This is something I've been wondering about recently on going over my Evangelion stuff.

Can the name "Evangelion" ever become anything other than one television series and whatever movies remake or end it? Rebuild maybe suggests it can by diverging from canon and being its own thing. However, the trick Rebuild pulled of a new timeline (or Impact Cycle, we're not here to debate the whole "sequel theory") with the same characters can really only work once. Once Rebuild is over, the stories of Shinji, Asuka, Rei, Misato, everyone, will be concluded forever. But does the series die with them?

Could Eva work with a new cast of characters, a new setup, a new location? Does Evangelion have what it takes to maintain what made it special while also continuing on? Would we, the fans, accept such a change from tradition?

Personally, I believe so. However, to truly be "Evangelion" it would really need to have certain essences of the original series.

1.) It needs to start innocently and dive unexpectedly: Part of what made Evangelion so great was delving into the psychology of what was initially just an entertaining action show. Any new Evangelion series would need the element of surprise, and should begin its psychological drama at a point where it will illicit the most sincere audience reaction.

2.) It needs limitations: Evangelion seems unique to me among anime in that it has no "final boss". EoE's fights were one-sided and decisive with no really "fun" action and merely served to move forward the final character development stage of Third Impact. This was, yes, Anno's original plan, but what if they had the money to make the Harpy's a bigger climactic battle? If the series hadn't had its infamous budget problems, would we have gotten the quiet still scenes of later episodes? Any new Evangelion series should have limits placed on its extravagance to keep from becoming another overblown action show.

3.) It needs to come from the heart: This is harder to define. Evangelion came directly from Anno's psychological state, and couldn't have resulted from any other source. A new Eva series couldn't be done on a corporate whim. It must be the result of a talented director pouring his own emotional experiences into the show, keeping it unique but at the same time true to what Eva was for Anno.

Have you heard of Campus Apocalypse? Evangelion is going to live for as long as the money lasts.

I really don't understand how people can say that Eva 'started out' as a generic action show... the first six episodes are filled with depression. It turned into one in the atrocious middle, yes, but it wasn't at all one at first. Moreover I really don't see why starting out 'lighter' is necessary for Eva...
Eva isn't like, say, Star Trek, where what occurs in the series is relatively isolated, and leaves plenty of room, both spacial and temporal, for things in similiar spinoffs to occur in. Eva ends with the end of the world (and I can't think of a way to depict the after Third Impact without negating its majesty) and it's well stated that nothing like what occurs in the series happened before it, and none of it is happening anywhere else in the world. Short of a very drastic genre-break (Tokugawa Ieyasu's interaction with Seele, and that wouldn't even feature Eva) the only way to succeed Eva within the same continuity and yet have similiar story elements would be to set it millennia later with Lilin's interaction with... Baalim? That would still have little to do with Eva, it might be better off being pitched as unrelated.
Certainly you could do an alternate version of Eva with different pilots and Angels and meaning of Instrumentality, but that would be quite redundant and Rebuild is more or less that anyway.

Lavinius wrote:Certainly you could do an alternate version of Eva with different pilots and Angels and meaning of Instrumentality, but that would be quite redundant and Rebuild is more or less that anyway.

RahXephon?

Anything can, it's just a matter of having quality writers who enjoy what they're doing and respect the franchise at the helm. Franchise decay happens because they stick with the same writers for long periods of time, well past the point when they've run out of new ideas and/or stopped caring.

Personally I'd love to see Eva as a long running franchise, but only under the condition it takes a more James Bond approach than, say, Gundam. If someone made an Evangelion show without Shinji or Asuka then quite frankly it would be no different to me than any other anime. I'd watch it, yes, but I'd be nowhere near as invested in it or care about it. Because it's not the premise that makes me love Eva so much, it's the characters.

I wouldn't mind seeing a prequel to the original series.
Even though I don't usually go for that kind of thing, a "before NGE" might be interesting.
As opposed to a big shiny theatrical movie, a OVA or even a handful of episodes depicting events and characters pre-second impact, Katsuragi Expedition, through Children birth, Gehirn, leading up to Little Shin's arrival in Ep.1.
I thought OVA in original style drawn/characterizations for continuity. Anno conducted of course.

There was a time where people thought that NTE was going to be a prequel, and they were totally hyped for it. As a reiteration of my opinion, I'd say that Evangelion can absolutely survive somehow, basd on how the fanbase reacts to new content. Even if it's OVAs or stuff that doesn't involve the mains but somehow manages to give us more information about the world of Evangelion, I think that there is going to be a market for it.

I'd watch it, at any rate.

Unit.Zed wrote:I wouldn't mind seeing a prequel to the original series.

