Evangelion Rebuild Part 2: 3.0+1.0 - Thrice Upon a Time

IMPOSSIBLY HUGE SPOILERS ARE COMING, YOU WERE WARNED A SECOND TIME.

The production of the original Neon Genesis Evangelion was notoriously difficult. Creator Hideaki Anno did not yet know where the story would end when he started with Shinji piloting Eva Unit 01 to fight the Angel Sachiel. Many endings disappeared into his drafts. But two different endings made their way to the public. Anno poured all of himself into of both of those endings. The work and his illness very nearly killed him. That struggle shows "on the page" as it were, with The End of Evangelion, the intense and controversial conclusion of the first Eva cycle.

Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time is the final release in this second generation of Evangelion. It is both the culmination of a four-part film series, the Rebuild of Evangelion, and also the culmination of a story Anno has been telling since 1995. "Thrice Upon a Time", refers to the fact that this is now the third - and final - ending Anno has written for Shinji Ikari. This is the farewell. This is letting go.

The Rebuild of Evangelion series has proven to be a very difficult creation as well. During the course of production, Rebuild clearly changed paths multiple times. Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance and 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo both end with Next Episode teasers which preview movies that were never made. 3.0 cuts far into the future beyond the events its preview displayed. And then none of the footage shown at the end of 3.0 made it into the fourth film. At one point the master plan for Rebuild predicted that the fourth movie would be released in 2008. It took thirteen years longer than that. Covid-19 can only be blamed for months of delays, not years.

Yet, nothing that truly matters can or should be done quickly. The wait for 3.0+1.0 has been long, and much longer than anybody thought. It has been over eight years since the last movie. Yet, I never lost faith. Most of the fandom seemed to be patient as well. We knew whatever was coming would be amazing. We could not imagine what was coming next, but whatever it was, it would be wonderful.

And so it was. 3.0+1.0 is both a response and a supplement to The End of Evangelion. It dramatically turns course but never reject its past. It's a triumphal movie of vast positivity and warmth. The End of Evangelion limped out of the darkness, 3.0+1.0 races fearlessly up into the future.

 

I.

 

Now that the series has been completed, I have to ask: did Evangelion need to be rebuilt at all? 

 

There already are several different Evangelion re-interpretations that do not have Anno's stamp on them. The official manga series by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto started concluded in 2013 and actually has a very similar ending to 3.0+1.0. If you want the version of Shinji Ikari in the Slice of Life high school setting from Episode 26, that's been done a dozen times now. You want Shinji and Kaworu to kiss? That scene is out there a million different ways, either wholesome or filthy. The world never lacked for reinterpretations of these characters.

 

I also should mention that Neon Genesis Evangelion has never not been influential since its release. If you simply want a happier and less hideous version of this general idea, there is the anime RahXephon from 2001. If you want a SciFi story of a boy struggling with his parent's legacy and adolescent confusion, watch the Steven Universe, especially the much darker final season. That's probably much more effective as a tool for working out anxiety and depression. I personally play Here Comes a Thought when I'm feeling unwell. I don't play Cruel Angel's Thesis.

As much as I respect The End of Evangelion, in fact, love it deeply, I accept that it is a difficult, nearly impenetrable work whose craft is indisputably masterful. However, the overall message is hard to understand. It is easy to see all the neuroses and horror in the film and miss the final glimmer of hope, which even in the movie itself is incomplete and arguably unsatisfying. Anno wrote a great ending that needed no amending. Still, suffering cannot be the only way to tell Shinji's story.

The goal of the Rebuild of Evangelion may be hiding in an essay Hideaki Anno wrote some years ago about another artist's work. This is a postscript from the manga Insufficient Direction, a slice-of-life story about a woman and her marriage to an older otaku, focusing on their relationship's sweetness and triumphs. It's extremely cute, I recommend it. But also, it matters quite a bit to our story because the manga was written by and stars Moyoco Anno, Hideaki's wife. That otaku? That's Hideaki himself. Insufficient Direction is a semi-biographical cartoon of their life. They married in 2002, five years after Hideaki finished The End of Evangelion. Hideaki Anno's commentary makes him come off as something of a doting wife guy. 

