News has been circulating around about the new Evangelion films that Anime News Service has a translation for:

The title for the new film series is “Evangelion Shin Gekijou Ban”, it will consist of 4 parts with the first part arriving in Japanese theaters in early summer, 2007. Staff include General Supervisor: Hideaki Anno, Director: Tsurumaki Kazuya , Character Design: Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, Mecha Design: Ikuto Yamashita, Animation Production: Khara (Color) Studio. The scenario of the 1st part will be written by Hideaki Anno with storyboard by Shinji Higuchi. Key points of a supposed interview which may or may not appear in the forthcoming edition of Newtype attributed to Toshimichi Ohtsuki of King Records have also been circulating. According to that information:
-The content is quite different though the time base of the story is the same as the original TV series.
– It will be a remake, however, it is not a re-creation but a “new work”.
– The approach will be different than what Tomino-san did with the Gundam Z New Translation films, there will apparantly be a large amount of new material.
– Even if the TV series has not be seen, the viewer will be able to enjoy it. Though the content becomes easy, it is not redundant to those already familiar with the series.
– The technique that purposely scatters difficult words and phrases will not be used any longer.
– As an antithesis to current animation industry segments. It is an attitude on the production side to pull the act in the age that started from Eva.

There are some sketchy pictures floating around, but I dug up some decent scans (courtesy of an uploader at ranobe.com):

What do I think? Well I wasn’t ever a huge fan of the Evangelion series, though it is one of the very first animes I’ve seen. It’ll be interesting to see what they decide to change in terms of the overall story and if the ending is radically different.

42 Comments

  1. Interesting. I was also never interested very much in NGE (sold my DVDs some time ago)
    since I didn’t like the ending (also the one in the movies) and it got too depressing for me.
    However the character design (based on the psacho analysis of Sigmund Freud) is very interesting. I’m looking forward to it since I hope to see a bit more fun^^

  2. thats all fine and well but please tell me the animation will be top notch, because the animation of the original is so far out of date by the standards of today that I hope they use the new standards and not rehash like some of the gundum series.

    tunemeister
  3. I think that mr. Anno wants milk out more money of his creation, but it is rather interesting with this new Evangelion.
    Within a year will ADV Films acquire the rights and produce hoards of DVD´s for example “Evangelion: The movie” and later on “Evangelion: The ultimate movie edition” and just screw with everybody to earn money.

    Evangelion is fine a great series with a good endning, but making more is just soo wrong.

  4. Neon Geon Evangelion was a good series but pretty overrated.

    I mildy interested in the idea of a remake. Hopefully the animation quality will improved to keep up with the times and the pacing of the story won’t be as bad.

    dojikyo
  5. evangelion was a complete mess…its charactars are all emotional wrecks so unless they pretty much change shinji’s charactar its not gonna get more than good animation quality in the pro’s section……ill watch it notheless cause i just have too lol >

    anamesis
  6. I liked the series quite a bit. Although they made it unnecessarily obtuse sometimes. I definitely liked the focus on the people behind the mecha and Shinji’s personal development. Hope they do a good job!

    alexkme
  7. Well, it’s true that Eva is the only durable money-making series GAINAX ever made so it’s understandable for them to ‘milk their favorite cow’. However I guess that the decision by Anno to take it up again might have also been supported by the fact that he expressed his regret that the series didn’t end how he wanted to and that it was rushed due to pressing deadlines, a quite harrassing audience and the fact that he himself was still wallowing in his depression period. Since he might have cured himself from his gloominess, it might be interesting to see how this will turn out to be since those four-Eva-movies rumor has already been making its way around for a few months.

    As an Eva fan (it was the first anime series I ever watched in its entirety as well as the first one I ever owned in the form of DVDs and mangas, and it still has its little place in my heart), I’m pretty interested in seeing how Anno will re-work his series, especially since the ending left pretty much no basis for a sequel and only had the promise of a quite bleak future. Hopefully we won’t get the downpour of angst at the end and perhaps the happy ending the characters deserved, although, I guess, Eva wouldn’t be Eva without tat oppressing darkness.

