (the forbidden fusion that  I attempted to do with Rei). SEELE had been working on an artificial Lance  of Longinus, but it is assumed that unlike their fully functional S2  Drives, the Lances were never fully completed (although the EVAs 05-13  never got the chance to test the replicas themselves on Lilith before the  EVA-01 called back the real Spear of Destiny from the moon). Although if  we simply go by Keel's words, it would appear that the EVAs 05-13 were  only meant to use the EVA-01 as their  'Lilith'.
  Rei has the same DNA information that  is encoded in the Lance. Therefore, she could be used as Lilith's Key  too.

Q:  In the character section  you had mentioned that Asuka died while fighting the EVA 5-13 series, but  you also gave her fate as staying on Earth and living with Shinji after he  screwed up the Third Impact. Well, which was it? It can't be both, can  it?
A:  This  is one of Director Anno's infamous mind f*** questions. He originally made  the last two television episodes and the End of Evangelion as  cryptic as possible because he was so tired of mindless anime with no real  plot or thinking involved. "The End of Evangelion can mean whatever  you want it to" is the final message.

  Difficult to  accept, maybe, but also fun (if you ask me). I was also sick of those  mindless pieces of animated dung too (you know, the ones where you can  tell exactly how the series is going to end 10 minutes into the first  episode). The End of Eva leads one to believe that the world is what you  make of it. It can be a good place to live (even through all the  hardships) if you just want it to be one. Remember, this is the same  message that Anno originally put in the final two episodes of the series  (#25 & 26) and was booed at by the Japanese anime fans. It's kinda  funny to see them applaud and love an even more confusing and  untraditional ending than was originally produced (which they heckled and  said that Gainax must have been rushed to finish  it).
  The  End of Eva leads one to believe that Asuka was killed defending NERV HQ,  all of humanity died (evolved), and that Shinji stopped the Third Impact  after he had started it. It also leads us to believe that Shinji and Asuka  are still alive (the last two humans on Earth [the new Adam and  Eve?]), or maybe they did evolve with everyone else and this is  Shinji's idea of what Heaven would be like. Maybe Shinji didn't stop the  Impact and someday a new intelligent life-form will find the EVA-01 and  the Lance of Longinus in space and find their own path to the final phase  in evolution. There are many contridictions in the movie that can be used  in defense of whatever fate you believe befelled Shinji and all of  mankind.

  If I had to  decide right now what had actually happened at the end of the movie (and  keep in mind that this is only one possibility in a hundred that I could  back up) I would have to say that the Impact had occured and that Shinji  and Asuka were in the next life. The fact that Asuka was still in one  piece after the EVA 5-13's had ripped her and her EVA-02 to shreds and the  fact that she is wearing her bandages exactly the same as Rei wore hers in  the first few episodes leads the viewer to believe that this is Shinji's  idea of Heaven.....being together forever with the one person that he  thought he needed. He finally made a choice for himself and he's going to  stick with it (although he seemed to recant a bit when he started to  strangle her -_-... what a wuss). Also, how did Shinji get back  on Earth from his high orbit? The EVA-01 was still in space at the very  end! And who bandaged up Asuka (who seemed to be a mixture of Misato, Rei  and Asuka herself)?

Q:  I've seen the TV series (and  personally I love the ending^_^) and saw how it talks about the "Human  Complimentation Project" on a psychological level. From what I've read  about the movies, this "complimentation" is of a more physical nature. Are  the two endings compatible, and do the TV episodes 25-26 actually occur in  the movies' timelines? Also, aren't the movies a little too dark as  compared to the TV series?
A:  Lots of questions and  lots of answers coming up.
  First, yes, the endings are  compatible. Director Anno has shown his displeasure of the Japenese fans'  outcry over the ending of the TV series and has stated that even in the  movie timeline the actions and thoughts that occur in the last two episode  of the show did indeed happen. Shinji comes to his conclusions about life  and death at the same time that the Third Impact is taking place around  him. His decision to live and make his world what he wants it to be is the  last thought in the TV series, and the one that causes him to break away  from the next step in evolution. He chose to be an individual, not one of  the mass.
  Asuka comes to her conclusion about how she must  go on when she is in the bottom of the lake. Rei decides that she is a  human (a genetically cloned human, but a human none- the- less) and not a  doll or my personal plaything in the moments prior to the time I go to  retreive her to begin my own Third Impact. And Misato realises who she  really is as she lay dying in NERV HQ.
  Second, the Human  Compliment Project refers to merging mankind into one physical and  psychological being (while his 'human' bodies return to the Link Connection Liquid or 'Primordial Soup of Life' that is the  basis of all life and all of his seperate minds come together and fill the  empty voids that each seperate Lilim had in its soul [hence humanity  'compliments' eachother only in the form of one giant being, like it was  in the beginning]) to complete his evolutionary path.
  As  to the movies being too dark, well, maybe. Evangelion is all about  pessimism. Until the very end it seems that none of the main characters  believes in themselves too much and therefore an air of hopelessness does  shroud the series. But the open ending can lead one to believe that the  greatest thing has happened and mankind was given the happiest ending  imaginable (or if you are pessimistic, the worst ending  imaginable).

Q:  Okay, so episodes 25 and 26 of the TV  series really happened, but what do they really mean? They're pretty  farged up, ya know.
A:  It's a little difficult  to explain, but in reality it's not Shinji that's questioning if others  like him and why he exists at all if all he does is run away, it's Hideaki  Anno. Try this: Whenever Shinji says "I" or "me" in the final two episodes  of Eva, substitute either "Studio Gainax" or "Anno". Whenever the EVAs are  mentioned, substitute "Project EVA" (the animation). And anytime Shinji wonders if "other people" like him,  replace it with either "rival studios" or "the audience".
  You see, Anno was almost as screwed up as Shinji-kun is,  but he got better (in his own mind at least, where it counts). One has to  remember that Gainax was the ugly duckling of the Japanese Anime  community. They were doing things that nobody had ever done before and  other studios (and even the otaku) were calling them stupid and insane.  Anno simply put these fears to animation and made the best damn series the  world has ever known. He has since said that Project EVA has helped him  figure out who he is and that he is OK now.