Comments on: The Gainax Ending

By: Ryan von Fiedler

Ryan von Fiedler — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 03:29:55 +0000

The ending to Evangelion bad? Odd, yeah. Confusing, yeah. But bad? Hell no. I still laugh when I think about it. Congratulations! Awesome ending.

By: BeckoningChasm

BeckoningChasm — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 17:09:43 +0000

Evan, thanks for your comments…I guess my main problem with Evangelion’s ending is that I really, really started to dislike Shinji after some of the choices he made, and found it very difficult to care about him. So in a sense, the series ended as a character story long before it got to the last two episodes.

While I admire many of the concepts and ideas behind Evangelion, and I think it’s cetainly an important story that any serious anime fan should see, nonetheless I found it disappointing. I understand its appeal, though, and the wide-ranging impact of its ideas, and I’m happy that you got a lot more out of the show than I did. Thanks again for your comment.

By: evan

evan — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 15:00:08 +0000

oh, as a follow up, i’m of course not criticizing you for *disliking* eps 25 and 26 of eva. i’m confused as to why anyone would like 1-24 but not 25-26, but at the same time i fully see why people would be put off by the ubiquitous damaged psychologies and the melodrama. that and just sometimes you don’t like a series for whatever reason. i’d never have any objection to that. i’m simply explaining why i think eva’s ending was neither a mistake, nor a drunken “eh screw it” brainstorm.

By: evan

evan — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 14:55:00 +0000

hello. found this from wikipedia, felt inclined to comment.

the eniding of evangelion (TV version) really wasn’t out of nowhere. it speaks to the spilling-over goodness of the series that you cared about all the giant robot stuff and political intrigue, but the stuff they go into (and yes, *tie up*) at the end is really what the entire series was about anyway. furthermore, it’s structurally inevitable; the beginning of the series is, more or less, a traditional narrative for giant robot shows (though there’s foreshadowing, such as the beginning of ep2 when the battle is about to start, shinji blinks, and suddenly we’re not seeing what we expected). as the series progresses, the narrative structure–like the relationships and psychologies of its characters, and ultimately the world itself–breaks down.

if end of evangelion–which is excellent, and is also more or less the scripfted TV ending that gainax hadn’t money to make–were the TV ending, the structural whole of the series would not make as much sense, and in my opinion the entire series would have suffered for it.

also, if you don’t care whether or not shinji (or other characters) learnes/chooses to accept other people and the pain/joy that brings or to reject people and live in his own pathetic world, i really don’t understand why you’d care about the series in the first place. i just don’t get what people who are dissatisfied with the ending wanted to happen…

as for mahoromatic, you’re spot on, that ending sucked. it could have been interesting if it were 12 episodes longer or so, or it could have been 12 episodes of more suck. loved the series building up to it though.

By: Big D

Big D — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 20:04:14 +0000

Steven can probably see this coming, but I’d recommend EoE to those who haven’t seen it (rent, don’t buy, and skip the dub) yet. Trust me, despite being *somewhat* in common with 25/26 (it’s basically implied that they take place during Instrumentality, which is only shown in a “2001″ sense for a few minutes during EoE, and they do make parts of EoE make (a little) more sense.

But then, EoE also has the best fight scenes in the whole series, if you can stomach them.

Don’t bother with D&R unless you’re a completist; it just recaps the series with a few additional hints and then plunges into the first part of EoE.

Oddly, I notice that nobody has really mentioned FLCL… but perhaps, it was a Gainax Ending from the first ep onwards, so nobody took it seriously enough to get blindsided.

By: JC

JC — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 08:32:25 +0000

Oh, and I’ve read the ending of the Mahoromatic manga, and it’s still crap. Better than the anime ending, yes. But then, a root canal’s better than the Gainax ending too.

By: JC

JC — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 08:29:07 +0000

I have to admit, I do wonder what goes through the minds of those developers/writers. I mean, you have a story that’s moving along, then you put that ending on it? I mean, WTF. Did they *really* think people would like it?

By: ubu roi

ubu roi — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 19:02:59 +0000

If I hadn’t been pre-warned by Steven, I’d probably have ripped my eyes from my face rather than risk ever seeing the last two episodes of Evangelion again. I’ve had little desire to pick up the OVA’s with the re-written ending, and I’m indifferent to the new movies. Yes, it was _that_ bad.

By: Wonderduck

Wonderduck — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 17:48:11 +0000

Evangelion didn’t run out of time, it ran out of budget and Anno ran out on the show.

By: Steven Den Beste

Steven Den Beste — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 17:13:31 +0000

What happened with Mahoromatic is that they outran the manga. The second series starts to go wrong just about the point where the directors started writing their own story instead of relying on the mangaka.

The Manga has been translated into English now, and I’m probably going to pick it up at some point. But I’ve been told how it ends, and it’s entirely different, and a lot better.