A World Thats Ending – Neon Genesis Evangelion S01E25

➡ The Cartoon Cabal podcast is discussing the complex and abstract final episodes of the anime series, Neon Genesis Evangelion. The hosts are trying to understand the show’s ending, which involves a project that merges everyone’s minds. They debate whether the main character, Shinji, is the key to this project or if he’s just lost in his own thoughts. The hosts also compare the show’s poetic and philosophical themes to museum movies and Japanese culture.
➡ The text discusses a complex TV show where a character named Shinji is part of a hive mind and is struggling with his reality. The show’s narrative is confusing and seems to be deteriorating, with the writers introducing many new plot points and motives in recent episodes. The text also compares this show to other sitcoms, questioning if a sudden shift in reality would work in any series. The authors are unsure how the show will conclude, given its current state.
➡ The speaker discusses their feelings about a TV show, comparing it to the series ‘Lost’. They mention how the show doesn’t provide clear explanations, leading to confusion and frustration. They also discuss the show’s reputation for being confusing, and how the final episodes felt underwhelming. The speaker appreciates the show’s ambition, even if the execution doesn’t always meet it. They also mention a few other shows and albums, comparing their experiences with them to this TV show.
➡ The speaker discusses their confusion and expectations about a series they’re watching, mentioning characters and plot points. They express uncertainty about the series’ direction and ending, and share their thoughts on various characters. They also discuss their upcoming projects, including a comic book collaboration and podcasting. They end by encouraging listeners to support their work.
➡ This text seems to express frustration and defiance, possibly from a misunderstood individual. They feel judged and disliked, but remain unbothered, continuing to do their thing despite the negativity. They also seem to feel underappreciated, stating that they’re often taken for granted.

It’s like a Twilight Zone episode where they explain the twist to make it more confusing so it’s more abandoned. Games at the Cartoon Cabal beyond what’s Just in a Name at the Cartoon Cabal. See just that one. Costco’s Fame at the Cartoon Cabal. So much for the fun and games at the Cartoon Cabal. Hello, welcome to the Cartoon Cabal, where we are currently going through all of the episodes of Neon Genesis Evangelion. Is Matt here? Over there. It’s a paranoid American. How it. We’re almost there, man. This is final. Final stretch. I can’t believe we’re already here.

And this is the intimidating factor of the show, because if you do a little bit of cursory research on the show, it’s like when you get to the end, you’re going to get lost. And I don’t know. I mean, we’re intentionally getting lost in the mind, I guess, in this episode. So it kind of works. So I am following a friend’s advice who’s seen the whole thing. And because there’s the two episodes, there’s complimentary endings, which maybe are the director’s cuts. I. I watched the broadcast one, I think, myself. Did you watch, like, the normal length one for this? Yeah, I didn’t.

I didn’t see the director’s cut. It’s not called a director’s cut. It’s called a complimentary ending, which I still don’t know what that means, if that’s different than a director’s cut. But, yeah, for those following along, we’re doing 25 today. We haven’t watched forward. Next week, we’re going to. Or tomorrow. I don’t know. When you hear this podcast, we’re going to do the end of Evangelion movie, which explains how the Instrumentality Project gets started, like, in real, real terms. Because here we’re getting this insane, abstract, like, mindscape, right? And then 26, we do that after. So it’s.

It’s. Yeah, I was, like, looking up articles because after we watch, it’s like, ooh, did we screw up? And I’m just looking and, like, nobody knows how to watch the last few bits of this. Okay. And I also feel like I’m at a slight advantage here because I’ve been lost the entire time. So I don’t feel any more lost now than I did at any other point in the series. Now, I’m going to first give you a leading question I think you’re going to agree with, and I’m going to give a Little bit of a counter argument to it or not argument, but counterpoint to it.

