The driving force behind this team-up isn’t nuclear power or existential angst, but little metal balls.
Evangelion creator Hideaki Anno has always been an open and unabashed lover of kaiju cinema, and almost as soon as he was tapped as director for 2016’s Shin Godzilla, fans of the two franchises began daydreaming about the crossover potential.
And sure enough, a teaser video for a new Godzilla vs. Evangelion project has just been released. Though it’s not directed by Anno, there are still some impressive visuals of Eva Unit-01 doing battle with the King of the Monsters.
There are even two new theme songs being produced for P Godzilla vs. Evangelion-Awakening of the G Cells, as the project is called. The first, “Teardrops of hope,” is from Yoko Takahashi (singer of Evangelion opening theme “A Cruel Angel’s Thesis”) and the second is “Shuketsu no Hate ni” (“At the End of the Gathering”) by Megumi Hayashibara. Speaking of Hayashibara, the veteran voice actress will be reprising her role as Rei Ayanami, who seems to have somehow unwillingly fused with Godzilla’s arch nemesis Ghidorah and acquired some of the three-headed space dragon’s destructive powers, as she desperately warns Shinji to stay away.
That’s not the only combination, either, as the teaser video reveals that after Ghidorah arrives, Godzilla and Eva Unit-01 enter into an alliance which sees the bio-robot take on aspects of its new ally’s form.
Even Kaworu shows up, in his customary casually mysterious way, to help deal with the threat posed by the rampaging AT field-capable kaiju.
There is, however, a catch to all the cool robots-versus-monsters coolness. The P part of P Godzilla vs. Evangelion-Awakening of the G Cells stands for “pachinko.” All of this audio/visual fan service is for a new pachinko machine from manufacturer Fields, which will be debuting later this year, meaning that anyone who wants to see more of Godzilla and Unit-01 fighting against or alongside each other is going to have to have to head to a pachinko parlor to do so.
It’s a mixed bag reminiscent of the beautiful visual makeover that Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater got courtesy of a pachinko side project, though at least in this case both of P Godzilla vs. Evangelion-Awakening of the G Cells’ theme songs will be being released as singles, and there’s that G Cell Unit-01 figure from a while back too.
Source: YouTube/フィールズ株式会社 公式チャンネル via Jin, Mantan Web, King Record
Top image: YouTube/フィールズ株式会社 公式チャンネル
● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!