In the early 2000s a seemingly official movie poster was circulating online promoting a follow up to the End of Evangelion, known as The Reprise of Evangelion. The poster showed a much older Shinji Ikari, resembling his father, and also notably wearing the necklace that was given to him by Misato in The End of Evangelion. It also showed an older, seemingly unconscious Asuka, being cradled by Shinji, perhaps in reference to what happened at the end of the film. Finally, we see Rei Ayanami, bearing a close resemblance to Shinji's mother, which makes sense given Rei's origins.
While I have translated most of the poster, due to the lack of a higher quality poster being available online, there are some sections that I could not translate.
If you happen to have a high quality version of this poster, please contact me.
終末より５年、彼は再びアイを叫んだ。
Shuumatsu yori 5 nen, kare wa futatabi Ai wo sakenda
Five years after the end, he again screamed love.
逃げなくてもいい
隠れなくてもいい
笑わなくてもいい
泣かなくてもいい
それが僕が願った世界
とても、とても素敵な世界
No need to run
No need to hide
No need to laugh
No need to cry
It's the world I wished for
A very, very beautiful world
新世紀エヴァンゲリオン劇場版
アイはさだめ、さだめはシ
Shin Seiki Evangelion Gekijoban
Ai wa Sadame, Sadame wa Shi
New Century Evangelion: The Movie
Love is Destiny, Destiny is Death.
Spring 2002 Nation-wide Release Roadshow
The English text is the lyrics from Wonderful Life by Black.
Interstingly enough, the initial line stating 5 years after the end could be interpreted in two ways - The first being that it has been 5 years since the End of Evangelion, which first came out in 1997; alternatively it could have been interpreted as being 5 years later within the series itself, making Rei, Asuka and Shinji all around 19 years old in this poster.
Long before social media was the norm, there was a lot of speculation about the nature of this poster. Some took this as a sign that Evangelion was going to make a return with a sequel. Some assumed that it was a hoax or prank, with the "Dolby Stereoted Theter" text under the Dolby Stero logo being a clue to its lack of authenticity. The fact that Gainax at the time also denied any association with this poster led credence to the poster being some sort of hoax.
In reality, It apparently turned out it was simply some fan art. As for who the artist was, the only information that can be found at this time was a mention in a Reddit thread that it was drawn by somebody going under the alias "Shigeru Aoba", possibly referencing the background character in the series. According to thread, the artist wanted to create a poster that looked official, but was never intended to deceive people about the nature of the poster. However, as this is the only piece of information about the artist that has been found at this time, this should be taken with a grain of salt.
Despite The Reprise of Evangelion being nothing more than the apparent imagination of a fan artist, it would turn out that the End of Evangelion wasn't... well, the end of Evangelion. It wouldn't be until 2007 when fans would get the chance to see a new Evangelion film.
