Anime II:
The End of Evangelion was a much better ending for that anime series. The original series had 26 episodes, but the last two episodes were incomprehensible in terms of story arc. They totally cut the story off and were two long, pseudo-philosophical montages delving into the psyches of a few of the main characters, and then ended on an equally incomprehensible uplifting, pseudo-feel-good note.

The director received death threats by whacko fans, and the production company's offices were vandalized.

The director relented and created "The End of Evangelion", a feature length, alternative ending movie intended to replace episodes 25 and 26 of the series. I think it was brilliant in completing the story arc. I don't know how much of it was a response to the extreme audience reaction to the original ending, but the alternative ending was pretty extreme itself. But, true to anime, even the alternative ending kept its ambiguity.

Just as an example of the ambiguity involved, the very last words of the movie, and I'm not going to spoil anything here, according to the commentary track, the translators had a bitch of a time deciding what the English translation should be. It's a basic phrase in Japanese, so I'm familiar with it, but I recognized that in context, the English translation depends on how a viewer interprets the movie (I would have chosen a different translation, but the phrase they chose keeps the ambiguity, and was probably the best choice).

What I liked about the movie, and this is interpretation so I don't think it's spoiler, is the depiction of souls as like drops of water. We are individuals because the matrix of form creates a reality where we can exist and interact as individuals.

Our physical, psychological manifestations, our ego-barriers, make our lives on this planet possible. Once those are removed, we are in essence like drops of water falling into the ocean. It is, for one, a very Buddhist idea for an anime that draws heavily on mystical Biblical (and related) references and imagery for its story.

And leave it to shallow me to let the influence of an anime put me in a mindset and mood that emphasizes the apocalypse and an "ultimate dimension" rather than real life around me - what I'm gonna eat, what I'm gonna wear, when should I shower, when should I start sending out my resume?