title: The End of Evangelion

text: Unlike the big media campaign for "Death and Rebirth", there was no special advertising campaign for "The End of Evangelion", and promotional activities were minimal. The authors wanted to create a funeral and "bury" "Neon Genesis Evangelion"; Anno called the work "The End of Evangelion" to represent the metaphorical death of the "Evangelion" project. Like the previous installment, the feature film was divided into two segments called "Episode 25" and "Episode 26", which are remakes of those in the animated series. Like the episodes of the classic series, the episodes were given a double title; one in Japanese, and one in English. The title of the first segment was initially , a reference to Robert A. Heinlein's science fiction novel of the same name. The staff later opted for "Love is Destructive" or "Air", with the double meaning of "atmosphere" and music. The second episode was given the Japanese title "Magokoro wo, kimi ni" ("Sincerely Yours"). Following a Gainax studio tradition of titling the final episode of a series from an existing story or feature film, "Sincerely Yours" a tribute to "Charly", based on the novel "Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes, which was distributed in Japan with the same title. The home video editions of the series include previews of "Air" and "Sincerely Yours" at each end of the final episodes.


title: The End of Evangelion

text: Due to time constraints, the original script for "Do you love me?", the twenty-fifth episode of the classic series, went unused. When it was decided to resume "Neon Genesis Evangelion", Anno wrote the script of the "Air" segment based on the unused script. The episode was structured to get as close as possible to the ending the authors originally intended. For the second episode "Sincerely Yours", several narrative lines were added to the original script, deepening the themes already proposed in the final episode of the series. The two endings, film and television, were conceived as conceptually identical; unlike the television conclusion, which focuses on the psychology of the protagonists, the film version addresses the Human Instrumentality Project from an external point of view, whereas in the classic series everything was left to the introspection of the main characters. The script's tone was influenced by the staff's mood, since they were tired and exhausted. Shinji's mood changed from the twenty-fifth episode of the classic series, creating inconsistencies. With the sense of tension of the original series gone, the producers had difficulty; Kazuya Tsurumaki worked on the feature film, considering it unnecessary until the end.


title: The End of Evangelion

text: During the realization of the series and "Death and Rebirth", Anno asked anyone who worked on "Neon Genesis Evangelion" to suggest ways events could be closed; Anno trusted in particular Higuchi, Sadamoto, and Ikuto Yamashita, mecha designer for the series. One of Yamashita's proposals for the never-made feature film involved the Eva-01 attacking the headquarters of the German branch of Nerv, in possession of a weapon called the "Long Range Universal Invasion Cannon", or "Dead God Spine". In the mecha designer's scenario, there would have been a war between Evangelions in a world affected by mysterious rays of light capable of turning people into werewolf-like creatures. Nerv's base would have been a sterilized stronghold surrounded by wolfmen; Shinji in a flashback would have become his Eva, with which he would have swapped bodies. The Evangelion pilots would have had in Yamashita's world, weight in politics but Asuka would have been viewed with suspicion by the Nerv and as a traitor by Germany. In a scene of Yamashita's script, Shinji would have run with the werewolves, acclaimed as their king, while Rei would have killed a werewolf, saying she hates animals.


title: The End of Evangelion

text: Additional changes were made at the script stage; in one of the opening sequences, for example, Shinji would say goodbye to his two former classmates and friends, Kensuke Aida and Toji Suzuhara, at their middle school in Tokyo-3, just before their sudden departure for Germany. Picking up on the last scene of "Neon Genesis Evangelion" eighteenth episode, Toji would shoot a basketball while confined to a wheelchair. In "Sincerely Yours" Lilith and the nine Eva Series would form a triangle-shaped pattern, later replaced in the final version by a horizontal Tree of Life. For the last sequence, in which Shinji strangles Asuka until the girl caresses his cheek, Anno based it on an event that happened to an acquaintance of his; the woman on one occasion was strangled by a malicious man but as she was about to be killed, she caressed him. When the man stopped squeezing her neck, the woman regained a cold attitude, uttering the words Asuka would say to Shinji in the original script, .


title: The End of Evangelion

text: For "Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion", all of the voice actors from the original animated series were called, except for some characters that were excluded from the script during the writing phase, such as Toji Suzuhara and Kensuke Aida. After the last dubbing session, Anno asked the cast to re-record the feature film from scratch; they completed almost every scene with detailed instructions from the director. Anno asked the actors to perform as though it was a live-action film, avoiding the typical dubbing of animated products. When Anno wanted to concentrate on the dialogue and emphasize the acting of the dubbing actors, he decided to point the camera from behind, leaving the characters off-screen or in a long shot, so facial expressions and lip-synching would not affect the dubbing too much. The "Air" scenes already present in "Rebirth" were also re-dubbed.


title: The End of Evangelion

text: Kazuchika Kise, member of Production I.G and art co-director of the television series, and Takeshi Honda, animator of the opening theme song of "Neon Genesis Evangelion", "The Cruel Angel's Thesis", were called as directors of animation and mecha design. Shunji Suzuki, Teishi Hiramatsu, and Anno were chosen as art directors for the twenty-sixth episode. Suzuki and Hiramatsu directed the scenes while Anno coordinated the fights between the mecha. Tsurumaki was also involved in the animation and was called in at the last minute to help with the coloring process. Masayuki, assistant director of "Neon Genesis Evangelion" and director of Death, was co-producer of the animation, storyboards, and promotional posters. The staff instructed him to supervise the sequences in which water or waves appear, generally considered the most difficult part of animation. Makoto Kamiya was chosen as special effects director. Hisaki Furukawa and Yoh Yoshinari were appointed assistant animators, Harumi Takaboshi as a colorist, Hiroshi Katō as art director, and Hisao Shirai as director of photography. Unlike the television series, which was produced in 16mm format, 35mm film was used for the movie.


title: The End of Evangelion

text: Gainax involved the studio Production I.G, which had previously collaborated on some episodes of the original series. It was decided to improve the quality of the segment of "Air" already included in "Rebirth". The movie was realized with computer graphics (CG) to give depth to the images and exceed the quality of animation of the original television series. The most important contribution came from the studio Omnibus Japan, which worked on "" (1993) and "Ghost in the Shell" (1995). Most of the computer graphics sequences were included at the beginning of the Human Instrumentality and the Third Impact scenes, in which the globe is sprinkled with cruciform lights. The companies divided the tasks by their technical needs and stylistic choices of the scenes. The Production I.G, worked on the scenes with 3D computer graphics, which were virtually impossible to achieve with traditional methods, such as the introductory frames of the nine units of the Eva Series, while Gainax studio made scenes that required 2D computer graphics such as those with computer screens. The sequences of the clash between Unit 02 and the Strategic Self-Defense Forces evoke those of the battle between the Angel Sachiel and the United Nations troops in the first episode of the original animated series. While making the feature film, images shown in the original twenty-fifth episode were also added, such as that of Eva-02 and Asuka at the bottom of a lake, and the corpses of Ritsuko and Misato. Besides the CG, short frames with watercolors were also inserted during the Instrumentality scene.


title: The End of Evangelion

text: Anno commissioned the sound effects from Toru Noguchi, with whom he had worked on the television series "". Anno asked Noguchi for maximum realism, to communicate sensations cell animation is not able to express. Particular attention was given to the noise of lasers, the AT Field, and the song of cicadas in the background, which was specially modulated to harmonize with the soundtrack. For the movements of Evangelion, he was asked to recreate the noise bundles of wires would make if they contracted as if they were muscles, treating them as living beings. For this reason, sounds used in other mecha anime were avoided. To reproduce the sound of the Prog-Knife, Noguchi and Anno reworked the metallic noise of a real cutter. The director's demands were meticulous; he specifically asked to use the sound of a World War II machine gun or to reproduce the sounds of particular historical ships. Noguchi was assisted by Makoto Sumiya, a recording engineer from Tokyo TV Center.


title: The End of Evangelion

text: For the realization of the segment "Sincerely Yours", it was decided to include some live-action sequences to represent Shinji's inner universe; these include footage of street lamps, trains, graffiti, and the three main female voice actors of the series, Megumi Hayashibara, Kotono Mitsuishi and Yuko Miyamura. The sequences were filmed by a crew called the Special Production Team and were optically distorted. Anno was in charge of the script and was assisted by Shinji Higuchi as the special effects director, with whom he discussed ideas and compared his opinions about every single frame of the sequences. Shinji's world was portrayed with harsher tones than the television ending, so scenes were executed using multiple overlapping or reversed rhodium glasses or sequences in three-dimensional computer graphics. One scene depicts a panorama of a city similar to Tokyo-3, produced by integrating elements in CG. Other shots were shot in the , located in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo, and in the final editing was added to a shot of a cinema hall with audiences of the previous "Neon Genesis Evangelion" feature film.


title: The End of Evangelion

text: At the end of the segment, stills depicting graffiti on the walls of the Gainax Shop, doodles, and emails apparently written by fans of the series, including the words , were inserted. The letters were created "ad hoc" by the staff on the basis of some emails Gainax received. The production of the fake e-mails simulated the hypothetical reactions of fans to reflect on the relationships that are established "between a work and its admirers".


title: The End of Evangelion

text: Originally, the authors had planned a longer segment with content different than the final version. The original segment revolved around the character Asuka, who would wake up in an apartment after drinking and spending the night with Tōji Suzuhara, with whom she would engage in a sexual relationship. Misato Katsuragi would have been the roommate of the apartment next to hers, and Rei Ayanami, in the original series her rival, would have been her colleague and one of her "senpai", experiencing a less-strained relationship. In the alternative universe presented in the live-action footage, Shinji would have never existed; walking through the streets of Tokyo-2 city, however, Asuka would have heard the boy's voice calling her. Some of the unused scenes were used for the film's trailers. During production, Anno decided to cut the segment; according to "Evangelion Chronicle" magazine, the director decided this because of the unplanned double-theatrical release of the ending. Recording work began on January 19, 1997, continuing for several days. Sessions took place in the snowy city Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, where the filming of pylons, bodies of water, and urban scenes for Tokyo-2 was done. Filming also occurred in Kōfu, while those for the scene set in a movie theater were held on March 14 at the premiere of "Death and Rebirth". On May 8, filming was held with three dummies of Rei, Asuka, and Misato on a street in a Japanese city, finishing on May 10, when Anno and the other crew members recorded in a playground.


