Before we get a new take on Neon Genesis Evangelion from Yoko Taro, studio Khara and Hideaki Anno went back to the past for the series’ 30th anniversary.
After trying to contain leaks of a new anime short celebrating the series’ milestone, Khara accidentally leaked the short itself and decided to make it an official release to celebrate the five-year anniversary of Evangelion 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time. For those who didn’t watch the leaks, the short sees Asuka Langley Soryu take the stage alongside her Rebuild of Evangelion counterpart, Asuka Shikinami Langley. After chatting about their experiences in their respective adaptations, Asuka confesses she’s not happy about dying in End of Evangelion and then coming back to life as Shinji’s strangling her.
So she’d like a better conclusion to her story, and that’s where Rebuild Asuka comes in. Together, the two go through a number of “what ifs” that lead to different outcomes including her accidentally killing or hurting Shinji in some way (whoops), an endless wave of Asukas, and a single mech-sized version. Many of these sequences are inspired by the aesthetic of the original Gainax adaptation, while one takes after Rebuild’s modern stylization.
Eventually, as you’ve probably heard even if you didn’t watch the leaks, the two Asukas come upon a potential version where she and Shinji fell in love and started a family. But even that one’s not to her liking, so she sticks with the original closer to her story, or at least this version of it. And with a highlight reel of Asuka scenes playing behind them, the Evangelion cast plays the instrumental version of “Komm, süsser Tod” from End of Evangelion and the show’s “Next Episode” theme. If you want to get meta about it, you could argue the latter’s inclusion hinted at the “next episode” being Taro’s incoming adaptation.
Despite Khara’s secrecy all amounting to a gag-filled clip show, the short is a touching tribute to one of Evangelion’s key characters. Anything more groundbreaking can (and probably will) come in the future.
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