 

Here's the quote that sticks out to me: "Instead of making you want to dwell in yourself, her [Moyoco's] manga makes you want to go outside and do something, it emboldens. It's a manga for tackling reality and living with others."

 

Even at its most inspiring, The End of Evangelion is a deeply insular work. It's Anno at war with himself, his fanbase, and the fanbase possibly of his own imagination. The social pain here is infinite and apocalyptic. Ultimately, yes, there is much to be admired and commended by Shinji Ikari (and Anno himself at the same time) choosing life, and the possibility of happiness. Yet even at the end of that movie, happiness seems like a fool's dream. The movie cherishes life, but never answers just how to live. Evangelion's first cycle ended on the first step of a journey. But it did not show even one step forward. 

 

The journey needed to continue. That's Rebuild.

 

 

II.

 

In 2016, Studio Khara, the new home of Hideaki Anno and Evangelion after they left Gainax, released a short film to celebrate their ten year anniversary. The short is made in the same style as Moyoco's Insufficient Direction. In it, Khara is symbolized as a simple garden. The Evangelion movies are turnips. Monumental turnips. Turnips that cannot be pulled out alone and require the help of the entire joyous staff of Khara together. It's a positive message about shared effort and a kind of scrappy community supporting each other. The short ends with the impending fourth turnip, the greatest turnip of them all. That's the turnip we're on right now, 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Turnip.

There is another view inside Khara though. That view is the NHK TV documentary, Hideaki Anno: The Final Challenge of Evangelion. This is a behind-the-scenes look inside Studio Khara during the long and very often delayed production process of making the final movie. What we see here is not a turnip field. Anno is no yeoman. Instead he is a difficult boss, with erratic needs, and very little work-life balance. He's often absent from the office early on. Later around 2018 he becomes a crunching workaholic to finish the project. There's model villages in the studio, and Anno is never satisified with their layout. At one point he even tells the documentarians how to do their job. Then the NHK editor follows Anno's advice and produces the next few minutes exactly as ordered.

 

There is a recurring comment in this documentary. 3.0+1.0 is not just the end of Rebuild, it's the end of Evangelion. Anno is very sober about this fact. "It's the last one." He says this completely without glamor or excitement. He's tired, and seems annoyed that he has to talk with the NHK people around his desk. He might not intend this much bitterness.

But he's also not wrong. I cannot imagine that Anno will bring back Shinji or Asuka or Rei or even Pen-Pen. The reason he came back to Eva at all is explained. He "put everything of himself into it", repeating a line he's used before interviews. Anno felt at some point he could never tell another story. There have been reports that the studio intended Evangelion Rebuild to be a launching pad for a whole new phase of Evangelion mass-media. The long, long years of work seem to have changed Anno's mind.

Market forces will always demand more out of these beloved characters and their biomechanical robots of quasi-religious terror. Somebody else will have to make those. Anno has pulled his finalEva turnip out of the ground. He seems ready to go other places and tell other stories.

Let me leave Hideaki Anno here for now. He'll be back later, don't worry. Let's see what Shinji has been up to.

III.

Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone and Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance are an increasingly less faithful remake of the original Neon Genesis Evangelion anime. 1.0 is at times a shot-for-shot remake, leading all the way up to a spetacular fight against the Angel Ramiel. 2.0 more radically shifts things away, while still generally following the old outline. Asuka is introduced and her arrival leads to a lighter, more relationship-driven phase of the story. Shinji starts to feel more like a normal teen with normal concerns like girls. That is until the coming of more dangerous Angels who dramatically shift things on a darker path.

