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From an Anime News Network Podcast, Joseph Chou, producer of Halo Legends, Appleseed: Ex Machina, and billed as the producer for the Live Action Evangelion Movie, says that the anime adaptation is still “very active”. Chou says it’s possible that the project may even start moving forward by next year, after a lot of paper work has been resolved, and that the reason the project was at a stand still was because of the anime market crash. Chou said “the reason it stopped in its tracks was not because [John Ledford, co-founder of A.D. Vision and ADV Films] wasn’t paying attention to it … he actually amassed a considerable amount of money, financing, for the film … but then I think he just needed to stop, because the whole market was falling apart at that time,” and as a result the movie “fell on the wayside.”, although Ledford is still part of the project.

This could mean good news for people who were hoping for a live action adaptation. But for most, they’re probably not going to hold their breath until it starts moving forward again.

The Rakuten website’s “Geo” online retailer has an Evangelion 2.22, You can (not) advance, DVD (KIBA-1773) with a release date of May 26th, 2010. It has a price tag of 5,386円.

More information will be updated when they pop up.

Update 2/4: Whoops, looks like the 2.22 listing on Rakuten has disappeared. So we’re either back at square one, or it’s possible the Geo shop put their info up before the official release announcement. Odd that they’d come up with “2.22″ without at least some official info.

The newest and much hyped Evangelion pachinko game, “Die Spur der SEELE” (Path of the Soul), was released today and is currently being exhibited in Tokyo. The lobby has 4 life-sized plugsuit clad Rei Ayanami’s and a Lance of Longinus and a large video projection of various scenes from the new Evangelion movies set to “Komm Susser Tod”. You can preview the game at the exhibit as well as buy some souvenirs.

The promotional video shows a lot of scenes from Evangelion 2.0, You can (not) advance, redone in CG specifically for the pachinko game, including battles against the 3rd and 9th Angels.

• Takao-chan’s blog, includes scans of the exhibition booklet.
• Min Nano Eva Fan, more pictures and videos of the exhibition.

Update 01/28: More pictures from Min Nano Eva Fan

A new Evangelion manga spinoff series is being serialised in the Japanese shōjo magazine Asuka. The series is titled Neon Genesis Evangelion: Shinji Ikari’s Detective Journal and puts Shinji in the role of the “detective”; or perhaps it’s something more akin to Encyclopedia Brown, only with Tokyo-3’s most clueless resident in the lead role.

Links:

• Asuka Magazine — Official site (Japanese)
• Anime News Network Post

Since Asuka is a shōjo magazine, you can bet that Kaworu will be making an appearance, and the promotional materials seem to bear this out. Perhaps the series will take a Holmes-Watson approach?

For the Eva fan who has everything as well as an iPhone, there is yet another bauble to buy—though these ones won’t come cheap. Gainix and XPAL Power have teamed up to produce two Evangelion themed iPhone 3G battery-pack cases which it is claimed can double the lifespan of Apple’s popular smartphone. The cases come in two themes; a black and red Nerv theme, and a white “Rei” theme (which has another Nerv logo, but no Rei). Such heights of Eva gadget chic will set prospective owners back ¥12800 (~$140/€96), and that’s not including the cost of the iPhone itself. The cases look to still be in development at the moment, but are due to be released on the Evastore on the 31st of January.

Links:

• EvaEnergy.jp — Official site (Japanese)
• Eva Store: iPhone Battery case — Nerv Theme (Japanese)
• Eva Store: iPhone Battery case — Rei Theme (Japanese)
• XPAL Power Site

Oh, and you also get a Nerv themed carry sack for the battery case with the deal as a “special favour”. At least they’re not offering more “service”.

Rightstuf.com mentions the DVD and BluRay of 1.11 will be released on March 9th 2010. There’s no word yet on what extras it will come with, if any.

Rightstuf.com DVD page

Right stuf.com Blu-Ray page

Thanks to forum member skikes for pointing out that the UK premiere of Evangelion 2.0: You Can (Not) Advance will be showing at the Glasgow film festival on Monday the 15th of February next. The film is being run as part of the Youth Film Festival and will be introduced by anime expert Jonathan Clements.

The festival is also screening Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone on the same day, so you can watch both films back to back! Apparently both films are being shown subtitled, which probably means you’ll also get to hear the Japanese voice cast (Don’t quote me on this!).

Links:

• Eva 2.0 at Glasgow film festival
• Eva 1.0 at Glasgow film festival
• Jonathan Clements blog entry

The first film will be introduced by BBFC examiner Emily Fussell, and there will be a short masterclass on anime certification between the two films.

In a recent interview one of the directors of Rebuild 2.0, Kazuya Tsurumaki, stated that they are aiming for a spring release of the DVD, with the mention of currently working on a retake (EDIT: as in touching up animation and possibly adding new scenes, not anything to do with the popular doujinshi series) for the DVD release.

There is still no word on a Blu-ray release, or any information about specific release details at this point.

• Min Nano Evafan blogpost (Japanese, possible spoiler images)

UPDATE: More news has come to light courtesy of the Project Eva blog. They are saying that the Blu-ray as well as DVD for 2.0 will be going on sale in spring next year. They also have further excerpts from the Tsurumaki interview where he talks about the different versions of the film.

• Project Eva blogpost (Japanese, possible spoiler images)

The 30 volume Evangelion Chronicle weekly magazine published by Sony Magazines will be getting a “revised edition” by De Agostini and will include 10 new volumes. The weekly releases of the reprint will start in January 19th of 2010. The first issue will have a special price of ¥ 390 while the remaining issues will be sold for ¥ 690. The new volumes (31-40) will include information about the “New Theatrical Version” of Evangelion, or what most fans call Rebuild. Also, like the original run of Evangelion Chronicle, the issues can be taken apart and put in a 3 ring binder. For the reprint, it seems the binder will be included with the first issue.

There’s only speculation of what will be different from the original printing, but most people will probably be more interested to see what ends up in the new volumes.

• Anime Anime
• De Agostini’s Evangelion Chronicle page
• Min Nano Evafan blogpost

The Evangelion Fender Guitars reported on in October have recently sold in an online auction for a combined total of ¥16,843,000.

With the bids starting at ¥500,000 on the 1st of December, the Telecaster eventually sold for ¥7,761,000 (US$88,258.70), and the Stratocaster sold for a staggering ¥9,082,000 (US$103,264.71).

• Stratocaster Auction site (Japanese)
• Telecaster Auction site (Japanese)

Pictured: Creator Yuriy Shishkov with the Telecaster