Fuji-Q HighLand amusement park gets its own "Neon Genesis Evangelion" giant robot

by Chris MaGee

First we had a life-size RX-78-2 Gundam robot towering over Odaiba last summer, then we have the permanent life-size Tetsujin 28 striking a pose in the middle of Kobe, so what now? By process of elimination we have one world renowned giant robot left is the Eva-01 Unit from Hideaki Anno's hugely popular "Neon Genesis Evangelion". There may be a few of you saying, "Hey! Wait a minute! That thing was the size of a skyscraper!" True enough, so the construction of a life-size EVA-01 Unit will indeed be to scale, but we won;t be getting the full robot.

Anime News Network is reporting that the Fuji-Q HighLand amusement park buult at the foot of Mt. Fuji will be opening a ¥50 million "Evangelion: World" pavilion on July 23rd. Inside visitors will not only find a reconstruction of the cockpit of the EVA-01 Unit, but they'll also be able to live the part of the anime's hero Shinji Ikari and the moment he first meets the towering robot atop a skyscraper. See how they're getting around this? The life-size reconstruction will only be the bust of the robot as it peaks above the top of the building. Still, from the promo image above the reconstruction is still pretty damned impressive. By the time the pavilion opens this summer it will have taken two whole months to construct the EVA-01 Unit. Yet another tourist destination for anime and manga fans going to Japan...