Evangelion 3.0 + 1.0 Character Designs Surface Online

Neon Genesis Evangelion has been pushed back into the public consciousness due to its worldwide release on Netflix recently, but it's been on the back burner of many fans' minds ever since the series originally came to an end. Thanks to a series of films released after the anime series, fans have been hanging on for news for the fourth film in the franchise for a long, long time. But now it seems like everything is coming together.

Evangelion fans have seen a lot more of Evangelion 3.0 + 1.0 in the last few weeks than they have in years, and now a new batch of character designs have popped up online. As spotted by @Spytrue on Twitter, fans now have a closer look at Ritsuko Akagi and Maya Ibuki in the new film. Check it out below!

Evangelion 3.0+1.0 character reference sheets. pic.twitter.com/osukttWLmS

— SPY (@Spytrue) July 11, 2019

This closer look at Ritsuko and Maya reveals a better look at their new plugsuit- esque get ups. This isn't too much of a surprise given that the recent 10 minute preview for the film shared during Japan Expo 2019 revealed that pretty much everyone in the crew is getting a plugsuit of their own as the conflict has seemingly reached new heights.

There's still no concrete release date for the new film outside of the vague 2020 release window, but seeing so much of the film has been entirely welcome from fans. The fourth film has seemingly been left in development limbo for a long time, and as recently as last year has finally started to kick production into high gear. Now that the film is proceeding along, fans have gotten the first teaser poster and an extended preview of the new work that certainly paints another dramatic adventure to come.

Neon Genesis Evangelion is a psychological drama by way of giant monster versus mech anime. The franchise debuted as a television series in 1995-1996 with two films following in 1997. Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death & Rebirth is an one-part drastically abridged retelling of the first 24 episodes of the television series, and one part new animation. The End of Evangelion, the second film, would incorporate some of Death & Rebirth's original animation and offer an alternate take on the original series' controversial final two episodes.

The series follows Shinji Ikari, who is recruited by his father to pilot the giant mech Evangelion in the fight against giant monsters known as Angels in the futuristic city of Tokyo-3. But Shinji is unwilling to bear this huge responsibility and is often conflicted about taking part in a war he was dragged into. This conflict of emotions leads to many introspective episodes that cover the range of religious, philosophical, and existential concepts.