AFAIK it was more like tons of symbolism to hide a lack of budget and time. It got janky and weird because they literally weren’t given the resources to finish it properly. But then they were also trying to be weird and obtuse in general as an aesthetic, to the point where there really couldn’t be a satisfying and comprehensible ending because you can’t explain what was going on because that ruins the whole baffling mysticism feel and you can’t just sort of resolve the tangible material conflicts without addressing all the weird mystic shit either, so instead they just went off the deep end and made completely incomprehensible nonsense with a shoestring budget and became iconic for it, so they just leaned into it even harder when they were given the resources to do more.
so instead they just went off the deep end and made completely incomprehensible nonsense with a shoestring budget and became iconic for it
Just look at Space Runaway Ideon’s TV ending if you want the “try to stick the landing with the budget we have left.” It’s mid, and Tomino was lucky to be able to do a double-movie to fix the ending (the second movie is probably one of the best sci fi anime movies).
The TV ending for Evangelion is hands-down one of the best things they did in the franchise.
so they just leaned into it even harder when they were given the resources to do more.
To see what they do when they actually have money, check the rebuilds, which have a very different kind of resolution, but I find them pretty good, too.
Tbh it felt to me like tons of symbolism to hide a lack of actual depth
AFAIK it was more like tons of symbolism to hide a lack of budget and time. It got janky and weird because they literally weren’t given the resources to finish it properly. But then they were also trying to be weird and obtuse in general as an aesthetic, to the point where there really couldn’t be a satisfying and comprehensible ending because you can’t explain what was going on because that ruins the whole baffling mysticism feel and you can’t just sort of resolve the tangible material conflicts without addressing all the weird mystic shit either, so instead they just went off the deep end and made completely incomprehensible nonsense with a shoestring budget and became iconic for it, so they just leaned into it even harder when they were given the resources to do more.
Just look at Space Runaway Ideon’s TV ending if you want the “try to stick the landing with the budget we have left.” It’s mid, and Tomino was lucky to be able to do a double-movie to fix the ending (the second movie is probably one of the best sci fi anime movies).
The TV ending for Evangelion is hands-down one of the best things they did in the franchise.
To see what they do when they actually have money, check the rebuilds, which have a very different kind of resolution, but I find them pretty good, too.
Have those finished yet? I think I saw up through the third one, then the next one was delayed by like 5 years or more.
They did, last year.