However, while things are more or less faithful at this phase of Rebuild, we're already moving away from the original in several important ways. These are in some cases very obvious. We have a new pilot girl in Mari Makinami Illustrious. A few Angels get shifted around here and there. (We were robbed of Gaghiel!) Some scenes play out starkly differently. During the infamous elevator long-take, when Asuka goes to slap Rei, Rei catches her hand.

 

Then, of course, there's some lore differences at work here. The ocean is blood red, a strong indication that Rebuild is, if not literally then spiritually, picking up right where The End of Evangelion left off. Asuka has a different last name, "Shikinami".  Yui's soul does not appear to be in Eva Unit 01. But all that is window dressing to the real differences at work here. That's in the characters.

 

There's a very different vibe happening even before Rebuild goes totally "off the rails" as it will at the end of 2.0. Shinji already feels more assertive and confident. He's allowed to cook a meal successfully, which his friends all enjoy. It's a small thing, but Shinji Ikari never had moments of validation like this. Asuka, perhaps more than any other character, gets a moment of self-reflection and maturity. She calls off her rivalry with Rei, realizing it is just petty jealousy. We've never seen Asuka grow this far before.

Then of course, we have that ending fight in 2.0. There is an argument to be made that right now, we could wrap up the series here, the Rebuilding is already complete. This is that triumphal moment from a strong, assertive Shinji that never happened in The End of Evangelion. In the original anime, this fight is about Unit 01 going Beserker, meaning its Yui saving her son. Well, Shinji is alone in the Eva this time. He does not have his mother fighting his battles for him. Yet he still becomes a classic anime hero, rejecting reality, and by pure will, saves Rei's soul from the depths of the Angel Zaruel. It's a great scene. The music is killer. (It's going to be the first of two responses to Come Sweet Death we'll hear during this journey.)

 

Of course, nothing is that easy, is it? This wouldn't be Evangelion if it were. Just being willing to fight for something doesn't mean you're a complete person. Shinji is still a child. Rejecting reality to save one life is what his father has been doing since 1995. Unfortunately, his next lesson is that life has consequences. In a classic move of this franchise, our tempory joy has only opened the door to more sorrow.

 

By Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo we have completely tossed away the narrative of the original anime. We jump forward fourteen years into the future. Shinji's impressive exploits have not saved anybody. He ruined the world instead. Most people fear and hate Shinji for what he did. He didn't even get to save Rei, not really. The movie then ends with Shinji trying another Impact attempt, utterly oblivious to how he's being used by his father. For that, he gets his last remaining friend and piano partner, Kaworu killed. Kowaru wanted Shinji to be happy. Unfortunately, Kaworu failed Shinji and Shinji failed Kaworu.

 

There is a pattern here in each of the Rebuild films. 1.0 is the movie about Rei and Shinji, 2.0 is Asuka's movie, and 3.0 with its erotic piano scenes, is the Kaworu x Shinji story. Any one of these pairings could have happened if circumstances were better. Sadly, they were not. Who, therefore, is going to be the most important person for Shinji in 3.0+1.0? Mari? Misato? Yui? Pen-Pen?

No, 3.0+1.0 is Gendo's movie. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

 

IV.

Right from the start, 3.0+1.0 is not going to be a movie like The End of Evangelion. The dark moody chapter of Rebuild is 3.0, where Shinji spent most of his time in the ruins of NERV, barely piloting a robot at all. 3.0+1.0 is a triumph from start to finish. It is not here to subvert your expectations and torture you for having them. It is your wildest fantasies come true. This is a movie that wants to be everything you could have ever wanted from Evangelion - and more.

Right from the opening scene, this is a different kind of movie entirely. The movie opens with the Eiffel Tower being used as a spear in a push of pike against a zombie horde of Eva weapons. Mari in Eva Unit 08 pirouettes on strings in an acrobatic dance, spinning happily as she mows down armies of enemy machines. It's awesome stuff, shot beautifully. It's an unambiguous victory for the good guys. This scene is enjoyable on the simplest levels.

