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Hideaki Anno Talks Future of Evangelion Franchise In Anniversary Q&A
posted on by Kim Morrissy
The Evangelion franchise staff celebrated the first anniversary of the Evangelion: 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon A Time (Shin Evangelion Gekijō-ban :||) anime film with a special Twitch stream on Tuesday. The program included a fan Q&A session with answers directly provided by series director Hideaki Anno, some of which addressed the future of the franchise.
The main story of Evangelion is firmly over, according to Anno's answer to the question, "Is this really the end of Evangelion?" His response: "I've already ended it three times, I think it's time to call it a day."
Nevertheless, Anno did state that he welcomes others creating Evangelion-related stories, citing the "Evangelion:Another Impact" short for the Japan Anima(tor)'s Exhibition's (Japan Animator Expo) project in 2015. The short can be watched through the Eva-Extra app. (Note: Although the app is available outside Japan, the interface is only in Japanese.)
The Japan Animator Expo project began in 2014 as a series of weekly anime shorts. Hideaki Anno himself served as executive producer of the entire project initiative with Dwango President Nobuo Kawakami, and he also designed the image character mascot "(Tor)-kun." Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki created the title logo, and fellow Ghibli co-founder Toshio Suzuki colored it. The shorts mostly featured the voice talent of Ranma ½ and Cowboy Bebop co-stars Kouichi Yamadera and Megumi Hayashibara.
The project's official Twitter account announced the website's closure in December 2018, with tentative plans to release the contents under a different domain.
Anno has also previously hinted that he might want to shed light on the time gap between the second and third Rebuild of Evangelion films.
Source: Evangelion official Twitter account
