The red cross book is a booklet originally sold at the theatre entrances when the remake of the episodes 25 and 26 of the series were first shown to the public. It explains the reason of the remake of these 2 last episodes, as well as many other aspects of the film that could be unclear to many who were not followers of the TV series. The booklet is divided into 2 parts: the main body and a commentary at the end. The cover is a red cross on a black background. Inside the red cross, the words THE END OF EVANGELION.

Production

• Two kinds of title logos were created for "THE END OF EVANGELION". One is the logo used on the poster and advance tickets, and the other is the hand-written logo used as the title in the movie, which follows the style of the title used in "REBIRTH". The latter title logo is also the one used on the cover of this pamphlet.

• Episode 25' "Air" is based on the original episode 25 script which was completed during production of the TV series. Due to production time limits and other problems, this script was not used and the TV episode 25 "Owaru sekai (The Ending World)" instead became a drama which unfolded within an inner universe like episode 26. In this sense, episode 25' could be considered a return to the originally intended contents. In contrast, episode 26' adds much more story and dramatic content to TV episode 26, thus deepening the theme.

• This movie was created as the remake of the last two TV episodes, so the TV episode format is followed, with each episode having its own subtitle and eyecatch scenes.

• The animation production company for this movie, PRODUCTION I.G, is known for having produced anime movies such as "PatLabor 2 the Movie" and "Ghost in the Shell". PRODUCTION I.G's impressive production and editing efforts made this movie a high quality "theatrical film".

• The director of episode 25' "Air" is Kazuya Tsurumaki, who served as deputy director of the TV series. Although the script was written by Chief Director Hideaki Anno, all work from the direction onward was entrusted to Director Tsurumaki. Although Masayuki, who also served as deputy director of the TV series, is listed in the story board credits, and Shinji Higuchi is listed in the script and story board credits, they essentially followed the lead of Director Tsurumaki.

• Chief Director Anno personally undertook the direction of episode 26' "Magokoro wo, kimi ni". Because of that, the movie bears a strong imprint of his individual taste. Kiichi Jime and Shinji Higuchi also helped with the story boards for this episode.

• Masayuki, who served as deputy director of the TV series and director of the movie "DEATH", participated in a number of capacities on this movie including story boards, original pictures and as visual water artist. The depiction of water is considered the most difficult of all animation work, and Masayuki served as art director of all natural depiction of water and waves. For this reason, he was given the title of "visual water artist". He also drew the original pictures for the promotional posters of this movie.

• There were two art directors for episode 25' and three for episode 26'. In episode 25', Kazuya Kouse of PRODUTION I.G served as art director for scenes centering on characters, and Yuu Honda served as art director for mecha scenes. Kazuya Kouse is an animator known for cinema productions such as "PatLabor 2 the Movie" and "Ghost in the Shell", and he worked twice as art director in the TV series. Yuu Honda was the main art director for the TV series, as well as the animator for the opening sequence.

• The art directors for episode 26' were Shunji Suzuki, Teishi Hiramatsu and Hideaki Anno. Shunji Suzuki and Teishi Hiramatsu served as the art directors for each scene, while Hideaki Anno handled the art direction for mecha scenes and cuts centering on special effects.

• Some real-life shots were used to depict the inner universe of Shinji in episode 26', and a team called the "Special Production Team" was formed to film these shots. Hideaki Anno also wrote the script and served as chief director for these parts, with Shinji Higuchi participating in the role of special effects director. "Special effects director" in this context means directing the filming of special effects. The actual filming proceeded with Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi mutually discussing their ideas and opinions of each shot.

• Although computer graphics (CG) were widely used in the Evangelion TV series, these were all processed in a flat (2-dimensional) manner such as computer screens. In "THE END OF EVANGELION", CG which provided a broad spatial (3-dimensional) sense were introduced. The core of the CG production was Omnibus Japan, which had also handled the CG in such works as "PatLabor 2 the Movie" and "Ghost in the Shell". Most of the CG scenes are found after the start of the Instrumentality Project (HCP) in episode 26', and include the cut where giant crosses spread to cover the entire surface of the Earth and the cut with an infinite number of Reis swimming around, etc. Omnibus Japan also attempted the processing of transmitted light in this movie, which is considered difficult for CG. Analog processing was also performed on these CG scenes using filters like those used for normal filming in order to create a visual feeling similar to other cuts. The staff names scrolling in a helix was also a CG effect done by Omnibus Japan.