title: The End of Evangelion

text: The soundtrack of "The End of Evangelion" was composed by Shiro Sagisu, who also wrote music for the original series. The film also uses a wide selection of pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach. The twenty-fifth episode was titled "Air" to pay homage to the second movement of the orchestral suite No. 3, known as "Air on the G String", which was used in one of the episode's key scenes. The second half of the film also includes the tenth movement of Bach's cantata "Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben". The use of classical music in violent scenes has been compared to that of Stanley Kubrick's works, which Anno said did not influence him "that much".


title: The End of Evangelion

text: A version of "Air on the G String" was arranged and recorded by Sagisu, while an existing recording of "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" was used. Two original songs were written for the movie; "Thanatos: If I can't be yours" is based on the soundtrack of the original series and was performed by gospel music singer Loren and artist Martin Lascelles under the stage name "Mash". Loren recorded the single in June 1997 in London under the supervision of Toshimichi Ōtsuki. The song was later used for credits placed between the two segments of "The End of Evangelion".


title: The End of Evangelion

text: The second song, ""Komm, süsser Tod"" ("Come, sweet death") is performed by singer Arianne; the song's English lyrics were translated from a Japanese original by Anno. An official booklet noted that the device of a song written by the director and used in a concluding feature of an animated series had been used years earlier for "Mobile Suite Gundam III: Encounters in Space", the third feature of the "Mobile Suit Gundam" series. The song's melody is homonymous to a Bach symphony (BWV 478) and has been compared to that of "Hey Jude" by The Beatles. Sagisu attempted to spin the guitar sound of "Komm, süsser Tod" in rotation from all surround outputs. The director asked the composer to create a piece so everything from harmonic progressions to instrument overlays would match the screen images. A Japanese song sung by pre-school children was used in "Sincerely Yours" to add realism to a playground scene. Producer Satsukawa and a special production team visited Haishima Municipal Kindergarten in Akishima, Japan, which was attended by the daughter of Mitsuhisa Ishikawa, co-founder of Production IG, to record the song.


title: The End of Evangelion

text: Eighteen original songs were composed and recorded for "The End of Evangelion". In addition to "Komm, süsser Tod", a song called "Everything You've Ever Dreamed" was intended to be included in the Human Instrumentality sequences; it was discarded during production but later included on the album "Refrain of Evangelion". The soundtrack was released as two albums in August and November 1997. The first album, called "The End of Evangelion", included three tracks; "Thanatos -If I Can't Be Yours-", "Komm, süsser Tod", and "II Air". The second album, which is also called "The End of Evangelion", contains the other tracks.


title: The End of Evangelion

text: Like the original series, which includes cultural references to philosophy and psychology, a great deal of information was added in "The End of Evangelion", in a style called "pedantic" in the official materials. Anno inserted terms to create atmosphere and make it seem as though there is something deeper behind it so, in his own words, he could sound "intelligent". Throughout the film, elements of Judaism and Christianity are mentioned, such as the number of the Beast from the sea 666, the tree of life, the Tree of the Sephiroth, the Catholic stigmata, the universal flood, Noah's ark, the Genesis creation narrative, and the Book of Revelation.


title: The End of Evangelion

text: In the early stages of Instrumentality, the Eva Series forms a giant Sephirotic Tree in the sky and each Eva assumes the role of a sephirah. Shinji appears at the sephirah of Tiferet, at the time of his metaphorical sacrifice. "Slant Magazine" Micheal Peterson linked this to the analogousness of Tiferet in the Kabbalah and Christ on the cross, and thus to the place where the sacred meets the profane. "Anime Invasion" magazine also noted 16th-century Jewish mystical writings predict a decline of the divine light in every human being would be followed by the destruction of humanity in a catastrophic event. Eva-01 transforms into the Tree of Life, which an official pamphlet on the film links to the inverted tree of the Kabbalah and a similar tree found in Hindu scriptures. Seele thus names a "Red Earth Purification Ceremony", which is linked to theories about the name Adam, according to which it means "earth", red"; and to misogi, a Shinto religious ceremony of blessing. Chamber of Guf is also mentioned during Instrumentality and opened by Rei Ayanami, indicating in the original storyboard Lilith's stigmatas. Eva-01 is used as a "medium" ("yorishiro") in the process. According to official materials, the Shinto term "medium" refers to an object that attracts divine spirits ("kami") or acts as a medium through which these souls manifest. Seele also describes Instrumentality as a rite of passage; "Evangelion Chronicle" magazine linked the term to Arnold van Gennep's anthropological concept of the same name and the sacrament of baptism.


title: The End of Evangelion

text: The film also references the psychoanalysis of Sigmund Freud, including the dichotomy between Eros and Thanatos. According to critics, the characters are constantly caught between the sexual drive and the life drive or libido and the destructive, suicidal drive of destrudo, which is theorized by Edoardo Weiss. According to "Evangelion Chronicle", the presence of destrudo in Shinji's mind is necessary to initiate Instrumentality. Scenes from the film have been interpreted as a representation of Shinji's sexual instincts, such as those in which he sees Asuka in bed or Misato having sex with her lover Ryoji Kaji. Other scenes have been interpreted as a representation of his death drive, such as the one in which he destroys a sand pyramid and the one in which he strangles Asuka and childish drawings of dead animals appear.


title: The End of Evangelion

text: According to writers Kazuhisa Fujie and Martin Foster, the lyrics of the film's two songs "Thanatos" and "Komm, süsser Tod" emphasize the importance of the drive dialectic for the protagonist's path. Fujie and Foster linked Instrumentality Project, in which Shinji wishes for the death of all human beings—including his own—to Thanatos and destrudo. In the final scenes of "The End of Evangelion", the boy rejects the process and Yui tells him all living beings have the ability to regain their human form and the desire to continue living, enforcing the life drive. Critics also identified the psychological concept of the return to the womb in the core of Eva-01, in the stigmata and on Lilith's forehead, and in the shape of the sandpit in which Shinji as a child builds a sandcastle.


title: The End of Evangelion

text: For the plot of "Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion", the staff took inspiration from Japanese works such as "Devilman" by Gō Nagai and "Ideon: Be Invoked" by Yoshiyuki Tomino, the final chapter of the "Space Runaway Ideon" series in which the extermination of the human race is proposed in a scenario similar to that of "The End of Evangelion". Critics have linked the massacre of Nerv personnel to the slaughter of the Solo Ship, the Tree of Life to the Ide, and the Third Impact to the final Armageddon perpetrated by the Ideon. Anno was also influenced by the mangas "Devilman" and the final volume of Miyazaki's "Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind".


title: The End of Evangelion

text: Other critics have compared the apocalyptic vision of "The End of Evangelion" to that of earlier works of science fiction, such as Greg Bear's "Blood Music" and Arthur C. Clarke's "Childhood's End". "Ex" magazine reviewer Scott Rider likened "Air" to the works of Harlan Ellison, while critic Nozomi Oomori and writer Hiroyuki Morioka have compared "The End of Evangelion" crypticity to that of Kubrick's "", as well as to widescreen baroque science fiction, which is characterized by extravagance, violence, and intricate plots. Takahashi Watanabe of "Animage" magazine noted an image of a planetary syzygy appears in the second half, as does one in Kubrick's "2001". Other sequences have been interpreted as a tribute to Karel Thole's illustration on the cover of Howard Fast's science-fiction collection "The General Zapped an Angel", which depicts the face of a giant being lying on a red sea.


title: The End of Evangelion

text: "The End of Evangelion" was written as a reflection of the staff's state of mind—that of Hideaki Anno in particular, who suffered depression and attempted suicide shortly after the conclusion of the series. "Animage" magazine Watanabe described it as a "shishōsetsu" (I-novel), Japanese confessional literature. Anno also described his self-exposure as a "masturbation" show in interviews. According to the interpretations of some fans, Shinji represents Anno and Asuka would represent Shinji's voice actor Miyamura, whom some had rumored was romantically involved with Anno. Fans also interpreted the violent scenes as a response to the criticism raised after the conclusion of the original series and as revenge against the fans. According to Kazuya Tsurumaki, the ending was conceived as violent and dark from the beginning; "It wasn't a bitterness toward the fans. A lot of people think anime should always have happy endings, but that's not always the case. We wanted to educate the fans that anime can have bitter endings."


title: The End of Evangelion

text: In the last scene of "The End of Evangelion", Shinji awakens with Asuka on a deserted beach; Shinji strangles Asuka, who caresses his cheek. The boy begins to cry, loosening his grip, as she closes the play by saying, "I feel sick". Academic Mariana Ortega has interpreted the two characters, who escaped the Third Impact, as two Adam and Eve of a new humanity. According to Hiroyuki Morioka, everyday life will begin again. Asuka's final sentence has also become a subject of debate among fans of the series, along with Shinji's strangulation of her. The website Anime Nation considered the phrase "I feel sick" as Asuka's realization of the existence of another human being, Shinji. Asuka says the same phrase in a scene of the director's cut of the twenty-second episode; disgusted by human contact, she refuses to share space and her existence with Shinji or Misato. According to Anime Nation, Shinji strangles Asuka to prove to himself she is distinct and separate from him, the Other, while Asuka's final words may be a reworking of Jean-Paul Sartre's quotation; "Hell is other people". In the official figurine game of the series, a similar explanation is given:


title: The End of Evangelion

text: Shinji renounced the world where all hearts had melted into one and accepted each other unconditionally. His desire to live with 'others'—other hearts that would sometimes reject him, even deny him. That is why the first thing he did after coming to his senses was to place his hands around Asuka's neck. To feel the existence of an 'other'. To confirm rejection and denial.


title: The End of Evangelion

text: According to contemporary artist and writer Takashi Murakami, Shinji, by attempting to kill Asuka, is asking her for help and seeking understanding. Asuka feels disgusted because she sees Shinji as pathetic and capable of communicating only with himself, and his response represents to Murakami society's view of him. In contrast to the optimistic tone of the series finale, Shinji stops the strangulation only because he begins to cry and feels disgusted with himself. With the final sentence, Asuka regains the pride and selfishness that distinguish her character; according to critics, the words "I feel sick" suggest no character has changed or become a better person, and that the film's events have no meaning. Nozomi Omori compared the scene to J. G. Ballard's collection of science fiction short stories "The Terminal Beach". Writer Kazuhiza Fujie interpreted the strangulation as a reference to the Freudian Thanatos, which is present in every moment of life, and to the impossibility of living alone, which is reflected in the title "I need you". Shinji, according to Fujie, loosens his grip by letting his libido prevail again towards the Other, Asuka, giving her his sincerity. Assistant director Tsurumaki also gave his interpretation of the sequence, saying: "Well, my personal view is, 'Do we really need to complement these troubles of the heart?' Regardless of whether or not we are complemented, have troubles, or find our answers, interpersonal relations exist, and the world goes on. I thought the last scene meant to say that life goes on, but I could be wrong".


