Godzilla will fight Evangelion this summer at Universal Studios Japan

Get in the damn crossover, Shinji!

Since making his debut 1954, Godzilla has fought dozens of giant-sized foes. He’s gone up against Mothra, King Ghidora, and even King Kong.

This summer, though, for the first time ever the King of the Monsters will do battle with the lord of the angsty anime robots, in Evangelion vs. Godzilla.

The idea isn’t quite as crazy as it might initially sound. While it falls into anime’s mecha genre, Evangelion’s fight scene direction actually has more in common with kaiju films and special effects tokusatsu TV series, both genres of which Eva creator Hideaki Anno has long been an unabashed fan of. There’s also the fact that the last Godzilla movie, Shin Godzilla, was directed by Anno himself, bringing many of his influences full circle as he applied visual cues he used in Evangelion to the giant lizard’s latest live-action cinematic installment.

However, the hotly anticipated slugfest won’t be coming to cineplexes in Japan, but to the Universal Studios Japan theme park in Osaka. At the end of May, the park’s successful Universal Cool Japan attraction group, which salutes landmark Japanese-produced franchises such as hit anime and video games, will be rolling over to its Universal Cool Japan Summertime lineup, and Evangelion vs. Godzilla will be part of the festivities.

Details are sparse, but we do know that Evangelion vs. Godzilla will be a theater-style attraction (no word on whether or not it’ll contain interactive elements like Universal Studios Japan’s previous original-story Sailor Moon attraction). Joining Eva Unit-01 and Godzilla for the Universal Cool Japan summer will be separate attractions for Attack on Titan, Sailor Moon, Detective Conan, and Lupin III.

While the exact schedule for the Evangelion vs. Godzilla attraction is yet to be released, the overall Universal Cool Japan Summertime event runs from May 31 to August 25.

Sources: Comic Natalie via Anime News Network/Lynzee Loveridge, Anime Anime
Top image: Universal Studios Japan

Credit: