Evangelion’s 30th anniversary celebration is definitely spilling over to 2026 with a slew of events. This includes EVANGELION: 30+; 30th Anniversary of Evangelion, a three-day interactive festival held over the past weekend at Yokohama Arena.
While most of the stuff showcased during this event were exclusive to the attendees, notwithstanding online leaks of the Asuka-led anime short, the final day saw the reveal of a new Evangelion series, along with a quick teaser trailer. I know we all said “bye-bye, all of Evangelion” with Evangelion 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon a Time, but if they’re taking the franchise to a new direction with this new production, then I’m all for it.
The currently untitled series will be a joint production of Studio Khara and CloverWorks, with the latter notable for titles such as My Dress Up Darling and Bocchi the Rock! among other productions. Things get more interesting with the staff as Yoko Taro (Nier:Automata) is credited for series composition; Kazuya Tsurumaki (Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX) and Toko Yatabe (Chainsaw Man episode director) as series directors; and Keiichi Okabe for the musical score.
It would seem that Hideaki Anno and the rest of the original staff are now letting other creatives take the franchise in a new direction. Many are even comparing this to when Gundam expanded beyond the Universal Century chronology with G Gundam. As such, some are referring to this new series as “G Evangelion.”
Fortunately for most outside Japan who weren’t able to attend the festival, the TV broadcast of Evangelion 3.0+1.0 ended with a next episode “preview” for this series, showing the same clip from the festival itself as you can see below.
The clip focuses on several broken musical instruments set in some abandoned landscape. Not sure how this would connect to the overall theme of the new series, although this isn’t the first time the franchise has used musical imagery or concepts.
And then of course, the clip ends with a tease of how the new Evangelion from this series would look like.
It has the same design cues as the original EVA-01 though this one has a more feral look, even organic with the way the armor segments appear. There’s only so much you can pull out of a quick sneak peek but this has definitely piqued my interest on what “Yoko Taro’s Evangelion” could be.
