The Cinematheque

“Perhaps one of the most nihilistic, avant-garde, and devastating endings to an anime series ever conceived … It is the best and worst of everything that is Evangelion combined to create a film that is unlike anything that had come before it.”

Toussaint Egan, Paste

Neon Genesis Evangelion, the landmark anime series that spawned a still-flourishing multimedia franchise and a fervent global fanbase, turns 30 this year. The End of Evangelion is creator Anno Hideaki’s spectacular—and spectacularly bleak—reimagining of the show’s polarizing ending, which, when it aired in 1996, stoked the ire of Eva stans by eschewing customary narrative closure in favour of hyper-abstraction and philosophical payoffs. Part fan service, part feature-length fuck you, The End offers an alternate take on the show’s final two episodes. Here, reluctant teen hero Shinji, pilot of a giant mech designed to defend Tokyo‑3 from alien attacks, must summon the will to fight (and go on living, generally) when a full-scale assault and veritable Second Coming triggers the advent of singularity for humankind. There’s lore and existential angst aplenty, along with some of Anno’s most unbridled and visionary work. Advanced viewing of the series (or episodes 1–24, at least) is highly recommended, if not outright mandatory.

In Japanese with English subtitles

“Anno Hideaki is one of the unlikeliest blockbuster auteurs ever … [This is] his masterpiece.”

Dan Schindel, Hyperallergetic