Me knowing deep in my heart that there'll be another delay: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=d6uN9xYUMxE

Gendo'sPapa wrote:Was I one of the ones who sounded spoiled? I hope not. With confirmation of actually successful vaccines for Covid in the final stages now I’m totally up for the movie being delayed another half year or even longer until it’s far safer to run movies in theaters. If everyone did the right thing and avoided unnecessary risks for the next six months and let vaccines start making the rounds - sadly this is for in first world countries at least regrettably, I hope people do the right things and poorer nations aren’t forced to wait long for vaccines - we’d all be in a much MUCH safer world.

No, you are not spoiled, you concerned about your health.

I don’t live in a rich country, but neither is it poor, and the local government has already ordered several vaccines around the world - and I’m waiting for. What I see happening, the peoples are tired of staying in home and have lost their fear of the virus. In the case of poor nations, people need to work and expose themselves to risk, because that, they suffer more (that’s sad).

tbh I have so so feelings on the january release because of Covid. But I'm too tired of it all to claim to know what's correct. I barely leave home, don't meet anyone. If Shin Eva aired here I wouldn't go. At the same time I want the film to be succesful.

It makes my head spin to think about it.

sowwy, I guess the frustration went to my head... it'll come when it'll come.

Joseki wrote:It is already challenging enough to meet the January release date in Japan and there is still a big chance theaters will be closed by January, especially if the situation keeps going on the current trend:

Is that a graph of the COVID cases in Japan? I assume it is in context of the rest of your post, but there isn't anything in the image itself indicating such.

I'm honestly not sure what Japan or the Japanese studios/theaters will do in response to this. If they delay it, they delay it. If they don't (which they should if cases continue to spike), then they don't.

Full disclosure, I totally want to a movie theater back in October. (I live in North Carolina, and we weren't in that big of a hot spot at the time.) They had social distancing measures, and many of the seats were empty anyway. It was the only time this year since the plague started that I went to the cinemas, and we took all of the precautions with face masks and gloves. (I saw Lupin the Third: The First, which has a small audience turnout compared to what I assume the crowds were for Tenet. There's no way I'm going to theaters to see a popular movie and risk a larger turn out.) Theatrical releases are technically "doable" just so long as so little people show up that it's no longer worth the financial investment, which is the problem to begin with. I'm sure GKids lost money on their theatrical release of Lupin the Third: the First. I don't know if either GKids, Funimation, Toho, or Toei would want to release another movie to theaters that can only hold a safe-yet-unprofitable amount of people in them. The numbers just don't add up.

^

Yes it's new covid cases in Japan

If it gets delayed again it should be made available on pay per view to stream. Get the film out, put it into cinemas when covid is over

Almost feel the "Move the movie to streaming/online rental' argument should be keywords that instantly gets a post deleted.

It ain't gonna happen. This repeated asking for it is tiresome. We've already covered in a thread that anime is one of the most illegally pirated forms of entertainment. Hell, there's been discussions about "What the quality of the eventual camrip going to look like?" on this board. While the EvaGeeks here will pay top dollar if a Blu-ray quality file is made available online that'll be millions of theatrical revenue they'll lose out on. Not everyone would pirate but a lot would.

And what can't be denied is the success of Demon Slayer The Movie. Right now that film has surpassed all expectations and just overcame Titanic to become the second highest grossing movie of all time in Japan. There's a good chance it will soon, maybe even before the end of the year, will overcome Spirited Away to become the highest grossing film in Japanese theatrical history (inflation not taken into account). Now while I personally think it's incredibly troubling a movie is doing so well theatrically during a pandemic and that it undoubtably is contributing somewhat to the spread of Covid that's not what film distributors in Japan are seeing. They are seeing that there's a huge interest and desire for theatrical entertainment at the moment. They are seeing that if a desirable enough film is released there's a lot of money to be made.

In Japan at least, the final Evangelion film has the chance to be that next "desirable film". If because of pent up desire for movies, Thrice Upon A Time does even 1/4 of the business Demon Slayer has done it will be the most successful Evangelion film of all time.

I live in the US. It's a shitshow here regarding Covid and I haven't been in a theater since February. But, if Christopher Nolan's Tenet had made $250 million domestic when it was released in September and not barely cracked $50 mill, the studios would have released all their following movies here as if things were perfectly normal.

Now yes, there are [u]hundreds, if not thousands, of discussions to be had about why it's irresponsible to release a hit film during a pandemic, etc *** - but ultimately all those conversations are secondary to the fact a success like Demon Slayer shows a movie can make money in Japan.

Whether that means a January 2021 release, a June 2021 or a January 2022 release there's more money for the distributors and filmmakers to make going the traditional route in Japan right now - theatrical then home video/streaming - then there is in skipping theatrical altogether.

*** My personal opinion is the film should be delayed again because now that we have confirmation that there are several very successful vaccines about to begin distribution globally we are entering a new stage of the pandemic. We no longer are in the position of IF things will ever improve but are now in the stage of WHEN things will improve. There are now tools to fight and even prevent the virus. We haven't had that until now. There's no such thing as a set end date for a pandemic but if starting in January 100 million people around the world received a 90%+ effective Covid-19 vaccine every month (and I think 100 million people a month globally is me being conservative since we're likely to have fix to six vaccines in some form of distribution by Jan 1) that combined with the smart people doing the right thing - masks, rational social distancing, etc - would steadily decrease the spread and dangers of Covid-19 exponentially. Things aren't going to be 100% safe by Summer 2021 all over the world - masks are going to be a thing for a long long time and there will be outliers but events like music festivals, concerts and in-door conventions probably aren't coming back in any real form until 2022 - BUT things are going to be drastically safer. There's hope for the future.