Eventually we will get to the apocalypse portion of today's programming. There will be armies of headless naked women marching across the land. There will be a giant Rei with an uncanny valley CG face is deeply unsettling. Much of the final half hour will be experimental and surreal, breaking down the boundaries of the medium. It would not be Eva without this stuff. However, all that darkness is really at a minimum. There is no gore. Nobody shames themselves over their comatose friends. Instead, 3.0+1.0 is a big joyous blockbuster for much of its run-time.

Also, it is a gorgeous movie. This movie is once again, a technical triumph. Studio Khara has been at this for over a decade, and they're masters of this craft now. Stunning work, as always. There is not a single ounce of spectacle spared. Few movies dare be this massive. Evangelion can also be a lot of fun.

It's why we have scenes where we discover that Shinji's sync rate with Unit 01 is not zero, but "infinite". Asuka pulls off her eye-patch to reveal it has been a power limiter the whole time, so she can have a Super transformation into a being with rainbow hair. At one point a character says "Gendo sure is sly, taking advantage of the fact we're in the Anti-Universe, he's using quantum teleportation!" 

 

The scale of action becomes so absurd as to be pure joy. Asuka and Mari will have a fight scene against billions of evil Evas, enough to literally cloud the heavens with a giant drill. Studio Trigger, who assisted on this production, have basically a guest cameo scene where Eva turns into Gurren Lagann for a minute. There's giant flying battleship combat for no reason other than to have giant flying battleship combat.

This is awesome. I don't think there is much more intelligent analysis required. It's just really cool. It is unimaginable that The End of Evangelion would ever do anything to "just be cool". Or if it did, it would probably punish you a scene later. Definitely you would not have charming relationships such as Asuka giving Mari the nickname of "four-eyed crony". There's jokes in this movie. The narrative never breaks down. The good guys have setbacks, but never lose.

The one gross element for me is regarding Asuka. I am increasingly less comfortable with this franchise's fetishization of young bodies, especially female ones. Asuka is frequently naked in this movie, and the camera is frequently positioned right between her legs. In The End of Evangelion, female sexuality represented a kind of primal terror that Shinji felt. That repressed revulsion is absent entirely this time. Asuka is just naked to be naked. There's nothing transgressive or symbolic about it, it's just fanservice on a frankly shitty level. One scene is outright spoiled because Asuka's clothing is torn for no reason than to show off more skin. What are you doing, movie? Stop that.

In a rather sick way, I think that too is supposed to be part of the audience appeal. Not all fanservice is to a movie's benefit.

 

3.0+1.0 in its broad appeal is not quite a rejection of The End of Evangelion, but a reversal of it. Nothing in this movie will ever directly say that older film was wrong. It has no judgement of the past. It is simply an alternate option. There are also, many many call-backs, all of which have a kind of opposite spin to them.

 

Everybody begged Shinji to "get in the robot", now everybody is begging Shinji to never pilot again. Gendo shot Ritsuko, now Ritsuko shoots Gendo. Asuka had a spear stabbed into her eye, now Asuka pulls a spear out of her eye. Shinji assaulted Asuka in his dreams, now Asuka assaults Shinji to make him eat. Shinji was inside Yui, now Yui is inside Shinji. Etc. Etc.

But the most important way that his movie differs from the previous conclusion is in the first act. 3.0+1.0 is a full hour longer than The End of Evangelion, reaching a thick and beefy two and a half hours. That new first act, however, really makes all the difference.

 

V.

After the CG action extravaganza in Paris, 3.0+1.0's real plot actually begins minutes after the conclusion of 3.0, with Shinji, Asuka, and the latest Rei clone together in the ruins of the world. The events of the third movie purposefully isolated Shinji, so we know very little about the new state of humanity. Were there more than a dozen people even still alive? Every step in this red Hell for Shinji is another reminder of the horror he unleashed. We'll get back to the bright action scenes eventually. Until then, Shinji has a lot of issues to work out.

