As the state of emergency in Japan concerning COVID-19 becomes official nationwide, more and more of the anime industry is being hit with sudden and unexpected delays as a result. With fewer animators and workers across the country being able to work due to quarantine and spreading viral symptoms, big upcoming anime productions are being postponed and delayed left and right. We’ve already seen countless major series set to premiere this season suddenly delayed, like Re:Zero -Starting Life in Another World- and Oregairu My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU Climax. Major anime films like Violet Evergarden: The Movie and Fate/stay night: Heaven’s Feel III. spring song have also been delayed indefinitely. Unfortunately, the biggest upcoming anime film imaginable has also been impacted, as Studio Khara has announced that the release of Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 has been delayed indefinitely.
In a blog post on the official website for Studio Khara, the producers of the current Evangelion film series, it was shared that the planned June 27 release of the highly anticipated film would have to be put on hold due to concerns over the coronavirus disease, COVID-19, and its spread across Japan. A new release date for the film, titled Evangelion: 3.0+1.0, has yet to be revealed. Alongside news of the delay, however, a new poster visual for the movie was revealed, which includes two new taglines in English. The first tagline reads “Bye-bye, all of EVANGELION.” and the second tagline reads “Thrice upon a time.”
Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 has been in development for a long time, and the film has already been shown off a number of times. Last July, Studio Khara screened the first 10 minutes and 40 seconds of the film to an audience at the Japan Expo in Paris during a special “Yoko Takahashi x Evangelion Stage” presentation. The preview later went on to screen at Anime Expo in Los Angeles as a special follow-up to their screening of Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo. The preview was also shown off at an Evangelion event in Shanghai as well as six other locations in Japan.
Much of the film is already complete, as we know that dialogue recording for Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 had already begun back in March 2019, with Shinji Ikari voice actress Megumi Ogata confirmed this February that recording for the film had all but nearly finished at that point.
Source: ANN
