Evangelion’s New Official Travel Collab Sends Shinji and Friends on a Shinkansen School Trip
Image by Charlotte DavisEvangelion is teaming up with JR Central for a new official Shinkansen travel collaboration featuring an exclusive voice drama that sends the series’ pilots on a specially planned school trip.
The “JR Central x EVANGELION Tokaido Shinkansen Kansai Travel Plan” will run for more than three months, with Shinji, Rei, Asuka, Kaworu and Mari at the center of a new journey tied to the franchise’s ongoing 30th anniversary celebrations.
Neon Genesis Evangelion first aired in Japan in October 1995, with its 30th anniversary subsequently inspiring a huge range of exhibitions, screenings, merchandise releases and special events stretching across 2025 and 2026.
Among the biggest projects is “ALL OF EVANGELION,” a comprehensive exhibition tracing the series from the original television anime through to the Rebuild of Evangelion movies using animation cels, production materials and other items covering three decades of the franchise.
The exhibition originally opened in Tokyo during late 2025 and will now move to Osaka, where its latest run begins on the same day as JR Central’s new collaboration.
At the center of the travel campaign is an original voice drama titled “Kansai Travel Plan,” which can only be unlocked while travelling aboard the Tokaido Shinkansen.
The newly recorded story follows Misato Katsuragi and Ritsuko Akagi as they carry out advance research for a school trip intended to strengthen the bond between the Eva pilots.
Misato is once again voiced by Kotono Mitsuishi, with Yuriko Yamaguchi returning as Ritsuko for the exclusive recording.
The story revolves around exactly what Misato has planned for Shinji and the other pilots during their trip, giving passengers an original piece of Evangelion content created specifically for the JR Central campaign.
Access is tied directly to the journey itself, with passengers required to open the campaign site on their smartphone, enable location services, and complete a speed check while travelling aboard the Tokaido Shinkansen.
Once the required travelling speed has been detected, the voice drama becomes available for a limited period, although JR Central notes that access may not work in certain sections, including between Tokyo and Shin-Yokohama.
Passengers who listen to the voice drama can also obtain a limited-edition lenticular acrylic keychain created for the collaboration.
Claiming the bonus requires passengers to complete a short questionnaire after activating the onboard content, play the voice drama, and obtain a digital boarding certificate that can then be shown at one of the designated exchange locations in Osaka.
From October 18, 2026 through January 11, 2027, the keychain can be collected at the entrance to the “ALL OF EVANGELION” Osaka exhibition at Hirakata Park’s Event Hall.
The exchange point will then move to EVANGELION STORE OSAKA on the 11th floor of LUCUA SOUTH from January 12 through the end of the campaign on January 31.
The Osaka exhibition itself runs from October 18 through January 11, giving fans travelling from Tokyo and elsewhere along the Tokaido Shinkansen route the opportunity to combine the exclusive onboard story with the major anniversary retrospective.
JR Central is also bringing the collaboration back to Tokyo later in the campaign, with special Evangelion posters scheduled to appear inside the Nihombashi Exit ticket gates at Tokyo Station from December 9, 2026 through January 7, 2027.
The project follows another major anime collaboration from JR Central’s “Oshi Tabi” initiative, which recently transformed the pilots of Mobile Suit Gundam Wing into train conductors for the “OPERATION TOKAIDO” campaign.
Evangelion’s wider anniversary celebrations have already included the three-day “EVANGELION:30+; 30th ANNIVERSARY OF EVANGELION” festival at Yokohama Arena, which brought together exhibitions, concerts, stage events and the franchise’s first official Eva Kabuki production.
That festival is also being preserved through an upcoming Blu-ray Box scheduled for February 2027, extending the franchise’s anniversary projects beyond the end of the JR Central campaign.
The “JR Central x EVANGELION Tokaido Shinkansen Kansai Travel Plan” collaboration will run from October 18, 2026 through January 31, 2027, with the exclusive voice drama and acrylic keychain available during the full campaign period while supplies for the physical bonus last.
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