Evangelion: After the End is a comedic Audio Play based on Neon Genesis Evangelion, released in December 1996.
The play features all of the anime's main cast and even has the Japanese voice actors returning to voice their characters from the show. The play was written and directed by series creator Hideaki Anno, who even appears in a small voice cameo during the play.
Essentially a light-hearted Self-Parody of the show, After the End begins as the cast of the show returns after a vacation to discover that their program has been renewed for another series. Problem is, there's no script ready, and it's scheduled to go into production later in the evening. Faced with the problem of how to continue after the original series' abrupt ending, the cast scrambles to come up with ideas for a show that will yield good ratings.
Tropes:
- Animated Actors: The main premise of the audio play. The play is essentially the cast members discussing the tropes and conventions of their show, commenting on their roles (and they manage to do so while staying mostly in-character), and whether or not they should reboot or retool the show in order to attract new viewer demographics.
- Beware the Quiet Ones: When Rei is told by Asuka to speak her mind for once, she goes on a long and angry Motor Mouth rant about how tired she is of Asuka, and her overbearing and bossy attitude to towards everyone around her as well as her catchphrase, before slapping her repeatedly.
- Conversational Troping: One of the main premises of the play. Examples includes Asuka criticizing Shinji being the main character of the show, considering him too much of a Classical Antihero and Loser Protagonist to fill this role, and Kaworu talking about how his Tragic Villain status is the reason why he is an Ascended Extra.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Asuka takes an instant dislike to Kaworu because him and Shinji gets along a little too well for her taste.
- Creator Cameo: Hideaki Anno himself voices the "Black Space God".
- A Day in the Limelight: As the pushiest and loudest out of the main characters, Asuka ends up getting quite a bit of focus here — at least, more than Shinji and Rei.
- Dirty Old Man: Fuyutsuki shows some shades of this; his first suggestion for improving the show is adding "more sex appeal".
- Greater-Scope Villain: The cast discuss how the nature of the Angels could have alienated the audience, seeing how the series really didn't offer any clear answers to where they come from or what their goal is. They come up with the solution of introducing the "Black Space God", a Generic Doomsday Villain who wants to Kill All Humans, and having the Angels turn out to be his Mooks all along, any intriguing mysteries and ambiguity be damned.
- Her Code Name Was "Mary Sue": Asuka pitches the idea of Shin Sentai Evangelion, a show wherein she is The Hero and The Leader, because she's wearing red, while her crew, consisting of Rei, Shinji, Toji, and Kaworu, are portrayed as weirdos and losers.
- Law of Chromatic Superiority: Discussed. Asuka reasons that she should be the leader of the Sentai team in the Shin Sentai Evangelion show she is pitching. When Shinji asks her why, she points out that the leader of Sentai team is always the one dressed in red and she is associated with red.
- Large Ham: Asuka, even more than usual and especially in the alternate show proposals, as she yells out every single one of her lines with Hot-Blooded passion.
- Loser Protagonist: Lampshaded. Asuka questions why Shinji is the main character, claiming that having a mostly quiet main character who spends most of his time brooding was a fundamental mistake with the show. Shinji reacts with an "Oh... sorry."
- Love Redeems: Asuka asks why Kaworu gets to out hang with the main characters and make suggestions, since he was a villain on the show. Kaworu replies that being a tragic and beautiful character who converted to the side good through The Power of Love and betrayed his own species in the process pretty much means he is here to stay.
- Nosebleed: Asuka manages to incur one in much of the male cast twice due to several Wardrobe Malfunctions. The only who doesn't get it is Kaworu, who is quite confused by the event and asks Shinji in a worried voice why there is blood coming out of his nose.
- Not So Above It All: Shinji remains his usual quiet self for much of the play, but when a suggestion to replace him as the main character is brought up, he becomes offended and starts to protest.
- Out of Character: Rei gets fed up with Asuka and goes on an absolutely livid Motor Mouth rant. Fuyutsuki butts in with the comment that this change to her character was probably a bad idea, to which Gendo concurs and demands it should be undone as quickly as possible, as he cannot recognize "his" Rei any more.
- Palette Swap: Ritsuko notices that by making the Angels generic Mooks for the Black Space God, they can cut production costs by not having to come up with any new Angel designs and just keep reusing the ones they already have with slightly altered colors.
- Politically Incorrect Hero: Asuka comes across as somewhat homophobic in her interactions with Kaworu. Notably, she constantly calls him "homo-boy" and when listing the other pilots' character flaws, she comes up with "narcissistic" and "homosexual" for Kaworu. To be fair though, her attitude seems to stem more from her resenting Kaworu's interest in Shinji than actual bigotry.
- Red Is Heroic: Parodied. Asuka pitches the idea of Shin Sentai Evangelion, because all Sentai main heroes wear red, and she wants to be The Hero and The Leader.
- Retool: Dicussed extensively, as the cast pitches their ideas of how to get good ratings for the new series.
- Sentai: Asuka's suggests that the show should be retooled into this as a way to attract new viewers.
- Self-Parody: The play is one to Neon Genesis Evangelion, being written by Anno himself and with with a much lighter tone than the original. In this audio play, Kaworu is alive, and Asuka is no longer in a coma.
- Sex Sells: Fuyutsuki and Gendo quickly agrees that adding sex appeal to the show is a great place to start. This leads to a suggestion from Misato and Ritsuko to have Asuka and Rei wear transparent plugsuits. It's eventually dropped as it would just result in almost everything on the screen getting blurred out.
- Suddenly Speaking: One of the suggested changes to the show's formula is giving Pen Pen a voice. It is quickly undone when it becomes clear that it was a bad idea.
- Wardrobe Malfunction: Asuka points out that the new "sexier" plug-suit design makes it far too easy to accidentally flash the "you-know-where". She then goes on to demonstrate how, causing a mass nosebleed amongst the male cast.
- Yakuza: A suggestion to retool the show into a high school comedy has Asuka appearing in the role as one, complete with the stereotypical Yakuza accent.
- Yes-Man: Whenever Shinji makes a suggestion, Kaworu always praises it.
