Production Budget Analysis

The production budget for Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion (1997) has not been publicly disclosed.

CAST: Megumi Ogata, Megumi Hayashibara, Kotono Mitsuishi, Yuko Miyamura, Fumihiko Tachiki, Miki Nagasawa DIRECTOR: Kazuya Tsurumaki, Hideaki Anno CINEMATOGRAPHY: Hisao Shirai MUSIC: Shiro Sagisu PRODUCTION: GAINAX, movic, Star Child Recording, TV Tokyo, Production I.G, KADOKAWA Shoten, Toei Company, SEGA

Box Office Performance

Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion earned $1,302,300 domestically and $19,261,223 internationally, for a worldwide total of $20,563,523. International markets drove the majority of revenue (94%), indicating strong global appeal.

Profitability Assessment

Insufficient publicly available data to assess profitability.

INDUSTRY IMPACT

Franchise: Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion is part of the Neon Genesis Evangelion Collection.

According to Dazed, The End of Evangelion was an influence on Wes Anderson's film Isle of Dogs (2018), noting that Anderson was a fan of the series. The fight sequence between Asuka's Eva-02 and the nine Eva Series was a source of inspiration for animators such as Yoshimichi Kameda and Yokota Takumi, character designer of Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club. The film inspired Tetsuya Ogawa of L'Arc-en-Ciel, who wrote a song titled taking cues from Asuka's character, hoping she would be able to express her emotions during the film. The band Parkway Drive used clips from the film for their extended play Don't Close Your Eyes.

Manga artist Nobuhiro Watsuki lauded "the dramatization, the movement, and the editing" of the film and stated that, "As a writer, I was able to take home something from it". The film has been referenced by the American animated series Steven Universe, the film One Hour Photo by Mark Romanek, the anime Claymore, Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei, Keroro Gunso, Chainsaw Man and the last episode of Devilman Crybaby, an adaptation of Nagai's manga that inspired Anno. GameRant saw a possible reference to the Third Impact scenario presented in the film in Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War.

PRODUCTION NOTES

▸ Development

After the series concluded, Anno fell into a difficult psychological state and his friend and anime director Hayao Miyazaki advised him to take a break, to which Anno followed Miyazaki's advice and rested for a few months. Production for the film version of Neon Genesis Evangelion officially began on November 8, 1996. The directing of "Air" was entrusted to Kazuya Tsurumaki, who had worked as an assistant director on the television series. Other Gainax studio staff members, such as Masayuki and Shinji Higuchi, were involved in the process, and they collaborated on storyboards following Tsurumaki's direction. Anno directed "Sincerely Yours", and was assisted in the storyboard phase by Higuchi and Junichi Sato.

According to Neon Genesis Evangelion producer Toshimichi Ōtsuki, the staff started working on The End of Evangelion before the series had finished broadcasting, and worked until the last minute to complete the second feature film in time. Gainax initially proposed to call the work Evangelion: Rebirth 2 but the title was later changed during production. Unlike the big media campaign for Death and Rebirth, there was no special advertising campaign for The End of Evangelion, and promotional activities were minimal. The authors wanted to create a funeral and "bury" Neon Genesis Evangelion; Anno called the work The End of Evangelion to represent the metaphorical death of the Evangelion project; he himself ensured that the work died with his own hands, rather than see its popularity slowly fade away.

The feature film was divided into two segments called "Episode 25'" and "Episode 26'", which replace those in the animated series. Like the episodes of the series, the segments in the film were given a double title; one in Japanese, and one in English. The title of the first segment was initially , a reference to Robert A. Heinlein's 1957 science fiction novel of the same name.

▸ Writing

Due to time constraints, the original script for "Do you love me?", the twenty-fifth episode of the series, went unused. When it was decided to resume Neon Genesis Evangelion, Anno wrote the script of the "Air" segment based on the unused script. The episode was structured to be as close as possible to the ending the authors originally intended. For the second episode "Sincerely Yours", several narrative lines were added to the original script, deepening the themes already proposed in the final episode of the series. The two endings, film and television, were conceived as conceptually identical; unlike the television conclusion, which focuses on the psychology of the protagonists, the film version addresses the Human Instrumentality Project from an external point of view, whereas in the series everything was left to the introspection of the main characters. The script's tone was influenced by the staff's mood, since they were tired and exhausted. Shinji's mood changed from the twenty-fifth episode of the series, creating inconsistencies. With the sense of tension of the original series gone, the producers had difficulty; Kazuya Tsurumaki worked on the feature film, considering it unnecessary until the end.

During the realization of the series and Death and Rebirth, Anno asked anyone who worked on Neon Genesis Evangelion to suggest ways events could be closed; Anno trusted in particular Higuchi, Sadamoto, and Ikuto Yamashita, mecha designer for the series. One of Yamashita's proposals for the never-made feature film Nerv's base would have been a sterilized stronghold surrounded by wolfmen; Shinji in a flashback would have become his Eva, with which he would have swapped bodies. The Evangelion pilots would have had weight in politics, but Asuka would have been viewed with suspicion by Nerv, and as a traitor by Germany.

