#Evangelion 3.0+1.0 Moviegoers in Japan Get the Gift of Asuka and Rei

To celebrate Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time’s continuing success at the Japanese box office, anime studio Khara has announced that moviegoers in Japan will be given an A4 poster featuring the two main girls from the series, Asuka and Rei, drawn by chief animation director Atsushi Nishigori starting Friday, May 15 at currently open theaters in the country.

As you can see above, the Asuka illustration is shown off, as it’s a reprint of a previous giveaway from the first week of showings in Japan, but this time signed by Yuko Miyamura with a special message from the voice actor. The new Rei (tentative) drawing is shrouded in mystery, but the signature from Megumi Hayashibara is clearly visible. 1 million posters will be given out.

Though the distribution starts on May 15, a lot of theaters across Japan are closed until at least May 31 due to the extension of the State of Emergency to combat the coronavirus. Because of this, Khara notes that the closed cinemas will also distribute the posters when they re-open and that this announcement had to be made now due to the logistics of manufacturing and distribution.

Evangelion 3.0+1.0 finally opened in Japan after being delayed twice due to the coronavirus pandemic on March 8, breaking franchise records on the first day and eventually becoming the highest-grossing film in the franchise in Japan in less than a month, then the highest-grossing worldwide in 35 days, eventually becoming Hideaki Anno‘s highest-grossing film to date. It is the longest film in the franchise (not including compilations or special screenings). There is no word yet on an international release of the film.

Source: Khara, Oricon

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Daryl Harding is a Japan Correspondent for Crunchyroll News. He also runs a YouTube channel about Japan stuff called TheDoctorDazza, tweets at @DoctorDazza, and posts photos of his travels on Instagram.