I guess that’s a light argument. Right. This is the bad teenage poetry. The episode, let’s say the last three combined were the bad teenage poetry episodes like that. What I. I would agree with. Okay. And I do want to counter that because this is another Japanese thing. I was just thinking when you go to museums, I went to the Moomin Park. Moomin’s the kind of hippo looking pixie thing from Norway that for some reason has a park near Tokyo. You go, you watch a movie and I’m watching it purely in Japanese, they only have subtitles there.

But it’s got the same thing like, you know, in that same kind of yearning voice and it’s saying the same kind of stuff. So when you see like museum movies and stuff, it has this stuff, I think in America, I don’t know. I went to the Cyclorama a few months ago. That’s The World War II, the Civil War circular painting. And I guess we do have an American equivalent to that, but it’s less poetic. You’re. Yeah, you’re not wrong. It’s just that ours is so much the one like the American museum movie. I call museum movies kind of, but they’re only like a slight difference away from if you were to go and stay at a hotel somewhere and you put it on the 00 channel and it’s like the advertisements for all the local things going on, like it’s kind of that same energy.

It’s not really poetic. It’s more of like a sales pitch than anything else. So I wonder in Japan because it is such a, you know, regimented society where people generally keep things a touch bottled in, you know, that’s why they have all the drinking parties in Japan. That’s where you go with your co workers and then like whatever you do there. Well, you were drunk, you know, I mean, within reason, you know. But this episode in the last few, like all the bad teenage poetry stuff, this seems the types of emotions and thoughts and feelings that people don’t usually express out loud.

So if they’re sitting around the dinner table hearing someone else talk about loneliness and depression and, and solipsism. Right. In this version that these aren’t really normal discussions that you would hear at 6:30. Yeah, so that’s why I’m thinking about like when you go to the museum or that theme park or whatever, you know, it’s like that little outlet. It’s like, come on, like where Is the. We have education, you know, educate. Like, you just compare the museum video to, like, you know, what’s on TV for the next week. Right. Kind of the dry, drolling voice about what happened, where this is like, let your guard down.

Be with us. We’re here, we’re living. You know, that’s just the tone you’re going to get in like, these, like an ancillary sort of movies and stuff. And. And that, I guess that is a different vibe because in English it sounds terrible and in Japanese it sounds. At least it. It makes sense. Okay. I mean, yeah, we’ve got versions of it, so I. I give it that. And I don’t hate it necessarily either. This one. Okay. This episode, I do kind of hate for a few different reasons. It’s. It wasn’t really. It’s probably one of my least favorite episodes of the entire series, even though philosophically I find it interesting.

But for a TV show that we’ve seen some ups and downs and it kind of does not deliver on any real visual aspect. There’s a couple scenes that were memorable, but for the most part, I feel like I was watching a PowerPoint presentation, like an unfinished PowerPoint presentation. You were a little bit. I. I actually didn’t catch on, so the illusion held. But I was looking, you know, reading stuff before we recorded. It’s like, oh, a lot of the flashbacks and actually with the mom and stuff that. That’s. Now that I’m thinking back. But a lot of the non in the black box stuff is just from previous episodes with different dialogue put on top, you know, and this one too, they use this weird narration that we haven’t seen before where Shinji is almost talking to the narration throughout this entire thing instead of a voice.

And on every other episode before this, this would have been a voice or an angel or a person that he was talking to. And in this one, he’s literally just talking to, like, we’re back into the old, like, pre talky era, right? We’re back into the real movies before the talkies. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I was sitting there, like, trying to write a few of those down. You know, I even got lost. I was like, what is the title of this episode? There’s like ten things that the. The title is the world ending or do you love me In English.

But I’m saying there’s a reason for existing. What’s the title? Because I’m getting all these, like, inner cards and stuff. I guess the idea is he’s. That’s like the hive Mind talking to him, which is similar to when the Angels were talking to him. I’m going to rip off just a little bit of a spoiler band aid because just doing the research, I did it. But this pro. We’re seeing the mind part of this project. We’re not seeing like the someone pressing the button to start the Human Instrumentality Project, you know, so we’re kind of seeing the results without seeing the button being pushed in episode 25.