^Yes, it should be delayed, but I think they're keeping the release date because it's a little over three months from the end of the fiscal year in Japan, and the companies involved in the film's production, such as Toho, want to be in the black by April 1st. It's a bit more cynical than I care to be, but I don't know what else to think.

I'm in Japan and I don't think it's going to be delayed. It seems the focus is to continue business as usual amid the climbing covid cases. This might be due to the fact that the death rate is low and the hospitals can handle the influx.

I should clarify from my early post: While I personally feel they should delay the film the thing is short of Japan experiencing an astronomical spike in Covid cases over the next month I don't see the film being delayed any further. Khara has been gung ho on increased marketing. 1.0 is re-releasing in theaters in a few days. The train has left the station. For the film to be delayed again Japan things would have to really ramp up in the worst way possible.

In early 2020 I was 95% certain the film was going to be delayed from the June 27 release date.
As of now I'm 95% certain the film will release January 23.

As cyharding said, the companies involved with Eva would like to get it out into the world before the end of their fiscal year and the Demon Slayer movie shows, there is a market - no matter how risky or misguided that is - for a proper theatrical run in Japan at the moment.

I am curious from a scientific perspective why a lot of the cases are low and don't get serious. There was talk earlier in the year of some local Japanese pharmaceuticals showing promise against Covid but I never followed up on if that ultimately went anywhere. It has also been scientifically proven that while a mask is a very effective tool against Covid it still isn't 100% effective but wearing a mask does dramatically cut down on the viral load a person can get. The less Covid breathed in at moment of infection the less serious the infection. So if the average person in Japan is diligent about wearing masks hopefully most cases are people getting minor infections that were curtailed from being worse by proper mask usage.

I'm positive for a bright future.

^ "There is always hope. Always." (Maya, The End Of Evangelion).

The_Max wrote:^ "There is always hope. Always." (Maya, The End Of Evangelion).

Wasn't that Kaworu in 3.0? lol

As I said many months ago, this is something pretty dark that will forever be a part of the film's History. It being released during the pandemic. Maybe that's being paranoid and the danger is actually pretty reduced. In any case, I don't like it.

But I also wanna see it ASAP so maybe I'm being hypocritical.

^ It's okay to have conflicting feelings about the release of a movie. That's been my whole entire existence on planet Earth the year. I risked some amount of exposure watching Lupin the Third: The First in theaters, but refused seeing Tenet in theaters because screw Chris Nolan huffing his own "I'll single-handedly save cinemas" farts. I rationalized that by saying Tenet would have a larger crowd and thus an increased risk of exposure, and I might have been right about that, but I truly don't know that to be true.

The best we can do is be as safe as possible. I know that if I do watch a crowded theater release that I'll be quarantining for two weeks after the show. Hopefully that'll be enough.

Honestly, though, I have so many unwatched movies in my collection that I should really just watch those instead.

Well, at least with Lupin III you knew you could expect less people, we know Eva will be a blockbuster though. If at least there we distancing measures... Although that doesn't change the air people will be breathing.

Gendo'sPapa wrote:I am curious from a scientific perspective why a lot of the cases are low and don't get serious. There was talk earlier in the year of some local Japanese pharmaceuticals showing promise against Covid but I never followed up on if that ultimately went anywhere. It has also been scientifically proven that while a mask is a very effective tool against Covid it still isn't 100% effective but wearing a mask does dramatically cut down on the viral load a person can get. The less Covid breathed in at moment of infection the less serious the infection. So if the average person in Japan is diligent about wearing masks hopefully most cases are people getting minor infections that were curtailed from being worse by proper mask usage.

The thing about masks in Japan is that even before the pandemic, wearing one is considered socially acceptable when someone wasn't feeling well or if they're around people who weren't. I read somewhere that the Japanese started to wear masks during the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918, and never stopped.

cyharding wrote:I read somewhere that the Japanese started to wear masks during the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918, and never stopped.

Huh, that's fascinating. I can absolutely see that happening now in some places as well

Masks work!

I really hope it catches on as a thing here in the US after the pandemic but Americans are so broken in so many ways I doubt it. Personally, even after this pandemic becomes a thing of the past I'll keep wearing masks whenever I'm on a plane or some other closed in environment.


Anywho, does any know if they're doing midnight showings of the You Are (Not) Alone. re-release? It's December 4 in Japan now. Would be curious to know if they attached a new trailer to the film or are waiting a little while longer.

Oh, and happy birthday Asuka (in Japan, still Dec 3 where I am)

I apologize in advance, but I kinda want Shin to get postponed again. It'll be summer in the Southern Hemisphere and I really want to go on some trips, bike by the side of the Atlantic, and just enjoy my vacations in general.

Shin will certainly ruin my summer if I spend it discussing Anno-san's Wild Giant Cartoon Robot Train Ride Cartoon 4.0 Final For Real This Time.

https://twitter.com/IGN/status/1334566062793306114?s=19
This keeps happening, so there is money in it. I still doubt khara is even considering it, but if the movie were to face another possible delay...