Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time
is a 2021 Japanese animated epic science fiction film co-directed and written by Hideaki Anno. Produced by Studio Khara, it is the fourth and final film in the Rebuild of Evangelion film series, part of the Neon Genesis Evangelion franchise.
After a protracted development and multiple delays, Thrice Upon a Time was released on March 8, 2021, and received critical acclaim, with praise given to the screenplay, animation, directing, themes, production design, voice-performances, emotional weight and satisfactory closures and answers. The film also was a box-office success, becoming the highest-grossing film of the franchise and the second-highest-grossing Japanese film of 2021 at. It was released internationally on August 13 the same year via the Amazon Prime Video streaming service. On June 17, 2022, it was announced that GKIDS had acquired the North American rights to the film. The film was released to theaters in December 2022 and on home video in October 2023.
Plot
In Paris, young crewmembers from the WILLE organization, led by Maya Ibuki, work to restore the city and its defensive systems. Upon being attacked by NERV forces, they are defended by the Wunder fleet and Mari Illustrious Makinami in Unit-08. Mari defeats the attackers, and WILLE restores Paris.Asuka Langley Shikinami, Rei Ayanami and a still despondent Shinji Ikari are walking across the outskirts of Tokyo-3, arriving at a settlement of survivors where they encounter Toji Suzuhara, Hikari Horaki and Kensuke Aida, now adults. Toji is a doctor and has a child with Hikari, while Kensuke is a technician. As Shinji slowly recovers from his ordeals, Rei settles into the village working as a farmer, finding happiness. Shinji meets Ryoji Kaji Jr., the son of Misato Katsuragi and the late Ryoji Kaji, who died averting Third Impact. Rei, lacking the constant exposure to LCL fluid required to stay alive, says goodbye to Shinji before dissolving away.
Wunder arrives to pick up Asuka and Shinji, the latter being placed in isolation. Meanwhile, Kozo Fuyutsuki helps Gendo Ikari restart Unit-13. In response, Wunder heads to Antarctica. Before the mission, Asuka and Shinji reconcile: Asuka admits her feelings for Shinji, while Shinji apologizes to Asuka for being indecisive in saving her from the Ninth Angel fourteen years ago.
Wunder is attacked by three NERV ships and a swarm of EVA units. Asuka and Mari sortie and move to destroy Unit-13 before it can reactivate. However, Unit-02 refuses to attack Unit-13, forcing Asuka to remove her eyepatch, revealing the Ninth Angel contained within, converting Unit-02 into an EVA-Angel hybrid like Shinji's Unit-01. Unit-13 overpowers and absorbs Unit-02 according to Gendo's plan. Moments before being absorbed, Asuka is approached by her "original", revealing she is a clone of the Shikinami series. Meanwhile, Wunder is attacked by a new EVA, Unit-09A.
In the NERV vessel restraining Wunder, Misato and Ritsuko Akagi confront Gendo. Ritsuko shoots him to no effect, as Gendo has used the Key of Nebuchadnezzar to transcend humanity. He reveals that the purpose of the Shikinami and Ayanami clones was to enact the Human Instrumentality Project, SEELE's conspiracy to force human evolution, and enters Unit-13. Shinji asks Misato to let him pilot Unit-01; Sakura and Midori Kitakami try to stop Shinji, blaming him for the Near Third Impact, but Misato protects him and is shot in the process. Misato reminds everyone of Shinji's heroism and that he should be forgiven. Mari takes Unit-08 and merges it with Units 09A through 12. Inside Unit-01, Shinji fondly reunites with the original Rei, who gives him control.
Gendo and Shinji fight in a surreal "Anti Universe", and Gendo shows Shinji the "Black Lilith" that he will use to initiate the "Additional Impact". Shinji sees into Gendo's past experiences, including how Yui's loss traumatized him. As a result, Gendo wanted this "Additional Impact" for a chance to reunite with Yui. Meanwhile, Misato evacuates the crew of Wunder and sacrifices herself and the ship to create the "Lance of Gaius", which gives Shinji the power to rewrite the world. Shinji talks with and provides closure to Gendo; to Asuka, he returns her feelings; with Kaworu Nagisa, he discovers the existence of a cycle the story's cast is trapped in. Kaworu also talks with a resurrected Kaji, who helps him understand that his own happiness shall not be tied to Shinji's.
