By The Eva Monkey on Friday, April 17th, 2020
Evangelion 3.0+1.0, which was slated for release June 27th, has been officially delayed until further notice. It’s unfortunate, but to be expected. Like many of you, I’ve been dreading it for a while now. I took it as good news that the recent collaboration with Honda was still using the June release date, but it looks like Eva 3.0+1.0 is the latest to fall victim to the weird times that we’re living in currently.
In addition to the official release, Hideaki Anno also issued a personal message regarding the situation. In it, he expressed his sympathies to those affected, gratitude to the healthcare workers, and his apologies for having to delay after what is already eight years of waiting. In closing, he said that in this difficult time, he would work hard with us with an “indomitable and unyielding spirit”.
Seemingly to make up for the postponement, khara simultaneously released two other bits of news that may also interest you.
First, they released a new poster featuring the English title for Evangelion 3.0+1.0. In contrast to the first poster, an abstract, mostly dark red poster looking up through the Eiffel Tower, the updated poster features a bright daytime scene of Shinji standing at a railroad crossing, in a seemingly restored Japan. The poster bears the film’s English title “Thrice Upon a Time”, and also includes an additional English heading reading, “Bye-bye, all of EVANGELION”. The exact meaning of which will no doubt be made clear later on, but for now, I suppose it’s time to start speculating.
The second bit of consolation is that from April 18th through 30th, khara will be making all three of the prior Rebuild films available for free on their official YouTube channel, along with an additional audio commentary option. No word at this time if English captions will be included for the films, but it’s fairly safe to assume English captions will not be produced for the audio commentary. For what it’s worth, YouTube does have automated transcription and translation, questionable though it may be, so you will have that option.
The decision to delay the film was no doubt a difficult, and unfortunate one to make, so I don’t hold it against them, and neither should you. Many of us are currently faced with circumstances that range from inconvenient, to downright impossible. Hopefully the additional time they’ll gain will be an opportunity to further polish the film, and make it the best it can possibly be.