So theoretically, the movie is going to let us know a little bit more about what’s actually, you know, the. The nuts and bolts of this. Okay. Well, I hope so. The. My impression of this one going in as blind as possible, I guess, other than seeing all the other episodes before this. But it. They’re almost pointing to Shinji is a demiurge, or Shinji is like the brain. And every. They actually are mentioning that the world exists solely for yourself. Like that’s that the old brain in the VAT theory, right? Where every, every single thing in your world is made up of your own mind and nothing’s real except for you.

They keep kind of like hammering that in. But I can’t tell if this is just Shinji crashing out and we’re hearing his thoughts as he crashes out, or if any of that might be legitimate. Like Shinji is the world. He’s the key master. Well, he’s the part of his world. So the. The. This is where I’m like, we have to talk a little spoilery to get into that. And maybe we should have watched the end of Evangelion first. I’m not sure. But the Human Instrumentality Project is supposed to merge everyone’s mind. So you know that they say it in the episode the long in your heart, you always feel like something’s missing.

But if we’re all together in one mind, we won’t put Shinji. So, you know, so 14 year old, like when he’s put into a hive mind, he’s going to compartmentalize himself that this is how I’m. You know, that’s kind of why it’s fun to talk about though, isn’t it? I’m like, okay, I’m having to make an interpretation. They’re not even quite inferring it anymore. So if we were watching this as it came out, 6:30 or whatever, you don’t have the ability to see the movie first and then go to the next episode, right? So I can’t imagine too many family dinners are watching episode 25 on purpose by this point.

You know, they Are. They aren’t. And I’m guessing they aren’t. Regardless, you’re. If you’re watching this as it comes out, you’re Gonna Go, episode 23, 24, 25, 26. Watching it like, we are. Correct. Okay. But we’re. But we’re potentially gonna wait to watch the last episode, watch the movie first, and then watch the last episode. Yeah, we’re stepping blind. We’re going blind Faith here. Someone said, do that. And I’m like, okay, I guess we’ll do whatever. It’s not going to make it more confusing, I don’t think. Well, we. I think from episode one, and we were like, this is going to be confusing at some point, isn’t it? So here’s.

Here’s the interpretation of. I have of this. If you want to put it through the. The fun paranoid American sort of lens, I feel like this is what happens in those, you know, under the Utilor Court Utilidor rooms and the Magic Kingdom where they’re, you know, MK altering people. This. This is the procedure. That’s kind of how I read. I don’t. I don’t think that’s what’s happening. There’s this hive mind thing going on. But that’s the vibe I got, you know, a little bit. I mean, this, what we’re seeing, the whole, like, Celips thing, where the burning, the vat thing, it could potentially be a version of the splintered personality.

So when you’re saying that this is your reality and this is what you make of it, and everything exists because of you, you’re just talking to that one fragmented personality. But that there’s all these other personalities, which maybe those are the other characters. Maybe that’s Asuka as one personality. Masado is another personality. But it’s. It’s a. Just a tiniest bit difference from what you’re describing as a hive mind. Because a hive mind, everything is running in parallel, right? Everything is in. In unison and fragmented. Everything is compartmentalized so that they don’t necessarily freely talk to each other, except for in moments when, like, the seams start to show or things get overloaded, which.

It feels more like that than it does any sort of unification. Well, think about during Masato’s interview, and Shinji shows up and says, I am not Shinji. I am the Shinji. How you see Shinji in your mind, right? Like, so that’s not. It’s not like Shinji crossed over from his new sophilistic world. It’s like, here is. So even if Shinji did accept him not to live in a world by himself. I guess he would have, you know, mind images of other people, which he still has. Anyway, so I’m not quite sure what they’re saying at the end of the episode.

