Visitors take a look at the roughly six-meter-tall Evangelion Unit 01 statue at the Hamamatsu city hall in Shizuoka Prefecture on April 20, 2025. (Kyodo)
SHIZUOKA, Japan (Kyodo) — A roughly six-meter-tall Evangelion Unit 01 statue made its appearance in Hamamatsu, central Japan, on Sunday as part of a local government tourism campaign through next February in the hope of cashing in on the city’s connection to the popular anime film.
The purple giant humanoid robot from the film “Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time” will tower over the lobby of Hamamatsu city hall in Shizuoka Prefecture until late January next year, including on weekends and public holidays.
About 170 people lined up in front of the municipal headquarters to see the statue ahead of the public opening at 10:30 a.m.
During the opening ceremony, the city firefighters’ music band played the popular theme song of the anime.
The local initiative, which celebrates the 30th anniversary of the original TV series, follows Evangelion-themed campaigns launched in recent years by Tenryu Hamanako Railroad Co. and Enshu Railway Co. centered around the city’s Tenryu Futamata Station — a model for Village-3 in the 2021 movie.
The station has since been inundated with “anime pilgrims” eager to see a 3.6-meter-tall “Spear of Longinus,” a giant extraterrestrial weapon central to the story, installed in 2023 at its train depot. Evangelion-themed trains also run at certain times through the station.
This photo taken in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, on March 24, 2025, shows an image of Evangelion-themed one-day unlimited ride passes, left, and a standee to be featured in a tourism campaign run by the city. (Kyodo)
As part of Hamamatsu’s new campaign, the two local railway operators began sales of one-day unlimited ride passes featuring images of the main character Shinji Ikari and fellow pilot Kaworu Nagisa.
Visitors can complete a stamp rally covering 21 spots along the Tenryu Hamanako and Enshu railway lines, with cutouts of Evangelion characters placed at certain locations. Those who collect 10 stamps will receive an exclusive sticker.
“Through Evangelion, I want people to rediscover the appeal of Hamamatsu’s tourism and culture,” said Mayor Yusuke Nakano, while also expressing interest in partnering with Hakone in Kanagawa Prefecture and Ube in Yamaguchi Prefecture.
Hakone served as the model for the postapocalyptic fortified city of Tokyo-3, while Ube is the hometown of series director Hideaki Anno. Both locations have also run Evangelion-related tourism campaigns in the past.
AloJapan.com