Celebrating its 30th TV anime anniversary and still riding high on popularity, Neon Genesis Evangelion recently saw a theatrical re-release of all six films in Japan. The first movie, "Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion," screened from October 24th to 30th, drawing enthusiastic support from fans.
Recently, khara's official X account dropped four priceless original art cels from the classic "Neon Genesis Evangelion" era. But fans did a double-take—one cel seemed to feature a sketch of none other than Crayon Shin-chan! The internet immediately blew up.
During the theatrical re-release, khara's official account also spilled some behind-the-scenes tea from back in the day, quoting Kazuya Tsurumaki: "The production system for the movie changed significantly then. Many top-tier animators from Production I.G, skilled in realistic action animation, joined, which massively boosted the visual quality. I looked forward to seeing the original art every day, and I couldn't help but chuckle to myself when I saw them."
This text came with four original art photos—and lo and behold, beneath the cel depicting "Unit-02 walking," a faint character sketch resembling Crayon Shin-chan was visible!
The post immediately sent fans into a frenzy: "Crayon Shin-chan snuck into an EVA cel?!" "Shin-chan, you're in the wrong anime!" "He never appeared in EVA, this is such a mystery lol."
Eagle-eyed netizens quickly pointed out: "That's probably from the 1997 'Dad's the Bath Monitor' episode (animation director: Yoshiho Higuchi). He also worked at Production I.G, so it makes sense."
Others dug up even more connections: "Animators Takayuki Yokose and Shinobu Tsuruga appeared in the credits for both EVA and Crayon Shin-chan!" So, this sketch popping up here isn't all that surprising, huh?
In other words, this mysterious "Shin-chan in EVA cel" moment was likely a fun little anecdote from when Production I.G was juggling multiple projects back in the day.
This "Shin-chan in EVA" incident not only had nostalgic fans cracking up but also shed light on that era of anime production where animators from different studios often lent a hand to each other.
But hey, if Shin-chan *really* showed up in the EVA universe... that wouldn't be so bad, would it? XD