I'm pretty adamant that the unconventional TV ending was not due to a lack of budget, but rather from the messy production schedule. Anno did something similar

I'm pretty adamant that the unconventional TV ending was not due to a lack of budget, but rather from the messy production schedule. Anno did something similar with his earlier Gunbuster, where the final episode is monochrome and the action scenes are just pans and zooms of still frames.