Shinji says farewell to Rei, deciding upon a complete reset of the world where everyone can live normal lives without EVAs: a "Neon Genesis". Gendo and Yui sacrifice themselves to spare Shinji from doing so himself, bringing back all humans and animals transformed in the Near Third Impact and restoring the world. Shinji waits on a beach until Mari appears, during which her Evangelion becomes the last to disappear. The former pilots and Kaworu are all later seen at a train station, where Shinji and Mari run off in the real world.
Cast
| Character | Japanese | English |
| Shinji Ikari | Megumi Ogata Ryunosuke Kamiki | Spike Spencer |
| Asuka Langley Shikinami | Yūko Miyamura | Tiffany Grant |
| Rei Ayanami | Megumi Hayashibara | Amanda Winn-Lee |
| Misato Katsuragi | Kotono Mitsuishi | Allison Keith |
| Gendo Ikari | Fumihiko Tachiki | John Swasey |
| Mari Illustrious Makinami | Maaya Sakamoto | Deneen Melody |
| Sakura Suzuhara | Miyuki Sawashiro | Felecia Angelle |
| Ritsuko Akagi | Yuriko Yamaguchi | Mary Faber |
| Kaworu Nagisa | Akira Ishida | Daman Mills |
| Toji Suzuhara | Tomokazu Seki | Brett Weaver |
| Kensuke Aida | Tetsuya Iwanaga | Alejandro Saab |
| Hikari Suzuhara | Junko Iwao | Kimberly Yates |
| Maya Ibuki | Miki Nagasawa | Amy Seeley |
| Kozo Fuyutsuki | Motomu Kiyokawa | Michael Ross |
| Ryoji Kaji Sr. | Kōichi Yamadera | Sean Burgos |
| Midori Kitakami | Mariya Ise | Bijou Vann |
| Shigeru Aoba | Takehito Koyasu | Jaxon Lee |
| Makoto Hyuga | Hiro Yuuki | Joe Fria |
| Yui Ikari | Megumi Hayashibara | Amanda Winn-Lee |
| Ryoji Kaji Jr. | Kōki Uchiyama | |
| Kohji Takao | Akio Otsuka | Jake Eberle |
| Hideki Tama | Anri Katsu | Scott Golden |
| Sumire Nagara | Sayaka Ohara | Rebeka Thomas |
New character
Production
Early development and delays
The film was announced alongside Evangelion: 3.0 You Can Redo for release in 2008 as the final part of the Rebuild series under the working title Evangelion: Final. After delays of the first three films, production on Evangelion: Final formally started in 2009, with a release date expected in 2015. However, in 2014, following the troubled production of the third film, director and producer Hideaki Anno became depressed and announced that the film would be further delayed to an unknown date, stating publicly in 2015 that he could not work on another film. As part of his recovery, Anno had also worked on Studio Ghibli's The Wind Rises under his mentor Hayao Miyazaki. Toho also approached Anno with an offer to direct a reboot of its Godzilla film series, Shin Godzilla, which also contributed to the delay on 3.0+1.0. Getting Toei and Toho in the same film had been a long-standing dream of Anno's. After Anno formally apologized, animation director Takeshi Honda stated that the last film had resumed development after the production of Shin Godzilla ended in late 2016, with Studio Khara tweeting on April 5, 2017, that development was going smoothly.In May 2018, the studio put out a job listing for animation staff to work on 3DCG, VFX, and 2D animation starting on June 30, 2018. Animation was going through the final check by October 2, 2020. Dialogue recording wrapped on November 19, 2020. On December 16, 2020, Studio Khara announced that compositing and editing work had finished.
Financial troubles also played a part in the film's delays. In 2014, Anno's Studio Khara loaned his former company Studio Gainax ¥100 million. In 2016, Anno filed a claim for debt collection, fearing not only for the return of the money but also because of Gainax selling production materials to third parties, after a precedent of other sales of intellectual property without informing him. This was part of several legal issues surrounding Gainax and Evangelion.
