Much as I'm not that interested in revisiting the mainline series or EoE, I am still curious to see how the film run will wrap things up; whether they'll stick to one of the existing endings, try to blend elements of the two or just create something entirely different.
 
Still, I see the end of EoE more as an alternate ending than a replacement - I think both have their merits but display different attitudes towards the same idea.
I guess my own view of Evangelion's ending(s) goes along these lines:

It's difficult to argue against the idea that budget shortfall, to a greater or lesser extent, must have shaped the ending of the original series. (Although Hideaki Anno has denied even this.)

But what puzzles me is: End of Eva is basically four times the length of an episode. How could Anno have told the kind of story presented in the film in only 50 minutes of TV, even if the budget had been available?

Given this, I think there was surely some degree of abstraction intended from the start. For me, the original concept for that was perhaps somewhere between the freeform freefall that makes up the entirety of the final episode, and the much shorter equivalent segment found in the latter part of End of Eva. (This time using live-action footage as its way of shaking up the format, given that Anno had already played scratchy, low-fi drawings as his wildcard in episode 26. It also no doubt doubles up as another useful budget saver.)

Anno has already dealt animated deconstruction from his hand before with the conclusion to Gunbuster, I understand. Either that was the prototype of an idea he would fall back on a second time, or he messed up the budget calculations for that show too! I'd be able to dissect that part a lot better if I'd actually seen the series, but alas I don't own a copy of the UK's glorious tape-transfer DVD of Gunbuster.
 
Anno has already dealt animated deconstruction from his hand before with the conclusion to Gunbuster, I understand.
Not hugely. There's a few moments that are just like... Pans over pencil sketches but nothing I'd really consider too out of the ordinary. Certainly not by Eva standards. I feel like the major thing that lived on from Gunbuster was the proto-Asuka character being named Jung Freud, which gives a nod as to where Anno's mind was starting to wander. I don't think he'd really started to consider deconstruction of any kind at that point, Gunbuster is far more of a piss take / love letter to the sports and mecha genres, but with a heart - An idea Gainax would of course return to with Gurren Lagann (personally I consider GL to be more of a Gunbuster 2 than Gunbuster 2 is, and I was one of the three fans of the original who liked Gunbuster 2).
I'd be able to dissect that part a lot better if I'd actually seen the series, but alas I don't own a copy of the UK's glorious tape-transfer DVD of Gunbuster.
I was going to suggest importing the US version but damn, that has rocketed in price since it went OOP.
 
(personally I consider GL to be more of a Gunbuster 2 than Gunbuster 2 is, and I was one of the three fans of the original who liked Gunbuster 2)
I can well believe that; I keep hearing that Gunbuster 2 is more like FLCL. I'm a big fan of FLCL, so I'd likely join you as fan #4.

What kind of crazy prices were you seeing for the US Gunbuster, out of curiosity?

And isn't Gunbuster stuck in licensing limbo because of a single part of the soundtrack or something? (Also not helped by the lack of a dialogue-free master to make a dubbed version from, no doubt.)
 
I think that the ending of Evangelion must also be seen in the context of Space Runaway Ideon's influence. Whether or not it was the plan from the outset I don't know, but the content of the ending itself as well as the way where there are both TV and movie endings makes it seem as if it is deliberate homage.
 
What kind of crazy prices were you seeing for the US Gunbuster, out of curiosity?
Well the cheapest used copy on Amazon is $149.99...

Like with Zeta Gundam, the way they got around the music licensing issue was simply to remove and substitute the offending track(s) rather than hinder its release (I don't believe I've ever heard the original score, so don't feel too aggrieved as I don't even know what I'm missing). I can only presume Gunbuster is one of those things that's relatively expensive to licence and western distributors are concerned it might not make them any profit (it was released under Bandai's former premium label Honneamise in the US, as was the movie set (via Beez) in the UK, which makes me think it's something they expect people to pay premium prices for).
 
So...

What do we make of the cover of Anno's script?
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My eye is drawn to "Avant 1" and "Avant 2"...

I notice it also shows (under the main logo, partly in Japanese) "Avant 2 C-134~137". Avant 2 begins at cut #134? But is only 4 cuts in length?

Are we to assume that the first half of the film (the "A-part") is further divided into two (presumably very uneven) segments?

Obviously it's all pure speculation at this point, but... it's fun, innit? Any takers?
 
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Having successfully dodged the Rebuild films for years now, on the grounds that I intended to wait until they were all out before trying to watch them, today I accidentally spoiler myself on a fairly major plot twist in the third one. Win.
 
Having successfully dodged the Rebuild films for years now, on the grounds that I intended to wait until they were all out before trying to watch them, today I accidentally spoiler myself on a fairly major plot twist in the third one. Win.
Gah. Unlucky, dude. 😬

What was the spoiler? Stick it in a spoiler tag.
 
What was the spoiler? Stick it in a spoiler tag.

I saw some character sheets showing the altered designs for Misato and Ritsuko, along with a note of details about the timeskip

I suppose it's maybe not a twist as such, but it's a huge divergence from any of the other versions I've encountered :/ On the plus side, I am more intrigued to see the films now, I suppose.
 
I suppose it's maybe not a twist as such, but it's a huge divergence from any of the other versions I've encountered :/ On the plus side, I am more intrigued to see the films now, I suppose.
If anything, 3.0 should at least start off making a bit more sense now. Interestingly...
... pretty much nothing shown in the preview at the end of 2.0 is actually in the third film. A deliberate hoax? A change of plan?

It kinda makes me think more about @IncendiaryLemon's idea from earlier in this thread of an Eva film without Shinji, as neither he nor Rei are featured in that original preview for the third installment. Perhaps that was actually Anno's original concept for 3.0. 🤔
 
You could always try Nadia, I guess? Once it hits its stride, I think there are definitely moments when you can see ideas and themes that would feed into Evangelion. Even the structure is kind of similar, in that it starts out with wacky hijinks, gets more serious, then goes completely off the rails into the third act.
 
Shinji really is the best part of Eva, it still makes me laugh all the hate he gets when he is up there for me with top MCs in anime. The more I think about it 3’s greatest strength is being so openly different instead of the first two that are just bizarre with some of their changes.
Like Misato knowing what lilith is.. means she is complicit with SEELE which then makes here WILLE group weirder.
 
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I've not seen it since before I started telling Neil to get in the robot so next time round is gonna be a very different experience I think
 
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