The. I guess they’re going to vanish after that. I don’t know. Like, we’re going now. Let me just ask you that. I don’t. I don’t. I want to pick the right version that you’ve actually watched before. So what was like a sitcom that you used to watch when you were like, mostly paying attention to state media? I mean, you know, I get home from school and watch a bunch. I. I’ve said before, my. My big guilty pleasure, Saved by the Bell, if you want to go. Okay, say, say by the bell. Let’s go with Saved by the Bell.

And let’s just say that after they go to Hawaii and they come back after that special pre college years, which gets a little bit, you know, stupid, but they just say we’re like, post Hawaii pre college years, there’s an episode and it’s basically this episode, right? They’re in. Maybe not in the max, but they’re in the auditorium and the lights come on and Screech is there and Lisa’s there and Kelly’s there, like on chairs. And then Slater shows up and then like, Zach is basically Shinji. And they’re just like, zach, that this whole reality, like, you’ve got control over the reality of the world.

And he’s like, I created this. Like, yes, Zach, you wished for death, destruction, and a return to nothingness. And he just, you know, that’s specifically kind of a fan theory for that show, Right. That the first season with Haley Mills is reality because he’s in like Ohio or whatever, and he’s kind of a little derpier in that. So the rest of the show is like the lyrics of the. You know, because in the lyrics of the theme song, everything’s going wrong. So the show itself is Zach’s fever dream where everything goes right and he’s awesome. It almost like.

Kind of like it’s. Hey, synchronistic stuff, man. Almost works that I chose that show. I mean, I could have gone with Cheers. I get. Well, again, any. Take any example of any show. Yeah. Maybe Stay by the Bell was a good one. That’s got a harder edged one, though. Yeah. Let’s just say even in jeers at the end, let’s say they have a final episode and it’s the same thing plays out and it’s like it’s all been in your head, you know, Tony Danza, the whole time it’s all been in your head. It. Would it feel tacked on? Would it feel tacked on on Cheers? Would it feel tacked on for Saved by the Bell? Or would it.

Would it work on any sitcom you can think of to just take a hard left and then just be like, reality is subjective. It’s based on what your current brain pattern is. New heart ended that way. Did you watch Newhart? Do you know? Well, that’s a thing. That’s the most famous one where he wakes up at the very end and it was all a dream. He’s in bed with his wife from the previous sitcom. Yeah, it’s a little bit different than Newhart because this one, they are explicitly saying that, you know, this is like a. And I guess the.

The ultimate point I’m making is the. Is this tacked on? And even if it is tacked on, could this work for any series just as well, whether it’s tacked on or not? Are we going. We might learn more when we do get to the movie. What I’m working with now is that the. This splinter reality begins when. Right after Shinji kills Kaoru. Well, are you suggesting the entire show is the splinter reality? I guess I’m suggesting the entire show at this point. Because if they’re tell. If they’re telling him that this reality, if this world exists solely for yourself, I’m taking that maybe too literal and I’m being like, oh, the whole world, huh? The whole world.

Including before Shinji even got the notice to sign up for first day of Ava school. Okay. I kind of like. I mean, I’m not going to tell you you’re wrong, but yeah, I had the other thing. And we’ll. We’ll see. Maybe we might come out of this where neither of us know what the answer is. Which. That. That, you know, or we will. We’ll see. So he’s just super sad that he killed an angel. I. Yeah, like, because he. He loved that angel. Right? That was going to be. I mean, it was the. They met after noon, man.

It’s not like they had spent any time. They met that afternoon. The guy immediately starts hitting on him and then holds his hand, and then they spend the night together and that was it. And they love each other. That worked for the Terminator. That worked for Sarah Connor and John. Sarah Con. Not John. No, she did not hook up with John Connor. Michael Bean. Yeah, I guess. And also at the very End of this one now it’s just shot lists now. It’s. They’re not even showing animatics. They’re just like, here’s a written version of what we have planned.