    I’ll be sure to keep in touch with this. Although I’m quite conservative (I nearly barfed when I saw the character and mecha designs for that Weta Workshops live action movie project) and prone to say, ‘leave Eva as it is, your eff-ing profanators’, I’m still curious and eager to see more of this quite intricate and myserious (some answers were still left unanswered, after all) series.

    Renegade334
  8. I agree with everyone Eva was a mess but I really want to see a real ending,even if it’s a sad or screwed up one.

    One thing that bothers me is the part about “The technique that purposely scatters difficult words and phrases will not be used any longer” I hope it dosent change the feel to the show. Most of the big words were very dramatic and made a strong impact.

    Kensama
  9. OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG I GOTTA SEE THIS

    Evangelion anime is like one of the best…you people probably dislike it cause you couldn’t understand the problem (too complex maybe?). Such an awesome anime and very unique. Not like some cliche animes like most recent ones.

    EVAN
  10. Nn. This’ll be interesting, not sure WHY this has to be done, but as Eva’s one of my favorite series ever, I’ll definitely watch it.

    However:

    – The technique that purposely scatters difficult words and phrases will not be used any longer.

    This kind of bugs me, this was my favorite visual techniqued employed in Eva. It gave it an ‘other-worldly-detached-but-introspective’ look. It’s not the best way to describe it, but it was seriously what made the show for me. I wonder if this version’s Shinji will have a spine.

    Taxxed
  11. Evangelion anime is like one of the best…you people probably dislike it cause you couldn’t understand the problem (too complex maybe?). Such an awesome anime and very unique. Not like some cliche animes like most recent ones.

    No, I dislike it because the ending of the TV series was rushed to hell. I mean, god. Of all the possible endings for a philosophical series such as NGE, they had to end it with the kid having one of those “OMG I JUST REALIZED!” moments? That was pathetic, and EoE only took the series a bit closer to not being so pathetic.

    I too, am looking forward to this though. Hopefully it won’t be so much of what the original was. This could make me either an instant NGE fanboy or make me hate it more.

    Rasmiel
  12. This news does absolutely nothing for me. I don’t really care about new eyecandy or redone materials. I feel the same with with re-done movies, books, music and videogames. All redundancy and it just feels like the milking of the franchise rather than something the creators feel truly compelled to do.

    Shippoyasha
  13. I am definetely looking forward to this. My thinking is that this will be something along the lines of the new “Evangelion: Angelic Days” manga that is now being produced. Basicly how the characters would have acted if they had grown up in ‘decent’ homes.

    Zoro50
  14. //you people probably dislike it cause you couldn’t understand the problem (too complex maybe?).//

    No, I don’t that’s it, maybe the fact the main hero fapped to the sight of the broken body of his comrade had a bit to do with it.

    mikemil828
  15. >>Evangelion anime is like one of the best…you people probably dislike it cause you couldn’t understand the problem (too complex maybe?). Such an awesome anime and very unique. Not like some cliche animes like most recent ones.

    Good grief already, its been beaten to death that EVA was a like it or hate it series. Nevertheless I also think that Gainax has fallen so far that they only way they can get some money is to milk this thing for all its worth. I have no pity or remorse for Mr. Anno depression or not if something is worth doing its worth doing well, the first time. I guess when you have fame you get do overs…but Gainax being Gainax the ending is all but assured.

    Still I can see it now, legions of Die-hard fans follwoing Mr. Anno around until the release, perhaps even after, just like Panzer Vs behind GrossDeutschland at Kursk.

    Crusader
  16. “However the character design (based on the psacho analysis of Sigmund Freud) is very interesting.”

    I didn’t know that o.O

    Anyways, I enjoyed the series and the movies for its balance of action and “looking into characters’ minds.” Though the information presented are fragmented at times, it was not a pain to make sense out of it. The characters were supposed to be 14 / 15 year-olds (don’t remember exactly), so it’s reasonable that they are emotionally disturbed with fighting Angels. It was fun to watch as characters evolved.

