A brief but revealing chapter in Hideaki Anno's ongoing cult anime series, "Neon Genesis Evangelion," was released Friday on the Animator Expo website.
The series, first broadcast in October, 1995, has been turned into a four-part series of films set in a post-apocalyptic future Tokyo under attack from monstrous creatures known as "Angels." The fourth installment of the movie series is expected to be released in 2015.
Run by Dwango, a media company, and Anno's production company, khara, Animator Expo showcases short animations each week, but "Until You Come to Me" is the first to be set in the world of "Evangelion."
Directed by Tadashi Hiramatsu, who is working as animation director on the forthcoming "Evangelion" film (and also produced many of the concept sketches for the TV series), the six-minute film, subtitled "The concerted fragments by Tatsuya Kushida's esquisse and music," shows previously unseen images from the series created by art director Tatsuya Kushida. The loose narrative is partly told through atmospheric flashbacks, showing lead character Shinji Ikari surrounded by ruins and abandoned Evangelion robots strewn across the landscape.
There is speculation by commenters online that the scenes may foreshadow events in Anno's much-anticipated finale to the four-part "Evangelion" movie series "Shin Evangelion Gekijoban:||" (known internationally as "Evangelion:3.0+1.0").
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