Maybe. Yeah, they ran out of money. It’s amazing. It’s. It’s like that. Oh, the. The Don Herzfeld cartoon. I’m sure you seen that, where it’s, like, showing the. The animator who goes mad, and by the end, it’s just, like, insane. Like, squiggles and stuff because he’s losing his mind. I feel like Evangelion is, like, actually, know, doing that now. The writing, the artwork, everything. Yeah, I think all of it. You’re starting to see it completely deteriorate. And. And even as this episode ended, let’s just. Let’s just say that we didn’t watch a movie and we went right to the next episode.

The. I cannot fathom any way that they tie this up. There’s just no way to tie up what they’ve. They basically took more B plots and revealed all these extra motives and all these extra mechanics and more in the last three episodes than they did in the first 20 episodes. And I. And they weren’t even gonna wrap up what they had done in the first 20. I’m getting a little bit of, like, Lost vibes for this, where at a certain point, if you watch Lost long enough, it clicks and you’re like, oh, they’re never gonna explain any of this.

Like, I’m never getting an answer for it. And you have to either come to peace with that or. Or it’s gonna be a hate watch. Or maybe you just stop watching it. But it, like, it has that feeling at this point, like, okay, yeah, sure, whatever. But let’s, you know, make up a new rule. And not just because it’s tacked on, but just because, like, we know that there’s only one episode left. Well, it. I guess it is sort of, like, by reputation. Like, this show does have the reputation for getting, like, pretty confusing at the end, but people seem to be like, that’s fine.

Lost, I think now is. Has become sort of a punchline. And I. Hey, I watched all six seasons of Lost, but thinking back on Lost, like, yeah, that kind of loved the ball there, you know, because Charlie Brown kick is far more of an investment than Neon Genesis Evangelion is. That probably helps quite a bit also. It’s like Lost had, like, oh, they have to explain the island. I mean, what do we actually need to explain? Hey. The final angel is defeated. The original thing on the show where angels are attacking and we have to defeat the angels.

Angels defeated. That actually is the main conceit of the show. And it’s already been finalized kind of. Although it’s not like they were ever. They never explicitly said how many Angels we were going to battle. And the way that it was unfolding Monster of the Week style originally, it just felt like there was going to be an unlimited number of Angels. So when they finally say the final battle and it’s just ends up being this little space twink, it was just so weird for that to be this big conclusion. Oh, they killed the final angel, but the final angel was just like, go ahead and kill me.

Do it. Do what you must, Shinji. And then he does, and then that’s the end of it. So I don’t know if it feels underwhelming for that to have been the final crescendo. I’m pretty sure Seal and Gendo knew how many Angels there were. Like they had the Dead Sea Scrolls to tell them. Right. I think that’s the kind of information they had. So Masato doesn’t even know that sort of thing. Right. So it just has to be, you know, the big weird talking monoliths in Gendo. And that’s pretty much all that’s in on it. You know, that’s the impression.

Although you’re. I think part of that is leveraged by how much plot armor Seal has on, which is more than any of the. The Avas. Yeah, I. I’m still perfectly open to the fact that Seal aren’t people anyway. Maybe it’s a, you know, another computer, like a magi. I. Yeah, I think in the previous episode, it was almost explicitly stated that they are not human because they kept talking about like the. These human figures or something. Like they were talking about humans from third person. So maybe it’s like Gendo’s chat GPT. That’s. That’s what Seal is.

Well, I. I kind of got the idea that there were other Angels like. Like. Like a higher order of angels than the ones that were coming down to fight with the original plan for the show. And I don’t know if this is going to be realized in the movie or the last episode is that after the final angel is defeated, like the apostles would come like from the moon or something. I mean, I like the theme. I like the ambition and everything. And even though, as we watch this, even if they can’t necessarily get the production to meet the ambition, I can still kind of.

