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Evangelion Horse Hybrid Unveiled in New Horse-Racing TV Ads

The Japan Racing Association (JRA) began streaming four new horse-racing commercials featuring an Evangelion horse hybrid on Tuesday. Kotono Mitsuishi, the voice of the anime's Misato, narrates these commercials as she did for the first ones:

The first two ads, "Unknown Horse" and "Birth of Eva-Impact," begin with the Evangelion anime's Spear of Longinus falling from the heavens. Real-life jockey Yutaka Take, not being able to synchronize with an EVA unit weapon, tells Shinji, Rei and Asuka of the secret decision that has been made. "Eva-Impact" is an humanoid thoroughbred developed by JRA and Nerv as the "Final Battle Weapon Type Horse." Eva-Impact was born from the combination of Nerv technology and DNA extracted from legendary horses with a 150-year lineage. The fall of the Spear of Longinus triggered the development of this weapon.

The third and fourth ads promote this Sunday's Shuka Sho race and next Sunday's Kikuka Shō race as part of the Evangelion tie-in campaign called "JRA Instrumentality Project." The official site has a "u:MAGI" section that introduces the basics of horse-racing to newcomers. The u:MAGI section draws inspiration from the anime's MAGI supercomputer and uses "Synchro Rate" and other Evangelion keywords to explain horse-racing terms.

Yutaka Take is a multiple JRA champion in Japan, and he has also won in races in Hong Kong, France, Britain, and elsewhere around the world.