Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time

Background

*Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time* is the fourth and final film in the Rebuild of Evangelion tetralogy, which is based on the anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion, and follows up 2007’s Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone, 2009’s Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance, and 2012’s Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo. It also serves as the conclusion of the Evangelion series, which has spanned 25 years. It is once again being animated by Khara and features Hideaki Anno as chief director. The film’s theme song is “One Last Kiss” by Hikaru Utada.

The film was first announced under the working title Evangelion: Final and was slated to be released alongside Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo in 2008. However, due to a variety of circumstances including delays and troubled production of the other films, as well as director Anno taking on other projects in the meantime including a reboot of the Godzilla series, 3.0+1.0 was greatly delayed. Production of the film resumed in 2016 and a new release date of June 27, 2020 was set. However, the film was delayed again, this time due to concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic, first until January 2021 and then once more until March 8, 2021, when it officially premiered in Japan.

Since its release, the film has become the highest-grossing release in the franchise’s history, making over 6 billion yen in its first 21 days and setting the record for highest IMAX earnings on opening day in Japan.

Characters

Shinji Ikari (Voiced by: Megumi Ogata)
Shinji is the pilot of Eva Unit-01 and the main protagonist of the series. He is known as the Third Child. He is the son of Gendo and Yui. He was abandoned by his father shortly after an experiment resulted in his mother’s death but is later summoned by him to Tokyo-3 to fight against the Angels. He has a fragile emotional state due to his past and is conflicted about piloting Unit-01.

Rei Ayanami (Voiced by: Megumi Hayashibara)
Rei is the pilot of Eva Unit-00 and is known as the First Child. She is characterized by her lack of emotion and her flat tone when speaking. She is socially withdrawn and has little sense of presence. In truth, she is actually an artificial clone of Shinji’s mother, Yui Ikari, and is said to have the soul of the Second Angel Lilith inside her.

Asuka Langley Shikinami (Voiced by: Yuko Miyamura)
Asuka is the pilot of Eva Unit-02 and is known as the Second Child. She is considered a prodigy and has a prideful, hot-headed personality. She is part German, Japanese, and American.

Mari Illustrious Makinami (Voiced by: Maaya Sakamoto)
Mari is the pilot of Eva Unit-08 and is known as the Fourth Child. She is an expert pilot on par or possibly even better than Asuka. She likes to give nicknames to the other characters and calls Asuka "Princess" and Shinji "Puppy Boy." She is energetic, confident, and prideful.

Kaworu Nagisa (Voiced by: Akira Ishida)
Kaworu is known as the Fifth Child and the 17th Angel. He pilots Eva Unit-13 together with Shinji in Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo. It is revealed that like Rei he is an artificial being containing the soul of an Angel, in his case, Adam.

Misato Katsuragi (Voiced by: Kotono Mitsuishi)
A former operations director at NERV, in Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo Misato has become the leader of WILLE and works to destroy NERV and prevent the Fourth Impact.

Ritsuko Akagi (Voiced by: Yuriko Yamaguchi)
NERV’s head scientist who is also involved in the repair and maintenance of the Evas. She is extremely intelligent and highly dedicated to her work. She is stoic and cool-headed.

Gendo Ikari (Voiced by: Fumihiko Tachiki)
The commander of NERV and Shinji’s father. He plays a major role in the development and construction of the Evangelions and the Human Instrumentality Project.

Kozo Fuyutsuki (Voiced by: Motomu Kiyokawa)
Gendo’s right hand man and the second in command of NERV. He is a stoic leader who is capable of handling things in Gendo’s absence.

Koji Takao (Voiced by: Akio Ohtsuka)
A member of the WILLE organization and the AAA Wunder's engineer. He has a calm personality.

Hideki Tama (Voiced by: Anri Katsu)
A member of the WILLE organization who works as an engineer. He has a shy and serious personality.

Makoto Hyuga (Voiced by: Hiro Yuuki)
A First Lieutenant at NERV and one of the three main computer technicians in the command post of Central Dogma directly serving under Commanders Ikari and Fuyutsuki. He is highly skilled and brave. He acts as a spy for Misato and gathers information on NERV.

Midori Kitakami (Voiced by: Mariya Ise)
A member of the WILLE organization and a crew member aboard the AAA Wunder. She is in charge of sonar and radar and likes to put sticky notes all over the control panel.

Hikari Horaki (Voiced by: Junko Iwao)
The class representative of Class 2-A and Asuka’s best friend.

Ryoji Kaji (Voiced by: Koichi Yamadera)
A special inspector at NERV. He has a laid-back and calm personality and a good sense of humor even in dire situations.

Ryoji Kaji Jr. (Voiced by: Kouki Uchiyama)
Ryoji and Misato’s child.

Music

Theme Song: “One Last Kiss” by Hikaru Utada

• Portal Site (Japanese / English)

• Planning/Original Creator/Screenplay: Hideaki Anno
• Original Character Design: Takeshi Honda
• Chief Director: Hideaki Anno
• Director: Katsuichi Nakayama, Kazuya Tsurumaki, Mahiro Maeda
• Screenplay: Hideaki Anno
• Chief Animation Director: Atsushi Nishigori
• Animation Director: Atsushi Nishigori, Hidenori Matsubara, Moyoco Anno, Shigeto Koyama, Syuichi Iseki
• Design Work: Ikuto Yamashita, Toshiaki Ihara, Shigeto Koyama, Moyoco Anno, Takeshi Takakura, Takashi Watanabe
• Concept Art Director: Mahiro Maeda
• CGI Art Director: Hiroyasu Kobayashi
• 2D CGI Director: Kayoko Zama
• CGI Director: Daisuke Onizuka
• CGI Animation Director: Yusuke Matsui
• CGI Modeling Director: Manabu Kobayashi
• CGI Technical Director: Takashi Suzuki
• CGI Animation: Masanori Iwasato
• Video Inspection: Yasuhito Murata
• Color Design: Kazuko Kikuchi (Wish)
• Art Director: Tatsuya Kushida (Deho Gallery)
• Director of Photography: Toru Fukushi (T2 Studio)
• Special Effects Director: Toyonori Yamada
• Editing: Emi Tsujita
• Sound Effects: Toru Noguchi
• Recording: Makoto Sumiya
• Dialogue Direction: Yo Yamada (Sound Team Don Juan)
• Assistant to the Chief Director: Ikki Todoroki
• Executive Producer: Hideaki Anno, Tomoyuki Ogata
• Production General Producer: Takatoshi Okajima
• Animation Producer: Yuuki Sugitani
• Setting Producer: Hayato Tanaka
• Pre-Visualization Producer: Masanori Kawashima
• Production: Studio Khara
• Distribution: Toho, Toei, Khara