Neon Genesis Evangelion still stands as one of the best anime to ever come from Japan. The series remains a classic to this day, and its move to Netflix helped its fandom rise to the forefront of the community awhile back. Of course, the heightened attention is a boon for Studio Khara who holds the rights to Evangelion, but the company would really appreciate it if fans would stop drawing lewd art of its heroes.
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Recently, Studio Khara made this request known when it published a set of guidelines for fan-art. The book was created so that fans can “create fan art with peace of mind”, and many of the notes makes sense. Of course, fans are not meant to make projects made for commercial use, but Studio Khara has also told fans to stop making any hentai or eromanga involving its characters.
According to the guide, Khara says fan-works of Evangelion cannot promote any sort of bigotry, political alignment, or racism. The artwork cannot be too violent either, and in tandem with that rule, the Evangelion tributes cannot be pornographic in nature.
Of course, this last issue is an interesting one as Evangelion has long dealt with lewd fan-art and fan-works. Artists in Japan and worldwide have drawn doujinshi with Evangelion characters taking part in some seriously NSFW events. Whether it is animated or not, Evangelion porn can be found online easily thanks to fan-artists, and Studio Khara would very much like that to stop being the case.
There is no telling whether Studio Khara will enforce these guidelines or how it may do so. After all, fan-art is hard to control given how widespread the Internet is. There are hundreds if not thousands of places to share the kind of content that Evangelion would like to go without. This issue is made even more difficult given the popularity of doujinshi in Japan and its rising relevance in fandoms around the world. But if you ever thought about making this kind of NSFW content for Evangelion, well – you may want to reconsider.
What do you make of these new guidelines? Do they sit well with you? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB.
