After being delayed once… and then again, we finally have a Japanese theatrical premiere date for the “final” Evangelion movie, Evangelion 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon a Time. Knowing that fans have been anxiously awaiting the release of this movie for literally years now, studio Khara revealed over the weekend that the movie will hit theaters in Japan on Monday, March 8th! This will be the longest movie in the series’ history, clocking in at 2 hours and 35 minutes.
To celebrate the new, new, new release date, two brand new trailers were released online, both of which are shared below. The first one is only 30 seconds long, but the second one is nearly 90 seconds and features the theme song sung by Utada Hikaru.
I’ve said this before, but I’m amazed at the journey that Evangelion has been on for the last few decades, from a little television series that found its audience, all the way to becoming a colossal juggernaut of a franchise with novels, manga, video games, and so much merchandise and cross-promotion.
That said, the number of people that this series has inspired over the years is literally unfathomable. This wasn’t just some little series that hardly anyone outside of Japan has ever heard of (the late, great Robin Williams was even a fan of this series), this is an unstoppable license to print money that has left an indelible mark on popular culture around the world. Fans from Japan and elsewhere have continually cited this series as an inspiration.
It’s been an incredible journey for Evangelion and soon it’ll all come tumbling down (tumbling down, tumbling down). No matter what your feelings for the series are, you have to give a round of applause to this series for everything that it’s done for anime and the global anime community.
Source: Comic Natalie, Crunchyroll News