Eventually our party is picked up by an adult and taken to Village 3, a place utterly unlike anywhere we've been in the entirety of Evangelion.

Most of the events we've seen in this entire franchise have taken place in Tokyo-3, a bustling urban metropolis. 2.0 features a loving montage sequence of life in the city, as the day begins. I love how much work somebody put into the details of that city, imagining how the dozens of rail lines move, how the skyscraper solar panels catch power. The imaginary of Evangelion been limited to modern cities or vast fortresses of strange technology. The countryside, if it appears at all, has been always under the boot of a giant robot or kaiju.

So when Eva suddenly switches over to being a pastoral fantasy, I was blindsided. People who work for NERV do not have time to pull vegetables. (Turnips!) In this place, one cannot imagine Angels attacking. Maybe Totoro is hiding behind a hill.

 

The Village 3 sequence is pleasant, often adorable. The Rei Clone, Ms. Lookalike, mistakes a cat for a dog, and wonders vebably what babies are. ("It's a human, but small. How did you shrink her?") Hikari and Toji, never got a chance to finish their romance in the first Neon Genesis Evangelion. This time Hikari got to make Toji lunch. Even Third Impact never came between them, and they're happily married. An adult Kensuke worries openly that environmental devistation might come to the village eventually. But he's proud and fulfilled by his labor. There is balance in this life.

 

Pen-Pen has prospered and sired an entire race of happy penguins.

It's almost a perfect ideal. There's still floating traincars and transmission towers hovering in the skies. They do not fit in with the picture at all, but they are stark reminders that we're still in Eva Land. And even out in this rural community, the remnants of industry are rarely too far out of frame. This is not the middle of nowhere, it's an abandoned rail yard. The homes and businesses are repurposed rail cars.

Shinji in the original was without so many things: a caring father, a mother that wasn't a scary biological robot god-thing, a stable home for more than a few episodes. But one thing he also never had was time. Village 3 is that time poor Shinji never had.

 

This Rebuild Shinji has already proven himself to be a stronger and more accomplished person than the one before. But, after the events of 3.0, he's back to his worst self. He's choking on his grief. Nobody said the path forward was going to be linear. Progess sometimes is beset by regressions. Shinji is now so terrified of the world that he becomes monastic, hiding in a ruined outside the village for days and days. Still, the world is there for him. He has people. He has time. Nothing gets better at all once. Nothing should get better all at once. The few weeks Shinji has in Village 3 with people who love him make all the difference between 3.0+1.0 and The End of Evangelion.

Village 3 is also a place where Ms. Lookalike finds humanity. To her, this is not a brutal struggle of self-actualization. She never had this option: living. She gets to pull crops from the fields and enjoy the company of gossiping old women. It's a peaceful life. It's also an impossible life. The Rei Clone asks for her own name, and to deep my personal frustration with this movie, never gets one. Still she lives in in her own limited time. When we lose her, in the one truly shocking moment of this movie as she fucking explodes, we still miss. It's the first of many goodbyes Shinji will need to say during 3.0+1.0, but luckily the last grotesquery.

By the end, Shinji is something of himself again. This Shinji can now face down what's coming next. The weight of world is not on him alone. Though, even during the deepest depths of The End of Evangelion, it never truly was.

 

VI.

There is a version of 3.0+1.0 that ends in Village 3. Much like the Zaruel fight at the end of 2.0, it could be a satisfying ending. Set it far away from the ludicrous swirl of conspiracy and religious iconography. Shinji finds humanity in a simple, peaceful place, and lives happily ever after. However, this is still Evangelion. You can't end the story without an apocalypse. And also, we still have a very important dangling thread to prune.

