Rassemblement des pros de l'anime

If the original is meant to convey transcending mortality by embracing the afterlife with open arms, Myra and Jan's version is quiet acceptance; fond remembrance of the world left behind and melancholic acceptance of new beginnings. While Shinji has not literally died, he has in the metaphorical sense. During the scene in which the song plays, Shinji is leaving behind what has protected him: his defenses against pain, his solipsistic view of reality, his fear of love, his childish self-hatred, his escape - he is leaving his "dream" for his "reality." He is shedding the Shinji who ran away for a new, more vulnerable, more mature self. It's a Jesus Bleibet Meine Freud for a godless age, in which reality is all we have. It's cool how the imagery is reversed; Shinji leaves his ethereal "heaven" of escape for mortal and painful earth. It is not rapturously triumphant like Bach, but it is nevertheless uplifting- sober and sad, but beautiful, nevertheless. Just like reality.