I unexpectedly got a knock on my door earlier and it was the mail man, with my copy of the Evangelion 2.22 “First Press” BluRay. I didn’t have much time to play around with the disc, but I managed to get some pictures on my mobile phone.

I ordered mine from CD Japan and was surprised it arrived almost halfway around the world so soon. I’m told that the CD Japan pre-orders gets you a bonus picture. It’s a little larger than postcard size, came inside a protected plastic sleeve and I got one of a close-up of Mari up close to Shinji’s face (shown in picture to the right), as seen in the 2.0 previews at the end of Evangelion 1.0. It’s a nice free gift, but it’s nothing special.

I opened everything up and the packaging is as to be expected. A folding dark blue case houses the black BluRay disc and on the other side, a slot for the accompanying booklet, a flyer, and most importantly, the film strip.

Contents of the 2.22 BluRay box

The film strip comes in a presentation sleeve almost identical to the one that came with the Limited Edition Evangelion 1.01 release. It opens up off-center with the Evangelion logo on the right and the film strip centered on the left.

The Folding BluRay case and the Film Strip

The film strip that I got features a plugsuited Asuka inside her Eva’s entry plug. I guess I couldn’t ask for anything more. Asuka in her plugsuit for 2.0’s film strip. Although I’m sure there are more coveted shots of Asuka from the film (or even ones of Rei) compared to what I got. I’m happy with it nonetheless. It’s hard to get a good picture of it because it needs to be backlit, and to make matters worse, I only have the camera on my mobile phone. Here’s a close-up of the film strip using my laptop’s screen as the backlighting.

Film Strip of Asuka

In case you’re wondering, that scene is from the beginning of the battle with Sahaquiel as the three Evas are running to intercept it.

Update (5/27): There’s a thread on aimix BBS where people are posting the film strips that they got.

Although the official release date for Evangelion 2.22, You can (not) advance, was slated at May 26th, some online retailers have shipped pre-orders of the DVD and BluRay. Rips of the DVD have already appeared online and hopefully, we can start seeing some pictures of the film strips soon. There’s a few new scenes so the old camrip subs need to be retimed and the new scenes translated (there were 3 major ones). It won’t be long now.

The R2 Japanese release of Evangelion 2.22, You can (not) advance, will be out in a few days (May 26th). Of course, it’s not going to have English subtitles. For those who want a hard media copy of 2.22 with English subtitles can pre-order a copy of the Hong Kong Region 3 release (BluRay Region A), which will also have a Cantonese audio track as well as Chinese subtitles, distributed by Asia Video with a release date of June 25th.

The packaging looks similar to the Japanese R2 release and there’s also limited edition versions of the DVD and BD available from Yes Asia. The Limited Edition releases of the BD comes with the 2.0 Theatrical Program, the DVD comes with projections (I assume you attach them to a flashlight to project an image), and both the DVD and BD will come with a bag and “secret” gifts. For those looking to import, these will come much cheaper than the Japanese releases setting you back by about $31 USD for the DVD ($37 for Limited Edition DVD) and $40 USD for the BluRay ($45 for Limited Edition BD). The DVD and BD will come with Dolby 6.1 and 2ch Japanese audio.

• Neo Vision’s blog on UWants (Chinese)
• Yes Asia HK Evangelion 2.22 Links: DVD (Limited Edition), BluRay (Limited Edition).

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)

Eva Extra, a free publication from Studio Khara (although 03 was sold in theatres), will have a seventh issue released on May 26th, 2010, which looks to be released in conjunction with the release of Evangelion 2.22 (DVD and BluRay). It will be in A5 format with 24 pages, full color, contains some illustrations by Kazuya Tsurumaki and will be distributed in various stores the Evangelion 2.22 DVD/BD are sold and at Animate.

• Khara Web Blog
• Eva Extra at Evangelion.co.jp

The June 2010 issue of NewType features Mari Illustruous Makinami in her plugsuit on the cover and comes with a set of “Weiß Schwarz” cards and a deck of Evangelion playing cards that feature images from the new films. There’s also an interview with Maaya Sakamoto, Mari’s voice actress, and Kazuya Tsurumaki.

Tsurumaki/Sakamoto Interview

“Weiß Schwarz” is a Japanese trading card game (turn-based dueling) created by Bushiroad, separated by the “Weiß” (White) side and “Schwarz” (Black) side. The White and Black sides are featured by characters popular to males and females (respectively).

A Rei Ayanami Weiß Card

The NewType playing cards are separated by suits. Images of Asuka are on each of the diamond suits, Rei on hearts, Shinji on clubs, and the spades suit cards has images of Mari and Kaworu. (Click on “Read the rest of this entry” to see some pictures)
Read the rest of this entry »

The Noguchi version screening of 2.22 occurred in Hakone yesterday, and one of the Evangelion blogs discussed the new additions to the film.

Spoilers in the rest of this post!
Read the rest of this entry »

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.

• ANN article
• Another ANN article

The Evangelion pachislo game “Locus of the Soul” will be released for both the PSP and the DS on 6/03/2010.

(pachislo is essentially pachinko with additional slot machine components)

• Evangelion: Locus of the Soul on PSP
• Evangelion: Locus of the Soul on DS

Some images of the new BD/DVD release of Evangelion 2.22, You can (not) advance, have popped up. It looks to be near identical to the first limited edition release of Evangelion 1.01, with a folding disc case that comes with a booklet and filmstrip that all fits into a box. However, unlike the 1.01 Limited Edition release, this will only come with 1 disc. And it will be orange instead of red. “First Press” editions of 2.22 will come with the filmstrip, although there’s no word on exactly how many of those there are on the different retailer websites that one can pre-order 2.22 from. If you haven’t already pre-ordered by now, it may be too late for a film strip, but that’s just a guess.

Image source from CD Japan

• CD Japan Evangelion 2.22 BD
• CD Japan Evangelion 2.22 DVD