25 & 26 is the best ending, imo. Though, I'm far more into the style, themes, and vibe than I am the plot or any explanation on what's "really" going on, lol, so there's that. EoE is great, too, but I view it as its own separate thing. It's kind of a movie about Evangelion more than anything.
To me 25/26 feel like what's happening in Shinji's head during the things that actually happen in EoE. They both compliment each other well and enhance the whole experience.
this is what i think too. it helps salvage the end for me, because i feel sad that EoE (at least in my experience) tends to be looked at as the definitive ending. that might be what bothers me most about it, even though it's unquestionably a fantastic film. it ends the series on a much crueler note pre-rebuilds, when the cruelty has never been the point
sadamoto's manga is so unbelievably gorgeous, even though i don't think he gets some of the characters (the kaworu stuff is just bizarre imo). i had a lot of fun reading it as another take on the series
Gendo's death is the best of any adaptation in the manga though, seriously makes me tear up every time i look at it
For those interested some fans made a cut of EOE with all the footage from 25/26 spliced in. You can search for it on Nyaa it’s called The Evangelion Concurrency Project
Interesting…might need to check that out. End of Eva is super weird and fucked, but it also has the best Eva fight of the whole series IMO
anyone else love 3.0? for me its the peak evangelion WTF IS HAPPENING while still having strong character beats
It’s probably my least favorite of the 4 but it certainly has a very high wtf factor. Largely because there’s an entire movie worth of shit that happens between 2 and 3 that they scrapped and still expect you to know?
I don't think it expects you to know what happened at all, I think that movie is playing on the fact that you don't know. I haven't seen the last one yet but the first is easily my least favourite because its pretty much just redoing stuff from the original show.