As reported by IGN, Neon Genesis Evangelion is getting a new anime series with some serious talent at the helm: Yoko Taro, the creator of Drakengard, Nier, and the 2017 breakout hit, Nier: Automata. Taro will be in charge of the series' writing and overall composition.
The news was announced as part of "Evangelion:30+", the 30th anniversary celebration of Hideki Anno's influential, mind-bending sci-fi series. An official press release about the series on evangelion.jp is pretty laconic, providing no details as to the show's planned story. In addition to Taro, the series will be directed by Kazuya Tsurumaki and Toru Yatabe, with music by Keiichi Okabe, and production split between Anno's Studio Khara and CloverWorks.
It's a collaboration that immediately excited me as a relative casual who's only seen Evangelion's original series without diving into the various movie spinoffs and retellings. Taro's games are well-loved for their memorable characters, oppressive yet imaginative science fiction, and a heaping helping of angst, sexual tension, and psychological drama. They've always very much felt of a piece with anime like Evangelion.
It's been a long time since we've gotten a proper, feature-length game from Taro. After 2017's Nier: Automata, which upgraded his standing from "cult classic game maker" to just "classic game maker," we've seen a series of smaller projects and contributions from Taro.
There's the story-driven Nier mobile game, Reincarnation, which I've heard is cool but remains a blind spot for me—I don't like playing games on a touchscreen. Taro contributed his talents to the card-based RPG The Voices of Cards: The Island Dragon Roars, which was not well-received by PCG contributor Matthew Castle in his 2021 review. For my money, the most notable project of Taro's in the past decade has been Nier Replicant ver.1.22474487139…, the 2021 remaster of the series' first entry from 2010.
And by naming convention alone, you can see why Taro is such a strong fit for Evangelion. "Nier Replicant ver.1.22474487139…" feels like a first cousin to something like "Evangelion: 3.0+1.01 Thrice Upon a Time," the 2021 fourth film in the Rebuild of Evangelion film series. There are currently no public release date or story details for Taro's unnamed Evangelion show.
