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More Evangelion Race Queens: Shinji and Kaworu

Fazmotron — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 15:23:23 +0000

Two more Evangelion themed Race Queens have appeared on the scene of the Evangelion themed racing team at the Autobacs Super GT, this time as Shinji and Kaworu. The pair are portrayed by female models, wearing the similar Rebuild style Race Queen plugsuit outfits that we have seen previously. More pictures of the two, as well as a Rei Race Queen, and pictures of the actual race car in action, can be found here.

ADV Sues Gainax over Live Action Evangelion Film Rights

Fazmotron — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 04:52:54 +0000

A legal dispute has erupted between the North American anime distribution company previously responsible for the release and distribution of the Neon Genesis Evangelion anime series in the US, ADV, and the Japanese production company responsible for the creation of Evangelion, Gainax, over the rights of any live action Evangelion film projects.

The Film Option and Purchase agreement that was signed by both parties back in February 2003 allowed ADV to pursue “the possible development, production, financing and exploitation of at least three (3) live-action theatrical motion pictures, five (5) television programs and three (3) direct-to-video movies products (each, a “Project”).” ADV is suing Gainax over claims that Gainax breached their contract with them in not agreeing to hand over full rights to them once the specified amount of money was paid. A full run-down of the legal argument and history can be read in the original article at Crunchyroll.

What this means for the likelihood of any live action Evangelion production is unclear at the moment, but ADV claims that because of Gainax’s delays they have already missed at least one opportunity to produce a film with a major studio.

Sunday Supanova Wrap Up

Fazmotron — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 13:25:14 +0000

The Supanova Pop Culture Expo in Sydney this weekend was apparently a record breaker, with pre-sales for the Saturday reaching over 20,000.

Supanova specializes in science fiction, Anime and manga, as well as several other things such as wrestling, with live wrestling performances appearing throughout both days. This year featured a number of special guests, but the ones we are most interested in are Yuko Miyamura, Tiffany Grant and Matt Greenfield. I attended on the Sunday, where Miyamura gave a panel and Q&A session with her translator early in the day, and Tiffany and Matt hosted a separate Q&A shortly after midday.

Miyamura was asked, and discussed many different things during her panel, including how much she enjoys living in Australia with her husband who is studying to be a ninja, how she is scared of ants (although she enjoys following their trails), and touching briefly on her soon to be born baby. When asked whether or not she knew how far along the production was for Q, she said that she didn’t know, and seiyus like herself are not often told until soon before they are needed for their voices, and then they are only told which month they will need to keep free in order for recording. Furthermore, she said that when Eva: 2.0 was being made, the production staff pushed back the start of voice recording twice because of production delays, and she surmised that the same fate is most likely to befall the production schedule of Q.
At the end of the panel, Miyamura dubbed a short scene from EoE live for the audience, a poor quality recording of which can be found here: Yuko Miyamura Live Dubbing EoE Sunday Supanova 2011

The Grant & Greenfield panel also covered many topics. When Matt was asked about the Live Action Evangelion Movie he said that the film was still in the works, at a studio, and that he was nolonger regularly involved in the process, having only worked with Wetta in order to develop the concept of the show for the pitch to the studio. He said that Joseph Chou is now involved with the project, and that he believes the studio is now shopping for a director. The full Q&A is here to listen to, again in average quality, with the information about LAEM appearing at about 14:20: Tiffany Grant & Matt Greenfield Sunday Supanova 2011

There was an enormous amount of cosplay at the event, but very few Evangelion characters, the clear favourite appeared to be Doctor Who.

Asuka and Rei, I think.

Timelords, timelords everywhere.

Dalek and I

Madman Eva 2.22 Podcast with Grant, McFarland, Greenfield

Fazmotron — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 13:48:07 +0000

Coinciding with Madman’s Australian DVD and Blu-ray release of Evangelion 2.22: You Can (not) Advance, Madman have released a podcast interview with Tiffany Grant, Mike McFarland and Matt Greenfield who are in the country for the upcoming Supanova Pop Culture Expo. The three talk about their experiences with Evangelion, the new movies, and the dubbing process in the U.S.

