Sightlines · reception

How Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time was received

2021 · Kazuya Tsurumaki · Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time on Sightlines

The arc

After the polarizing Evangelion 3.33 left fans bracing for another gut-punch, Thrice Upon a Time landed in 2021 as an unexpectedly warm act of closure — a smash in Japan (the year's highest-grossing Japanese film) and now widely regarded as that rarest thing: a decades-long saga that actually stuck the landing.

What’s debated

The eternal fan debate: is this gentle, healing farewell the mature culmination of Evangelion, or does The End of Evangelion (1997) remain the 'real' ending it can't replace?

Its footprint

Its tagline — 'Bye-bye, all of Evangelion' — became shorthand for Anno finally letting go of the franchise that defined (and tormented) him for 25 years, and fans still make pilgrimages to Ube, Anno's hometown, which figures in the film's imagery.

Where it stands

The capstone of one of anime's foundational canons — a Letterboxd favorite as an ending more than a standalone, the payoff you earn after committing to the whole saga.

Did you know? Anno famously paused production mid-Rebuild to go direct Shin Godzilla (2016), one reason the finale arrived nearly a decade after Evangelion 3.33 — and after two further COVID delays, it opened in March 2021 to become the highest-grossing film in the franchise's history.