I can see the Ingredients. And I think it’s better than delivering great on just a crap, mediocre milquetoast storyline. So I still appreciate it. No, sometimes great, you know, ambition with a slightly funkier edge. And the seam showing is fascinating. I was just listening a few nights ago. The Beach Boys love you album. Ever hear that one? Yeah. I mean, I got a weird relationship with the Beach Boys. Not a great one. I know that you love Beach Boys, so. Yeah. Anyway, the weird thing about that album is at that point, you know, Brian Wilson’s not very functional, but they’ve drug him back in.

Kind of like Shinji. Right. Like, Shinji should not be thrown into Ava’s. In the last three times he got thrown the Avas. But Oraska. But they did anyway. Right. So it’s just this bizarre album with the seam showing. The lyrics are like, bizarre. Most of the instruments are like just like Brian Wilson on a Moog, you know, so it’s like horny and childish at the same time. So you, you know, you can’t plan that kind of thing. Well, if we go based on the premise of this episode, then that was Shinji making himself get pulled back in just so that people would need him.

And that was Brian Wilson’s universe forcing you to listen to at least his solar system. Yeah, it’s his solar system and he’s on the album. Yeah. So, I mean, you never had a. You never had your own choice to begin with, if that’s really the game. Which is essentially Simulation Theory by a different name. Although I will say a few episodes did not like watching Oscar’s site get ripped apart. First 10 minutes of this, watching Shinji psych get picked apart, I was like, yeah, sure, why not? Let’s do it. The Oscar episode didn’t really bother me as much.

I mean, it was. As I’m watching, I’m like, well, this is not something that you’d put on at 6:30 with. But it. It didn’t really offend me as much as this one does. There. There was like three episodes, I think that had something like, particularly annoying. I didn’t even hate the train episode. The train episode. Early on I kind of felt like, okay, they’re doing like a slow burn thing. Retrospect, it’s probably bottom five. This one is probably bottom three. Okay, what do you think? Do you. Dude, like, I. I understand a lot of interesting things get on, like revealed here, but episode wise, let’s just say if the metric was.

If you had a suggestion episode for someone to watch, going in blind to get sold on the series. This one’s bottom three for me. Oh, for that, of course. So, yeah, yeah, you. This is not anywhere close to an entry point. This is the, you know, this is the. The dumpster in the back there for. To go with your top bottom three. Now I. I kind of feel like this one needs to exist in the. The whole thing. Like, I mean, I don’t know how much more we’re gonna get out of the movie or the last episode.

But like, it was intentionally confusing. Shinji’s confused because I guess this project has started and these people don’t really quite understand what’s happening. So I guess we don’t quite understand what’s happening. And then they don’t have money to animate anything, like, particularly impressive looking. They had psychedelic watercolors at one point and they were like doing some negative animation colors. That was kind of cool. So you. You did watch Lost, right? The whole. Oh yeah, I watched the whole Shebang and if. And let’s ignore the. And there was an ending where it was also a dream. It was like a Bob Newhart kind of thing.

Right. Wasn’t there a version of that? Oh, no. The last season. Spoilers for a 15 year old show that I guess someone’s probably still into it. But the final season, because it begins with them having flashbacks to before the plane crash, the final season is having them having flashbacks to a purgatory where they’ve all died and they’re waiting to go to heaven. Right? Okay. Yeah. So the end is that they actually died and that the whole loss might have just been like a fever. Oh, no. The flash. The flashes in season six are supposed to be the purgatory, so the island itself.

Because people guessed in the first season, the original idea was, yes, the islands of purgatory, but the Internet guessed that in the first season. Like, oh, crap, we can’t do that. So in the end they’re like, oh, the flash, the flash, back forward or whatever. Those are now the purgatory. So they just put the purgatory somebody somewhere else. Because everyone guessed it within season one. So when you, when you got to the last season of Lost, were you expecting answers out of anything? Kind of, yeah. Because I was being a guy that’s, you know, fascinated by weird secret societies and things.