Anime Snacktime Podcast Homepage

New Kotobukiya Kaworu and Mark 6 Figure

Fazmotron — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 03:31:27 +0000

Good news for all you Kaworu fan boys and girls out there, Kotobukiya is adding to their 1/6 scale Pilot+Eva series with a Kaworu, the first male pilot to appear. Kaworu is wearing his redesigned Rebuild plugsuit, and sits atop a stone bust of the Mark 6 Evangelion, which appears in Evangelion 2.0: You Can (not) Advance.

The series so far has included Rei atop Unit-00, Asuka atop Unit-02, and Mari wearing her pink plugsuit atop Beast mode Unit-02. There has also been a 1/6 scale Misato released, but it is unclear whether or not this figure is included in the same series.

The Kaworu figure is set for release in October this year, and will retail for approximately ¥6,800.

Evangelion: 2.22 DVD and Blu-ray Australian Release Date

Fazmotron — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 14:55:01 +0000

Madman have finally announced the official release date for their release of Evangelion: 2.22 You Can (Not) Advance on DVD and Blu-ray.

The film will be available on 15th of June, and will be filled with extras including;

Blu-ray:

Audio Commentary
“Rebuild of Evangelion 2.02” – Making of feature
Storyboard
Deleted scenes
Original Theatrical trailers and commercials
16 Page Booklet

DVD:

Rebuild of EVANGELION 2.02 “I Would Give You Anything”
Teaser trailer
Train Channel spot
Promotion reel and TV spots
Art booklet

Along with this announcement, Madman have released an interview with Tiffany Grant, the English voice actor for Asuka, that was filmed back in 2010 when she was in the country for SMASH con in Sydney.

Full details on both releases and the interview can be found on Madman’s website.

English Cast for Asuka, Mari and Kaji Confirmed

Fazmotron — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 03:02:26 +0000

The English voice cast for the characters Asuka Shikinami, Mari Makinami and Ryoji Kaji have been confirmed by Funimation on its online panel “FuniCon 5.0″. The announcement confirms that Tiffany Grant will be returning to the roll of Asuka for the English dub of Evangelion 2.22: You Can (not) Advance. The other 2 roles will be filled by Trina Nishimura and J. Michael Tatum for Mari and Kaji respectively.

Evangelion 2.22 Release Date Revealed

Fazmotron — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 03:49:42 +0000

The release date for the North American Blu-ray and DVD release of Evangelion 2.22 by Funimation has been revealed by Rightstuf.com, in a recent update of their website. The release date of 29th March, 2011 has been set, but there has yet to be any announcement about the English dub cast.

Along with Evangelion 2.22, Funimation will also be releasing Summer Wars on Blu-ray and DVD on the 15th of February. Summer Wars was recently submitted for nomination for an Academy Award in the category of Best Animated Feature.

Real Life Plugsuits For Sale

Fazmotron — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 16:15:48 +0000

Cospatio, a company specialising in Cosplay, has designed 2 plugsuits that resemble those worn by Asuka and Rei. They are highly detailed, made from polyurethane nylon and rigid plastic polypropylene. They are a limited edition cosplay item and will set you back ¥553,350. For more photos and more information, visit the website links below (all in Japanese).

SMASH! 2010 Rundown

Fazmotron — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 11:47:33 +0000

So, this years SMASH! (Sydney Manga and Anime Show) was really fantastic, and according to the SMASH forums, they sold more tickets then they ever expected they could. The new location, Sydney Town Hall, reached capacity early in the day, and the organisers were forced to stop ticket sales, much to the misfortune of anyone who turned up late. Fortunately, next years SMASH will be held at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre on the water at Darling harbour, which is a much larger venue.

The show included video game competitions, cosplay competitions, karaoke competitions (with one of the finalists singing Cruel Angels Thesis), an art workshop, a maid café, artist and anime club stands, a gundam display area, and lots of merchandise stands, including stands for the two major anime distributers in Australia, Madman and Siren Visual.

