Evangelion 3.0+1.0 Preview

So, the Operation 0706 Live Stream, which was streamed live from the Japan Expo event in Paris, France, literally just ended. To recap the event, the first twenty minutes or so was a live show that featured Yoko Takahashi including her singing “Fly Me To The Moon”. Then Megumi Ogata appeared on stage to talk a bit, following what looked like a pre-recorded video of Hideaki Anno thanking everyone. They went back to the 3 on stage to talk a bit more about Evangelion and France, then the “main event” was on the big video screen, the preview of Evangelion 3.0+1.0.

The preview started out as a flashack of the previous 3 movies, set to Bach’s “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring”. Then we see what looks like the beginning of the actual 3.0+1.0 movie, with the Studio Khara, Toei Animation, King Records, etc cards.

Note that there will be spoilers from here on, including screenshots, so if you wanted to wait for the final movie without seeing anything at all, you’re going to want to stop here.

The movie opens in the middle of Paris, France. You can see the Eiffel Tower and some iconic buildings. Several battle ships float around the center of what looks like a platform with large device, and Evangelion Unit-08 strung above them. Everyone on the platform are wearing what looks like plugsuits because the area is “core-ified” and subject to L-barrier effects, and would thus be lethal. They’re all working on some operation on their laptops. A string of flying Mark 44A (Four-Two-A) Evas are about to attack them so Mari launches in Unit-08 and starts flying through the air and firing at them (we’ve seen a preview of this bit before). She eventually blows out her guns and starts to kick and punch them, eventually prevailing by bunching them all together and causing them to explode.

They were decoys for the “boss”, an Eva 4444C (Four-Four-C) with 44Bs feeding it power, which was hidden behind a cloaking cocoon. Ritsuko thinks it may be a test from Fuyutsuki. The 4444C has a tank-like appearance and it aims to take out the platform that everyone is frantically working on. They rearrange the floating ships to help shield the platform from the 4444C. It charges its cannon and fires on Wille, taking out several ships until finally Mari intervenes, taking the Eiffel Tower (which was knocked over during the fight) and slamming it into the cannon’s barrel. After the enemies are dealt with, the Wille crew are able to activate a giant sealing pillar with glowing runes on it, which clears all of the “red” from the center of the city and makes the air breathable again. The city and its defenses are restored, and buildings around the city center rise up from the ground (to loud cheers from the Paris audience). It’s a European branch of old Nerv, and Wille reveal the reason they came: to get Eva munitions and components for repairs. In addition to Eva parts, there’s also the main body and arms, and also possibly the hips and legs, of something called “JA-02”, which feels awfully familiar…

Below are some screenshots I took of the LINE stream. I don’t know how to make the gallery more compact than this. I’m sure there will be lots of video footage leaked onto the internet soon, I’ll add updates as they appear. UPDATE: that was fast