“Evangelion” Returns In A New Anime Series

One of the cornerstone works of anime, the “Neon Genesis Evangelion” franchise is returning to the format that first made it famous in the 1990s – TV anime.

Announced in Yokohama today at an event as part of the 30th anniversary celebrations of the franchise, it was revealed that a brand-new “Evangelion” anime series is currently in production at Studio Khara and CloverWorks.

Kazuya Tsurumaki, director of the “Rebuild of Evangelion” films and “Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX,” will direct the project alongside Toko Yatabe (“Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time”).

In addition, “NieR” creator Yoko Taro is penning the script and series composition while “NieR” and “Tekken” composer Keiichi Okabe is providing the music. Additional details have not been revealed at this time.

Creator Hideaki Anno’s richly imagined, thematically dense and tonally wild series dealt with teenagers piloting giant robots called ‘Evas’ against ‘Angels’ – giant monsters intent on causing a cataclysm.

The series, described as a deconstruction of the mecha genre, tackled existential uncertainty, theology, mental health, anxiety, depression, coming of age, familial resentment and more – all in the space of 26 half-hour episodes and a wrap-up movie that replaced the final two episodes, which were so abstract as to be unintelligible.

To this day, it’s regarded as one of the greatest animated series of all time and has had a profound influence on the anime industry and beyond. “Rebuild of Evangelion,” a series of four feature films retelling the events of the series with different plot elements and a new ending, were released between 2007 and 2021.

The original series and “End of Evangelion” film are available on Netflix (see the 2019 release trailer below), while the four “Rebuild of Evangelion” films are on Prime Video.