The guest panels were great, with audience members able to ask Yuko Miyamura, Tiffany Grant, and Matt Greenfield as many questions as they had time for. There were 3 panels in total, The Grant & Greenfield Panel, The Yuko Miyamura Panel, and The Evangelion Panel. The guests themselves were also fantastic, they participated in a guest signing hour, Yuko Miyamura performed a live dub of Evangelion, and Tiffany Grant helped in auctioning a number of items including signed items donated by Matt and Tiffany, with all proceeds going to charity.

Regarding Evangelion, a number of interesting questions were asked, but not necessarily answered, including “What’s the progress on the Live Action Evangelion Movie?”, “What were you’re thoughts on the new Asuka?” and “What is the significance of the character’s name ending in ‘nami’?”. I managed to get recordings of most of the panels (only half of the Miyamura panel), but they are of rather questionable quality, so I shall make transcripts of some of the more interesting questions in the next week or so.

Man crooning for the people waiting in the enormous line.

Part of the enormous line.

Part of the Gundam display.

Some of the DVDs at the Madman stand.

Some Eva cosplay.

Some more Eva cosplay.

Kaworu putting the moves on Shinji.

Touhou for Zap.

Lots of cosplay.

ReelAnime 2010: Evangelion 2.0 Australian Screening

Fazmotron — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 10:37:21 +0000

After announcing it 10 months ago, Madman has finally released information about their screenings of Evangelion 2.0: You Can (Not) Advance in Australian theatres. The film is headlining their (almost) annual anime film festival, which will begin in September this year. King Of Thorn, Summer Wars, and Redline will also be screened during the festival. Madman has also stated that there will be limited screenings of Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone during the festival.

Its a bucket.

Fazmotron — Fri, 21 May 2010 04:34:43 +0000

That’s right, the Evangelion merchandising department has finally reached the bottom of the barrel, and have decided to sell that too. The “NERV pail” is 30cm (11.8in) in diameter and has a capacity of 20L (5.28gal). Suggested possible uses for the “NERV pail” include a housing for garbage, and with the addition of a few cushions, a simple chair. The “NERV pail” will be released in early August, and will sell for ¥4,980.

EvaStore link (possible spoilers)

Evangelion Race Car and Plug Suits

Fazmotron — Sat, 01 May 2010 17:31:59 +0000

Not only have the Evangelion team entered an Eva-01 inspired Toyota Corolla Axio into the Super GT300-class grand touring championship series, but they have also designed racing suits to resemble Shinji’s plug suit. Similarly, the models accompanying the team are wearing uniforms inspired by Asuka and Rei’s plug suits. The team entered this weekend at Fuji Speedway and are currently in 14th position after the first qualifying run.

The racing team, Run’a Entertainment, have previously decorated their cars in other popular culture, including a Toy Story design with the racing team wearing outfits inspired by the characters Woody, Buzz Lightyear, and Jessie.

Eva Themed Convenience Store in Tokyo-3

Fazmotron — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 03:36:31 +0000

An Evangelion themed Lawson convenience store has opened in Hakone, the site of Tokyo-3, to coincide with the screenings of 2.22. The store is filled with all kinds of Eva merchandise, including food products, snacks, and various other Eva merchandise such as Eva headphones and the Evangelion manga and DVD sets. The store will remain Eva themed up until May 17th, where it will then be returned to its normal form.

Lawson convenience stores are the second biggest chain in Japan, with 7-Eleven being the largest in the country.

Some Hakone residents have been complaining to their city council about the influx of otaku and are trying to get the screening cancelled because of this. There has been no information on whether or not the screenings will in fact be cancelled.

Update: According to the Evangelion blog, the Eva themed Lawson in Hakone is no more, due to the unexpectedly large influx of people.

Yuko Miyamura and Tiffany Grant Coming to Australia

Fazmotron — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 02:02:40 +0000

An anime convention based in Sydney has recently announced that both Yuko Miyamura and Tiffany Grant will be attending their next event as special guests. SMASH! will play host to the Japanese and English voice actors along with Grant’s husband and co-founder of ADV films, Matt Greenfield.

Miyamura and Grant are best known for voicing the character Asuka Langley Soryu, but have also played many other characters in their respective careers.

SMASH! 2010 will be held on Saturday August 7th in Sydney Town Hall for the first time since its beginning in 2007. The event was normally held across two days at the University of New South Wales, but only one day has been announced for this year.