title: The End of Evangelion

text: "The End of Evangelion" takes up the main message of the classic series, creating a "story of communication". The feature film has been interpreted as a criticism of otaku—obsessive fans of animation, video games, and comic books. Hideaki Anno, a former otaku, considers them excessively closed, self-referential, and introverted; after the end of the series, he criticized fans who were absorbed by the Internet and escaping from reality, saying their opinions are like "graffiti in public toilets". In 1996, Anno said he was disappointed with the reception of the original series, which had become a place of refuge in which to escape from unpleasant things. He then received criticism, and said; "My own feeling is all about the message I put at the beginning of the twenty-sixth episode. There is no fiction in that shot. It's real, and it's true". His intention with "The End of Evangelion" was to "purify" viewers, make them wake up, and return to the real world. In Anno's view, such criticism, despite its appearance, is a form of fan service because it is somehow useful to viewers. According to Kazuya Tsurumaki:


title: The End of Evangelion

text: But when all is said and done, Hideaki Anno's comments on "Evangelion" are that it is a message aimed at anime fans including himself, and of course, me too. In other words, it's useless for non-anime fans to watch it. If a person who can already live and communicate normally watches it, they won't learn anything. ... Don't drag the past around. Find the next thing that interests you. ... It's always better to let something that has finished ["Evangelion"] end.


title: The End of Evangelion

text: Instrumentality, in which the individual's physical existence fades into an accommodating cosmic fusion, has been interpreted as a metaphor for the plight of otaku. The film, according to Japanese critic Manabu Tsuribe, ends at the moment when Shinji recognizes Asuka as a being separate from himself, the Other who can never be completely internalized by consciousness, rejecting Instrumentality. For Shinji, interpreted by some as a representative of otaku and Anno, Asuka is an ambiguous existence that escapes his control and her ambiguity represents the ambiguity of "Evangelion"; their relationship is marked by violence and possessiveness, in an ironic criticism of the escapist tendency of animation fans, who are unable to relate to other people and closed in their interiority. According to Nozomi Omori, the film is about "living with anime", and would be interpretable as Anno's attempt to argue with himself. Omori and Tsuribe both compared "The End of Evangelion" to Mamoru Oshii's "", in which the setting is found to be a dream, a world based on Lam's wishes, and one returns to an animated reality, while in "Evangelion"; "after hearing 'I feel sick' one cannot return to the animated world" and is immediately thrown into real life.


title: The End of Evangelion

text: In the second part of "The End of Evangelion", Shinji argues with Rei Ayanami, questioning the nature of dreams. During the live scene, Ayanami tells him one cannot dream alone because it would not be a dream, only an alternative to reality, accusing him of wanting to deceive reality with his fantasy. Simultaneously with Rei's speech, photographs of graffiti on Gainax offices and images of fans at Shinjuku Milano cinema appear on the screen, so the concept of the dream has been interpreted as a metaphor for anime. In the overlay, the authors inserted the caption ; the question, according to a pamphlet on "The End of Evangelion", is addressed to both fans and staff members of "Neon Genesis Evangelion". According to Yūichirō Oguro, editor of materials from the home video editions of the series, the segment was included to show animation fans have the same problems as Shinji and criticizing fans who take refuge in fiction. According to Andrea Fontana, a writer and scholar of Japanese animation, at that moment, the otaku "could admire themselves, discuss themselves, just as Shinji did with himself", interpreting the scene as "a desirable rebirth for everyone". At the end of filming, moreover, the Lilith in Rei's guise dismembers and Shinji rejects the cosmic fusion of Instrumentality. According to Oguro, the series' most popular character Rei represents "Neon Genesis Evangelion" pleasure principle and her dismemberment indicates the end of the otaku dream and a return to the real world.


title: The End of Evangelion

text: A wide range of merchandising products dedicated to "The End of Evangelion", including posters, drinks, action figures, keychains, chairs, bags, and clothing, was distributed for the release. An official, A4-sized, illustrated booklet about "Evangelion" dubbed Red Cross Book by Western fans containing explanations and interviews with staff and voice actors, was sold in theaters for ¥800. In 1997, Kadokawa Shoten released two anime comics on "The End of Evangelion": one on "Air", on October 28, 1997, and the other on "Sincerely Yours", on November 18 of the same year.


title: The End of Evangelion

text: Bandai distributed a trading card game called , which was released in September 1998 as a supplement to the Japanese magazine "RPG". The production materials such as storyboards, sketches, and preparatory studies were collected in two books called "Groundwork of Evangelion: The Movie", which were published on October 26, 2001, and January 18, 2002, respectively. In 2012, during the Shiohaku Expo 2012 event, a reproduction of Rei Ayanami's character was built near the headquarters of Nippon Television, taking inspiration from the scene in which Rei assumes a giant size after joining Lilith.


title: The End of Evangelion

text: "Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion" was released in Japanese theaters on July 19, 1997. Pre-sales began on May 17; customers with unused tickets for "Death and Rebirth" were permitted to use them for the movie. Viewers were given copies of the film's official poster. A preview was held on July 17 at Yomiuri Hall Cinema. In 1998, the feature films "Death & Rebirth" (1997) and "The End of Evangelion" (1997), partially overlapping, were merged by removing the part in common and re-released as "Revival of Evangelion", which was released in theaters on March 7, attracting 300,000 people. In 2006, "The End of Evangelion" was screened as part of the Tokyo International Film Festival in Akihabara. In 2014, the "Revival of Evangelion" version was screened at Toho Cinemas in Nihonbashi during the 27th edition of the same festival. On August 28 and 29, 2015, to celebrate the release of the Blu-ray box set of the series, the film was played along with the first episode of "Neon Genesis Evangelion" ("Angel Attack") at Toho Cinema in Shinjuku, Tokyo. On December 4, 2020, it was announced a new run for "Revival of Evangelion" in special screenings across Japan between January 8 and 22, 2021.


title: The End of Evangelion

text: On August 12 and September 9, 1998, two Laserdiscs called "Genesis 0:13" and "Genesis 0:14" containing "Air" and "Sincerely Yours" were released as part of the home video edition of the original series. On December 23, 1998, of the same year, a Japanese Laserdisc box set called containing a version of "Death & Rebirth" called "Death(true)²" and both segments of "The End of Evangelion" was released. The box set also included extras, an illustrated booklet, and the storyboards of the feature films. In June 2001, the films were released as part of a release called Second Impact Box.


title: The End of Evangelion

text: In 2003, Gainax released a DVD edition of the animated series called "Renewal"; "The End of Evangelion" sound was significantly improved with a new 5.1ch surround sound track. The dialogue, music, and sound effects were reviewed and remixed under Anno's direction; musics were also remixed for 5.1ch. The stereo mix for "Magokoro wo, kimi ni" took place on March 12 and 13, the one for "Air" on March 15, 2003. The new version of "The End of Evangelion" was included in the tenth release of the Renewal edition and production materials were included on the eleventh DVD; a DVD box set containing all twenty-six episodes of the series and the two concluding feature films was released in June of the same year. The films were excluded from the "Western Platinum Edition", which is based on the Japanese Renewal. A version of a discarded live-action sequence, which was edited according to the script, was included in "Renewal of Evangelion" and subsequent Blu-ray editions. Although it is incomplete due to the loss of original materials after the plan was changed mid-filming, Hideaki Anno chose to recreate, as much as possible without additional filming or recording, the concept he had at that time. Shinji's line at the end, which had not been recorded at the time, was added in by Anno himself.


title: The End of Evangelion

text: King Records released a box set with "Revival" on August 1, 2007, under the title "Neon Genesis Evangelion DVD-Box '07 Edition". In August 2015, to celebrate the series' 20th anniversary, "The End of Evangelion" was released in a Blu-ray box set of "Neon Genesis Evangelion" in HD video. In June 2019, in conjunction with the release on Netflix, the Blu-rays were re-released.


title: The End of Evangelion

text: North American company A.D. Vision, which was responsible for the adaptation of the original series, was initially not interested in acquiring "The End of Evangelion" distribution rights because Gainax demanded too high a fee for the licenses. In July 1998, A.D. Vision announced it would negotiate with Gainax to release the film overseas. In 2001, the rights were purchased for two million dollars by the company Manga Entertainment. The company announced the release of the Western edition of "The End of Evangelion" for October of the same year but the release was postponed. Manga Entertainment initially stated they would interview Hideaki Anno and Kazuya Tsurumaki to provide Western fans with an explanation of the feature film, but no interviews were included in the final DVD release and the release date was again postponed to September 2002.


title: The End of Evangelion

text: Rei Ayanami's English-language voice actor Amanda Winn Lee wrote the script for "The End of Evangelion" English subtitles and dubbed adaptations, and produced and directed the dub. While most of the voice actors reprised their roles in ADV's English adaptation of the television series, several supporting roles were recast because the original actors were unavailable. To accommodate voice actors living in different parts of the US, the dub was recorded in Los Angeles, Houston, and New York City. In late 2020, GKIDS acquired the theatrical and home-video rights to the film, a new version of "Death" named "Death (True)²", and the television series.


title: The End of Evangelion

text: "The End of Evangelion" was included in the Standard Edition, the Collector's Edition and the Ultimate Edition, all of which were released on Blu-ray on November 9, 2021. GKids also included extra content, such as a deleted live-action scene and a short documentary about its making. In the United Kingdom, the company Anime Limited screened "Death (True)²" and "The End of Evangelion" in theaters on November 11 and 14, 2021.


