TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF.

is the twenty-sixth and final episode of the anime series ''Neon Genesis Evangelion''. An alternative ending is given in ''The End of Evangelion''.

Contents

Plot

Notes

The alternate world

References

Plot

The year 2016 AD; The Human Instrumentality Project continues as humankind attempts to complete its existence. Shinji Ikari continues to struggle with the impact of his personal existence, and eventually views a world in which he is not an Evangelion pilot. Shinji, now understanding that his existence is not fixed, destroys the constrictive shell which he had formed around himself. He is met by all of the other characters from the series, who applaud and tell him "Congratulations!" The final scene of the series shows Shinji smiling and saying, "Thank you all."

Notes

The "ai" in the episode's Japanese title is written in katakana, not kanji. It is a reference to the story ''The Beast that Shouted Love at the Heart of the World'' by Harlan Ellison (and the collection in which it appears). It may refer to the Japanese word for "love" ("ai") or to the English pronoun "I" (rendered in romaji as "ai").

The alternate world

The alternate reality which Shinji sees during his Instrumentality features a number of marked differences from the normal world:

★ Asuka Langely Soryu and Shinji are friends and are implied to have been so for most of their lives.

★ Yui Ikari is alive as a human being. Gendo Ikari also appears, but is unseen as he does not put down the newspaper he is reading.

★ Misato Katsuragi is Shinji's class teacher. Unlike in the series, Shinji joins Toji Suzuhara and Kensuke Aida in ogling her from the classroom window.

★ Rei Ayanami's personality is drastically different; she is upbeat, energetic, and appears to have much more "normal" reactions to the world around her. As Shinji and Asuka are heading to school, Rei (running to class from a different direction) literally runs into Shinji, knocking them both to the ground, and reacts with shock when she thinks that he looks up her skirt. Later, she introduces herself to Shinji's class in the same manner that Asuka did^[1] and reacts angrily when she sees that Shinji is in the class. Asuka jumps to Shinji's defense, and the two girls begin arguing.
This alternate reality and the character portrayals it features are used as the basis for the spin-off manga ''.

References

1. '"Evangelion'', episode 8