It's been fifteen years since we first heard that Hideaki Anno was producing the Rebuild of Evangelion films.
Looking back, it's kind of crazy that the original announcement had the fourth and final film
slated for release as a double feature with Evangelion 3.0 in the Summer of 2008.
Over a decade later, the release of the final film, Evangelion 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon a Time,
very much feels like writer and director Hideaki Anno, and his Studio khara,
are at long last closing a major chapter in their lives, and the Evangelion franchise.
This has left a recurring question amongst fans: What will Hideaki Anno and Studio khara do next?
And more importantly: What is the future of Evangelion?
Before we look to the future, I think it's also important to look to the past.
Studio khara was formed in May of 2006 specifically to produce the Rebuild of Evangelion films,
and as the story goes, this was necessary because while Anno wanted to make more Evangelion,
Gainax president Hiroyuki Yamaga wanted instead to produce Gurren Lagann.
Producing both simultaneously was not possible, and as a result, khara was formed.
Initially it functioned very much like a sister company,
as early on both studios shared in carrying the mantle of the franchise:
Studio khara, in producing the new Rebuild branch of the franchise,
and Gainax, as legacy support for the old trunk that was Neon Genesis.
However, over time, various issues between the two companies grew
and resulted in control of the property transferring completely to khara,
which had grown into a full, proper studio, taking key talent and properties away from Gainax,
and leaving it a shadow of its former self.
There were certainly other factors at work, but in retrospect,
if it really was a question of producing one thing or the other, Gainax made a tremendously bad choice.
Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed Gurren Lagann, and while it absolutely has its fanbase,
it is far from the cultural or financial juggernaut that Evangelion was
both prior to, and after khara's split from Gainax.
By all indications, Evangelion has actually been more profitable post-Gainax.
So that's the past, but what is the future?
In 2016, Studio khara held a special exhibition to celebrate its 10th anniversary.
With that event, visitors received an 88 page booklet,
which included interviews with various khara staff, including Hideaki Anno,
who laid out his philosophy for the studio, and vision for the future of Evangelion.
Anno describes a production studio as a place that contains both works and people,
or, as was depicted in a short by his wife, Moyoco Anno, a field to grow things.
While khara began as a place for Anno to grow his own works, it has since expanded,
and there is space enough now that others are invited to grow their own works,
even if those are based on Anno's own Evangelion,
as we saw with the three Evangelion shorts from khara's Japan Animator Expo
which ran in the years prior to production of 3.0+1.0.
Anno goes on to say that Evangelion will continue to be part of khara's identity and output,
which should go without saying, given the studio was built specifically for and by Evangelion.
Anno says that it's his desire to see Evangelion become a cultural icon like his much beloved Mobile Suit Gundam.
Although I would argue that Evangelion has been one of the cornerstones of modern anime fandom worldwide for quite some time.
While a significant chunk of that output may take the form of licensing opportunities,
like Gundam, it will need new core works in order to sustain that interest over time.
And ultimately, what he wants is for other artists to have the freedom to reinterpret Evangelion in other ways.
And as far as other artists who could potentially pick up Evangelion's mantle,
I would like to see what an Evangelion project helmed by Kazuya Tsurumaki, who is a little younger than Anno,
and who has been working under Anno since the very first episode, could potentially look like.
I loved his work on FurI Kuri and Diebuster,
and there's just something about the style of his illustrations that I would love to see translated into animation.
I also think his tone would be a good middle ground, between Evangelion at its most serious, and at it's zaniest.
As for Anno himself, he's already lined up two live action tokusatsu films,
with Shin Ultraman due out later this year, and Shin Kamen Rider due out in 2023.
Anno's love of tokusatsu has been well documented over the years.
He's been a museum exhibit curator, and a panel speaker on the subject,
and going back to his youth, he directed and starred in a fan-produced Ultraman film,
which made enough of an impression that it got its own Medicom Real Action Hero figure,
and it's in that costume that Hideaki Anno appears in Kazuhiko Shimamoto's
semi-autobiographical dramedy Aoi Honō also known as "Blue Blazes".
So returning to Ultraman, even if he's not in the director's seat, must certainly feel like coming full circle.
And where Kamen Rider is concerned, here's a fresh faced Anno cosplaying as the original 1970s Kamen Rider.
And here's a slightly less fresh faced Anno showing off his best tokusatsu poses.
And finally, here's Anno being a huge nerd, and demonstrating that fandom knows no generational boundaries.
I anticipate that Shin Ultraman and Shin Kamen Rider will be just a portion of a multi-year hiatus
for Anno from writing and directing animated works, much as he has done in the past.
In the coming years, I would expect to hear of another similar project,
to follow Shin Kamen Rider, before potentially returning to animation.
There was a rumor published in the influential Weekly Shinchō magazine
that Anno was working to adapt an iconic anime work, however Studio khara explicitly denied this.
Anno himself stated that he planned to make some live-action films instead of Eva,
and that he would like to return to animation, but only after completing some live-action works,
and specifically stating that “nothing has been decided yet”.
If Anno continues the pattern of recreating various classic tokusatsu works,
I would personally love to see what a Shin Gamera could be like.
That's a franchise that has been dormant for much too long.
As for Evangelion, and Studio khara itself, I do expect to see a new, mainline Evangelion production at some point.
It's too valuable, and too important to their history to simply exist for the purpose of licensing.
That said, after having spent so much time and energy over the past four years producing 3.0+1.0,
I expect we'll see multiple works come and go before even hearing of production of a new mainline Evangelion work.
When and if that does happen, I think what I would love to see most is some sort of anthology series
in the same vein as the Evangelion works from the Japan Animator Expo.
I know it can be risky to add to a work in this way after the fact,
but I would enjoy seeing a collection of short stories or vignettes to flesh out the world and characters of Evangelion.
There are certainly low-risk things mentioned or referenced in Evangelion that could be explored,
like Misato and Kaji's relationship and breakup in college,
or the time when Asuka left her date waiting at the ferris wheel,
or the disappearance of the second Branch in Nevada,
or even a whole movie exploring 3.0's timeskip.
I think this may actually be the most likely option. Speaking to the New York Times recently,
Anno commented that he didn't want to see the characters anytime soon,
but maybe he would, some time in the future.
And speaking with Collider, he said he wouldn't want to continue the story from 3.0+1.0,
but did want to shed some light on the 14 year time skip, between 2.0 and 3.0.
Which is fine by me, I still want to understand the context of Gendo and Fuyutsuki's mountaintop donkey odyssey.
Alternatively, I think there's some untapped potential in fleshing out the show's deep lore,
that's only been codified in some of the supplemental works, such as the Classified Information
from Neon Genesis Evangelion 2, released for the PlayStation 2 in 2003.
I think it would be cool to see a prequel film or short series, exploring the First Ancestral Race,
and the creation and dispersal of the Seeds of Life across the galaxy.
Whatever it ends up being, I don't expect we'll hear anything for a good while, so for now,
we should all enjoy the release of 3.0+1.0, and hopefully have some peace of mind in knowing
that even as it ends, Evangelion isn't going anywhere.
I'd like to give a big shout out and thanks to Renato Rivera Rusca
for his efforts in translating and digesting key portions of Anno's interview
in the khara anniversary exhibition booklet.
If you'd like to read his full report, you'll find a link in the video description below.
What would you like to see in the future from Evangelion? Let me know in the comments.
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Thanks for watching, I'll see you again soon.