The Never-Ending Rant

Anno, Murderer or Mercy Killer

by Ira Goldberg
Issue IV - February 20th, 2000

As you may or probably haven't noticed, this marks the two year anniversary of NERV Headquarters. Its been a long run since this website started although for the majority of the last year, nothing has changed with the exception of better designs and more award winners whenever I get exceptionally bored and actually decide to put the work in and do that tedious task and believe me, it is.

With that taken care of comes the case in point of this article. So many people criticize Hideki Anno for the path he took with End of Evangelion, the finale of his great series.

The final tape, Genesis 0:13 was Annos original ending to the series and is considered the true ending by most of the hardcore EVA fans who watched the series for the story of Shinji maturing. Anno created a philisophical ending that was an attempt to silent all the critics that its main point was stuff blowing up and killer CGI.

The ending gave a new spin to Evangelion, the real look inside the characters the "marks" of the series really never got to see in the first eleven tapes despite how indepth some of the profiles may have been. It tore apart all the characters (Rei, Shinji, Asuka, and Misato) and told you exactly was why the way they were. I myself, when I saw it for the first time, hated the ending, it somehow confused me even though it spelt out exactly what it was about.

There was an uproar everywhere, people went nuts demanding an end to the plot of what happened to Shinji even though the answer "Shinji finally got better" wasn't enough. Then End of Evangelion was put out. The final chapter in the series. There would be no third sequel, it would close the show forever.

In EOE, Anno chose to kill all the characters of the show. Although whether they really died is still debated *I myself also doubt the theory,* Anno decided to give the equivelent of flipping the finger to the fans. They wanted their robots fighting, he'd give them their candy, but it had its price. Misato, Ritsuko, Asuka, and Gendo were all killed. Everyone one else was absorbed into LCL when Rei merged with the giant Lillith although the very ending gives a false implication the only survivors were Shinji and Asuka *another of many theories.*

The world was no more and once again fans were outraged despite getting exactly what they wanted to see and what they deserved. They got an amazing CGI show, EVA battles, guns and blood, complete with a movie storyline. No one expected Anno to kill the huge success of EVA. Many people, simply fans and Otaku alike, called Anno a butcher.

I call the man a savior. He saved End of Evangelion. People would not be silenced till he made the movie to resolve their questions. He gave in but left them with more questions and no way to obtain answers. The show was dead like the Earth he had created.

Can I go to bed yet?