The Neon Gensis Evangelion 30 Years Announcement

With the Pokémon 30th anniversary this week - well honestly I didn't think anything would draw my attention away from it. Its a huge moment for Pokémon trainers every where and also for Mystic Grove itself. However, this Neon Gensis Evangelion announcement hit, and I do mean it hit hard.

At first there was levels and levels of excitement boiling in my person. The same excited I use to get at a new movie announcement. But now that I've had a few days to sit in it..... I am.... uneasy? I remember watching Thrice upon a time and feeling so much joy at the end. Our story was finally wrapped up. Shinji made it. He wasn't alone anymore. He had a life to look forward to. We have moved passed all the existential despair that had clouded Shinji's life. It felt like a chapter had closed. I had spent the past 25+ years watching and waiting. I grew up with Shinji, I connected with Shinji and grew with Anno. 

ANNO.

I think a large part of the unease that I feel does have to do with Anno. Can we revisit Eva without Anno? Can Eva be Eva, without Anno. How do we go backwards in a story that just gave us such closer? Especially without Anno. 

I will say - the announcement video - all 1 minute and 48 seconds of it - looks lovely. I've seen all the things about how it will be a Shinj/Asuska story. That on many levels adds to the uneasy. Will there be enough difference and distance in this story that it doesn't feel like its just a cash grab - or like it is undoing the past decade of Eva?

I guess we just wait to see. I'm sure more news will come out sooner than later... and I'll have more thoughts then.