The 'Evangelion' Bullet Train Ending Its Run In 2018

Nearly two and a half years after its debut, the Japanese high-speed bullet train decked out as a promotional vehicle for Neon Genesis Evangelion is ending its run this spring.

As reported by Crunchyroll, the Type 500 Eva bullet train was first unveiled in 2015 with both exterior and interior features from the Evangelion Unit-01 vehicle. The train's body style had the general design of the EVA-01 while the seats and train cars were designed to emulate NERV hallways. There was even a lead train car where passengers could participate in a mock Angel attack exercise, the car's interior simulating an Eva cockpit.

The special train was originally meant to run from November 2015 to spring 2016 but was so overwhelmingly popular with the public that the promotional campaign was extened an additional 18 months simply to accommodate the unexpected volume of riders for the train's Hakata to Shin-Osaka route. The train will stop service at the end of May, with the Kyoto Railway Museum holding an exhibition on the Type 500 Eva train starting in February and running through May 6th.

For those unfamiliar, the train was part of celebration of both the 40th anniversary of the Sanyo Shinkansen train line's completion as well as the 20th anniversary of the popular Japanese anime series. Neon Genesis Evangelion is a Japanese anime that gained worldwide popularity since its debut in 1995 and is set in a post-cataclysm world where 14-year-old boys and girls are recruited to pilot humanoid bio machines known as Evangelion to combat the mysterious enemies called Angels. The original Neon Genesis Evangelion series ran from October 4, 1995 to March 27, 1996 with the 1997 film, The End of Evangelion, serving as an ending for the series.