title: The End of Evangelion

text: In 1997, "Neon Genesis Evangelion" in Japan was at the center of national debates and became a social phenomenon. It thus attracted to theaters a large number of people who were intrigued by the controversy surrounding the original ending. The film version also drew the attention of newspapers, as well as people who were not normally interested in animation. "The End of Evangelion"s audience exceeded that of "Death and Rebirth", drawing 400,000 viewers in the first three days of its release. The movie earned about one-and-a-half billion yen in Japanese distributor rentals (equivalent to about at the time), becoming the fourth-highest-grossing Japanese feature film of 1997. Hayao Miyazaki's "Princess Mononoke", which also has mature and violent themes, was released in theaters at the same time as "The End of Evangelion"; Japanese media were attracted by the contrast between the two films' posters, one of which said "Live!" and "The End of Evangelion", which bore the line; "Wouldn't it be nice if everyone would just die?". Anticipation was high; In Japan, long lines formed for tickets to the premiere, drawing additional media attention.


title: The End of Evangelion

text: "The End of Evangelion" became controversial due to its scenes of sex and violence. Discussions were generated by the opening scene, in which Shinji masturbates over Asuka's body, which fans considered one of the most unpleasant in the history of Japanese animation. The debate on the two endings of "Evangelion" continued, remaining a source of controversy on the Internet even twenty years after the film's release. Further controversy occurred when the film aired at midnight on August 25, 2014, on Nippon Television. NTV cut and censored some sequences, provoking protests from both fans and the authors. On August 30 of the same year, it was broadcast on the TBS television network at 2:53 am, gaining an audience share of 0.9%.


title: The End of Evangelion

text: The film's soundtrack album, which was released in September 1997, sold over 100,000 copies in its debut week. Sales exceeded expectations and the album entered the top-three albums on the Oricon charts, which no anime soundtrack since "Galaxy Express 999" had achieved, and which remained the case for another ten years. The soundtrack sold about 400,000 units, together with 600,000 copies of the single "Thanatos". According to a 2015 estimate by Merumo.ne.jp, "The End of Evangelion" grossed two-and-a-half billion yen in total, or over since 1997. Manga Entertainment's English edition was also successful, taking the twentieth spot among the best-selling DVDs of its debut week in the US.


title: The End of Evangelion

text: In 1998, "The End of Evangelion" reached number one in the Anime Grand Prix, an annual survey of the best anime of the moment by the Japanese magazine "Animage". The song "Thanatos - If I Can't Be Yours" emerged fourth in the category related to the best music tracks. "Time Out New York" polled animators and directors about the best animated movies; "The End of Evangelion" eventually reached 65th place. According to Comic Book Resources, "The End of Evangelion" is with 8.51 points one of the anime purchased by Netflix with the highest deck on the MyAnimeList platform in 2020, and with a score of 8.1 among the most-popular Japanese animated films on the Internet Movie Database in 2021.


title: The End of Evangelion

text: "The End of Evangelion" received critical praise and since its release it was frequently rated as one of the best animated features of all time. "Paste" listed it in 46th place, praising its surrealism and experimentalism, while Japanese film magazine "Cut" named it third. According to Legit.ng, it is among the best fifteen action films in Japanese animation history. Writer Patrick Macias named it the third-best film in history, describing it as the most important anime film of the 1990s, while "Slant Magazine" ranked it 42nd among the best one hundred science-fiction films ever produced. Anime News Network's Nick Creamer decreed it the best ending in Japanese animation history, praising Asuka's strangulation scene as one of the most cathartic images in any medium. The battle between Asuka and the nine units of the Eva Series, on the other hand, was described by Real Live as a scene that "probably left a mark on the history of Japanese animation", and as "the beating heart of the film" by Comic Book Resources. Anime News Network's Mike Crandol also praised the battle as qualitatively superior to all of the fights in the classic series. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 89%, based on 9 reviews, and an average rating of 8.70/10, ranking among the highest rated Japanese feature films acquired by Netflix. DVD Talk's Earl Cressey described "The End of Evangelion" as a "multi-layered epic, much of which is a bizarre, ambiguous, abstract, and disturbing journey", and Digitally Obsessed as "one of the most unique Japanese animated features since ""Akira""".


title: The End of Evangelion

text: The violent scenes and underlying pessimism were generally well-received. Several reviewers praised the action scenes, animation, soundtrack, themes, and direction. "Animage" magazine, among others, praised the apocalyptic vision of "The End of Evangelion", calling it "a beautiful nightmarish spectacle [that] overwhelms the viewer". "Little White Lies"'s Kambole Campbell praised the animation, the apocalyptic themes, and Anno's breaking of the fourth wall with the use of animatics, hand-drawn sketches, and live-action shots. Movie Mezzanine, "Vice"'s Gita Jackson and Mania.com reviewers called it "a masterpiece" and Steven Lochran of The Cheers said it is "an epic in the greatest sense of the word". Hideaki Anno's animation and direction received praise from Michael Johnson of the site Monsters At Play and writer Dani Cavallaro, who described the metaphysical scenes of "Sincerely Yours" as "a dense visual poetry so multilayered as to invite endless speculation". The website Phantasmagoria appreciated the flashback about little Shinji at the park and its retro effect, as well as the live-action sequences, while Sagisu's soundtrack received praise from Tiffani Nadeau of Mania.com.


title: The End of Evangelion

text: Other reviewers were confused by the plot, finding some scenes confusing and the philosophical musings out of place. The Anime Review described "The End of Evangelion" as "pretentious and incoherent", while Gizmodo's Rob Bricken criticized its nihilism and pessimism. THEM Anime Reviews's Carlos Ross also said the film's second half "is so incoherent and obtuse that it completely loses the mainstream audience (and in fact, virtually any audience) this series has attracted before". Ross also said "The End of Evangelion" "goes beyond art film ... and beyond anime. And in doing so, it goes beyond the audience's capability to understand and be entertained, which defeats the purpose of something labeled as entertainment." Matthew Wise of The Anime Cafe criticized its character development and heavy philosophical references, preferring the final episode of the classic series. According to Anime-Planet, "The End of Evangelion" "falls apart under its own philosophical weight"; the reviewer criticized its "pompous symbolism", calling it "pretentious and disappointing", and concluded the review by saying the film "is certainly down there among some of the worst anime that I have seen".


title: The End of Evangelion

text: The website Screen Crush listed "The End of Evangelion" among the most disorienting films in film history. "Newtype USA" panned it, calling it the "saga of bamboozlement", criticizing its "biblical overtones, teen melodrama and bad parenting", eliciting protests from Manga Entertainment, "The End of Evangelion" North American distributor. The film's cultural references were praised by other critics, such as Mark Schilling and Chris Luedtke of Passport Cinema, and was defended by writer Brain Camp, who wrote; "Not all great anime is meant to be understood on first viewing ... You don't always have to understand something to enjoy it. A work of great art in a museum or gallery is not always easily understood but one can still be gripped by it." Ryan Atkinson of Cultured Vultures praised the power of the introspective scenes in the final segment, which he said "allow for a deeper understanding that other films have not tried to achieve". Chris Beveridge of Mania.com also judged the density of symbolism positively: "From trash to philosophical enlightenment, action extravaganza to a movie heavy in symbolism. Interpretations will vary greatly, and that to me is a sign of a very good movie."


title: The End of Evangelion

text: "The End of Evangelion" was honored at the Awards of the Japanese Academy, the Animation Kobe and the 15th Golden Gloss Award.


title: The End of Evangelion

text: According to "Dazen" magazine, the film was an influence on Wes Anderson's film "Isle of Dogs", noting that Anderson was a fan of the original animated series. The fight sequence between Asuka's Eva-02 and the nine Eva Series was a source of inspiration for animators such as Yoshimichi Kameda and Yokota Takumi, character designer of "Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club". "The End of Evangelion" inspired Tetsuya Ogawa of L'Arc~en~Ciel, who wrote a song titled taking cues from Asuka's character, hoping she would be able to express her emotions during the film. The band Parkway Drive used clips from the film for their album "Don't Close Your Eyes".


title: The End of Evangelion

text: Mangaka Nobuhiro Watsuki lauded "the dramatization, the movement, and the editing" of the movie and stated that, "As a writer, I was able to take home something from it". Quotations from and references to the film have been identified by critics in the American animated series "Steven Universe", in "One Hour Photo" by Mark Romanek, in the anime "Claymore", "Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei" and in the last episode of "Devilman Crybaby", an adaptation of Nagai's manga that inspired Hideaki Anno. The Chinese animated feature film "One Hundred Thousand Bad Jokes" also pays homage to "The End of Evangelion" in its final sequences, in which a musical piece similar to "Komm, süsser Tod" is heard. According to IndieWire's David Ehrlich, an apocalyptic scenario similar to that of "The End of Evangelion" is presented in the video game "Death Stranding", which was scripted and directed by Hideo Kojima.


title: The Karate Kid Part II

text: The Karate Kid Part II is a 1986 American martial arts drama film written by Robert Mark Kamen and directed by John G. Avildsen. It is the second installment in the "Karate Kid" franchise and the sequel to the 1984 film "The Karate Kid", starring Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita. "The Karate Kid Part II" follows Daniel LaRusso (Macchio), who accompanies his karate teacher Mr. Miyagi (Morita) to see his dying father in Okinawa, only to encounter an old friend-turned-rival with a long-harbored grudge against Miyagi.


title: The Karate Kid Part II

text: Following the success of the first installment, preparation for a sequel began immediately. Upon completion of the final script, Macchio and Morita were re-signed and additional casting took place between May and July 1985. Principal photography began in September in Los Angeles, and filming completed in December. Locations included Oahu, which was used to represent Okinawa in the film.


title: The Karate Kid Part II

text: "The Karate Kid Part II" was theatrically released in the United States on June 20, 1986. The film received mixed reviews, with critics praising Morita's performance as well as the new location and characters, while others criticized elements of the storyline, the antagonists, and some of the action scenes. The film was a commercial success, grossing worldwide, making it one of the highest-grossing films of 1986. A sequel titled "The Karate Kid Part III" was released in 1989.


title: The Karate Kid Part II

text: Shortly after his dojo's loss in the 1984 All-Valley Karate Tournament, a furious John Kreese attacks his student, Johnny Lawrence, in the parking lot. Miyagi intervenes and passively immobilizes Kreese. He threatens a deadly blow but instead comically tweaks Kreese's nose and walks away. Johnny and his friends leave a humiliated Kreese and Cobra Kai behind.