Development
Anno was very reluctant to return to work on the film in 2016. In 2018, Anno had asked for the opinion of voice actors like Megumi Ogata on how to move the plot forward after 3.0, as he felt he could no longer understand Shinji, and by now, his current self was closer to Gendo than Shinji, and needed Ogata's input on how Shinji could recover after the events of 3.0. Anno felt that at that point the only people who could understand Shinji's feelings were Ogata herself and his personal assistant, Ikki Todoroki. Anno himself had intended to go to Paris for Japan Expo 2019, but the film's continuing delays in production prevented him. Anno had often visited the film's music composer Shirō Sagisu, who lives half the year in Paris, and wished to pay homage to the city in the opening 10 minutes of the movie, entitled AVANT1, seeking to surpass his earlier depiction in Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water. At the event, Ogata also recounted Anno had asked what ending she preferred "as Shinji". AVANT1+2, including a further 2 minutes of the opening sequence, was also streamed on Khara's YouTube channel and Japanese Amazon Prime Video for free for two weeks.Dialogue for Parts A and B, set after AVANT, started recording in March 2019. As there were several changes to the plot, many voice actors had to come back and record lines again. In 2020, due to the pandemic restrictions, production slowed down further and recording was mostly done by the voice actors separately as many dozens of takes were necessary: Ogata first notified the recording as almost finished in February 2020, but as production slowed down, staff began retouching several aspects of the film, and Ogata later noted recording to be finished in November 2020. The voice actors organized themselves through a Line group. This created a bond between the cast that was unprecedented in previous productions. At the end of recording, Anno thanked the cast for their contributions. Yūko Miyamura, who played Asuka, was instructed to treat her character as completely separate from the series' Asuka Langley Soryu, and the last thing asked of her was to write the character's full name in cursive herself to be used in the movie. She had lived in Australia for the past two decades, but was still unsure of how to write "Langley". Miyamura expressed her surprise at Anno's behavior near the end of production, in contrast to his behavior during the making of End of Evangelion: "Anno-san is amazing. He has become an adult".
Anno sought to bring in new talent and people outside the usual Evangelion core crew, like Darling in the Franxx creator Atsushi Nishigori, a protégé of his, while other core staffers like chief editor Masayuki largely stepped down in order to allow new talents to gain more experience. In addition, the series' original character designer, Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, has had diminishing involvement since 3.0, and the new character designs are mostly done by Hidenori Matsubara. Anno had long stated his wish to revitalize the anime industry, and saw the sponsorship of new creators as a prime way of achieving this, as well as the promotions of events backed by Studio Khara like the Japan Animator Expo. Director Mahiro Maeda recounted Anno wanted him to figure out specific details of the plot on his own when asked. Similarly to production in the series, Anno would take ideas from staffers but have the final word in plot decisions. Anno had also been an advocate of employing new and innovative animation technologies, combined with extensive use of motion capture and computer-generated imagery, and employed them in the film. Maeda and others noted nonetheless that Anno seemed to be directing the film more like a live action film than animation, including in the way he directed the voice actors, taking cues from theatre techniques, after his previous experience outside Evangelion, despite the staff's own limited experience, something he had previously attempted in Cutie Honey. He thought Anno "wanted to get out of here the most", but expressed his feelings in film sincerely.
Director Kazuya Tsurumaki details Anno wanted to try a new process for the film. Instead of first creating storyboards and then developing the animation based on them as is traditional, Anno proposed to first draw the animation cels and then draw the scenes from them. This technique was generally referred to by staff as "pre-visualization". He was once more inspired from the usual process in live action, where scenes are first shot from multiple angles and then stories are created and then selected during editing. The latter half of the film, however, progressively returned to the traditional anime style. Tsurumaki noted the original intention was that "the first 80%" of the Rebuild series would be a "compilation" of the original anime series, and the changes would only start with the last film, in keeping with earlier comments in 2006 by producer Toshimichi Ohtsuki regarding the intention that only the ending would be a major departure from the series, as staff felt End of Evangelion could not receive a sequel, and the Rebuild movies were not going to be "metaphysical" like the original anime, but rather "oriented towards entertainment". In 2006, Anno also stated in an interview that 2.0 and 3.0. a two-parter including a new-finale akin to End of Evangelion, would both be released by 2008. Again he revealed his Gundam inspiration, specifically from Zeta Gundam New Translation, which had itself received a compilation/remake at around the same time.
