>>4265040>Never heard someone who read the manga say they didn't like the ending.On a lot of places like reddit & evageeks I've seen some people get real mad with that ending bc "muh amnesia they didnt learn anything hur dur." I personally disagree since when we see Shinji travelling to the train station he's like talking about how he's ready to face the world and follows through by actually getting on the train with no hesitation & leaving for Tokyo. Plus that moment where he pulls Asuka out of the train hearing her cries for help & have a moment of bittersweet deja vu before she runs off imho implied that they would fall in love with each other again or at least get to know each other again in this new world. It felt less like a lesson learned at the cost of an irreversible cataclysm (EoE) and more like a hard fought chance at a brighter tomorrow which I thought was more hopeful note than One More Final: I Need You and I'm glad the rebuilds ended up taking that avenue as well. So I agree that the manga ending felt way better rounded and whole than the original continuity's conclusion
>that shot implied that Misato was still Shinji's caretaker even in this new world, so I wonder if even Rei knew about how much they cared about each other.Yeah I thought that too since there'd be now way he'd have it if he wasnt with Misato since I doubt he carried it over from instrumentality. I'd figured they had a parallel moment of her handing the pendant to him in the doorway (there's always a shot of Shinji crossing a door frame that gets reiterated multiple times in each continuity) of their shared home or apartment before he went off to college or whatever he was going to Tokyo for, and that he went knowing Misato loved him and would still be there waiting when he got back. Now that you mention it it makes sense that Rei would probably rearrange the world so that the people she cared about the most either were still together or would cross paths again (i.e. Asuka)