Warning: Article contains spoilers for the ending of Neon Genesis Evangelion and The End of Evangelion.
Can we all just be honest and admit that no one really understands the ending for Neon Genesis Evangelion? At least not straight away. The final moments of the series and its follow-up film are pretty out there in terms of what we’re being shown, and at first, seem to be in stark contrast to what the show was about leading up to it. All of that, and then you’ve got the Rebuild films to consider as well, but that will take a whole other explainer. If you’re here, then you clearly want some answers, and we’re going to give them to you, starting with the original series and then its follow-up movie.
The premise of the show centers on Shinji Ikari, a young boy with a pretty rubbish dad. Shinji is pressured into piloting an EVA by his father in order to counter the threat from a powerful race of beings known as ‘Angels.’ These Angels come in various shapes and sizes, and as the story progresses, they become harder and harder to defeat.
It all culminates with episode 24 in which the mysterious and confident character Kaworu appears. Shinji quickly forms an emotional connection with him before it’s revealed that he is the final Angel. Ultimately, Kaworu allows Shinji to end his life as he decides not to reunite with Lilith and bring about the end of the human race. Of course, it’s not an easy decision for Shinji, and it kind of destroys him mentally. So, now the Angel threat has been eliminated; happy days, right? Wrong. This is only the beginning of the end.
So now that NERV has stopped the third impact, the organization known as SEELE can finally begin its plan… to start the third impact. Yeah, so it turns out that they wanted to wipe out humanity all along, just not in the way the Angels were doing it. You see, the members of SEELE had been secretly planning the Human Instrumentality Project, which basically served to unite every human soul into one being. In order to do this, they needed three things, Adam, Lilith, and to eliminate all Angels so they would not interfere with the plan.
Wait. Who are Adam and Lilith?
It’s not made explicitly clear in the show, but Adam and Lilith are beings from the First Ancestral Race, an ancient humanoid species who dispersed “seeds of life” across the galaxy billions of years ago. They are also responsible for the presence of the Lance of Longinus and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Adam and Lilith were seeds of life, with Adam landing in Antarctica in the white moon and Lilith crash-landing sometime later in the event referred to as the “first impact.”
Two seeds of life being on Earth was not ideal and definitely not a part of the First Ancestral Race’s plans. However, both beings were given a Lance of Longinus, the purpose of which was to restrict the seed’s power should something like this happen. Unfortunately, Lilith’s spear was lost or destroyed, meaning it was Adam who, despite landing first, had to be placed in suspended animation by its staff, essentially denying its destiny to create life.
So, Lilith spreads LCL, which is the same liquid the pilot’s plug is filled with when they pilot an EVA — this becomes the primordial soup for life on Earth. Fast forward to the year 2000, and some scientists find Adam suspended in animation in Antarctica and accidentally awaken it by tampering with the lance. This is what’s referred to as the “second impact.” Although there technically was no impact, Adam’s awakening is so powerful, it knocks the Earth off of its axis and the world’s population is told it was a meteor that struck Earth and not a giant monster with the power of a god.
Adam was able to open the doors of Guf (the Hebrew word for “body”) and release souls that came back as Angels 15 years later. But before it could do any more damage, the scientists who found Adam were able to stop it with the Lance of Longinus. This reduced it to an embryonic state, and its DNA was used to create the EVAs.
The Human Instrumentality Project
So, Adam and Lilith are important, not only because those beings were the root cause of pretty much everything in the show, but SEELE also needs them both in order to enact the Instrumentality Project. Shinji’s dad, Gendo, also has plans to start the third impact, but for different reasons — he just wants to be reunited with his wife and Shinji’s mother, Yui. To kick things off, the embryo of Adam is combined with the soul of Lilith — who is within Rei, the pilot of EVA 00.
In the series, we aren’t shown any of this. The final two episodes start with Shinji already within the Human Instrumentality Project. The episodes focus on his emotions and are almost like therapy as he is confronted with his own actions and flaws by other characters. They reinforce the themes of the whole story, being the harsh truth that trauma and depression are parts of Shinji’s life he may never be rid of.
Many parts of the show work as allegories for depression, and it relates directly to the creator’s own feelings at the time. These last two episodes work mostly metaphorically, although it is pretty clear that this is all to do with the Instrumentality Project. The art style dramatically changes as well, which reflects the fact that this is happening in Shinji’s mind. Things get more and more simplistic until he becomes only a line drawing, symbolizing the freedom of nothingness. In the end, despite his feelings, Shinji affirms that he does want to carry on being himself and that his life is worth living, even if things become hard. It’s a pretty optimistic ending with all the characters congratulating him for finally accepting himself.
The final episodes are sort of up for interpretation, but that’s the gist of it. There were theories that the finale was made this way due to budget cuts, but that’s not been proven. The way it ended brings the show and all its themes to a close in a way that no other ending could.
The End of Evangelion
Now that the show’s ending has thoroughly confused everyone, it’s time to move on to the movie, which at first glance seems to retcon the last two episodes. However, The End of Evangelion is sort of happening before, during, and after the original ending, but at the same time gives a different conclusion.
It picks up right after the death of Kaworu, and as the Human Instrumentality Project begins. SEELE intended to use Adam’s Lance of Longinus to start the third impact, but it was lost earlier in the story. Instead, they plan to use EVA 01 as an ark for the souls of humanity to become one, and Shinji will be the catalyst for it all. However, this doesn’t line up with Gendo’s plan as he’s only been pretending to follow SEELE’s orders this whole time.
Instead of giving up the EVA, Gendo refuses. As a result, SEELE informs the government that NERV is planning to initiate a third impact and wipe out humanity. Of course, this leads to an all-out violent assault on NERV’s headquarters with the soldiers ordered to take the EVAs and kill the pilots.
SEELE even deploys their mass-produced EVA units, which are fought off by Asuka in Unit 02, before she is ultimately killed. In the meantime, Rei has combined her soul (that of Lilith) with the embryo of Adam and becomes a giant, god-like being. Shinji, in Unit 01, sees Asuka and her EVA ripped apart by SEELE’s own EVAs, causing him to break down. That’s only made worse when he sees the giant monster version of Rei. As a result, he’s unable to prevent his unit’s unification with the giant Rei. After that, Rei/Lilith/Adam visits everyone on the planet with the appearance of a loved one, before melting them into LCL. And with that, everyone becomes one.
In theory, that is where episode 25 begins in the show. However, the movie makes a few substantial changes. First of all, the optimistic message from the show is gone; this time, Shinji rejects the lessons he learns during the Instrumentality. He’s a lot more negative, and so are the souls of those he sees due to his mind being that catalyst for everything.
Ultimately, he doesn’t learn the same lessons, ignoring the concept of growth and change before separating from the tangle of human souls. He and Asuka return to the world, and it’s sort of up to interpretation whether the rest of humanity is able to do the same. Before the movie ends, we see the pair lying next to each other on the ground. Shinji gets up and starts strangling her before loosening his grip. This action affirms the implication that he has not grown as a person, directly in contrast to how the show ends.
There are two endings
The show and the movie’s endings differ a lot; however, the events shown leading up to the Instrumentality in The End of Evangelion are implied to be the same, with characters like Misato and Asuka dying during the siege of NERV headquarters. The only thing that changes is how Shinji chooses to continue living once he faces his own internal demons.