Your dose of anime-fueled summertime sadness is heading stateside via Amazon this August.
Evangelion: 3.0 + 1.01 Thrice Upon a Time will premiere globally (i.e., outside of Japan, where it debuted in March) on Aug. 13 exclusively on Amazon Prime Video, Amazon announced Thursday. The movie is the fourth and final installment of the theatrical take on Neon Genesis Evangelion, the popular anime series that first aired in 1995. Thrice Upon a Time is from directors Kazuya Tsurumaki, Katsuichi Nakayama, and Mahiro Maeda, as well as screenwriter and chief director Hideaki Anno, creator of the original show.
To mark the end of Evangelion, Amazon will also release the three previous movies: 2007’s Evangelion: 1.11 You Are (Not) Alone, 2009’s Evangelion: 2.22 You Can (Not) Advance, and 2012’s Evangelion: 3.33 You Can (Not) Redo. The company did not provide details on when those films will arrive on Amazon Video.
Thrice Upon a Time picks up as Misato Katsuragi and her anti-Nerv group arrive in Paris, which suffers from the effects of core-ization. Meanwhile, Shinji and friends wander around Japan. The trailer doesn’t give away too many plot details. It mainly shows glimpses of the eyes of characters like Shinji, Asuka Langley, and Gendo Ikari. However, toward the end, we see an Eva unit fighting an Eva unit — suggesting some sort of internal conflict.
The quaint music in the trailer contrasts with the dread of imminent global collapse. The Evangelion series is known for its dark themes and stories of devastation. The series follows Shinji Ikari and his teenage friends as they fight off godlike monsters called angels in a post-apocalyptic world, piloting giant mechs called Evas on the front lines of a global war.