• PRODUCTION I.G also handled a number of CG cuts. One of these is the cut where the nine giant Eva transport aircraft carrying the Eva series first appear on the screen in episode 25'. This cut where nine giant aircraft seen overlapping one another from a bird-eye's view each slide in a different direction would be virtually impossible using conventional anime camera work, but can be done with CG. The "Eirin" (Eiga Rinri Kitei Kanri Iinkai = Motion Picture Code of Ethics Committee) mark is also CG done by PRODUCTION I.G, so it is also billed as 3D animator in the telop. Computer screens and similar CG were all produced by GAINAX in-house like for the TV series. This is billed as 2D digital works in the telop.

• About one quarter of the episode 25' part which repeats the content shown in "REBIRTH", released in the spring as the first part of the conclusion, was filmed again or otherwise remade to improve the quality.

• The effective use of classical music in the Evangelion TV series and the movie "DEATH" released in the spring made quite an impression. This movie used two classical pieces: "Air on G" and "Jesus bliebt meine Freunde" by J.S.Bach. This "Air on G" version was arranged and newly recorded by Sagisu Shiro. It is used in the part where the second half of the battle between Eva-02 and the Eva series mass production models is shown intermixed with the confrontation between Gendou and Ritsuko. The English notation for "Air on G" is "Air", and the title of episode 25' "Air" is also taken from this piece. "Jesus bliebt meine Freunde" is from a recompilation of an existing source, and is used in the part with the real-life shots in episode 26'.

• Two songs were written for "THE END OF EVANGELION", both of which were produced by the team of Hideaki Anno and Shiro Sagisu. The first is "THANATOS - IF I CAN'T BE YOURS", which plays after the end of episode 25'. This is the vocal version of the BGM "THANATOS (E-13)" used in TV episode 19 "A Man's Battle". The vocalist is LOREN and the lyrics are by MASH, with composition and arrangement by Shiro Sagisu. Incidentally, THANATOS is the god of death in Greek mythology, and this word is also used to signify the "death impulse" in psychoanalysis., the producer of PRODUCTION I.G. Chief Director Hideaki Anno wanted the children's songs heard in the background of the sandbox scene in episode 26' to sound as close to real-life as possible, so Producer Ishikawa and his team went to this kindergarten and recorded these songs.

• The other song is the insert song "Komm, sόsser Tod" used in episode 26'. The lyrics are the English translation of words composed by Chief Director Anno. The title is German, meaning "Come, Sweet Death". The vocalist is Arianne, and composition and arrangement are by Shiro Sagisu.

• A total of 18 BGM pieces were newly composed and recorded. Special effort was made for the recording of the BGM used in this movie in order to greater reflect the wishes of Chief Director Anno. Further, new tracks were also selected for the part which repeats the contents shown in "REBIRTH".

• The ending telop includes the item: "Special Thanks/Akishima Municipal Haishima Kindergarten".

Commentary

• "THE END OF EVANGELION" is the conclusion to "Neon Genesis Evangelion". This movie is comprised of the two episodes 25' "Air" and 26' "Magokoro wo, kimi ni (Sincerely Yours/My Pure Heart for You)".

• In the last scene of TV episode 24 "Saigo no Shisha (The Final Messenger/The Last to Die", our protagonist Shinji Ikari kills Kaworu Nagisa -- the first person to understand him, and also the last Angel -- by his own hand. Episode 25' "Air" starts immediately thereafter. In other words, episodes 25' and 26' are the continuation of TV episode 24 "Saigo no Shisha".

• For the TV series, episodes 25 "Owaru sekai (The Ending World)" and 26 "Sekai no chuushin de ai wo sakenda kemono (The Beast who Shouted "I/Love" at the Center of the World)" were shown following episode 24 to conclude the series. Thus, the story of Evangelion branches into two after the last scene of episode 24. There is one ending as shown in TV episodes 25 and 26, while episodes 25' and 26' as shown in "THE END OF EVANGELION" are another ending. (Here, plain numbers are used to indicate the TV episodes, and numbers with apostrophes for the movie episodes)

• The TV series "Neon Genesis Evangelion" aired from October 1995 to March 1996. The planning and original story were done by GAINAX, which was known for anime such as "(Royal Space Force) The Wings of Honneamise" and "Fushigi no Umi no Nadia (Nadia - The Secret of Blue Water)", as well as video games like "Princess Maker". The animation production was performed jointly by Tatsunoko Productions and GAINAX.