title: The Karate Kid Part II

text: Six months later, Daniel and Ali have ended their relationship, and Daniel lives with Miyagi after his mother accepted a job in Fresno. Miyagi receives a letter notifying him that his father is dying, prompting him to return to his home village on Okinawa Island. He tells Daniel that many years ago, he fell in love with a woman named Yukie. She was arranged to marry his best friend Sato, son of the wealthiest man in the village and fellow karate student of his father. Upon announcing his intentions to marry Yukie, Sato challenged him to a fight to the death. Rather than fight, however, Miyagi left the country. Daniel decides to accompany him back to Okinawa.


title: The Karate Kid Part II

text: Upon arrival, Miyagi and Daniel are greeted by Chozen Toguchi, who drives Miyagi and Daniel to one of Sato's warehouses and reveals he is Sato's nephew. Sato appears and demands to fight Miyagi, who adamantly refuses. Arriving at the village, Miyagi and Daniel are welcomed by Yukie and her niece Kumiko. They discover that Sato has become a rich industrialist whose supertrawlers have destroyed the local fish population, impoverishing the other villagers. They are forced to rent property from Sato, who owns the village's land title. Yukie reveals that she never married Sato because of her love for Miyagi.


title: The Karate Kid Part II

text: Miyagi's father dies, and Sato gives him three days to mourn out of respect before their fight. Miyagi shows Daniel the secret to his family's karate – a handheld drum that twists back and forth, illustrating the "drum technique," a counter-striking karate move that Daniel begins to practice. Daniel and Kumiko begin to develop a romance.


title: The Karate Kid Part II

text: Daniel unintentionally exposes corruption in Chozen's grocery business during an encounter in the village. Chozen accuses Daniel of insulting his honor, and they have a series of confrontations. The feud escalates when Chozen and his cronies attack Daniel and vandalize Miyagi's family property, but Miyagi fends them off. He and Daniel plan to return home before the situation worsens, but Sato threatens to destroy the village if Miyagi refuses to fight. Miyagi finally agrees on the condition that Sato relinquishes land ownership to the villagers, describing it as a "small price" to pay for honor; Sato reluctantly agrees.


title: The Karate Kid Part II

text: On the day of the fight, a typhoon strikes the village forcing everyone to take shelter. Sato's dojo collapses, leaving him trapped in the wreckage. Miyagi and Daniel rush to rescue him, and Daniel ventures back out to save a child trapped in a nearby bell tower. Sato orders Chozen to help, but when he refuses, Sato rushes to assist Daniel himself. He publicly shames his nephew and disowns him. An enraged Chozen runs off into the storm in disgrace.


title: The Karate Kid Part II

text: The next day, Sato returns, asking for Miyagi's forgiveness, and vows to help rebuild the village and relinquish the title to the villagers. He also agrees to host the O-bon festival in a nearby ceremonial castle, inviting Daniel to join. During the celebration, a vengeful Chozen ziplines into the presentation and takes Kumiko hostage, demanding to fight Daniel to the death. Daniel fights bravely but is eventually overwhelmed by Chozen. Miyagi, Sato, and the crowd respond by twisting handheld drums in unison, inspiring Daniel to utilize the drum technique to defeat Chozen. Daniel grabs the vanquished Chozen and threatens to end his life, saying, "Live or die, man?!" Chozen chooses death, but remembering how Miyagi handled Kreese earlier, Daniel instead playfully tweaks Chozen's nose and drops him to the ground. The onlookers cheer as Daniel and Kumiko embrace.


title: The Karate Kid Part II

text: Other notable cast appearances include BD Wong (credited as "Bradd Wong") as an Okinawan boy who invites Daniel and Kumiko to a dance club and Clarence Gilyard as one of the participants in the ice-breaking scene. Also, Traci Toguchi, who is credited as "Girl Bell Ringer", is the child rescued by Daniel in the typhoon, and is later identified as "Yuna" in the "Cobra Kai" season three episode "Miyagi-Do".


title: The Karate Kid Part II

text: The opening scene takes place immediately following the finale of the first film to seamlessly tie the two together. It was originally planned as the ending for the first film, although it was not shot until after the second film's production began.


title: The Karate Kid Part II

text: Principal photography took place in Oahu, Hawaii, in the northeastern area of the island known as the "windward side". The local countryside in modern-day Okinawa had been drastically changed due to the presence of military bases, so other locations in both Japan and Hawaii were scouted as alternative filming locations. Filmmakers selected a property in Oahu that was privately owned by a retired local physician who agreed to allow a portion of the land to be used in the film. To form the Okinawan village portrayed in the film, seven authentic replicas of Okinawan houses were constructed along with more than three acres of planted crops. Fifty Okinawa-born Hawaii residents were also recruited as film extras. Filming began on September 23, 1985, and ended on December 20.


title: The Karate Kid Part II

text: The musical score for "The Karate Kid Part II" was composed by Bill Conti, who wrote the score for the previous installment, and is the only one of the trilogy not to feature the pan flute of Gheorghe Zamfir (a decision the composer regretted, according to the anniversary album liner notes). The film's signature tune was Peter Cetera's song "Glory of Love", which was a No. 1 hit in the United States and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Song. When Daniel and Miyagi are being driven by Chozen and his crony Toshio after they arrive in Okinawa, Chozen tunes in the radio of the car until he reaches a station playing "Fascination", the same song to which Ali and Johnny were slow dancing at the high-end country club in the original film. The soundtrack is notable as being the final album released by United Artists Records.


title: The Karate Kid Part II

text: "The Karate Kid Part II" opened in 1,323 theaters across North America on June 20, 1986. In its opening weekend, the film ranked first in its domestic box office grossing $12,652,336 with an average of $9,563 per theater. The film earned $20,014,510 in its opening week and ended its run earning a total of $115,103,979 domestically.


title: The Karate Kid Part II

text: In the United Kingdom, the film grossed £2,313,517 () at the box office. The film grossed a total of worldwide, matching the box office total of the original film.


title: The Karate Kid Part II

text: In terms of box office admissions, the film sold 31,025,300 tickets in the United States. It also sold 2,625,169 tickets in France and Germany, and 2,518,483 tickets in Spain and Sweden, adding up to at least 36,168,952 tickets sold in the United States and Mainland Europe.


title: The Karate Kid Part II

text: The film had a mixed response from critics. At the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, it holds a 44% approval rating, with an average score of 5.00 out of 10 based on 32 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads: "Like countless sequels, "The Karate Kid Part II" tries upping the stakes without straying too far from formula -- and suffers diminishing returns as a result". Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the season a score of 55 out of 100 based on 9 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".


title: The Karate Kid Part II

text: Movie-gazette.com gave the film a positive review, stating the film was a "worthy follow-up to the first "Karate Kid" film, with added interest provided by its exotic locations and characters". The "Los Angeles Times" also gave the film a positive review, particularly praising Pat Morita's performance as Miyagi and calling the actor "the heart of the movie". Film historian Leonard Maltin agreed with the strength of the performances, but called the film "purposeless... corny in the extreme — all that's missing from the climax is hounds and ice floes — but made palatable by winning performances. Best for kids". "At the Movies" gave the film a mixed review, with both critics praising the character Miyagi but criticizing the villains and action scenes. Roger Ebert recommended the movie overall but Gene Siskel did not.


title: The Karate Kid Part II

text: At the 1987 ASCAP Awards, Bill Conti won Top Box Office Films for the original music, which was released on United Artists Records. It also received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song for "Glory of Love".


title: The Karate Kid Part II

text: A video game adaptation titled "" was released in 1987 by publisher Microdeal on Atari ST and Amiga. It is a fighting game in which the user plays the role of Daniel in fights based on movie scenes. There are also two bonus levels with digitized images from the movie: Miyagi catching flies with chopsticks and Daniel breaking an ice block.


title: The Karate Kid Part II

text: The 1987 Nintendo Entertainment System video game "The Karate Kid" includes several elements based on "The Karate Kid Part II". Stages 2–4 of the game are based on "The Karate Kid Part II", as are two bonus games in which the player must break up to six ice blocks. The drum technique exercise shown in the movie is also featured as a challenge in which the gamer must dodge the swinging ax as many times as possible.


title: Hwarang: The Poet Warrior Youth

text: Hwarang: The Poet Warrior Youth () is a South Korean television series starring Park Seo-joon, Go A-ra, and Park Hyung-sik. It revolves around an elite group of young men called "Hwarang", who discover their passion, friendship and love in the turmoil of the Silla Kingdom (57 BC–AD 935). The series aired every Monday and Tuesday at 22:00 (KST) on KBS2, from December 19, 2016 to February 21, 2017.


title: Hwarang: The Poet Warrior Youth

text: The show was noted for the star-studded cast, but received criticism for its distractive storytelling and undeveloped plot.


title: Hwarang: The Poet Warrior Youth

text: At the 31st KBS Drama Awards, Choi Won-young won the "Best Supporting Actor" and Park Seo-joon received a nomination for the prestigious "Top Excellence Award".


title: Hwarang: The Poet Warrior Youth

text: Queen Jiso as regent, has been the ruler of Silla since the death of her father, King Beopheung, while keeping her son, Sammaekjong, hidden from enemies and assassins.


title: Hwarang: The Poet Warrior Youth

text: As the young King comes of age, citizens, officials and Sammaekjong himself, have all grown impatient for her to cede power. However, the powerful nobles that tried to usurp the power continue to eye the throne, and Jiso fears the consequences of her ceding it.


title: Hwarang: The Poet Warrior Youth

text: In order to break the power of the nobles, who have grown accustomed to their privileges under the bone rank system, Jiso plans to create a new elite group, the Hwarang, that will cut across the existing power factions, and to bind them to protect her son and the throne.


title: Hwarang: The Poet Warrior Youth

text: As this new elite group of male youths bond and grow, they are unaware that within their number is their King, Sammaekjong, and Kim Sun-woo, a commoner with a secret even he is not aware of.


title: Hwarang: The Poet Warrior Youth

text: The series reunited Sung Dong-il and Go A-ra, who previously worked together in tvN's "Reply 1994" (2013), as well as Sung and Yoo Jae-myung, who both starred in the hit series "Reply 1988" (2016). It also serves as a reunion to Park Hyung-sik and Choi Won-young, who worked together in SBS's hit drama, "The Heirs" (2013). It also reunited Park and Kim Won-hae, who worked together in "" (2013).