 

There are two Gendo Ikaris in this movie. One is, of course, the Gendo Ikari we know and most likely despise. The other is Misato Katsuragi. She has (thankfully) been removed from the ranks of Shinji's "harem". Instead, we discover she had a son with Kaji. Misato as the commander of the good guys, is modeling herself after her old boss. She hides herself on the top deck under sunglasses and a cold demeanor. She even tossed her son away, echoing how Gendo isolated himself to Shinji. Importantly though, Misato did this for her son's protection. She made sure he was safe and loved. When she sacrifices herself, after letting her hair down to become the Misato we recognize once again, her mind goes back to him. Misato feels a lot of pain in not being a mother, but she is not an endless complex of psychological horror. That's Gendo.

In the very long climax of this movie, Shinji finally gets inside the Robot, and goes off to confront Gendo. This is yet another place where Evangelion Rebuild could end. It's The Return of the Jedi ending: father vs son, good vs evil. We've watched Shinji suffer for decades now at the hands of his terrible father. They have never had a proper reckoning. Now that Gendo has taken on the mantel of True Final Boss of the franchise, it seems like a logical way to solve everything. Shinji has Eva Unit 01, Gendo has Unit 13. They're both big purple people eaters, they both have spears, let's have them fight.

Since the Anti-Universe is just a big kaleidoscope of surreality, it makes for a poor stage for a fight. Instead we start replaying scenes from Neon Genesis Evangelion Episodes 1 and 2. Shinji's "unfamiliar ceiling", Gendo standing above Shinji and Unit 01, that avenue in Tokyo-3 where Shinji fought Sachiel. This is a world created out of memory, but makes for a suitably awesome arena. The two Evas stand-off in Tokyo-3 and begin their fight. And almost immediately, the battle fails.

 

This is not Tokyo-3, it's a model city. The buildings slide on the floor. Unit 01 hits the backdrop that is the sky. It's another construct. We're back at Shinji's sandcastle from The End of Evangelion, it's another formalist attack on the reality of this fiction. They might as well be men in suits in a Godzilla movie. Or Hideaki Anno as moving pieces around in his train set in Khara's studio.

Then things turn comic. The fight shifts to Misato's apartment, where Shinji falls through one of the walls, which is nothing more than thin scenery, revealing a backstage. They fight in Shinji's classroom, in Rei's room, in Village 3. No matter where it is staged though, the fight is totally meaningless. "Violence and fear are not the criteria upon which our conflict can be resolved", says Gendo, who for once, is right. The Return of the Jedi ending is not in the cards. 

 

Shinji and Gendo are going to have to do something they've both been terrified of their entire lives: talk to each other. They were spared this most awful of confrontations last time around in The End of Evangelion. Now there is no escaping this reckoning.

 

Shinji and Gendo have always more alike than either would want to admit. This is all made physical by the object of the SDAT Walkman that both have used. Shinji has spent many episodes staring up into nothing, shuffling between tracks 25 and 26 on his cassette. We learn here that Gendo was no different. He spent his entire life his in own Hedgehog's Dilemma. He wore headphones because he feared and hated the world. Gendo only ever opened up once in his life, to Yui, the one person who ever showed him that life was worth living. However, Gendo learning nothing from this one meaningful relationship. Once Yui was gone, he reverted right back to his egotistical life. Shinji, as well, has repeatedly turned inward after losing people important to him. For one shot, a young Gendo with glasses looks identical to the Shinji we know.

 

Remember that we've already seen Shinji change considerably during Rebuild and the first act of this movie. The End of Evangelion was all about saving Shinji. 3.0+1.0 now has a pre-saved Shinji. We've seen every other character in Rebuild undergo some kind of transformation or evolution. They're all in some way older, more mature versions of themselves. Shinji might still be fourteen, but this one has seen much more of the world than his original counterpart. 

 

Gendo has gained no perspective. He is an endless sea of techno-babble and increasingly nonsensical proper nouns. "Anti-Universe", "Spear of Cassius", "The Golgatha Object", "Eva Imaginary". It's bullshit. All of it. 

