EVANGELION 30th Anniversary Short Gives Asuka the Ending She Deserves

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Let’s be honest, watching teenagers pilot giant robots isn’t as exciting as it used to be. This year marks the 30th anniversary of Neon Genesis Evangelion, which is a good reminder of how long some of us have been watching anime! It took me a decade to finally get around to it, making it feel like it’s been around forever. Over the years, the series has been revisited and reimagined several times – with alternate endings like End of Evangelion and a complete retelling in the Rebuild of Evangelion films (though ‘quadrilogy’ isn’t a real word!). Through it all, the characters face a lot of hardship, and Asuka arguably has it the worst.

To mark its 30th anniversary, Studio Khara released a new short film featuring both versions of the character Asuka. The video shows Asuka Langley Soryu from the original series and Asuka Shikiami Langley from the Rebuild films appearing on stage together. They talk about their disappointing endings, particularly the original Asuka’s, and how being strangled by the main character, Shinji Ikari, hasn’t held up well over time (via Polygon).

Here’s a short video clip. Since it’s in Japanese, you’ll need to enable captions and let YouTube automatically translate it to English. The translation isn’t flawless, but it’s good enough to understand what’s happening.

Once the story is established, we see a series of alternate scenarios exploring how Asuka’s life could have unfolded based on different decisions she made. This provides an interesting look at how the story’s direction is fluid, while still staying true to the creator Hideaki Anno’s core themes of self-discovery and, inevitably, hardship. While a completely happy ending might not feel genuine, a fulfilling one is still possible.

Yoko Taro, the creator of Nier, is offering a fresh perspective on the Evangelion story, and we’ll soon get a glimpse of it. Whether this new take will be beneficial for the character Asuka, or ultimately harmful, remains to be seen.

Kyle Anderson is a Senior Editor at TopMob and the host of the weekly podcast, Laser Focus, where he explores pop culture in depth. He also writes film and TV reviews, and you can find him on Letterboxd.

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2026-03-09 22:33