I wanted to get all. I wanted all in on the Dharma Initiative. Right. And you thought. You thought you were actually gonna get answered. Did you feel. I was listening. I was listening Jeremy Davies, like weird quantum rants. And I was like, I’m gonna get some weird scientific thing, you know? And then the answer. That’s the thing. In the end, it was like, again, spoiler. The island’s magic. I’m like, I wanted, like. Like, it’s like, you know, a shard of the sun is in the earth and it’s causing electromagnet. I don’t know what I wanted, but, yeah, that’s part of it.

I don’t know what I wanted here. I don’t know what I want. And it’s kind of fine. I guess that’s a difference. Yeah. With Lost, I did have more expectations here. I said in the last episode, I have no clue what they’re going to do for the next episode, and I only have a slight clue what the movie is going to do. And I have no clue what episode 26 is going to do. And I don’t really have an expectation. So that. That helps with this series, I guess. Yeah, I guess if you’ve hung on this long, then you’re ready to at least watch the last two episodes.

That might be part of the anno switch. Halfway through is like, they’re broken characters. They’re just going to get shoved in this weird mind trap. And we’re not going to have a nice mech ending, which is like, where, you know, this maybe was originally planned. We’re going to battle those 12 apostles from the moon, you know, threat defeated sort of thing. Now it’s just like psychedelic metaphysical weirdness. But, yes, watching 25, right after 24, I feel like we are missing context. And I am. I am hoping we’ll get a little more context. So if we watch the last few bits and then come back, this is a little more like.

Oh, yeah, I get it. Also, we were. We did this recording on a little bit of a time pinch. So I only watched Ships of once. Usually I’d watch them twice. So this. This isn’t really a good one, viewer. So unfortunately. Okay, so. So next AVA episode will be the first movie end of Neon Genesis Evangelion. Right. It seems we could just do that in 26 and call it a day for this. There is one called Death and Rebirth, but it is just a recap of the series and then the first half of the movie because it was like a preview for Japanese audiences at the time.

So we. We really only have two more of these to do. All right, well, if anyone disagrees, because there are there. I think that, like I said, I’m not quite sure what these complimentary ending things are called. If they’re the director’s cut or if they actually need to be watched. But I think it’s just the retooling of the episode. So. Okay. I mean, I. I don’t have expectation that there’s going to be a magical 20 minute anything or even a two hour anything that’s going to answer every question that I’ve come up with. So hopefully the movie does some of that and then we’ll do the last episode and then who knows? We got some other cartoon cabal stuff planned.

Here’s my. Okay, here. Here’s my expectation. All I need is I want to watch Gendo go and turn on a machine and everyone’s brain fries. And that’s what we’re seeing in this episode. Or just reboot it. Reboot it. And then all of a sudden, like Shinji reboot Shinji’s world, he shows up back in town again. Groundhog Day. Yeah. Okay. That’s the other expectation. Me having watched it, I feel like the. The. Everyone’s minds have split after def. The final Angel. You’re saying the entire show has been the mind split? And again, I don’t. It could be both.

I’m not saying I’m right on that. You know, that’s just the impression I got. Because what. Because what happened in the last episode that is so unbelievable, that would shatter all of reality, that wouldn’t also apply to the entire series as a whole? It seems like, okay, yeah, Shinji killed some angel. Shinji’s killed like freaking 15 angels at this point. I think Asuka and Ray got a couple of them. Right? Yeah, whatever. But I mean, just because. Just because he’s at least an accomplice to that. Yes. Okay. Hey, that’s fun though. We have this weird metaphysical cliffhanger.

It’s not like, how are we going to defeat the next Angel? It’s like, how does reality work as the cliffhanger? You know, for this episode, that. But also like 80% that and maybe 20% of. How does a studio wrap up a series when they’ve run out of budget? And Runway. That’s the other part that’s. And all the animators are super pissed because I’ve. I’ve worked on projects with animators that got, you know, cut short. And like, I’ve seen some of the sausage being made from the inside. But it’s interesting to see on something a way bigger scale than anything I was a part of.