title: Hwarang: The Poet Warrior Youth

text: The first script reading took place in March 2016. Filming began on March 31, and finished on September 1, 2016.


title: Electric guitar

text: An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic guitar exist.) It uses one or more pickups to convert the vibration of its strings into electrical signals, which ultimately are reproduced as sound by loudspeakers. The sound is sometimes shaped or electronically altered to achieve different timbres or tonal qualities on the amplifier settings or the knobs on the guitar from that of an acoustic guitar. Often, this is done through the use of effects such as reverb, distortion and "overdrive"; the latter is considered to be a key element of electric blues guitar music and jazz and rock guitar playing.


title: Electric guitar

text: Invented in 1932, the electric guitar was adopted by jazz guitar players, who wanted to play single-note guitar solos in large big band ensembles. Early proponents of the electric guitar on record include Les Paul, George Barnes (musician), Lonnie Johnson, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, T-Bone Walker, and Charlie Christian. During the 1950s and 1960s, the electric guitar became the most important instrument in popular music. It has evolved into an instrument that is capable of a multitude of sounds and styles in genres ranging from pop and rock to folk to country music, blues and jazz. It served as a major component in the development of electric blues, rock and roll, rock music, heavy metal music and many other genres of music.


title: Electric guitar

text: Electric guitar design and construction varies greatly in the shape of the body and the configuration of the neck, bridge, and pickups. Guitars may have a fixed bridge or a spring-loaded hinged bridge, which lets players "bend" the pitch of notes or chords up or down, or perform vibrato effects. The sound of an electric guitar can be modified by new playing techniques such as string bending, tapping, and hammering-on, using audio feedback, or slide guitar playing.


title: Electric guitar

text: There are several types of electric guitar, including: the solid-body guitar; various types of hollow-body guitars; the six-string guitar (the most common type), which is usually tuned E, A, D, G, B, E, from lowest to highest strings; the seven-string guitar, which typically adds a low B string below the low E; the eight-string guitar, which typically adds a low E or F# string below the low B; and the twelve-string guitar, which has six pairs of strings.


title: Electric guitar

text: In pop and rock, the electric guitar is often used in two roles: as a rhythm guitar, which plays the chord sequences or progressions, and riffs, and sets the beat (as part of a rhythm section); and as a lead guitar, which provides instrumental melody lines, melodic instrumental fill passages, and solos. In a small group, such as a power trio, one guitarist switches between both roles. In large rock and Metal bands, there is often a rhythm guitarist and a lead guitarist.


title: Electric guitar

text: Many experiments with electrically amplifying the vibrations of a string instrument were made dating back to the early part of the 20th century. Patents from the 1910s show telephone transmitters were adapted and placed inside violins and banjos to amplify the sound. Hobbyists in the 1920s used carbon button microphones attached to the bridge; however, these detected vibrations from the bridge on top of the instrument, resulting in a weak signal.


title: Electric guitar

text: Electric guitars were originally designed by acoustic guitar makers and instrument manufacturers. The demand for amplified guitars began during the big band era; as orchestras increased in size, guitar players soon realized the necessity in guitar amplification and electrification. The first electric guitars used in jazz were hollow archtop acoustic guitar bodies with electromagnetic transducers.


title: Electric guitar

text: The first electrically amplified stringed instrument to be marketed commercially was a cast aluminium lap steel guitar nicknamed the "Frying Pan" designed in 1931 by George Beauchamp, the general manager of the National Guitar Corporation, with Paul Barth, who was vice president. George Beauchamp, along with Adolph Rickenbacker, invented the electromagnetic pickups. Coils that were wrapped around a magnet would create an electromagnetic field that converted the vibrations of the guitar strings into electrical signals, which could then be amplified. Commercial production began in late summer of 1932 by the Ro-Pat-In Corporation (Electro-Patent-Instrument Company), in Los Angeles, a partnership of Beauchamp, Adolph Rickenbacker (originally Rickenbacher), and Paul Barth.


title: Electric guitar

text: In 1934, the company was renamed the Rickenbacker Electro Stringed Instrument Company. In that year Beauchamp applied for a United States patent for an "Electrical Stringed Musical Instrument" and the patent was later issued in 1937. By the time it was patented, other manufacturers were already making their own electric guitar designs. Early electric guitar manufacturers include Rickenbacker in 1932; Dobro in 1933; National, AudioVox and Volu-tone in 1934; Vega, Epiphone (Electrophone and Electar), and Gibson in 1935 and many others by 1936.


title: Electric guitar

text: By early-mid 1935, Electro String Instrument Corporation had achieved success with the "Frying Pan", and set out to capture a new audience through its release of the Electro-Spanish Model B and the Electro-Spanish Ken Roberts, which was the first full 25-inch scale electric guitar ever produced. The Electro-Spanish Ken Roberts was revolutionary for its time, providing players a full 25-inch scale, with easy access to 17 frets free of the body. Unlike other lap-steel electrified instruments produced during the time, the Electro-Spanish Ken Roberts was designed to play while standing upright with the guitar on a strap, as with acoustic guitars. The Electro-Spanish Ken Roberts was also the first instrument to feature a hand-operated vibrato as a standard appointment, a device called the "Vibrola," invented by Doc Kauffman.


title: Electric guitar

text: The solid-body electric guitar is made of solid wood, without functionally resonating air spaces. The first solid-body Spanish standard guitar was offered by Vivi-Tone no later than 1934. This model featured a guitar-shaped body of a single sheet of plywood affixed to a wood frame. Another early, substantially solid Spanish electric guitar, called the Electro Spanish, was marketed by the Rickenbacker guitar company in 1935 and made of Bakelite. By 1936, the Slingerland company introduced a wooden solid-body electric model, the Slingerland Songster 401 (and a lap steel counterpart, the Songster 400).


title: Electric guitar

text: Gibson's first production electric guitar, marketed in 1936, was the ES-150 model ("ES" for "Electric Spanish", and "150" reflecting the $150 price of the instrument, along with matching amplifier). The ES-150 guitar featured a single-coil, hexagonally shaped "bar" pickup, which was designed by Walt Fuller. It became known as the "Charlie Christian" pickup (named for the great jazz guitarist who was among the first to perform with the ES-150 guitar). The ES-150 achieved some popularity but suffered from unequal loudness across the six strings.


title: Electric guitar

text: A functioning solid-body electric guitar was designed and built in 1940 by Les Paul from an Epiphone acoustic archtop as an experiment. His "log guitar" — a wood post with a neck attached and two hollow-body halves attached to the sides for appearance only — shares nothing in common for design or hardware with the solid-body Gibson Les Paul, designed by Ted McCarty and introduced in 1952.


title: Electric guitar

text: The feedback associated with amplified hollow-bodied electric guitars was understood long before Paul's "log" was created in 1940; Gage Brewer's Ro-Pat-In of 1932 had a top so heavily reinforced that it essentially functioned as a solid-body instrument.


title: Electric guitar

text: Unlike acoustic guitars, solid-body electric guitars have no vibrating soundboard to amplify string vibration. Instead, solid-body instruments depend on electric pickups (microphones) and an amplifier (or amp) and speaker. The solid body ensures that the amplified sound reproduces the string vibration alone, thus avoiding the wolf tones and unwanted feedback associated with amplified acoustic guitars. These guitars are generally made of hardwood covered with a hard polymer finish, often polyester or lacquer. In large production facilities, the wood is stored for three to six months in a wood-drying kiln before being cut to shape. Premium custom-built guitars are frequently made with much older, hand-selected wood.


title: Electric guitar

text: One of the first solid-body guitars was invented by Les Paul. Gibson did not present their Gibson Les Paul guitar prototypes to the public, as they did not believe the solid-body style would catch on. Another early solid-body Spanish style guitar, resembling what would become Gibson's Les Paul guitar a decade later, was developed in 1941 by O.W. Appleton, of Nogales, Arizona. Appleton made contact with both Gibson and Fender but was unable to sell the idea behind his "App" guitar to either company. In 1946, Merle Travis commissioned steel guitar builder Paul Bigsby to build him a solid-body Spanish-style electric. Bigsby delivered the guitar in 1948. The first mass-produced solid-body guitar was Fender Esquire and Fender Broadcaster (later to become the Fender Telecaster), first made in 1948, five years after Les Paul made his prototype. The Gibson Les Paul appeared soon after to compete with the Broadcaster. Another notable solid-body design is the Fender Stratocaster, which was introduced in 1954 and became extremely popular among musicians in the 1960s and 1970s for its wide tonal capabilities and more comfortable ergonomics than other models. Different styles of guitar have different pick-up styles, the main being 2 or 3 ‘single-coil’ pick-ups or a double humbucker, with the Stratocaster being a triple single-coil guitar.


title: Electric guitar

text: The history of Electric Guitars is summarized by Guitar World magazine, and the earliest electric guitar on their top 10 list is the Ro-Pat-In Electro A-25 "Frying Pan" (1932) described as 'The first-fully functioning solid-body electric guitar to be manufactured and sold'. The most recent electric guitar on this list is the Ibanez Jem (1987) which featured '24 frets', 'an impossibly thin neck' and was 'designed to be the ultimate shredder machine'. Numerous other important electric guitars are on the list including Gibson ES-150 (1936), Fender Telecaster (1951), Gibson Les Paul (1952), Gretsch 6128 Duo Jet (1953), Fender Stratocaster (1954), Rickenbacker 360/12 (1964), Van Halen Frankenstrat (1975), Paul Reed Smith Custom (1985) many of these guitars were 'successors' to earlier designs. Electric Guitar designs eventually became culturally important and visually iconic, with various model companies selling miniature model versions of particularly famous electric guitars, for example, the Gibson SG used by Angus Young from the group AC/DC.


title: Electric guitar

text: Some solid-bodied guitars and some others, such as the Gibson Les Paul Supreme, the PRS Singlecut, and the Fender Telecaster Thinline, are built with hollow chambers in the body. These chambers are designed to not interfere with the critical bridge and string anchor point on the solid body. In the case of Gibson and PRS, these are called "chambered bodies". The motivation for this may be to reduce weight, to achieve a semi-acoustic tone (see below) or both.


