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The Star of Next Month's New Evangelion Anime Short Is Asuka

Renowned anime director Hideaki Anno made a surprising revelation about "Evangelion Broadcast 30th Anniversary Special Screening,” the new anime short premiering at the Evangelion:30+; 30th Anniversary of Evangelion festival next month. After his studio Khara posted its latest update on the spinoff short on Tuesday, Anno made a quote-post and ended it by offhandedly saying, "By the way, Asuka is its star."

Khara had posted a behind-the-scenes drawing of the project's backdrop, which is designed to look like a typical small Japanese theater under the name "Hakone Yumoto Performance Theater." Then Khara's "Unit-02" social media account added a comment from Anno, urging fans to see this exclusive short. That's when he confirmed that Evangelion character Asuka has the lead role in it.

Khara announced the short, which it plans to be 13 minutes long, in December. While details about the short are limited, Anno is its planner, scriptwriter, and chief supervisor. Evangelion: 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon A Time animation director Naoyuki Asano is directing the short, with Kazuya Tsurumaki, Shinji Higuchi (Evangelion 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, and 3.0+1.0 director and storyboard artist respectively), and Ikki Todoroki (Evangelion: 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon A Time assistant chief director) are supervisors.

The Evangelion:30+; 30th Anniversary of Evangelion festival is set to take place at the Yokohama Arena between February 21 and 23. The short will screen once per day on the arena's giant 18 meter x 15 meter (about 59 feet x 49 feet) LED screen.

Sources: Hideaki Anno via Khara Unit-02's X/Twitter account