▸ Filming & Locations

For the realization of the segment "Sincerely Yours", it was decided to include some live-action sequences to represent Shinji's inner universe; these include footage of street lamps, trains, graffiti, and the three main female voice actors of the series, Megumi Hayashibara, Kotono Mitsuishi and Yuko Miyamura. The sequences were filmed by a crew called the "Special Production Team" and were optically distorted. Anno was in charge of the script and was assisted by Shinji Higuchi as the special effects director, with whom he discussed ideas and compared his opinions about every single frame of the sequences. Other shots were filmed in the , located in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo. In the final cut, editors added a shot of a cinema hall with audiences of the previous Neon Genesis Evangelion feature film, Death and Rebirth.

At the end of the segment, stills depicting graffiti on the walls of the Gainax Shop, doodles, and emails apparently written by fans of the series, including the words , were inserted. The letters were created ad hoc by the staff on the basis of some emails Gainax received. According to an official pamphlet on the movie, the production of the fake e-mails simulated the hypothetical reactions of fans to reflect on the relationships that are established "between a work and its admirers". Originally, the authors had planned a longer live-action segment with a different content than the final version. The original segment revolved around the character Asuka, who would wake up in an apartment after drinking and spending the night with Toji Suzuhara, with whom she would engage in a sexual relationship. Misato Katsuragi would have been the roommate of the apartment next to hers, and Rei Ayanami, in the original series her rival, would have been her colleague and one of her senpai, experiencing a less-strained relationship.

▸ Music & Score

The soundtrack of The End of Evangelion was composed by Shiro Sagisu, who also wrote the music for the original series. The film also uses a wide selection of pieces by classical composer Johann Sebastian Bach. The twenty-fifth episode was titled "Air" to pay homage to the second movement of the orchestral suite No. 3, known as "Air on the G String", which was used in one of the episode's key scenes. The second half of the film also includes the tenth movement of Bach's cantata "Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben". In an interview, Anno was asked about similarities with Kubrick, but he claimed that his films did not influence him "that much".

A version of "Air on the G String" was arranged and recorded by Sagisu, while an existing recording of "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" was used. Two original songs were written for the movie; "Thanatos: If I can't be yours" is based on the soundtrack of the original series and was performed by gospel music singer Loren and artist Martin Lascelles under the stage name "Mash". Loren recorded the single in June 1997 in London under the supervision of Toshimichi Ōtsuki. The song was later used for the credits placed between the two segments of The End of Evangelion. The song shares a name with the Bach composition "Komm, süßer Tod, komm selge Ruh", and the melody has been compared to that of "Hey Jude" by the Beatles. Sagisu attempted to spin the guitar sound of "Komm, süsser Tod" in rotation from all surround outputs. Anno asked him to compose a piece so everything from harmonic progressions to instrument overlays would match the screen images. A Japanese song sung by preschool children was used in "Sincerely Yours" to add realism to a playground scene. Producer Satsukawa and a special production team visited Haishima Municipal Kindergarten in Akishima, Japan, which was attended by the daughter of Mitsuhisa Ishikawa, co-founder of Production I.G, to record the song.

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

Summary: 2 wins total

CRITICAL RECEPTION

The End of Evangelion received mostly positive reviews from critics upon release and has been frequently listed as one of the greatest anime films. Paste listed it in 46th place in its list of the best anime movies, praising its surrealism and experimentalism, while the Japanese film magazine Cut named it third. Writer Patrick Macias named it one of ten best films, describing it as the most important anime film of the 1990s, while Slant Magazine ranked it the 42nd-best science-fiction film. Anime News Network's Nick Creamer said it was the best ending in Japanese animation, praising Asuka's strangulation scene as one of the most cathartic images in any medium. The battle between Asuka and the nine units of the Eva Series was described by Real Live as a scene that "probably left a mark on the history of Japanese animation", and as "the beating heart of the film" by Comic Book Resources. Anime News Network's Mike Crandol also praised the battle as the best of the series. Digitally Obsessed described The End of Evangelion as "one of the most unique Japanese animated features since 'Akira'". In a poll of animators and directors held by Time Out New York, The End of Evangelion was voted the 65th-best animated film.

The violent scenes and underlying pessimism were generally well-received. Several reviewers praised the action scenes, animation, soundtrack, themes, and direction. Animage magazine, among others, praised the apocalyptic vision of The End of Evangelion, calling it "a beautiful nightmarish spectacle [that] overwhelms the viewer". Vice's Gita Jackson and Mania.com reviewers called it a masterpiece. Sagisu's soundtrack also received praise from Tiffani Nadeau of Mania.com.

Other reviewers criticized the confusing narrative and philosophical musings. Gizmodo's Rob Bricken criticized its nihilism and pessimism.