Thread by @ExtremeSManpig

So this will basically be my thread on Evangelion: Thrice Upon a Time cuz I actually had a lot to say about this film, all as a fan of Evangelion, a fan of Anno's work, and just a general anime fan in general

This one's probably gonna be long so strap in

First of all, I think I need to elaborate on my own relationship with Evangelion. I haven't done so a lot and that's mostly because my relationship with Eva is p much one of the past. A lot of people know I was in a much darker place 5 years ago, and Eva helped me through that

No it wasn’t the some big world shattering reveal or some 5D concept that required hours of analysis, but basically Evangelion helped me back when I was very confused about myself. I hated myself and the world, and didn't know why

Eva was able to shed a light for me

It saved me as an individual, because while stories like Clannad and Little Busters helped me overcome myself, Evangelion laid the groundwork by helping me *understand* myself, which I think was the most important step

From beginning to end, it helped me shape my identity

I always loved Eva, yet, at the same time, it’s not MY identity Eva is about

Lets go to Anno, the creator

Yeah, yeah we all know about it, Anno was depressed and it leaked into his work, which made Eva into what it is today when combined with budget cuts.

This lead to…a lot.

Something I think we all should remember is basically...

Anno isn’t a huge Eva fan

Anno is aware of its impact on the anime sphere as a whole, as well as the people he’s moved

He’s not stupid, but as he himself said, he feels sorry for them

Obviously Anno’s a bit of a jokester but the words come from _somewhere_

The thing is, like everything else he’s made, from his original Ultraman film in university to the Shin films he’s making now, Anno is ultimately, a fan of Japanese media, he’s no different to me and you

More than anything he is super passionate about Tokusatsu and anime. My man made his university project an Ultraman homage. He made Daicon’s OPs with his friends, he wanted to wear a Kamen Rider suit for his wedding! He loves giant robots, giant monsters, and fiction as a whole

Evangelion’s original concept itself just drives from other mecha, with ideas taken from other things Anno loves. Eva being a cyborg is a nod to Kamen Rider, and a giant fighting alien monsters on a strict time limit...yeah I wonder what kind of show that's a reference to

A lot of people use buzzwords to describe Evangelion as some 5D chess masterpiece of media, but the way I see it, Evangelion is an introspective on a lot of anime. It’s a love letter to stuff like Gundam (shoutout to my man Tomino) with a similar if not identical story path

Yet maybe it’s due to the presentation or the topics he covered, it’s sort of become more. Anno bled into his characters, pushing them to the extremes. He criticised anime tropes he disliked through his characters, and ended it all in a way that can't ever be forgotten

Obviously, while a lot of people love Evangelion for many reasons, me included, Anno is not one of these people

Especially now, years later, he sees it as something that had way more effect on the anime sphere than he intended, and as far as he's concerned, not in a good way

You’ve seen those types of people the dudes who look at Evangelion and call it “the only good mecha anime”, people who watch it and compare it to it’s biggest inspiration, Ultraman, and then dump all over that

It’s not like they aren’t entitled to an opinion but it’s so ironic

The fact that a love letter ultimately brought people who just shit on what Anno loved to begin with is something that has got to suck, even if I doubt Anno's directly aware of them

I can’t imagine being that person, tbh I pray that never happens for smth I make

Some Eva fans get so into the show, and they glorify Eva into many different things that it isn’t, things Eva was never meant to be

The image of Evangelion is something Anno himself can’t overlook, and he loathes that very image, and honestly, I can't blame him

Correct me if I’m wrong cuz I can't find a source, but I remember him saying somewhere in an interview that the Rebuilds was originally his attempt at “remaking the image of Evangelion” because he was so sick of the image Evangelion had propagated. He wanted to replace that image

But while making Rebuild, he realised, that was impossible. Evangelion’s influence is cemented and can’t be changed. All the tropes it popularised, whether or not Anno wanted it to do so, they’re engrained in anime forever now

The original series can never go away

So, what I assume, is he essentially remade 3.0, so the 3.0 we got was so different to the one that was initially advertised. He essentially recreated the rebuild series from that point onward to make what we got with Thrice

So, here is where I begin talking about thrice and spoilers, will be tagging with #Evangelion for that

There’s so many scenes I could talk about but I’m not here to nitpick stuff. I will say though, you can see the LOVE in this film, look at the references!

