Interest
New Evangelion Anime Short Amasses Over 2.7 Million Views in 1st 24 Hours
posted on by Ken Iikura-Gross
Studio Khara officially streamed the “Evangelion 30th Anniversary Special Screening” anime short to celebrate the Evangelion: 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon A Time film's fifth anniversary on Sunday. 24 hours later, the short has amassed 2,750,058 views (and counting). The short also received nearly 13,000 comments from fans, with many reminiscing about watching the original Evangelion TV series in real-time or talking about how the short stars two Asukas (the TV series' Asuka Langley Soryu and the Rebuild of Evangelion films' Asuka Langley Shikinami).
The “Evangelion 30th Anniversary Special Screening” premiered during the "Evangelion:30+; 30th Anniversary of Evangelion" festival over the February 21-23 Japanese holiday weekend. The staff had announced during festival's final stage program that they hoped to release the short in some form again.
Khara announced the short in December 2025. Series creator Hideaki Anno was its planner, scriptwriter, and chief supervisor. Evangelion: 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon A Time animation director Naoyuki Asano directed 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) as supervisors.
The Evangelion:30+; 30th Anniversary of Evangelion festival took place at the Yokohama Arena. It announced a brand-new Evangelion series. Yoko Takahashi, the singer of the Neon Genesis Evangelion television series' opening theme song, performed an "Eva Fes Ver." of this spring's "Back to Neon Genesis" concerts. The festival ended on Monday with a preview of the Kabuki Kōkyōkyoku Dai Kyū-ban Evangelion (Kabuki Symphony No. 9 Evangelion) stage production and a screening of Evangelion: 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon A Time.
