Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion
1997 · Directed by Kazuya Tsurumaki, Hideaki Anno
Original language: Japanese
- animation
- science fiction
- drama
- fantasy
- action
The story
SEELE orders an all-out attack on NERV, aiming to destroy the Evas before Gendo can advance his own plans for the Human Instrumentality Project. Shinji is pushed to the limits of his sanity as he is forced to decide the fate of humanity.
What it’s like
Hand-drawn 1997 cel animation that swings between tidy, pale-lit corporate interiors and hallucinatory collage: stark white rooms, washed-out sky, sudden flashes of red and black, saturated bursts of blood, and sequences cut with live-action photographs, scratchy typography and jolting still frames. The sound design is layered and oppressive, with a heavy orchestral score fracturing into silence, distorted heartbeats and crowd murmurs, and long stretches of empty, echoing dread. Its vibe is bleak, unsettling and existentially raw, a late-night descent into anxiety and self-examination rather than comfort. Pacing is erratic: slow, dialogue-heavy interiors give way to abrupt, violent mecha battles and then to a long, abstract, almost dreamlike final act. Intensity is high: graphic gore and bloody mecha combat, some sexual content and nudity, cruelty, and psychological distress that presses hard on its characters, especially Shinji, whose arc moves from paralysis toward a brutal confrontation with his own need for connection. Made for viewers who want philosophical, anxious, formally adventurous science fiction and can tolerate being unsettled, not for anyone seeking gentle or reassuring viewing.
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