2015 isn’t just the year that we’re all supposed to get hoverboards and power laces—it also marks the beginning of the classic anime Neon Genesis Evangelion, in which a group of teenagers must save the world from the aftermath of a cataclysmic event that occurred fifteen years prior. Thankfully our teenagers today don’t actually have that problem, but that hasn’t stopped fans from trying to recreate an iconic part of the show—AKA, that part where the spear of Longinus gets stuck into the Moon.
While the spear shares a name with the the Christian relic used to pierce Jesus’s side during the crucifixion, in Neon Genesis Evangelion lore (and feel free to correct me if I’m getting this wrong because I have not seen the show yet, I KNOW I AM SORRY) it’s actually a powerful extraterrestrial artifact that can penetrate forcefields generated by Angels—the godlike monsters ravaging the Earth—and by Evangelion, the bio-machines humanity creates to combat them.
To celebrate the show’s 20th anniversary, as well as the year when the events of the show actually take place, fans in Japan are hoping to send a small 9.5 inch titanium alloy replica of the lance to the surface of the moon aboard a small US-built rocket. All in all the project would take 100 million yen (or $850,000 USD) to complete, so a crowdfunding campaign has been launched on the ReadyFor website.
Already the project has made 33,935,000 yen from more than 800 contributors, and has the support of Google Lunar XPrize competitor Hakuto, asronaut Naoko Yamazaki, and Battle Royale II actress Natsuki Kato. It has until April 5th to hit its goal, but it’s already a third of the way there, despite apparent concerns from commenters that the heavy Christian overtones of the series might cause backlash—at least, according to Agence France-Press (who, let’s be real, is probably trying to stir some shit):
“Wouldn’t it trigger the fury of the Pope? Can we really do this? Oh, I am worried,” one comment on the crowd-funding website reads.
“I am against this. Please don’t do this. I cannot be more worried about my children now after the Islamic State named Japan as a target,” wrote user Shizuka Yasuda.
Awww, it’s okay, friends. I know American Christians can be kind of terrifyingly ridiculous at times, but trust me, the Pope is, like, the chillest dude on the planet. Go forth and kill all giant monster angels you want, he’ll be fine.
(via Phys.org, Crunchyroll)
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