A little post for you people just arriving that are seeing the generally innacurate spoilers. A lot of stuff has been embellished, expanded, or outright misreported. That "don't stay together because toxic" bit? Encouraging her to go with Kensuke? Complete BS. Simply put, their relationship is validated and they admit they loved each other, but it doesn't happen because of the timeskip and the theme of moving on.

- There is a lot of development for Asushin in this movie, teasing and scenes

- Main reason they don't stay together is because of the time skip, like we expected.

- Asuka strolls through Kensuke's house naked after taking a shower. She thinks the house is empty. There's a full on naked scene of her. She stumbles on Shinji, but he's still traumatized. He pukes when he sees Asuka has a DSS Choker on (called it). This irritates Asuka. Apparently, she expected him to do something. Kensuke simply shows up and throws a towel on her.

- Asuka is friendly with Kensuke and calls him "KenKen", but there's no flirting or teasing for them. Some people are comparing it with Kaji in NGE, but much milder.

- Later, Asuka confesses she loved him "back then" (in 2.0, this is clarified through dialogue), but has moved on. People are reporting she acts very tsundere in this scene so you can probably interpret she's not being totally honest

- More teasing

- Little Asuka is seen in an Instrumentality of sorts, and Kensuke pats her head, as a child. She says:

1. (Asuka) <I only wanted for someone to pat me on the head>
2. (Asuka's crying voice)

- It seems the general idea here is that Kensuke is a sort of tutor and father figure for Asuka. In this continuity she has no parents, so her trauma regarding Kyoko is reshaped.

- Shinji confesses to Asuka later. It's a callback to the EoE beach scene. This is his line:

1. Baka Shinji
2. (Shinji) I'm so glad I could see you again
3. I just wanted to tell you this
4. Thank you for telling me "I love you"
5. I loved you too, Asuka.
6. Ah...
7. Goodbye, Asuka. Say hi to Kensuke for me.

- As you can see, there's no "toxic", "we won't work together", or "we're too different". No encouragement to go with Kensuke, he's just caring for his friend - they have a nice relationship in the movie too. This was anons projecting onto the movie. Shinji just says that and moves on the rebuilt world.

- Asuka's reaction to this is priceless. She blushes, turns away, and seems to be opening herself emotionally for him.

- This is a meta callback to EoE. Shinji says "I loved you" in 2.0. "I loved you" in EoE. But here, in this continuity, we must move on. We can't just revolve around each other forever. This is far more than the other pairings get. It's very powerful thematically.

- As for the ending - Mari and Shinji are both grown up and Mari teases him a little, but Shinji has a rather mild response. In typical Eva fashion, this can be interpreted romantically, or just as friends. Audiences are cooling down and the consensus is building up that it's extremely inconclusive. Some people are reporting Asuka is in this scene as well, but it's not certain yet. Potentially you can interpret it as still possible in the reset world.

- Very simply put, ReiShin is ignored, and KawoShin is rebuffed - they both get satisfying endings for their characters, but very much departed from romantic feelings. They also get over Shinji, but they remove even hints of romance.

To conclude: Asushin is validated in a meta and franchise sense, but didn't happen in this continuity (which is not linked to NGE+EoE!) because of the timeskip, like we expected. Their feelings are legitimized, but Asuka moved on with her life. A valid point for all of us to understand. I was expecting all of this, but I wasn't expecting this much material for Asushin, that elevates the ship in the whole franchise. There will certainly be a lot more fan and official material coming in the future, as Anno wants to open up Eva for new creators. Japanese fans are loving the movie itself, and every single LAS fan I've seen there is also okay with it.