On Tuesday, Flag Pictures unveiled the main cast, staff, and official title—Kabuki Kōkyōkyoku Dai Kyū-ban Evangelion (Kabuki Symphony No. 9 Evangelion)—for the joint venture between Khara and Shochiku tied to the Evangelion franchise’s 30th anniversary celebration. This Kabuki production is slated for the Stage Area during the concluding third day of the “EVANGELION:30+; 30th ANNIVERSARY OF EVANGELION” event on February 23.
Additionally, Flag Pictures shared the striking key visual:
Stars include:
- Kabuki actors Kichitarō Kamimura
- Sakon Onoe as Shinji Ikari and Kaworu Nagisa
Staff members include:
- Kazuhisa Tobe as Director
- Kanjurō Fujima is in charge of choreography
- Fumihiko Yamada as Music Composer
Neon Genesis Evangelion stands as a landmark Japanese anime TV series created by Gainax and Tatsunoko Production under the direction of Hideaki Anno. It aired on TV Tokyo and its network affiliates between October 1995 and March 1996. The narrative unfolds in the year 2015, two decades following a global disaster, within the heavily defended metropolis of Tokyo-3. At its core is Shinji Ikari, a reluctant adolescent summoned by his estranged father, Gendo Ikari, to join the enigmatic Nerv agency. There, Shinji must take control of an Evangelion—a colossal bio-engineered robot—to battle and eradicate enigmatic entities called Angels.
Widely seen as a bold subversion of the mecha genre, the show probes deeply into the psychological struggles, feelings, and inner turmoil faced by the Evangelion pilots and Nerv personnel, forcing them to confront the root origins of their world’s chaos and the underlying drives of humanity. It weaves in symbolic elements drawn from Shinto mythology alongside esoteric Judeo-Christian motifs, such as those from Midrashic narratives and Kabbalistic lore. The exploration also prominently incorporates psychoanalytic theories on the psyche from figures like Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung.
Hailed by both reviewers and fans alike, Neon Genesis Evangelion is celebrated as a pinnacle of animation history. That said, its concluding pair of episodes sparked significant debate, with audiences often labeling the resolution as baffling and overly introspective. To address this, Gainax unveiled The End of Evangelion in 1997—a theatrical film offering an alternative conclusion, scripted and co-directed by Anno. From 2007 to 2021, the franchise expanded with the Rebuild of Evangelion tetralogy, a quartet of movies that reimagines the original storyline with altered developments and a fresh finale. Evangelion’s legacy extends far beyond its run, reshaping the anime landscape and inspiring countless subsequent projects. Merchandise spanning films, manga adaptations, home media, and more has shattered sales records in Japan while thriving internationally, amassing over ¥150 billion in revenue from related items by 2007, and Evangelion-themed pachinko games alone raking in ¥700 billion by 2015.
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