title: Electric guitar

text: Semi hollow-body guitars have a hollow body similar in depth to a solid-body guitar rather than an acoustic guitar, and electronic pickups mounted on the body. They work in a similar way to solid-body electric guitars except that because the hollow body also vibrates, the pickups convert a combination of string and body vibration into an electrical signal. Whereas chambered guitars are made, like solid-body guitars, from a single block of wood, semi- and full-hollow-body guitar bodies are made from thin sheets of wood. Many models have a solid block running through the middle of the soundbox designed to reduce acoustic feedback. They do not provide enough acoustic volume for live performance, but they can be used unplugged for quiet practice. Semi-hollow guitars are noted for being able to provide a sweet, plaintive, or funky tone. They are used in many genres, including blues, funk, sixties pop, and indie rock. They generally have cello-style F-shaped sound holes, which can be blocked off to further reduce feedback. These guitars are also known as "semi-acoustic" guitars, although this term may also be more generally applied to any electric guitar with a hollow body (see below).


title: Electric guitar

text: Full hollow-body guitars have large, deep bodies made of glued-together sheets, or "plates", of wood. They can often be played at the same volume as an acoustic guitar and therefore can be used unplugged at intimate gigs. They qualify as electric guitars inasmuch as they have fitted pickups. Historically, archtop guitars


title: Electric guitar

text: with retrofitted pickups were among the very earliest electric guitars. The instrument originated during the Jazz Age, in the 1920s and 1930s, and are still considered the classic jazz guitar (nicknamed "jazzbox"). Like semi-acoustic guitars, they often have f-shaped sound holes.


title: Electric guitar

text: Having humbucker pickups (sometimes just a neck pickup) and usually strung heavily, jazz boxes are noted for their warm, rich tone. A variation with single-coil pickups, and sometimes with a Bigsby tremolo, has long been popular in country and rockabilly; it has a distinctly more twangy, biting tone than the classic jazz box. The term "archtop" refers to a method of construction subtly different from the typical acoustic (or "folk" or "western" or "steel-string" guitar): the top is formed from a moderately thick () piece of wood, which is then carved into a thin () domed shape, whereas conventional acoustic guitars have a thin, flat top.


title: Electric guitar

text: Some steel-string acoustic guitars are fitted with pickups purely as an alternative to using a separate microphone. They may also be fitted with a piezoelectric pickup under the bridge, attached to the bridge mounting plate, or with a low-mass microphone (usually a condenser mic) inside the body of the guitar that converts the vibrations in the body into electronic signals. Combinations of these types of pickups may be used, with an integral mixer/preamp/graphic equalizer. Such instruments are called electric acoustic guitars. They are regarded as acoustic guitars rather than electric guitars because the pickups do not produce a signal directly from the vibration of the strings, but rather from the vibration of the guitar top or body.


title: Electric guitar

text: Electric acoustic guitars should not be confused with semi-acoustic guitars, which have pickups of the type found on solid-body electric guitars, or solid-body hybrid guitars with piezoelectric pickups.


title: Electric guitar

text: Electric guitar design and construction vary greatly in the shape of the body and the configuration of the neck, bridge, and pickups. However, some features are present on most guitars. The photo below shows the different parts of an electric guitar. The headstock (1) contains the metal machine heads (1.1), which use a worm gear for tuning. The nut (1.4)—a thin fret-like strip of metal, plastic, graphite, or bone—supports the strings at the headstock end of the instrument. The frets (2.3) are thin metal strips that stop the string at the correct pitch when the player pushes a string against the fingerboard. The truss rod (1.2) is a metal rod (usually adjustable) that counters the tension of the strings to keep the neck straight. Position markers (2.2) provide the player with a reference to the playing position on the fingerboard.


title: Electric guitar

text: The neck and fretboard (2.1) extend from the body. At the neck joint (2.4), the neck is either glued or bolted to the body. The body (3) is typically made of wood with a hard, polymerized finish. Strings vibrating in the magnetic field of the pickups (3.1, 3.2) produce an electric current in the pickup winding that passes through the tone and volume controls (3.8) to the output jack. Some guitars have piezo pickups, in addition to or instead of magnetic pickups.


title: Electric guitar

text: Some guitars have a fixed bridge (3.4). Others have a spring-loaded hinged bridge called a "vibrato bar", "tremolo bar", or "whammy bar", which lets players bend notes or chords up or down in pitch or perform a vibrato embellishment. A plastic pickguard on some guitars protects the body from scratches or covers the control cavity, which holds most of the wiring.


title: Electric guitar

text: The degree to which the choice of woods and other materials in the solid-guitar body (3) affects the sonic character of the amplified signal is disputed. Many believe it is highly significant, while others think the difference between woods is subtle. In acoustic and archtop guitars, wood choices more clearly affect tone.


title: Electric guitar

text: Woods typically used in solid-body electric guitars include alder (brighter, but well rounded), swamp ash (similar to alder, but with more pronounced highs and lows), mahogany (dark, bassy, warm), poplar (similar to alder), and basswood (very neutral). Maple, a very bright tonewood, is also a popular body wood but is very heavy. For this reason, it is often placed as a "cap" on a guitar made primarily of another wood. Cheaper guitars are often made of cheaper woods, such as plywood, pine, or agathis—not true hardwoods—which can affect durability and tone. Though most guitars are made of wood, any material may be used. Materials such as plastic, metal, and even cardboard have been used in some instruments.


title: Electric guitar

text: The guitar output jack typically provides a monaural signal. Many guitars with active electronics use a jack with an extra contact normally used for stereo. These guitars use the extra contact to break the ground connection to the on-board battery to preserve battery life when the guitar is unplugged. These guitars require a mono plug to close the internal switch and connect the battery to ground. Standard guitar cables use a high-impedance mono plug. These have a tip and sleeve configuration referred to as a TS phone connector. The voltage is usually around 1 to 9 millivolts.


title: Electric guitar

text: A few guitars feature stereo output, such as Rickenbacker guitars equipped with "Rick-O-Sound". There are a variety of ways the "stereo" effect may be implemented. Commonly, but not exclusively, stereo guitars route the neck and bridge pickups to separate output buses on the guitar. A stereo cable then routes each pickup to its signal chain or amplifier. For these applications, the most popular connector is a high-impedance plug with a tip, ring, and sleeve configuration, also known as a TRS phone connector. Some studio instruments, notably certain Gibson Les Paul models, incorporate a low-impedance three-pin XLR connector for balanced audio. Many exotic arrangements and connectors exist that support features such as midi and hexaphonic pickups.


title: Electric guitar

text: The bridge and tailpiece, while serving separate purposes, work closely together to affect playing style and tone. There are four basic types of bridge and tailpiece systems on electric guitars. Within these four types are many variants.


title: Electric guitar

text: A hard-tail guitar bridge anchors the strings at or directly behind the bridge and is fastened securely to the top of the instrument. These are common on carved-top guitars, such as the Gibson Les Paul and the Paul Reed Smith models, and on slab-body guitars, such as the Music Man Albert Lee and Fender guitars that are not equipped with a vibrato arm.


title: Electric guitar

text: A "floating" or "trapeze" tailpiece (similar to a violin's) fastens to the body at the base of the guitar. These appear on Rickenbackers, Gretsches, Epiphones, a wide variety of archtop guitars, particularly jazz guitars, and the 1952 Gibson Les Paul.


title: Electric guitar

text: Pictured is a "tremolo arm" or "vibrato tailpiece-"style bridge and tailpiece system, often called a "whammy bar" or "trem". It uses a lever ("vibrato arm") attached to the bridge that can temporarily slacken or tighten the strings to alter the pitch. A player can use this to create a vibrato or a portamento effect. Early vibrato systems were often unreliable and made the guitar go out of tune easily. They also had a limited pitch range. Later Fender designs were better, but Fender held the patent on these, so other companies used older designs for many years.


title: Electric guitar

text: With the expiration of the Fender patent on the Stratocaster-style vibrato, various improvements on this type of internal, multi-spring vibrato system are now available. Floyd Rose introduced one of the first improvements on the vibrato system in many years when, in the late 1970s, he experimented with "locking" nuts and bridges that prevent the guitar from losing tuning, even under heavy vibrato bar use.


title: Electric guitar

text: The fourth type of system employs string-through body anchoring. The strings pass over the bridge saddles, then through holes through the top of the guitar body to the back. The strings are typically anchored in place at the back of the guitar by metal ferrules. Many believe this design improves a guitar's sustain and timbre. A few examples of string-through body guitars are the Fender Telecaster Thinline, the Fender Telecaster Deluxe, the B.C. Rich IT Warlock and Mockingbird, and the Schecter Omen 6 and 7 series.


title: Electric guitar

text: Compared to an acoustic guitar, which has a hollow body, electric guitars make much less audible sound when their strings are plucked, so electric guitars are normally plugged into a guitar amplifier and speaker. When an electric guitar is played, string movement produces a signal by generating (i.e., inducing) a small electric current in the magnetic pickups, which are magnets wound with coils of very fine wire.


title: Electric guitar

text: The signal passes through the tone and volume circuits to the output jack, and through a cable to an amplifier. The current induced is proportional to such factors as string density and the amount of movement over the pickups.


title: Electric guitar

text: Because of their natural qualities, magnetic pickups tend to pick up ambient, usually unwanted electromagnetic interference or EMI. This mains hum results in a tone of 50 or 60 cycles per second depending on the powerline frequency of the local alternating current supply.


title: Electric guitar

text: The resulting hum is particularly strong with single-coil pickups. Double-coil or "humbucker" pickups were invented as a way to reduce or counter the sound, as they are designed to "buck" (in the verb sense of "oppose" or "resist") the hum, hence their name. The high combined inductance of the two coils also leads to the richer, "fatter" tone associated with humbucking pickups.


title: Electric guitar

text: Electric guitar necks vary in composition and shape. The primary metric of guitar necks is the "scale length", which is the vibrating length of the strings from nut to bridge. A typical Fender guitar uses a scale length, while Gibson uses a scale length in their "Les Paul". While the scale length of the Les Paul is often described as 24.75 inches, it has varied through the years by as much as a half inch.


title: Electric guitar

text: Frets are positioned proportionally to scale length—the shorter the scale length, the closer the fret spacing. Opinions vary regarding the effect of scale length on tone and feel. Popular opinion holds that longer scale length contributes to greater amplitude. Reports of playing feel are greatly complicated by the many factors involved in this perception. String gauge and design, neck construction and relief, guitar setup, playing style, and other factors contribute to the subjective impression of playability or feel.