 

I've had a very dim view of the hardcore "lore" of Evangelion for some time. I will outright reject it all this time. That might even be the intent. Only Ritsuko takes a particular interest in Gendo's ramblings. Because while the mechanics of this Human Instrumentality Project are very different, the point is not. It's still merging humanity into a singular entity to overcome the impossible pain of connection. This sounds tedious now. It's a pathetic retread of what once was a nightmare. In this movie, and this Rebuild series, we have had no evidence that connection need be impossible. Shinji has had many relationships that have all been fulfilling to him. Humanity has lived on in Village 3 and has a future. This time, when the giant Rei rises into the sky to seize everybody, it grabs one soul: Fuyutsuki's. Everybody else is fine.

Gendo is just grasping at the same cycle of failure as before. It's always been about Yui. Gendo screams her name impotently: "YUI! YUI! YUI!" and finds nothing, even in this Anti-Universe where seemingly any wish can come true. The film starts to break down itself here. The richly colored final product of 3.0+1.0 turns into sketch work. The artwork is as incomplete as this man is.

I've compared Shinji to Hideaki Anno a few times in both of these essays. Though, in some ways, Anno is not Shinji, he's Gendo. Gendo even looks like Anno. They're both grumpy older men with beards, glasses, and grumpy personalities. Maybe there is no difference anymore. Shinji, Gendo, Anno can make up three parts of some Trinity. But again, Shinji and Hideaki have moved on. Gendo is the only person clinging to the past.

The perhaps greatest crime of Gendo's life is replayed here. That is the moment that Gendo sent away a weeping toddler with on a train platform with just one word "LEAVE". Instead now, Gendo embraces his son. It's an absolution that both of these men have needed for decades.

However, Gendo is going away. There was a chance for Gendo and Shinji to be a true family. That chanced has passed. He can be forgiven but not totally absolved of his crimes. He gets on the train and departs. It's the last we'll see of him. Shinji is free of him.

VII.

It is around this point in the movie that the second Anti-Come Sweet Death plays. This is Voyager, a sweet upbeat pop song. The song is all in Japanese, but I've read the lyrics, and they are not in the least bit sarcastic. 3.0+1.0 means every one of these warm notes. Human beings, in some cases, hugging their pets, fall back to a Earth, which turns from blood red to the blue and green beauty we remember. Voyager, though, for all its celebrations, is also a song of goodbye.

Shinji's next step is to to say goodbye to the three people who have loved him in Evangelion Rebuild: Kaworu, Asuka, and the first Rei.

We are mostly outside a traditional narrative at this point. Asuka has a montage of her sadness and need to achieve validation from others (something Anno seems to suffer as well). The scenes of a tiny isolated Asuka tell the whole story, we really did not need Tiffany Grant narrating other it to understand her pain. But Shinji comforts her. He meets her on that very same white beach from The End of Evangelion, and says goodbye. She goes off to be with Kensuke, surprise pairing.

 

Kaworu too, is let go of. For the first time ever in this series, we actually get a sense of who Kaworu is. He's always been the arbiter of cryptic lore and conspiracies, never really a person. I long ago theorized that Evangelion Rebuild was a stealth sequel to the original Evangelion. That's proven partially true, Kaworu indeed remembers the past. At some point he did live through the Neon Genesis Evangelion we remember. He's lived dozens of lives trying to make Shinji happy, and thus make himself happy. However, it was never a relationship with balance. Kaworu never had to worry about himself. Now he has to, he has to find some purpose in his own life. Shinji cannot be there for him anymore.

Rei is the final one who gets her goodbye. She's actually in Khara Studio, standing on the very stage where a lot of motion-capturing work was done. We see the cameras Khara used to film this very movie. In another life, in another place, maybe Shinji could have been with Rei. Or Asuka. Or Kaworu. That is not this story. Shinji has to move on. 

 

Yui too, gets only one single scene, and also has her brief goodbye. Another direct call back to The End of Evangelion. She saved him in that movie, in this movie, Shinji has largely saved himself. That leaves Shinji alone with Mari, on a normal beach, with normal water.

