It would seem fans of the massive hit-anime Evangelion may get the chance to see the action on the big screen, as part 2 of the 4-part Rebuild series has a planned DVD/Blu-ray release on March 29th of next year, to be preceded by a small US theatrical release in January. According to Dark Horizons (by way of ANN) the release will be anywhere from 70 to 100 screens deep, so cross your fingers for a market near you.

Neon Genesis: Evangelion is one of the few animes I’ve watched in its entirety, and one of the very few I’ve enjoyed. I was still new to the genre when I saw it, so I wasn’t as tired of some the standard genre conventions at the time, but even still the series managed to take a standard anime set-up and cram it with an intense amount of unique mythology and mystery. The series is a cultural monolith in Japan, with a multi-media presence in Mangas, video games, merchandising, and even a theme park, while everything centers around the 26 episode series, and the two films. Now the Evangelion “Rebuilds” are retelling the story of the series across four feature length films, with an increasingly divergent plot-line that will bring another new ending to the series, along with tons of new footage (some of which exploits modern CG).

The second of these films was released last year in Japan, following the first film in 2007. While the first  is essentially a beat-for-beat retelling of the first batch of episodes (with some subtle changes), the second film apparently includes more modifications that lead the way towards the totally new ending. The films are supposed to be more accessible for unfamiliar audiences as well. I’ve not seen the first of the rebuilds (or the original series in many years), but there’s a ton of interesting imagery, story, and allusion for those that are willing to brave the genre and enjoy Biblical-scale apocalypse mythos. Keep in mind, this is a franchise WETA did a great deal of pre-visualization on for a huge scale live-action adaptation, which is something that will probably get off of the ground someday. Now might be a good time for the interested to hop into the franchise.

I’ll keep a lookout for the markets the film will show and share them with you, especially since I’d like to catch up and see it myself.