For some reason, prequels are the one thing that I wouldn't mind seeing in Eva, or anything for that matter. In fact, I would be totally hyped for them.

Hell, they might even shed some light on some matters that have been discussed here for years. Or course, knowing Eva, it's likely that they would raise more question that answers.

pwhodges wrote:RahXephon?

Which gets points for being all of the above and still managing to avoid being a ripoff. What I find most amusing about Rah is that it involved two things people read into Eva even though they aren't really there -- temporal hijinks, and resetting the world/alternate realities. I wish others would follow Izubuchi's example and make stuff that's inspired by Eva yet still stands well on its own. I think Rah really benefitted from that approach.

EVAfacepalm wrote:Could Eva work with a new cast of characters, a new setup, a new location? Does Evangelion have what it takes to maintain what made it special while also continuing on? Would we, the fans, accept such a change from tradition?

Yes, I would prefer that to what Rebuild is doing. I'd rather have new characters in a show with a similar spirit than lesser versions of the old characters in a show without the spirit of the original.

EVAfacepalm wrote:EoE's fights were one-sided and decisive with no really "fun" action and merely served to move forward the final character development stage of Third Impact. This was, yes, Anno's original plan, but what if they had the money to make the Harpy's a bigger climactic battle?

Are you referring specifically to the lack of battles in the TV ending? Because Asuka vs the Harpies in EoE is easily one of the best animated mecha battle scenes in anime.

Lavinius wrote:I really don't understand how people can say that Eva 'started out' as a generic action show... the first six episodes are filled with depression. It turned into one in the atrocious middle, yes, but it wasn't at all one at first. Moreover I really don't see why starting out 'lighter' is necessary for Eva...

The middle with scenes like a grown woman making a drunken, self-hating tirade about her promiscuity and Electra Complex? I don't think generic actions shows tend to have those.

But I agree that it doesn't need to start "lighter", partially because everyone will be expecting it this time and thus it couldn't possibly have the same impact the original did anyway.

Unit.Zed wrote:I wouldn't mind seeing a prequel to the original series.
Even though I don't usually go for that kind of thing, a "before NGE" might be interesting.
As opposed to a big shiny theatrical movie, a OVA or even a handful of episodes depicting events and characters pre-second impact, Katsuragi Expedition, through Children birth, Gehirn, leading up to Little Shin's arrival in Ep.1.
I thought OVA in original style drawn/characterizations for continuity. Anno conducted of course.

This is basically the only type of prequel I would condone and be interested in (as opposed to ones that would show previous iterations of Shinji's story throughout the Impact Cycles or whatever you want to call them). A real prequel, as in something like an extended version of episode 21, with Gendo, Yui and Fuyutsuki as the protagonists (teenage Misato, Ritsuko and Kaji could show up too, of course). That could make for a pretty awesome OVA series (which is why it won't be made).

Bagheera wrote:Which gets points for being all of the above and still managing to avoid being a ripoff.

I really like RahXephon as well. I just put it there without comment to see what remarks might come out of the woodwork.

I think Eva can work as a franchise but only if they present sequels that take place eons after the story of Shinji and company. I've had my fill of prequels with all the background info the later episodes of Eva brought us even if many may think differently.

They're selling cum now, that's quite an achievement....

I hope they don't sell something like food or other household products outside from merchandise, but I know that the day will come.

Gorbatschow wrote:They're selling cum now, that's quite an achievement....

At least bother reading that thread. It's a fan bar. Not an official one.

What makes EVA EVA is very much tied to it's characters; We're more likely to see fancy retellings than a complete overhaul with new characters and vaguely similar concepts.

It's telling that EVA is one of the few shows where figurines of the characters sell more than those of the robots.

You can do endless iterations of digimon or power rangers because they're based on the monsters/people in brightly colored suits.
But EVA isn't really built around the robots; the robots are build around the characters.EVa 01 is just the mean through which Gendo and Yui are being horrible parents; Q could even do completely without it.

They'll make small funny manga projects and video games as long as there's cash, but I don't think there would be much more "serious" projects.


First, I think it's important for a story to end; When these frachises go on for long, they tend to go to crap.

Also the whole point of Rebuild (well, one of them) was to make ppl/the anime industry stop rechewing his material, so Anno's not likely to, say, sell the rights to Disney.
There's no shortage of vaguely EVA-like material in the anime industry.
All this would result in is basically Guilty Crown or Haruhi Suzumiya with an official Gainax stamp.
(That said, I actually like both of those shows. No sarcasm or bashing intended)

Instead of making more of, or hijacking an established old thing, ppl should try to make their own, new things.