Dang, picked this up finally this week and just got around to watching it. Was there a storyline anywhere? As I was lost & still am, and feel like I should go watch something lighter, like Equestrian Girls.
I'll just note, the BB they got flying, that was a Flight 1 Iowa and not a Yamato?
Yeah, that was... seriously WTF territory -- not in-story (though that was WTF enough), but externally. Misato and Asuka both carrying enormous Idiot Balls, NO explanation of just what the hell happened after 2.22 to create the situation we saw in 3.0, or even what the entire opening sequence (great as it was) was even about. I was hoping 3.33 might fill in some of the missing story, but honestly, the jump from 2.22 to 3.0 just makes NO narrative sense whatsoever. At this point, half of 4.0 would have to be huge flashbacks to have any chance of even remotely recovering the situation.
3.0 was proof to me that, no, it wasn't just the budget cuts and the depression and such he was suffering back in the original. Anno and I quite simply have worldviews that may well be COMPLETELY incompatible with each other.
I'm pretty sure that if an Eva ending made sense, reality would warp itself to make the ending confusing again. Presumably an Eva ending that makes sense is one of those things that threatens the stability of the universe.
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Will the transhumanist future have catgirls? Does Japan still exist? Well, there is your answer.
I was able to get the broad strokes. That somehow the shit had hit the fan after Shinji had 'died'. There was also the fact that apparently this wasn't the first time that Misato and company had gone through this whole song and dance only to discover that the Shinji they found was actually a fake (and very likely some pre-programmed killer doll). Add in any misgivings folks had about Shinji fucking it all up by getting himself offed in the first place and that particular moment in time not being a very good one for doing this sort of thing and... well, there you have it.
Though I will agree that Misato and Asuka were carrying giant idiot balls.