This eventually changed, and major changes started happening as early as Evangelion: 2.0 You Can Advance. He also noted that the previously stated goal of "destroying Evangelion" through the character of Mari was entrusted to an external party. Anno would ask the opinion of many parts of staff, including those not involved in the actual film like office staff for their opinions on several nuances. Anno's wife Moyoco Anno provided early designs for some characters. Studio Ghibli also provided assistance to scenes set in the survivor's village. For the village itself, Khara had a box model custom-built to orientate the artists, and Anno personally adjusted it to the smallest details like individual house layout, with road and utility posts to make it as realistic as possible. Staff consulted with multiple professionals and conducted research like sky-diving for maximum accuracy.
A making-of documentary aired on Japanese broadcaster NHK on March 22, 2021, with the crew following production for 1214 days. BS Japan also broadcast an extended version of the documentary on April 29, 2021, totaling 100 minutes of runtime, featuring unused footage. Amazon Prime Video included the extended version of documentary in its international release of the film in August. When production started in 2016, Anno initially intended to not involve himself much in the film, wishing to delegate most of it to his directors, particularly Tsurumaki, generally considered Khara's second-in-command, but as the release date approached with mounting production problems he progressively took more control and took on more tasks directly, also driven by his perfectionism. Maeda was also not initially serving as a director, but was brought in the middle of production. Kim Morrisy of Anime News Network described it as tumultuous: "There were several occasions shown when he decided that the work he had done at the time was insufficient and would scrap it entirely. The D part of the script was eventually completed in early 2019, at the latest possible stage it could have been done to meet the deadline."
In the documentary, Anno is depicted as frequently late or absent from the studio, or would often stay overnight adjusting individual scenes he was unsatisfied with. Part A had been rewritten 40 times due to the difficulty staff had in depicting it, and at one point Anno was so lost on how to resolve the storylines he considered restarting it from scratch after nine months of work. Anno told the documentary crew he would not miss working on the franchise and said everything he needed to, but felt finishing his work remained a priority, even at the expense of his well-being. He told Ogata later at post-production that he would indeed miss it. Hayao Miyazaki described Anno as "one who sheds blood for his films". Upon finishing production, Anno preferred to immediately start work on a script for a new production while his staff was watching the first screening together. Gainax co-founder Toshio Okada criticized the documentary as "sloppy" and "propaganda" trying to make Anno look better, claiming Anno's live-action approach in fact took inspiration from Hiroyuki Yamaga's work in Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise instead of being sui generis as the documentary implied, and Anno noted the crew was in fact not present during the highly intense production of Part D for several months, nor did it cover him thanking the staff at the end.
On March 28, 2021, the cast was fully reunited for the first time in 14 years and held a stage greeting, commenting on the film and their bond to the characters. On April 12, 2021, directors Anno, Tsurumaki and Maeda, as well as Ogata, held another stage greeting. On June 26, 2021, Anno held a live stream on singer Hikaru Utada's Instagram page, and debated the film. The cast and directors also participated in the All Night Nippon radio show on June 22, 2021. On June 27, 2021, another cast greeting was held. Mari's voice actress Maaya Sakamoto explained she had been absent from the previous events because she felt apprehensive over the details she knew about Mari's character that Anno told her, but refused to share them: "I will take secrets to my grave". A last stage greeting was held on July 11, 2021. Anno felt he had now done everything he could with anime, and accordingly Khara denied reports that he was working on a reboot of a popular animation series. He also noted he initially attempted a shorter two hour runtime, but had to extend it.
Anno had originally intended on making a new Evangelion story since 2000 and has intended to open up the franchise in the future to new creators and turn Eva into a "new Gundam", using the Rebuilds as a foundation for this, but 3.0+1.0 is intended to be his final Evangelion work. The Animator Expo already featured three independent works based on the franchise: Evangelion – Another Impact and Neon Genesis IMPACTS, as well as until You come to me, a short film intended to showcase the talent of younger Khara animators, not as an official trailer. In an interview in August 2021, Anno stated other parts of the franchise and story might be revisited later. Staff also commented on doubts over this being the "end of the story". On the film's first anniversary on March 8, Khara held a livestream of the film and included a Q&A session with Anno and other staff reaffirming his future plans.