Few anime are as iconic as Neon Genesis Evangelion, an existential delve into the human psyche disguised as a mecha series whose fans often reduce to waifu wars. And the ongoing Rebuild movie series is giving Hideaki Anno and the rest of the ex-Gainax lads at Studio Khara to (re)tell the original story in a completely different direction with brand new EVA units, angels and characters, meaning new waifus like Mari joining the distinctive red & blue duo of Asuka and Rei. Who knows, maybe the next movie will give us the ultimate Eva best girl and end the bloody waifu wars once and for all.
Ahead of the release of Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time, Studio Khara have acknowledged the several decade's worth of fanart and doujins based on the series in a set of guidelines meant for those who want to make fanworks inspired by the series. It's mostly simple stuff, e.g. don't use fanart for commercial use and advertising without a license, please respect the original work and the existing fan community, keep your fanart on mostly SFW sites, etcetera.
Then we get to the "don't" section and things start to get interesting. They don't want people using their Evangelion fanworks to promote or degrade a particular political or religious ideology, or infringing on the rights of others, passing off their work as an official release, drawing overly violent or grotesque content, and finally, no works meant for the specific purpose of pornography.
The phrasing used does imply a bit of leeway. The skintight plugsuits worn by pilots can show off their figures without getting too explicit, and depicting characters nude isn't inherently pornographic (as seen in the anime) but drawing, say, Misato and Ritsuko getting kidnapped and raped probably won't fly with Studio Khara these days. The guidelines do say that they're subject to change based on the opinions and reactions of fans, and knowing how vocal Eva fans can be, I wouldn't be surprised if they backpedal on the pornography part sooner or later.
As a creator myself, I do see kinda see where they're coming from. Even with my mountainous experience in researching and writing about Rule 34, I have a few characters from my novel-in-progress/eventual comic that I wouldn't want people to lewd (and a lot more that I do!). Then again I'm also aware that telling the internet to do one thing is exactly how you get people doing the exact opposite, and come on, guys, it's been 25 years since Evangelion originally aired and the hentai train hasn't stopped since then for a second; what makes them think this will get it to stop? Especially with all the fanservice in the anime that no doubt inspired a lot of said hentai.
Anyway, what do you guys have to say about this? Should artists respect Khara's wishes and stop making porn of Evangelion? Or is this a futile, too-little-too-late gesture that will most likely be ignored? Let us know below as always!
