Studio Khara Releases Evangelion 30th Anniversary Short Following Leaks
Studio Khara has officially made the new Evangelion 30th Anniversary anime short available to the public, two weeks after it first aired at a festival dedicated to the series.
Neon Genesis Evangelion is a hugely popular science fiction anime series that originally began broadcasting in 1995 and became a massive social phenomenon due to its complex narrative and innovative mechanical designs.
The new short anime was aired during the final day of a 30th-anniversary festival held in Japan from February 21 to 23, 2026, and the team teased that this new footage would eventually be delivered to fans in some form outside of this special screening.
Now, to coincide with the exact fifth anniversary of the theatrical premiere of Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time on March 8, Studio Khara has finally made the short available to the general public.
Franchise creator Hideaki Anno personally handled the planning, scriptwriting, and general supervision for this new project.
Essential series creators Kazuya Tsurumaki, Shinji Higuchi, and Ikki Todoroki are also credited as supervisors for the short film.
Naoyuki Asano, who previously served as an animation director for the final cinematic installment, directed the new animation.
The short film prominently features the fan favorite character Asuka as the main protagonist and has a runtime of approximately 13 minutes.
Since February 21, Studio Khara has been actively working to prevent the spread of illegally recorded and leaked footage from the event venue across social media platforms.
However, during the process of submitting video takedown requests to X, access information intended to prove copyright ownership was inadvertently disclosed to the uploading accounts due to the platform’s system specifications.
As a result, official video data that was never intended for external distribution became temporarily accessible, leading to the unauthorized spread of the high-quality footage across social media early on the morning of March 7.
The production studio worked urgently to resolve the situation and address the unauthorized distribution.
Official representatives strongly urged fans to avoid watching the illegally uploaded footage and instead wait to enjoy the video through legitimate channels.
The highly anticipated new short animation is now officially available to stream on the Studio Khara YouTube channel, having premiered at midnight on Sunday, March 8, 2026, in Japan:
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