The End of Evangelion

Neon Genesis Evangelion ended on television inside Shinji Ikari's head because Gainax ran out of time, money, or patience, depending on which argument you heard first. The End of Evangelion came to theatres in 1997 and showed what was happening outside.

NERV is invaded by the Japanese Strategic Self-Defense Force. Misato is trying to reach Shinji. Asuka wakes up at the bottom of the lake and finally understands that her mother was with her all along. What follows is one of the greatest action sequences in anime, which the film then turns into something cruel enough that people still argue about whether loving it is the same as surviving it.

This is not a replacement ending in the simple sense. It is the television ending's psychological collapse made physical: Instrumentality, the Mass Production Evangelions, Rei becoming something the frame can barely contain, and Shinji being asked whether a world with other people in it is worth the pain they cause him. Hideaki Anno also points the camera back at the audience, sometimes literally. The film knows exactly how much anger, entitlement, grief, and need had gathered around Evangelion by then.

The early Western DVDs made it easier to see and did nothing to make it easier to process. That was never going to happen.

Watch the series first. Then watch this. Then decide for yourself whether congratulations was enough.