Viewers are upset with a planned celebration of the series after the recent news that the director of Nier: Automata will be creating a new anime.
A new Evangelion anime is scheduled to premiere on February 23, 2026, marking the 30th anniversary of the original series. Yoko Taro, known for writing and directing Nier: Automata, will be the writer, and Kazuya Tsurumaki (Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX) and Toko Yatabe will co-direct.
Artist and game developer CEO Kim Hyung-tae (of Shift Up) attempted to celebrate Taro’s work on Evangelion by creating an illustration of Asuka Langley Soryu with Taro’s signature mask. However, fans of both Evangelion and Hyung-tae’s work have heavily criticized the artwork, calling it poorly made and uninspired – often referred to as “AI Slop.”
Anime Fans Roast AI-Generated Evangelion Tribute by Stellar Blade Director
Kim Hyung-tae shared on X (formerly Twitter) how excited he is that Yoko Taro is leading a new Evangelion project, offering his sincere congratulations. He added that, knowing Yoko Taro feels some pressure, he’s sharing a more cheerful image and hopes Yoko Taro takes good care of the character Asuka.
Hyung-tae used AI to create fan art of Asuka in her Eva pilot suit, but the result looks strangely unsettling. The image includes many copies of the eerie mask often worn by game developer Yoko Taro to stay anonymous.
The artwork includes common, often debated qualities of AI-generated images, and looks very different from his previous, popular hand-drawn depictions of Asuka. Before working on Stellar Blade and Goddess of Victory: Nikke, Hyung-tae was an artist on ESA (formerly Softmax)’s Magna Carta series.
Wow, the reaction to that AI Asuka from Hyung-tae is… intense! I’ve been checking X, and Evangelion fans are really not impressed. It’s also got Nikke and Stellar Blade fans worried, because they’re concerned this might be a preview of what Shift Up has planned for their future projects. It’s definitely sparked a lot of debate!
It’s also been claimed that Hyung-tae used images of mask sculpts created by artist and modeler “Yoshi” to create the ones featured in his Eva fan art. Yoshi, who designs under the name “Agarmatha” and is working on the new Code Geass: Aspal the Star Chaser anime, shared a screenshot showing that Hyung-tae had blocked them on X (formerly Twitter).
Hyung-tae explained on X that recent blocks were caused by a technical issue with a browser extension called Blue Blocker. He clarified that he never blocks people because of their views on his work.
You can watch Neon Genesis Evangelion on Netflix and Prime Video. Stellar Blade is available on PlayStation 5 and PC. Goddess of Victory: Nikke is a free game you can play on mobile devices (both iOS and Android) and PC.
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2026-02-27 19:38