A new Neon Genesis Evangelion anime series is officially in production, and the NieR creator Yoko Taro is officially in charge of series composition and screenplay. The entire project is a production partnership between Studio Khara and CloverWorks.
The announcement was made at the Yokohama Arena during the “Evangelion:30+; 30th Anniversary of Evangelion” festival.
Evangelion’s official site lists the core staff attached to the “Next Genesis” project, chief among them being the maverick game director and writer Yoko Taro, who will be responsible for the scene composition and screenplay.
Yoko Taro is best known as the creator, director, and writer behind the Drakengard and NieR series. His writing style often includes fractured structure, unreliable perspective, absurdist imagery, and bleak humor: elements that overlap with what Evangelion itself has to offer.
Taro has also been direct about Evangelion’s influence on his work. In a Square Enix interview for NieR’s 15th anniversary, he cited Neon Genesis Evangelion as a key inspiration and said that everything he makes is largely influenced by it. From this perspective, it makes sense that the new series will be written by an acclaimed director who has been referencing the original for more than fifteen years.
Another notable figure on the staff is Keiichi Okabe, the composer for NieR, NieR: Automata, NieR: Reincarnation, Drakengard 3, SINoALICE, and other projects associated with Yoko Taro. This will be a major stylistic departure from Shirō Sagisu, who composed the soundtracks for Neon Genesis Evangelion and the Rebuild movies.
From the anime side, it’s notable that the directors for the new Evangelion project will be Kazuya Tsurumaki and Tōko Yatabe. Tsurumaki, in particular, is known for his work at Gainax, being Hideaki Anno’s personal assistant. He worked on the original Neon Genesis Evangelion, The End of Evangelion, and directed the Rebuild of Evangelion. In addition to this, he also directed the renowned FLCL series of OVAs. Yatabe has also worked on Evangelion in the past, being an Assistant Director for the Evangelion: 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon A Time movie.
No release window, format details, or distribution plans were included in the initial announcement. All we know for now is that a new Evangelion series is moving forward with a game auteur leading the writing, with Evangelion veterans in the director’s seat.