Right. Anything else you want to throw out in this episode? The only thing I’ll say is when we see Ray’s interview. I’m like, we’ve done this three times. I guess it’s okay because she’s like the third clone. Yeah, I get it now. Out of all. Out of all the things in this show that they could possibly explain, they explain. They have over explained Ray to the point, like, I get it, but make me get all of the other things. And then of course, Masada has lined. That’s nothing more than a conspiracy to deceive us. So that of course stuck out.

And her basically saying that she wanted to be dirty, filthy, do horrible things so that give yourself over to simple pleasure. Isn’t that Rocky Horror? I want to be dirty. Touch it. Touch it. Touch it. Touch me. Yeah, she seemed like she’s kind of got like a little humiliation thing going on. She needs to go over to the Frankenstein place. That’s what she needs. Or is it the Frankenberger place? Nah, song’s Frankenstein’s place. And then Asuka hates everyone. That’s clear now. She’s now said it, what, 100 times. Yeah, we’ve known that she’s not fun anymore. She’s probably still my favorite character.

Yeah, that’s probably where I am. Yeah. My last one is. It’s like a Twilight Zone episode where they explain the twist to make it more confusing. Twilight Zone usually tries to spell it out at the end. And this was like, let’s rearrange the letters some more. But here’s the answer. Yeah, I wonder, when they put this episode together, did they think that this was explaining things more or were they like, hahaha. Now they’re going to be really confused. Probably the latter, since they’ve been trying to put in full frontal nudity for, you know, multiple episodes to get canceled.

Okay, fair point. Well, let’s wrap this up and we’ll have that cliffhanger because yeah, I feel like we do need the rest to even like assess this episode properly, you know. But what’s on your end? I mean, hell, we’re just still starting the year off, but I’ve got a whole bunch of different Kickstarters lined up. The first big one is going to be Chaos Twins issue two. That’s my collaboration with comedian Sam Tripoli. The first one did phenomenal. It’s kind of. It’s the only, I think age, all ages friendly comic that I’ve got. And it’s about Cryptids and conspiracies and it’s kind of for the whole family.

Any ages can appreciate it. You can read to your kids at night and that’s going to be issue two. Drop in soon, I think on Indiegogo. But you can go right now even to chaostwins.com and you can sign up to be notified whenever the campaign starts. And if you are one of the first people to back it on like the first day or two, we’re gonna have a whole bunch of cool exclusives. I don’t know if we’re gonna have stuff signed by Sam again or if we’re gonna have like some cool little limited edition toys and perks.

But if any of that sounds interesting or if you just want to back a legitimately interesting non mainstream comic book, go to chaos twins.com over on my end I do a bunch of podcasting. You can find that over@podcastio podcastius.org but for now I’m gonna go live in my world of isolation. Just buy something just buy something from paranoia American Just buy something just buy something from paranoia Merrick get some merch, buy some art click that link add to car say it back need that print nod your head, give consistency Buy a comic three or four think this far I want more Buy a sticker from the store Think this thought I want more Just buy something just buy something from paranoid American Just buy something just buy something from paranoid American Paranoid.

Yo I scribbled my life away driven the right page Will it enlight your brain Give you the flight my plane paper the highs ablaze somewhat of an amazing feel when it’s real to real you will engage it your favorite of course the lord of an arrangement I gave you the proper results to hit the pavement if they get emotional hate maybe your language a game how they playing it well without Lakers evade them whatever the cause they are to shapeshift snakes get decapitated met is the apex execution of flame you out nuclear bomb distributed in war rather gruesome from for eyes to see max them out then I light my trees blow it off in the face you’re despising me for what? Though calculated and rather cutthroat Paranoid American must be all the blood smoke for real Lord give me your day your way vacate they wait around to hate whatever they say man it’s not in the least bit we get heavy rotate when a beat hits a thing cuz you’re well them for real you’re welcome they never had a deal you’re welcome Many lacking appeal you’re welcome yet they doing it still you’re welcome.
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