[EVA] Alternate Endings

[Brendan Jamieson]

I have received a nice response from Olivier - however... he didn't
answer my question as to where this information came from. He seems to
cite Japanese websites, but there are no specifics. He also cites the
Story Board Collection from the Eva boxset, which I own, and which
does *not* actually include these alternate endings. It does have
Asuka's alternate closing line and the deleted scene with Touji,
Hikari and Kensuke (as well as longer versions of other sequences) -
but the actual scene of "I need you." remains the same.

Here's what Olivier wrote concerning this matter:
----->I've heard of this early drafts of the scenario for episodes 25'
and 26' a
long time ago, as you could find it on some Japanese Eva sites (about
the
same time the movies were in theaters, I believe?). 
Their validity has been proven when the storyboards of these
"episodes"
were included in the "movie box" released by Gainax in late 1998. 
The tentative title for episode 25' was the same ("Natsu e no Tobira"
=
"the Door into Summer", another SF reference since this is the title
of one
of Heinlein's works... I also wonder if it was some kind of "pun",
since
this title was decided for "Evangelion : Death and Rebirth", a movie
that
eventually "had to be concluded in summer" with "the End of
Evangelion"?
^_^;), you could find lines from the scenario that were gone or
changed in
the movie, etc.

The scenario for episode 25' is said to be the "2nd draft", and the
"new
scenario" (that's what it says... I don't know if there was another
one
before that?) for episode 26' is to be the "arranged 6th draft".
And... Well, they're quite an interesting read. ^^

The scenario for episode 25' is close to what was seen on screen...
You
just had the "farewell scene" with Shinji, Tôji and Kensuke (that
remained
in the storyboards with a few differences, but was never "shot", it
seems),
a "new" scene with Asuka waking up in her Eva-02 like she did in (TV)
episode 25 (and saying an early "kimochi warui" ^^)... Some changes
about
the overall flow of the battle between Asuka and the Eva Series (less
effective back then, in my humble opinion... and it looks like Asuka
knew
about the existence of the S² Organs... a bit weird ^^;;;)...
Unfortunately, nothing about what Gendô said to Ritsuko before
shooting
her. ^__^; 
As far as I know, Anno had to wrote the line down during the synch
recording because Yamaguchi couldn't answer naturally without knowing
what
was said, but it remains a mystery for those who weren't in that room
at
that moment. ^^;

As for episode 26'... Well, some lines were changed (and the different
phrasings are sometimes interesting since they can shed a new light on
"somewhat obscure sentences" ^^;), and the ending(s ^^) is different
as well...
But the biggest part, in my humble opinion, remains the "live action
sequence". Some serious "Love & Pop" foreshadowing, here. ^^

------

-brendan
http://evaotaku.cjb.net