By The Eva Monkey
on Saturday, November 19th, 2016
In July, Hideaki Anno spoke to Oricon Style, where he stated that he was working hard on the final Rebuild film. It was comforting confirmation that production was moving ahead, however that could mean anything, from pre-production to simply assembling production staff. At MCM London Comic Con, animator Takeshi Honda was interviewed by UK Anime Network, and stated in regards to the final film:
“We’re actually working on the new Evangelion film right now. We’re working hard and it’ll come out eventually, so thanks for all of your patience – please continue to be patient, because it’s going to be the last episode.”
This is further confirmation that production is moving along, and coming from an animator, it feels much more tangible.
The full interview is definitely worth the read, and has a few good bits of interesting info about Eva’s original production.
By The Eva Monkey
on Saturday, November 19th, 2016
Last month I posted about Tokyo Otaku Mode’s Evangelion x Full Graphic kimono project taking votes on six designs featuring scenes from Evangelion 3.0.
It looks like the winner ended up being the design focused on various dramatic moments featuring the Eva Units. The design is now available for prorder, although they refer to the kimonos as “rewards” and purchasers as “backers”, so my assumption is they’re running the preorder like a crowd-funded campaign, and if enough people don’t preorder, the kimono won’t actually be produced and sold.
I’m not completely sold on the idea, but the sample they produced looks much classier than I expected. The “Evangelion 3.0” lettering at the bottom ruins the design for me.
If you’re interested, it definitely would be a very unique collector’s item, as only 100 will be produced.
By The Eva Monkey
on Thursday, November 10th, 2016
As an Evangelion fan, one of the things that I really enjoy is finding connections and threads between Evangelion and other works. Not just in terms of works that influenced Evangelion, or that Evangelion specifically referenced, but also works that have subsequently been influenced by Evangelion and have made specific references to Evangelion. It’s fun to see how and where Evangelion pops up, especially when it crosses over into western media. One Hour Photo is one such example, and it’s one that periodically comes up in discussion within Evangelion fandom.
Neon Genesis Evangelion was striking and bold in a number of different ways. People often focus on the characters, the use of symbolism, and the action between Evas and Angels, but the show was also very unique in its use of typography. From episode title cards to display readouts, typography is used heavily in Evangelion.
Fontworks, who created the font referred to as “Eva Mincho”, will be selling a special CD-ROM containing the fonts and a booklet with additional information about its selection and usage in Evangelion. The font package will be sold in the Evangelion store starting November 10th, for 4,600 yen ( approximately $44.60 USD). The package includes fonts from both the original series, as well as the newer Rebuild films. The fonts are not licensed for commercial usage.
I thought they had exhausted the well of ideas with the Eva bucket. But to be honest, as a designer, not to mention Eva nerd, part of me really wants this.
From November 22, 2016 to January 9, 2017, the Tokyo branch of Sega’s Joypolis theme park chain will be celebrating its 20th anniversary by collaborating with Evangelion for the “Evangelion × Joypolis Impact” event. For a limited time, the Geki-on Live Coaster, an attraction which is part roller coaster and part music game, will be rebranded into an Evangelion-themed attraction. The special Evangelion roller coaster will provide attendees the experience of riding in the cockpit of an Evangelion.
Evangelion rides have been popular theme park attractions in the past several years. There have also been Evangelion-themed rides and rollercoasters at “Evangelion World” at Fuji-Q Highland, and at “Cool Japan” at Universal Studios Japan.
In the event you missed Shin Godzilla in theaters, or maybe there just wasn’t a screening in your area, you may be interested to know that Funimation is extending the North American theatrical run of Shin Godzilla through October 27th. There are matinee screenings tomorrow, October 22nd in more than 200 theaters across the U.S. and Canada, and there will be daily screenings in select theaters through the 27th.
I went to see Shin Godzilla with some friends last week. It was pretty good. It reminded me a lot of episodes 1, 2, 5, and 6 of Evangelion. There’s a lot of intertextuality between Shin Godzilla and Hideaki Anno’s other works, not just Gainax/khara, but his other live action works as well. Definitely worth seeing if you’re really into Eva or Anno in general.
It was announced last month that Dark Horse Manga will be releasing the first volume of the Evangelion parody manga known as “Neon Genesis Evangelion: Legend of the Piko Piko Middle School Students”. This may be old news to a few of you out there, details about this spin-off actually started surfacing after the official manga concluded with the June 2013 issue. I vaguely recall some wishful thinking, possibly from the art style, that it would be serious in nature, as opposed to more parody manga. Once it was revealed to be more parody manga, I think people lost interest and forgot about it for a while. I heard nothing about it getting licensed this past July, nor about it getting a release date last month. Perhaps that’s an indication of the interest in this title, or Eva parody manga in general. Whatever the case, the premise of the manga is as follows:
Mysterious invaders are threatening Earth…so recruit a group of elite schoolkids to play videogames that secretly train them for the real fight that lies ahead! Does this plan sound familiar? Well, they’d better get a new plan, because the elite schoolkids are Shinji, Rei, Asuka, and Kaworu, and they’re too busy playing games to ever get in the fricking robot!
Video games that train you to save the world? Not a terribly original idea. At any rate, the first volume of “Neon Genesis Evangelion: Legend of the Piko Piko Middle School Students” will be released by Dark Horse Manga May 2017.
Between now and October 31st, you can participate in Tokyo Otaku Mode’s Evangelion x Full Graphic Kimono project. There are six designs featuring scenes from Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo to vote for. Results will be revealed in November, and the winner will be part of a limited run of 100 full-graphic kimonos that will sell for $2000 each.
Designs include Rei, Asuka, Mari, Shinji & Kaworu, the Evangelions, and lastly one of various character shots.
It’s a bit of an unusual project. Evangelion isn’t exactly what I think of when I think “traditional kimono”. Also, the site stating “there is a possibility that we may not reach the production phase of the project” does not inspire confidence in me. Not to mention that only one of these designs will be selected. I can hear arguments and assertions about “best girl” already.
By The Eva Monkey
on Thursday, September 1st, 2016
It may not be the long awaited conclusion to the Rebuild of Evangelion film series, however we will soon be seeing the North American release of Shin Godzilla, aka Godzilla Resurgence. Fandango has revealed that Funimation will be releasing the film in a limited engagement October 11-18. Fans have been compiling an unofficial list of dates from theater information.
Shin Godzilla is the first Toho produced Godzilla film in 12 years, and has grossed over 5.3 billion yen ($51.63 million), which is greater than Evangelion 3.0’s box office earnings. The film was co-directed by Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi. Anno wrote the film’s script, Higuchi directed the visual effects, and Shiro Sagisu composed the film’s soundtrack.
Reviews have thus far seemed positive, and the film has been performing very well in Japan. Check listings, it may be a good means of filling the void between now and details for Evangelion 3.0 + 1.0.
In July, Hideaki Anno spoke to Oricon Style, where he stated that he was working hard on the final Rebuild film. It was comforting confirmation that production was moving ahead, however that could mean anything, from pre-production to simply assembling production staff. At MCM London Comic Con, animator Takeshi Honda was interviewed by UK Anime Network, and stated in regards to the final film:
