>>4260625That's fair yeah the opening act up until Unit 09 comes and swoops Shinji does feel real strange to watch even on repeat viewings from just how much whiplash there is going from 2.0 to 3.0. I'm sure Anno intended it to be confusing to have the audience view everything from Shinji's perspective after just waking up but given how they only had one movie to convey that much shit going on it can leave a sour taste in some people's mouths.
Asuka barely gets any screen time in 3.0 since it's mostly just Shinji and his BF, and if Anno had the balls to make a rebuild without Shinji like he originally wanted to for 3.0 I'm sure we would've just gotten the first act of 3.0 + 1.0 as 3.0 instead. There's even some stuff saying that 3.0 and 3.0 + 1.0 were supposed to be one film but the cut got so long the studio made him split it, and then that lead to other things and tampering on behalf of the big wigs which sent Anno into that infamous 10 year depression between the last two films.