title: Electric guitar

text: Necks are described as "bolt-on", "set-in", or "neck-through", depending on how they attach to the body. Set-in necks are glued to the body at the factory. This is the traditional type of joint. Leo Fender pioneered bolt-on necks on electric guitars to facilitate easy adjustment and replacement. Neck-through instruments extend the neck to the length of the instrument so that it forms the center of the body. While a set-in neck can be carefully unglued by a skilled luthier, and a bolt-on neck can simply be unscrewed, a neck-through design is difficult or even impossible to repair, depending on the damage. Historically, the bolt-on style has been more popular for ease of installation and adjustment. Since bolt-on necks can be easily removed, there is an after-market in replacement bolt-on necks from companies such as Warmoth and Mighty Mite. Some instruments—notably most Gibson models—continue to use set-in glued necks. Neck-through bodies are somewhat more common in bass guitars.


title: Electric guitar

text: Materials for necks are selected for dimensional stability and rigidity, and some allege that they influence tone. Hardwoods are preferred, with maple, mahogany, and ash topping the list. The neck and fingerboard can be made from different materials; for example, a guitar may have a maple neck with a rosewood or ebony fingerboard. Today there are expensive and budget guitars exploring other options for fretboard wood for instance "Pau-Ferro", both for availability and cheap price while still maintaining quality. In the 1970s, designers began to use exotic man-made materials such as aircraft-grade aluminum, carbon fiber, and ebonol. Makers known for these unusual materials include John Veleno, Travis Bean, Geoff Gould, and Alembic.


title: Electric guitar

text: Aside from possible engineering advantages, some feel that with the rising cost of rare tonewoods, man-made materials may be economically preferable and more ecologically sensitive. However, wood remains popular in production instruments, though sometimes in conjunction with new materials. Vigier guitars, for example, use a wooden neck reinforced by embedding a light, carbon fiber rod in place of the usual heavier steel bar or adjustable steel truss rod. After-market necks made entirely from carbon fiber fit existing bolt-on instruments. Few, if any, extensive formal investigations have been widely published that confirm or refute claims over the effects of different woods or materials on the electric guitar sound.


title: Electric guitar

text: Several neck shapes appear on guitars, including shapes known as C necks, U necks, and V necks. These refer to the cross-sectional shape of the neck (especially near the nut). Several sizes of fret wire are available, with traditional players often preferring thin frets, and metal shredders liking thick frets. Thin frets are considered better for playing chords, while thick frets allow lead guitarists to bend notes with less effort.


title: Electric guitar

text: An electric guitar with a folding neck called the "Foldaxe" was designed and built for Chet Atkins by Roger C. Field. Steinberger guitars developed a line of exotic, carbon fiber instruments without headstocks, with tuning done on the bridge instead.


title: Electric guitar

text: Fingerboards vary as much as necks. The fingerboard surface usually has a cross-sectional radius that is optimized to accommodate finger movement for different playing techniques. Fingerboard radius typically ranges from nearly flat (a very large radius) to radically arched (a small radius). The vintage Fender Telecaster, for example, has a typical small radius of approximately . Some manufacturers have experimented with fret profile and material, fret layout, number of frets, and modifications of the fingerboard surface for various reasons. Some innovations were intended to improve playability by ergonomic means, such as Warmoth Guitars' compound radius fingerboard. Scalloped fingerboards added enhanced microtonality during fast legato runs. Fanned frets intend to provide each string with an optimal playing tension and enhanced musicality. Some guitars have no frets, while others, like the Gittler guitar, have no neck in the traditional sense.


title: Network (1976 film)

text: Network is a 1976 American satirical black comedy-drama film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, written by Paddy Chayefsky and directed by Sidney Lumet. It is about a fictional television network, UBS, and its struggle with poor ratings. The film stars Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Peter Finch (in his final film role), Robert Duvall, Wesley Addy, Ned Beatty, and Beatrice Straight.


title: Network (1976 film)

text: "Network" received widespread critical acclaim, with particular praise for the performances. The film was a commercial success, with nine Oscar nominations at the 49th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, that led to four wins: Best Actor (Finch), Best Actress (Dunaway), Best Supporting Actress (Straight), and Best Original Screenplay.


title: Network (1976 film)

text: In 2000, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". In 2002, it was inducted into the Producers Guild of America Hall of Fame as a film that has "set an enduring standard for American entertainment". In 2005, the two Writers Guilds of America voted Chayefsky's script one of the 10 greatest screenplays in the history of cinema. In 2007, the film was 64th among the 100 greatest American films as chosen by the American Film Institute, a ranking slightly higher than the one AFI had given it ten years earlier.


title: Network (1976 film)

text: Howard Beale, longtime evening TV anchorman for the "UBS Evening News", learns from friend and news division president Max Schumacher that he has just two more weeks on the air because of declining ratings. The following night, Beale announces on live broadcast that he will commit suicide on next Tuesday's broadcast. UBS tries to immediately fire Beale, but Schumacher intervenes so that Beale can have a dignified farewell. Beale promises to apologize for his outburst, but once on the air, he launches into a rant about life being "bullshit." Beale's outburst causes ratings to spike, and much to Schumacher's dismay, the UBS upper echelons decide to exploit the situation. When Beale's ratings soon top out, programming chief Diana Christensen reaches out to Schumacher with an offer to help "develop" the show. He declines the professional proposal, but accepts her more personal pitch; the two begin an affair.


title: Network (1976 film)

text: When Schumacher decides to end Beale's "angry man" format, Christensen persuades her boss, Frank Hackett, to slot the evening news show under the entertainment programming division so she can develop it. Hackett bullies the UBS executives to consent and fire Schumacher. In one impassioned diatribe, Beale galvanizes the nation, persuading viewers to shout "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!" from their windows. Beale is soon hosting a new program called "The Howard Beale Show", top-billed as "the mad prophet of the airwaves". The show becomes the most highly rated program on television, and Beale finds new celebrity preaching his angry message in front of a live studio audience that, on cue, chants his signature catchphrase: "We're as mad as hell, and we're not going to take this anymore!" Schumacher and Christensen's romance withers as the show flourishes, but in the flush of high ratings, the two ultimately find their way back together, and Schumacher separates from his wife of over 25 years for Christensen.


title: Network (1976 film)

text: Christensen, seeking just one more hit show, cuts a deal with a band of terrorists called the Ecumenical Liberation Army (ELA) for a new docudrama series, "The Mao Tse-Tung Hour," for the upcoming fall season, for which the ELA will provide exclusive footage of their activities. Her liaison, Communist Party USA representative Laureen Hobbs, initially objects to the promotion of violent terrorism, believing Americans are "not yet ready for open revolt" and that the ELA will harm left-wing causes in America, but relents after Christensen promises her total editorial control of the weekly prime time program.


title: Network (1976 film)

text: When Beale discovers that Communications Corporation of America (CCA), the conglomerate parent of UBS, will be bought out by an even larger Saudi conglomerate, he launches an on-screen tirade against the deal and urges viewers to pressure the White House to stop it. This panics top network brass because UBS's debt load has made the merger essential for its survival. Beale meets with CCA chairman Arthur Jensen, who explicates his own "corporate cosmology" to Beale, describing the inter-relatedness of the participants in the international economy and the illusory nature of nationality distinctions. Jensen persuades Beale to abandon his populist message and preach "his" new "evangel".


title: Network (1976 film)

text: Christensen's fanatical devotion to her job and emotional emptiness ultimately drive Schumacher away and back to his wife, and he warns his former lover that she will self-destruct if she continues running her career at its current pace.


title: Network (1976 film)

text: Audiences find Beale's new sermons on the dehumanization of society depressing and ratings start to slip, yet Jensen will not allow UBS to fire Beale, despite protestations from Hackett, who fears a loss of ad revenue, and Hobbs, who fears that Beale's slipping ratings will harm viewer numbers for "The Mao Tse-Tung Hour". Seeing its two-for-the-price-of-one valuesolving the Beale problem plus sparking a boost in season-opener ratingsChristensen, Hackett, and the other executives decide to hire the ELA to assassinate Beale on the air. The assassination succeeds, putting an end to "The Howard Beale Show" and kicking off the second season of "The Mao Tse-Tung Hour".


title: Network (1976 film)

text: A voice-over proclaims, "This was the story of Howard Beale: the first known instance of a man who was killed because he had lousy ratings."


title: Network (1976 film)

text: "Network" came only two years after the first on-screen suicide in television history, of television news reporter Christine Chubbuck in Sarasota, Florida. The anchorwoman was suffering from depression and loneliness, was often emotionally distant from her co-workers, and shot herself on camera as stunned viewers watched on July 15, 1974.


title: Network (1976 film)

text: Chayefsky used the idea of a live death as his film's terminating focal point, to say later in an interview, "Television will do anything for a rating... anything!"  However, Dave Itzkoff's book ("Mad as Hell: The Making of Network and the Fateful Vision of the Angriest Man in Movies") allows that whether Chayefsky was inspired by the Chubbuck case remains unclear, that Chayefsky's screenplay notes on the week of the live death have nothing about the incident in them, and grants it is an eerie parallel. It was to be months later that actual direct reference was made, Chayefsky writing for Beale to bray that he "will blow my brains out right on the air ... like that girl in Florida", which met with a delete. Sidney Lumet made the categorical statement that the character of Howard Beale was never based on any real-life person.


title: Network (1976 film)

text: Before beginning his screenplay, Chayefsky visited network TV offices. He was surprised to learn that television executives did not watch much television. "The programs they put on 'had to' be bad, had to be something they wouldn't watch," he remarked. "Imagine having to work like that all your life."


title: Network (1976 film)

text: According to Dave Itzkoff, what Chayefsky saw while writing the screenplay during the midst of Watergate and the Vietnam War was the entirety of America's anger being broadcast in everything from sitcoms to news reports. He concluded that Americans "don't want jolly, happy family type shows like Eye Witness News" ... "the American people are angry and want angry shows." When he began writing his script he had intended on a comedy, but instead directed his frustration at the content being broadcast on television—which he described as "an indestructible and terrifying giant that is stronger than the government"—into the screenplay. It became a "dark satire about an unstable news anchor and a broadcasting company and a viewing public all too happy to follow him over the brink of sanity."


title: Network (1976 film)

text: The character of network executive Diana Christiansen was based on NBC daytime television programming executive Lin Bolen, which Bolen disputed.