>>4103667As pessimistic as my view sounds I can’t help but feel your position requires at least some level of denial in order to abide. I mean, I don’t want to take anything away from you. Obviously this movie has had a positive effect on you, and anything adding positivity is a boon to the world overall at this point. So I want to be fair. All the same, even assuming the best case scenario as far as the imagery and interpretation of the film, I absolutely cannot stand 3.0+1.0 (or really any of the rebuilds for that matter). For starters, you never see Shikinami triumph in the end. She simply continues struggling until her story ends. Her destiny is ultimately in the hands of others, being patted on the head by one man (or image of a man) and sent off by another. He tells her where to go, she does not choose her destination. Further, while we see Shikinami told that she is who she is and that’s fine, we do not directly see the results of a post-healthy Shikinami. The closest we get is we see her sitting on a chair at a train station, isolated and apart from the others with as much detail as a forth row character in Azumanga Daioh. Compare this to the end of her arc in End of Evangelion. Here we symbolically see the final transformation of her character exemplified in a physical act. She reaches out and reacts to Shinji’s hostility with compassion. Many people overlook this, but it’s here where Soryu surpasses Shinji’s growth in the end with an ironic twist of character development. I don’t take it as a romantic ending, but rather an ending that inverses the two character’s arcs. They’ve entered a stage where their roles have flipped. What does the end of Shikinami’s character suggest? She’s just sitting there, out of the way. Again, you can do whatever you like; but if you’re telling me you’re satisfied with that, particularly in comparison to End of Evangelion’s ending, I must respond that I think you’re crazy.
