I just finished End of Evangelion, and honestly, I like the original ending better.
I feel like EoE was actually created as sort of a fuck you to the fans, I.e. “you said you wanted more explicit closure, and I’m going to give it to you, but it’s going to be even less satisfying”. Some of the parts were obviously explicitly criticizing fan culture, but some of it profoundly changes the interpretation of the characters.
In the regular series, by the end you understand that all of these people are fundamentally broken, and there is a sort of symmetry to all their problems. The ending explores whether or not this is intrinsic to them, or whether a different world could have turned them into healthier people. And that gives Shinji a realization that nobody will help him until he helps himself.
In EoE shinji is really unsympathetic, imo. He’s just a huge little bitch.
Asuka’s redemption arc is kind of interesting, but removes all the depth from the character. She’s more interesting in the series as this scared little girl who wants attention but doesn’t really understand what she’s doing because she’s broken by having a broken childhood.
Misato loses some sympathy by her manipulation of shinji with the sex thing in EoE. In the series, I think her pass at him can be interpreted as her also being broken inside, and not really understanding what shinji needs. She can only think of trying to solve his problems in one way, even if it’s inappropriate and won’t really his problems.
I also think the more mechanical elements of the plot were both better and worse. If both Seele and Director
Ikari are trying to cause human instrumentality, it’s not clear why Seele had to invade Nerv. And all of the parts with rei turning into a giant and stigmata in unit 01 and the mass production Eva’s, just seem like nonsense. But it’s a lot more clear that everyone turned into juice and to some extent the motivation for why.
Also the dub seems very literal. Imo the best ending would be parts of EOE with a better produced ending from the last 2 episodes of the series.