Audience:	16+
	Genre:	Sci-Fi, Drama
	Contains:	Graphic Violence, Mature Situations, Nudity
	Rating:	C+

Well, after waiting and waiting, I finally got the chance to see the two movies, "The Death and Rebirth of Evangelion" and "The End of Evangelion," and after what had to be the most taxing anime experience I've ever had. It had to be definitely one of the more unusual endings I've seen in years, but if your expecting it to end in a Hollywood manner, your'e in for quite an unpleasant surprise. It raised even higher controversy than the TV Series itself, and indeed it stuck in my head for quite a while, it's unsatisfying, but disturbingly thought-provoking at the same time.

Taking place after Episode 24 of the TV Series, the final angel (Tabris) whom we all know as Kaoru, is dead, and Shinji is still agonizing over the entire incident, while Asuka's mind is still affected from the last battle. While this is occuring, Misato manages to find out NERV's superior, SEELE's true motive, to bring about the Third Impact. Even worse SEELE intends to do so by carrying out their final order, to completly destroy NERV. Also Gendo himself is making his finally plans with Rei, which will soon decide the fate of humanity itself. Will Shinji and Asuka finally pull themselves together, to save NERV? Will humanity fall to Third Impact? And can director Hideaki Anno finally be able to pull off a decent ending?

After a very unusual and disturbing scene with Shinji, (I won't spoil it for you.) The first half of "The End of Evangelion gets a very strong start, and contains everything that makes Evangelion such a good anime, well-directed drama and suspense, religious imagery, and intensely violent Eva action. (In what will be Asuka's shining, and definitely final battle.) NERV does manage to fall to SEELE a little too easily, but it's forgivable since they were better prepared to battle Angels instead of human beings in hand-to hand combat. For a final battle, the first part of the movie was executed extremely well, until Part 2.... Then the movie started getting extremely weird, and it suddenly turned back into Genesis 0:13 all over again, only a lot worse, this time instead of still shots and reused scenes, there were live-action shots of theaters, factories, and busy streets, which makes you wonder what the hell they did with the other half of the budget, or what was crawling through Hideaki Anno's head. The second half starts to get a lot more philosophical, with a puzzle we'll all spend an eternity to solve. But that's not the half of it, things started to get very bleak and extremely disturbing, if your little one's were disturbed by the TV Series, they would never live through this, I don't think most Eva fans will either. The End of Evangelion makes the TV Series look like Galaxy Frualein Yuna. Most of the characters were killed off horribly and the ending, (while it manages to make sense if you were paying attention to the plot of the TV Series.) was disturbingly bleak and unsatisfying, leaving the viewer stunned for half an hour, or extremely agitated. The entertainment value takes an extreme drop from here, and it can even make them hate the main characters even more, (but it depends from that persons point of view.) The movie is defenitely not for people who haven't seen the TV Series. One questions the need why there was even the need for a second half at all. But it did leave quite a message such as the symbolism of the inhumanity of war, during the first half of the film.

The creators went all out for the production of the movie. The animation was much more fluid than the TV Series and while some scenes lacked detail, approached the quality of a Katsuhiro Otomo film. There's also some impressive, (but brief) CG effects. The music was great as well, and at was an even higher qualty than the TV Series. It had some very unusual selections as well.(Especially in Part 2.)

The End of Evangelion, is an strangely fitting and thought-provoking, but a unsatisfying ending to an excellent series nonetheless. Want a satisfying ending to Evangelion? My advice, watch the first half of the film and avoid the second. You'll thank me later.

Original story and concept by Gainax. Review by Rashad Moore.