 

I'm sure fans might be frustrated that Mari, of all figures, seems to be "the winner" of the great Shinji Ikari harem contest. Who is Mari? This is a question I had coming into this movie and it's a question that remains unanswered. Mari never did belong in this universe, being the only original character to Rebuild. There's some kind of conspiracy going on with her, it is never explained. We discovered she was one of Gendo and Yui's classmates, a fact that is also not explained. The only thing we learn about her in this movie is that her last name is "Iscariot". One final gibberish Biblical reference that means basically nothing. Anno, you son of a bitch, you've done it again.

 

I too was frustrated with Mari and her total incongruity with the series. I'd love to know everything, but some things just don't have answers. There is no explanation for Mari. You can either accept that or not.

I don't mind that in the end, Shinji is with Mari. I don't mind that Mari does not make any sense. I don't mind that she has magic cheat codes and can turn every Evangelion into Berserkers at will. Is she some fanfic avatar that does not belong in this universe? Who cares? What matters most of all, is that Shinji is not alone. He is loved and can love back on an equal scale.

Back in 2.0, when Shinji first met Mari, his walkman finally moved past tracks 25 and 26. We hit track 27. Mari has always represented a future that was impossible in the world of Evangelion before. She broke the endless loop we've been in, that Shinji has been in. This is her role, and she played it well.

 

We come now to the final scene. It's one of the best things Hideaki Anno has ever made. It's the scene in the movie where both times I've watched it, I burst into tears. We cut away from Shinji and Mari on the beach to a train station in regular Japan. This is actually Ube Shinkawa station, a real place. Shinji is on one side of the station. Kaworu, Asuka, and Rei are on the opposite platform. Symbolism here is pretty clear, Shinji is going one way to another life. They're going someplace else.

It's then that Mari appears behind Shinji, teasing him. Shinji is way out of character here and actually flirts back. Mari pulls the choker off Shinji, releasing him of the burdens of his past. We notice now that this is an older Shinji, perhaps twenty or so. Somebody who is beyond the confusions and insecurities of childhood. Somebody who can stand on his own both as a person and an adult. For once, he's the more confident person. He shouts "Let's Go!" and we run up the stairs.

There is an idea of Shinji Ikari that exists in the fandom's mind, it existed in my mind too. He's the saddest anime boy of all time. Before Rebuild, he would always be that Sad Little Boy, eternally trapped as an awkward preteen whose mistakes would repeat for all time. Rebuild in this ending, has shattered that idea forever. Shinji is more than the cliches, more than his repeated cycles. Nobody is one thing, nobody should be one thing. We can all grow up, get better, and we don't need to obsess forever on a limited, maybe even toxic idea of a story.

 

This is the best way we could ever leave Shinji Ikari behind. It's the best way to end Evangelion. Anno wanted to tell a story that would make people question their own lives and live better, to push people outside of fandom obsessions and be more complete people. It's the stories he believes Moyoco Anno tells. I think with 3.0+1.0, he did it. We don't need to live in fantasy worlds of robots and darkness and ridiculous to protect us from living a truer life. You cannot help but watch it and want to run off somewhere, and have great adventures, great love affairs, and be happier.

 

The End of Evangelion will always be, in my opinion, the stronger movie just for its total commitment to a pure emotion of horror, and in that horror, finding seemingly impossible hope. But I think Rebuild might be the better Evangelion for the world.

As Mari and Shinji run up the stairs, we never see the top of the staircase, or the bridge over the train lines. We cut to credits before Shinji and Mari make that turn. But, in that NHK documentary, The Final Challenge of Evangelion, Hideaki Anno runs up those very same stairs, phone in hand, joyfully capturing the shot he wants to end his series on. Shinji and Anno, already figures who are blurry and mixed, get to complete the same race forward. Where Shinji's disappears, Anno continues. There is endless possibility.

 

We are alive. As long as the sun, the moon, and the Earth exist, we can be happy.

 

Goodbye, all of Evangelion.