Yeah. The movie was intended as a "Screw you!" to the fans who didn't like how the series ended. A lot of them were just getting off on the girls, so that's what the hospital scene was about -- Shinji stands in for the shallow fans, there.

As Asuka asks later, "Do you think of me as food...?"

The manga is even more brutal to Shinji, but Shinji doesn't react as badly. Shinji is less a perpetual victim -- he builds a colder shell around himself, and reacts to being hurt by hurting others. Shinji comes off as a jerk a lot of the time -- but it's for the same reason he's a martyr in the series. He's wounded too much by human contact.

They changed Kaji, too -- made him a lot deeper and more complex. I really liked where they went with Kaji.

Actually, they change a lot of the plot. It's easier to understand. And Shinji and Kaworu have more time, and actual conversations.

The last volume ended halfway through the Kaworu sequence (volumes 1-9 are available in English). Volume 10 has only just started to appear in individual installments in Japan. It takes Yoshiyuki Sadamoto -- the artist -- ages to do anything.

He likes working at his own pace.

I still haven't seen DNAngel.