Ginza’s Evangelion exhibit is amazing! We are (not) surprised

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From August 7 through to the 26th, the Matsuya Department Store in Ginza held a large exhibit on their 8th floor, celebrating the creation and overwhelming success of the new Evangelion movie series. Over the span of 21 days more than 100,000 people went to see the exhibit featuring a large amount of original artwork used in the planning and production of the movies.

The exhibit was broken up into five sections: The history of Evangelion, the groundwork, the creation, a selection of drawings straight from the movies, and finally a store full of merchandise. Keep reading to learn more about this awesome display!

The history portion of the grand exhibit explored the various outlets in which the Evangelion story has been told, including pages from the manga.

The second section displayed the groundwork for making the movies by showing all of the steps involved in the animation process, all examples coming from the scene in the second movie where Shinji, Asuka, and Rei battle the 8th angel. There were approximately 1,000 images on display for this scene alone, including production sketches, time tables, and various views of the scenery. There was even a miniature model of the setting, which background artists used to capture proper perspective for the battle scene. It’s amazing to think that so much stuff was needed for just a few minutes of animation!

▼ City reference art for the battle with the eighth angel.

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The creation section of the exhibit was filled mainly drawings of the characters and the Eva units. However, the character sketches were not the most eye-catching items in this space. In the middle of the room, a life-size statue of Rei Ayanami was on display. Visitors were able to walk around the piece and view it from every angle.

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Still, the true highlight of the exhibit came in part four, where for the first time, original artwork from the Evangelion movies was put on display for the general public. Exactly 300 images were selected from the three movies thus far and made accessible to the fans. No wonder the display pulled in such a crowd!

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At the end of it all was an Evangelion gift shop and a special installation by the convenience store, Lawson. The merchandise on sale ranged from keychains to pencils, food, figurines and apparel. There were many items from the popular “Yurushito” product line (combination of the words yurushi and shito, literally translated to “forgiveness disciple”), where the angels are depicted as cute moe blobs. You could even buy Gendou Ikari’s official glasses! After getting hyped up on the exhibit, it must have been hard to leave without a good dozen purchases.

▼ Lawson convenience store on-site!

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Sadly, this exhibit has already come to an end, but it will be making its rounds all across Japan. The exhibit’s next stop is Fukuoka, followed by Nagoya, Osaka, Yokohama, and maybe others! And of course, there’s still one more movie for us all to look forward to! Fingers crossed for another amazing exhibit at the end of the series!

Source: Matome Naver (Japanese)
Images: Evangelion Exhibition on Facebook, Blue Diary 2

▼ Elevator up to the eighth floor for the exciting Evangelion Exhibit!

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