The End of Evangelion

Release Date: July 19, 1997
Running Time: 87 minutes

The End of Evangelion is a 1997 anime film written and chief directed by Hideaki Anno; it won the Japan Academy Prize for popularity. The movie also won the Animage Anime Grand Prix prize for 1997. The film can be regarded as either an alternate ending to the popular animated series Neon Genesis Evangelion or as a more detailed, 'real world' account of the ending found in the series' original ending in episodes #25 and #26, which takes place almost completely in the psyche of the main characters (the style being largely shaped by time and budget restraints). The film is divided into two 45 minute episodes; Episode 25: Air, and Episode 26: My Purest Heart for You. Both are shown without opening credits, but both include ending credits, meaning that credits for Air are shown halfway through the film.

Episode 25: Air, utilizes the original script intended for episode 25 of the original series and forms roughly 2/3 of the previous film, Rebirth. The End of Evangelion later became the second half of Revival of Evangelion, a concatenation of Death(true)² and The End of Evangelion.

The film depicts the apocalyptic completion of the Human Instrumentality Project, where individual identity is destroyed to create a single existence for all human beings - that is, people's AT-Fields are destroyed and the entirety of humanity is turned into L.C.L. In this film, Shinji rejects the Human Instrumentality Project in favor of an individual existence, whereas in the series it is left ambiguous.

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