Evangelion was one of those series I appreciated but never fully understood and loved. I gave the original a 9/10 when I finished it and gave the End of Evangelion a 10/10 based on my enjoyment. There was something about the series that rubbed me the wrong way initially so I wasn't able to fully understand why everyone loved it so much. However, once I watched the rebuilds 1-3 I immediately felt a form of love for the series that I had once slept on.

While the original series focused on the Darkness of the human mind and ignored the superficial and Biblical aspects of the series, the Rebuild series was able to capture everything the original series tried and then built on it. I feel as if it was something I could watch and instead of connecting to it and spiraling into madness, it was refreshing and enjoyable yet kept those dark and twisted elements. So when I was finally able to watch this movie, I knew it was going to be good.

I have too much to say about the movie so organizing my thoughts into categories might be a bit easier:

Art and Animation: 10/10

The art was insanely detailed. Still frames in the beginning were super refreshing and enjoyable to look at and the actual animated scenes were incredibly detailed with 0 short cuts taken. I'm sure this is why the movie took so long overall since I cant imagine it being that easy looking at other movies and anime as reference. The CGI had 0 weak points and unlike lots of other series, blended into the bigger picture to make it look amazing. The only movie similar to this in its use of CGI and regular animation is Kizumonogatari which I also love.

Characters : 10/10

Characters who Reaapeared in this movie were given way more attention to detail. Side characters like Touji, Kensuke, Midori and even people who barely appeared like Sakura and Kohji were fleshed out. Everyone had something incredibly deep or interesting to say with a lot of their backstories or recaps on where they have been being super interesting or important. Everyone was tied deeply to the story and that made it feel fluid and real.

Shinji's Development: Shinji was purposely left unable to think for himself at the beginning of the movie, symbolizing his escapism literally cutting himself off from the world. Eventually, he is able to think for himself and after lots of exploring this new world, witnesses the death of Rei which leads him to believe he should go with Asuka. Once everyone attacks NERV's base and its time for Shinji he finally realizes that the two things he avoided (Taking responsibility and Helping others) were things he is meant to do, he decides to stop his dad not only so that he can save everyone but also learn a little about why he was abandoned. This is VERY big for Shinji as he has never gotten a chance to do either and as the story continues he is able to slowly solve all the problems he has caused leading to the end of the movie where he is shown with Mari just like how his father is with his mother.

Gendo's Backstory: Gendo is somewhat the same as Shinji, he felt being alone was the only way to stay unhurt but unlike Shinji, he was given an escape path. Gendo's character for the longest time has revolved around the fact he is unable to become a parent and all he wants is a world where he can be loved by Yui again. This is important for the decisions he makes and it shows up a lot throughout the series. He is willing to destroy the world a million times over to obtain his goal, which makes his decision to love his son and let him take over very important. Their fighting was essential to end the story as best as possible and his final appearance is one I believe is of legendary status.

Asuka's Development: Asuka is also similar to Shinji Backstory wise and we have known throughout the series that her involvement with the EVA project in Germany is likely the only thing that made her different and changed her character. Her decision relies on the fact she needs to separate herself from Shinji and become the best version she can however she keeps reminiscing on the past before she decides it's time to move on.

Kaworu's Development: Kaworu is a character paralleling Gendo and Shinji, his entire life's goal is to be happy by making Shinji happy but instead he just causes problems. His death in the last movie was very moving but I think this rebirth was way better.

Rei's Decision: Rei being the only one left wanted to protect the EVA's but Shinji's wish was to rebuild the world where none of that exists and so after Rei tried to protect Shinji in multiple iterations across multiple movies, she decides to let him make the decisions and gives up her goal. This is vital to the finale and something I loved so much.

Misato and Kaji: Their relationship wasn't expanded much here but the way Misato continues Kaji's will was amazing, you love to see it.

Story: 10/10

Every moment was enjoyable and digestible. In my opinion, the original series ends in a very confusing way due to being focused on Shinji's point of view, however, this iteration of the series works to have it be way easier to understand while also keeping that odd and bizarre storytelling. This movie does an amazing job at storytelling and uses practically every method I know of (Backstory, Conversation, Action and Events) to keep the story going leading to the end. The actual contents of the story were also amazing and I loved every moment so here's a quick summary so I can make it easier to explain.

Shinji, Rei and Asuka go to a small town where their old friends live, Shinji doesn't want to live and so after motivation from everyone decides he needs to try something or life will always be meaningless. Eventually he returns to Misato's Side and is sent to a cage where he waits while they launch an attack on NERV HQ at the location of the 2nd Impact. Gendo uses every move he can and eventually after lots of conversation and action, the additional impact is triggered and Shinji hops in Mari's unit to catch up to Gendo. Shinji talks to everyone nearby including dead people inside of the EVA and Misato copies the other ship's behavior and makes a new lance to kill Lillith and end the impact. Shinji inside of unit 1 and so when this lance arrives he decides to use it to get rid of the EVA units, he goes to take the burden but since he is in Unit 1 his mothers soul pushes him away and takes it into her own hands. Shinji wakes up on a beach and the animation loses detail until Mari appears and it cuts to a new reality where Shinji and Mari are dating like Gendo and Yui and everyone else is living their lives, showing life is how it should be and it cuts off.

My final thoughts:

This movie felt perfect. I have seen a lot of people putting out mixed reviews but while i was sitting in my chair watching this, every moment felt amazing. After crying 6 times and witnessing possibly the best anime content I will ever see, I would like to just appreciate everything this series has done and say thank you for reading this.

10/10, no doubts.