    I hope they don’t make it another mecha-anime where everything is fun and happy. There are too many of those already.

    Clown
  17. On one hand I see it as a cow-milking attempt because Eva is, IMHO, the studio’s bread and butter and calling card.

    However, unlike other Gainax productions, Eva is also its most visible and thought-provoking work of art in its history. Thus even up to now Eva still always bring up very interesting debates on the storyline, the characters, and its interpretation of philosophy and pop psychology, from junior-high school classrooms to businessmen’s sushi and sake bars.

    On the other, it would be very interesting to see those changes (hopefully more rounded, refined and concepts easily understood than it was before) and, by extension, the thoughts of Mr. Anno after more than a decade on the silver screen.

    As a Evafiction author preparing to return to the fanfic scene after two years, I will definitely want to see this with an open mind, not as a jaded anime fan.

  18. “Evangelion anime is like one of the best…you people probably dislike it cause you couldn’t understand the problem (too complex maybe?). Such an awesome anime and very unique. Not like some cliche animes like most recent ones.”

    Excuse me? You can claim many things, sir, but if you had the intelligence to understand the series fully you would not write something with so much prejudice. Example: LoTR, great story. Original write-up in the books is all messed up. I wouldnt read the books at all. Not my style. This has nothing to do with the content but THE WAY IT IS BROUGHT.

    There are alot of reasons to dislike NGE that has little to nothing to do with the story itself, or the viewers ability to follow the story.

    So take a banana and be quiet, prejudice monkey.

    Personally, I dont know what to think. I’ll get it one way or the other anyway. Meh, I liked the original series and, like many, was not exactly…happy with the way it ended. There are many anime’s that make people imagine “what if”. What if key characters made different choices at key moments etc… you see fan written work about that everywhere. Eva was one that continues to do so many many years after its creation. And of all those “what ifs” this one will be created and animated by Gainax itself. Hopefully the changes are very extensive. I am interested in seeing what they will come up with this time, even if the story will seem like its fan-written.

    Ofcourse, if that happens, after watching all that I start a mob with torches and pitchforks. >=]

    Harv
  19. Evangelion, that’s a long time ago. Should be almost ten years now. Even now most anime freaks nows the anime. It’s one of the most famous anime there is, so it’s great to see it’s not dead after all.
    Evangelion anime is like one of the best…you people probably dislike it cause you couldn’t understand the problem…
    I like Evangelion, but I understand why a lot of people not. You can’t say people don’t get the problem that easily. Evangelion wasn’t really that original it’s a good anime but not the best. It has it unique things like any other anime, hell otherwise all anime’s would be the same. It can be difficult to acccept it as a fan, but as a individual you should respect the fact there are other people with other perspectives and opions in the world.

  20. yea it was a big hit back in their day, i can’t wait to see more about this. well they announced it, so i’m guessing evangelion fans “run wild”.

    though i loved the movie ^_^! , i hope they do a better ending though..

  21. It’s hard to defend NGE without coming off as crazy as the worst of the Star Wars and Lord of the Rings fanatics, but I shall try. Personally, I have watched every episode and movie and found myself enjoying every bit of it (minus the series ending…I much prefered the genocidal mayhem of the movie). Call me a cynical sadist, you’d probably be right.

    Last hope of humanity in the form of a giant whatchamacallit piloted by 15 year old with low self esteem and no balls? Hell, it was the reason I started watching the show.

    Hospital scene? Someone actually had the nads to put it in?!

    Death of Unit 02? I’m a big Asuka fan but the girl had it coming.

    While I won’t go on to say that this was the greatest anime of all times, I do think it is good enough to warrant me watching the movies when I get a chance (though if that rumor of a live action ever comes to fruition, someone is going to die.)

    My question is: Why the hell is Kaworu’s face everywhere I look whenever I hear about this remake?

    Name shmame
  22. tunemeister, Evangelion was made 20 years ago! How can you expect that animation to keep up with today’s? It had great animtion for when it came out which is like 1986.

    Zeonic Glory

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