The irony
has just reached unsuspected levels in the anime industry. In an attempt to
protect their exclusive content from piracy, the creators of the
legendary Neon Genesis Evangelion franchise ended up handing
over the high-definition master file to the violators themselves. Studio
Khara issued a public apology on March 7 after making a blunder when
issuing copyright claims, unleashing a wave of content that flooded the network
in a matter of hours.
It all goes back to the recent festival for the 30th anniversary of the 1995 series, held at the end of February in Yokohama. Attendees at the event were treated to an exclusive 13-minute short film starring Asuka, set at the Hakone Yumoto Performance Theater. Initially, this material was a one-time gift to those present and there were no plans to publish it anywhere else.
Neon
Genesis Evangelion Short Details
As
expected, some attendees secretly recorded the material and the blurred leaks began
to circulate quickly. To stop the spread, the studio began issuing strikes on
various platforms. However, due to human error and a lack of understanding
about how the claim process works on certain sites, Khara's team ended up
attaching the official file in impeccable quality directly into the emails sent
to the people they were reporting.
Instead of
getting the poor quality recordings removed, they were given the perfect
version, causing the short film to spread like wildfire during the early hours
of this Saturday.
The
unexpected victory for the fandom
Studio
Khara acted quickly to remove the shared files from its system and investigate
the root of the crash, promising to improve its protocols. At the same time,
they published an extensive apology addressed to the fans, the team involved
and the attendees who paid to see the material at the original festival.
But instead
of starting an impossible hunt against the internet, the company made a
brilliant decision. To compensate for the accident and, incidentally, celebrate
the fifth anniversary of the last film in the saga released in 2021, the studio
announced that it will release the short film completely free of charge
worldwide. The official premiere will occur at midnight on March 8 (Japan
time), so the material will be legally available in a matter of hours.
What is
this new material about?
The short film allows us to delve into Asuka's thoughts during absolutely pivotal moments in the original story, encompassing events of global impact such as the Instrumentalization and the dreaded Third Impact. True to the nostalgia of the franchise, the video also includes a very familiar song taken from one of the classic films of the saga.