• From the initial planning stages through this cinema edition, Neon Genesis Evangelion has evolved around its director Hideaki Anno. All aspects from the overall theme and framework of the story down to each individual drawing and line of dialogue bear the mark of Anno's creative individuality.

• Since the original TV broadcast, Evangelion has enjoyed the enthusiastic support of numerous fans, and the show also spawned discussions on various topics. Featuring intriguing SF settings, dynamic battle scenes, a pedantic flavor of incorporating Christian motifs and psychoanalytical jargon into a dramatic work, and a super-intensive amount of information, Evangelion exceeded the bounds of conventional anime on all these counts, making it truly worthy of the title "Neon Genesis". The show's soaring popularity rivaled the biggest hits of the past such as "Star Blazers (Space Battleship Yamato)" and "Mobile Suit Gundam (Kidou Senshi Gundamu)", giving rise to the phrase "the Eva phenomenon".

• A major theme in Evangelion is the problems of "people's hearts", and this is one of the attractions of the series which could not be found in other anime. Relationships with others, the meaning of one's existence, what is the self.... Evangelion started as a semi-realistic SF mecha-action anime, and at first it was thought that the "people's hearts" of the characters were merely added as dramatic flavoring. However, as the series progressed, the issue of "people's hearts" grew in importance until it ultimately outstripped the other elements of mecha-action or solutions to the various mysteries. As the culmination of this trend, the final episode of the TV series, "Sekai no chuushin de ai wo sakenda kemono", took a novel approach in that the story progressed only within the inner world of the protagonist Shinji Ikari. Although this fulfilled the basic thematic requirements, the drama of the Eva characters and explanations of various settings were left unfinished as the story ended.

• This became a major issue as the final episode of the TV series could be considered incomplete. The voice of the fans grew stronger as they demanded a proper ending to the drama, explanations of the mysteries, or even a new story. Thus, in order to meet these demands, it was decided to remake episodes 25 and 26.

• The remade episodes 25' and 26' were originally intended for release as OVA, but during production it was decided that they would be released in theaters. This was "EVANGELION DEATH AND REBIRTH" (Shin Seiki Evangelion Gekijouhen -- Shito Shinsei) which consists of two parts: "DEATH" which a summary of the TV series and the newly remade "REBIRTH" which was to serve as a climax. However, the content of the remake grew much larger than planned, so the content shown in "REBIRTH" was only about 2/3 of the new episode 25'. Thus, "EVANGELION DEATH and REBIRTH" was released in March 1997 as Part 1 of the conclusion.

• Now, four months after "EVANGELION DEATH AND REBIRTH", the completed conclusion has been released. This is this movie "THE END OF EVANGELION".

• As mentioned previously, "THE END OF EVANGELION" is the continuation from TV episode 24 "Saigo no shisha". All the Angels are dead, and SEELE's Instrumentality Project (HCP) is at long last about to enter its final phase. The Japan Strategic Self Defense Force attack on Special Agency NERV; the fight to the death between Asuka in Eva-02 and the Eva series mass production models; the mysteries explained; the course of Instrumentality (Human Complementation); the heart of Shinji Ikari.... Episodes 25' (Air) and 26' (Magokoro wo, kimi ni) are packed with breathtaking cinematic scenes: the drama of the characters, action scenes, solutions to mysteries, etc. On the other hand the movie also takes an experimental approach which deals squarely with the issue of "people's hearts" in the same manner as the climax to the TV series. Thus, in both name and fact, this is the complete conclusion to Neon Genesis Evangelion.

• The chief director and script writer is Hideaki Anno. The director for episode 25' "Air" is Kazuya Tsurumaki, and for episode 26' "Magokoro wo, kimi ni", Hideaki Anno. Like "EVANGELION DEATH AND REBIRTH", the animation production was done jointly by PRODUCTION I.G and GAINAX.

• The movie lasts for about 87 minutes.