The climax is a surreal "congratulations" sequence: Shinji rejects Instrumentality—the easy escape of losing all boundaries between self and other—and chooses the painful, lonely, beautiful reality of individual existence. The other characters (Misato, Asuka, Rei, Kaworu) applaud him. He cries. He smiles.
Episodes 18 and 19 ( "Ambivalence" and "Introjection" ) deliver the series' most visceral gut-punch. Toji Suzuhara, Shinji’s only friend, is forced to pilot the corrupted Evangelion Unit-03. Shinji refuses to fight his friend, but when the Angel takes over, Gendo activates the Dummy Plug system—a device that forces Unit-01 to savagely tear Unit-03 apart, crushing Toji’s cockpit. Shinji’s scream of "I’ll never pilot again!" is the last gasp of his innocence. neon genesis evangelion episodes
After fan backlash and death threats, Anno released The End of Evangelion , a feature film that replaces Episodes 25-26 with a literal, apocalyptic version of Instrumentality. It opens with Shinji masturbating over Asuka’s comatose body—his lowest degradation—and ends with the infamous "Komm, süsser Tod" sequence: humanity dissolves into LCL orange fluid as Shinji screams. The final scene: Shinji and Asuka, the only two who reject Instrumentality, lie on a blood-red beach. Shinji sobs. Asuka looks at him with utter contempt and says, "How disgusting." The climax is a surreal "congratulations" sequence: Shinji