I remember watching the final episode of Evangelion several years ago. A few minutes into it, it's as if they simply ran out of animation budget and it went full slide show. And that was their greatest success.
Yes I've seen it.
They ran out of budget for the original anime. Then when it became a huge success, they made a more comprehensive (and still baffling) ending in the form of a hit movie.
Then they went ahead and dragged out THAT ending in the form of 4 reboot movies.
Doesn't change the fact that the original ending ran out of money.
In a sense, the original ending is the purest one, where the audience realizes the show is not really about teenagers in mecha fighting kabbalistic space aliens, but rather about the clinical depression suffered by an anime studio runner as he deals with loneliness and a need to make connections to other humans!
I only liked the original ending after End of Evangelion helped explained WTF was going on. I watched the last two episodes like 6 times and couldn't figure it out.