I can’t believe that shot is a direct to Ultraman Ace’s iconic episode on Planet Golgotha! And the reason there’s 4 Adams? It’s nothing more than a reference to the first four mighty Ultra Brothers! The Miracle of Ultra still lives in #Evangelion

But more than that, the Rebuild is Anno wanting to change in #Evangelion. But rather than changing an image, he wants to change what the story represents while still giving us what people loved about the story to begin with

He's trying to make a new ending, a final one

This is just my theory, but I think Rebuild itself represents “#Evangelion” as a saga. rather than a true sequel, even if there are links. None of the characters have relations to the past, outside of Kaworu who remembers it all, yet they take different paths in the story

How many times has the original #Evangelion been watched by now? How many times have these characters been seen doing the exact same thing for the exact same conclusion?

Eva was finished, so why do people keep going back to it? Why do people still keep drawing from it?

Anno turned Asuka into a clone as well, and it’s an obvious reason

“There’s so many Asuka and Rei clones”

It’s about the tropes they’ve become in anime, tropes he doesn’t like. Both characters have spawned a gazillion archetype clones and started an eternal waifu war

I doubt Anno is lambasting people, but rather is confused as to why it began in the first place. He himself seems tired of these tropes, so of course, in Thrice, we see things happen differently

These versions of the Rei and Asuka clones grow differently from the og #Evangelion

Mari was the key, after she appears, the story shifts slowly, she’s an x-factor that changes so much, and that change started everything. Asuka changed as a character, Rei found her own individuality, and Shinji fought for himself for the first time #Evangelion

At the time it didn’t mean much, and after 3.0 we didn’t see much of the fruits of it yet, but now that Thrice is here, we can see all the changes these characters went through and what Anno wanted to say with the #Evangelion Rebuild films

Anno wants things to change

Anno changed the #Evangelion Rebuild series into rather than a rebuild, into more like a reconfrontation. He accepted what Eva is and what it will forever be, but, he also wants things to be different from now on, and I think that is the most apparent thing about this film

He’s tired of clones, he wants the characters to grow, for the anime tropes to evolve

He’s asking us to change

He used Thrice to shows us fans his growth since he made the original #Evangelion series, and also what he believes is more important now

Anno has changed a lot since he made the original #Evangelion, and he showcases everything he's picked up since, right here

Live in spite of the difficulty. Learn to accept painful things. Move on, become stronger, and grow up.

He shows that full on in Shinji.

I’ve talked about it before, but this film is the first one to actually SHOW the results of Shinji’s change. You can argue he did in the original EOE, but here, we got a full story dedicated to his change, and his will to face his problems after 3.0 #Evangelion

He learns people care for him, and when he realises the obvious fact. He stands up, and confronts what he’s the most scared of

Relationships with others, and getting hurt

This is who Anno is now, he’s confronting #Evangelion and his past self, and that is represented by Gendo

Gendo was always meant to be “just like Shinji” in the og show but here’s its pushed to another extreme. We see in flashbacks how Gendo was in his past in #Evangelion

That silhouette look familiar?

Yeah, that’s Anno

Gendo in Thrice is meant to be his past self

Shinji and Gendo are the same kind of person, and Shinji represents Anno. So in this film, a story where Anno had grown since EoE, we even see Gendo, Anno’s past self, confirm that

Anno’s telling himself, and us, he’s grown, and is asking us to do the same #Evangelion

The reason he’s shown us all these characters changing, overcoming their relationships despite everything, and finding their own types of happy endings, is simple

He wants us to ALL move on now without any regrets, and made this final #Evangelion film for us to do that

"Stop being so stuck to Evangelion, let these characters change, let anime change”

"Change the tropes, change the medium, don't just repeat Eva again and again"

Now that #Evangelion is over, he can finally move onto anything he wants, and he’ll be doing just that

He is thankful for the support but wants us to move on. Anno has stated, he is tired, his attachment to Eva is nothing compared to his love for other projects

I think, he would also want us fans to find new things other than constantly obsessing over Evangelion

He's moved on and found many new things that he actually cares about. He’s making new projects and guess WHAT, they’re films of Godzilla, Ultraman, and Kamen Rider! How amazing is that? He’s gotta be so happy now!

Anno is moving to greater things, things he be genuinely proud of

He wants us to do the same

Anno likely does not hold it against us for loving Eva, if he didn’t, he wouldnt’ve of shown this film the way it is and given all characters such a conclusion. He is simply tired, and wants to actually send it off permanently for our sake

So, he's asking the entire anime sphere as a whole to let it go with him

Stop hyperfocusing on Eva, and let us all move onto even more things

This is the final conclusion for Evangelion.

All of the characters have grown.

So now, you should too.