Evangelion's 25th annivesary

[Tajai]

Christ, this show is starting to get old, isn't it?
Reminscing back on the age of this show, it still comes as a slight shock to see Evangelion so present in Japanese culture [mostly in Japanese marketing], even after 24 years of it's original release. It really shows the influence of this show and how much of a shock it gave in the genre. There probably isn't a single street in downtown Tokyo where you wouldn't see a giant Evangelion billboard present. Has Anno ever commented on the success Eva gave to him and his crew?

Speaking of the anniversary, does anybody know what Khara has planned to celebrate it? I'm not excepting announcements or anything big, but a small celebration of some sort would be pretty sweet.

[Zusuchan]

Eva's success made Anno into an internationally famous anime director and gave him the kind of money that could easily lead one into early retirement. He couldn't have created his own animation studio/company without those profits. And it still has an influence because there's still new content in terms of movies and plenty of merchandise in-between to keep it all relevant culturally. I think that if EoE had been the last say for Eva as a franchise artistically and no merch had been made, Eva would not be as culturally relevant and commercially viable as it currently is. It'd still be considered an anime masterpiece that revitalized the entire anime industry, so it would still be remembered very much very favorably, but if someone were to make a new commercial endeavor based on it, that wouldn't probably be all that surefire of a moneymaker. Keeping up the hype with new content and merch, no matter the quality and state of those things, is important when you want to make your franchise continuously big in ways other than historical. It'd be somewhat similar perhaps to 2001 in that everybody knows it and even if they don't like it, they can still recognize and appreciate the effect it had on science-fiction, but if, say, Hasbro decided to make Dave Bowman action figures, they wouldn't make a lot of money, because all the years of content and merch are missing. This may be a bad example because 2001 isn't as commercial as Eva, but it's not like EoE is what a traditional Hollywood producer would think to be profitable either, so I don't know.

As for what Anno and Co. have in plans...the celebration supposedly starts in October, so expect plenty of merchandise. I know for a fact that Evangelion coin sets are totally going to be a thing, but beyond that I have no idea.

25 years has been a long time for Anno and Eva, eh? By the way, Anno said he wants Eva to be a pillar of anime in a similar way to Gundam so if all goes according to plan, these 25 years are just the beginning of a far larger affair.

Edit: Sayonara261022 just posted in the Shin Spoilers thread about some kind of NTE three-day marathon. It seems like they've started the 25th anniversary by looking at tomorrow instead of the past.

[El Squibbonator]

I'm under the impression that there would probably be more publicity given to the show's 25th anniversary if it weren't for the fact that there's a pandemic occupying everyone's attention right now. The fourth movie was supposed to come out this year, which would have been a good way to mark this important anniversary for the franchise, but right now it looks like that's not going to happen.

[Xard]

I have made a topic for Anno's greetings on this anniversary on the Rebuild subforum.

Here's the text:

With passing of 25 years since the airing started,
and with 5 years spent in creation process even prior to that, I feel the passage of time is fast indeed.
That from writing the first Proposal document in 1993 until today I would still be working on Eva,
that my involvement would extend for over 17 years, is something I never thought of, but with this things will finally end.

While it is my fault so much production time has been spent
it has been thanks to fans this work has hold on for so long. Let me express my deepest gratitude again.

Thank you so much.

Due to Corona virus both the world and the production have it hard right now, but the end of production is only a little further away so I'll do my utmost.

Thank you.

Hideaki Anno