Studio Khara’s fan work guidelines want artists to keep it at least a little classy.

It’s less than a month until the release of Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time, the long-awaited fourth installment in the Rebuild of Evangelion anime movie series. Eva creator Hideaki Anno is promising that this will be the final, for-real-this-time conclusion to the entire franchise, but anyone with a knowledge of the otaku community knows Thrice Upon a Time won’t be the last time we see Shinji, Rei, and the rest of the cast, thanks to the sure-to-come avalanche of Evangelion fan art and dojinshi comics as the new film re-sparks interest in the series..

Even Eva rights holder Studio Khara acknowledges that fan works are an inevitability, and is taking an accommodating approach by giving fan artists a list of guidelines. “These guidelines were created for people wishing to enjoy creating fan works based on the Evangelion series, which our company [Khara] holds the copyright to,” reads the opening to the statement, posted to Khara’s website. “The rules were created so that fans can securely create fan art and other works, so please understand them while enjoying creative activities.”

▼ Trailer for Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time

Many of the specified terms are pretty standard. For example, the guidelines specify that it’s OK for individuals to post fan art to their personal social media accounts, commercial use of fan art is not allowed without clearance from Khara. The guidelines also ask “Please create fan works while understanding and respecting the original work [Evangelion], and also while respecting and understanding the exiting fan community.”

The real eyebrow-raiser, though, comes in a section that says “Please refrain from posting the following,” with one item being “Posting Evangelion fan works that are specifically for pornographic purposes.”

Of course, the “specifically” part gives fan artists some wiggle room if they want to draw the Eva cast slipping into skin-tight plugsuits, sharing a bathtub, or any of the other potentially suggestive situations that take place in the series, just as long as you don’t get too carried away, and if ever there was a series that understands that some people can derive sexual excitement even without an explicitly sexy atmosphere, it’s Eva.

Source: Studio Khara via Otakomu
Images: YouTube/株式会社カラー khara inc.official
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