Fuji-Q Highland’s Evangelion World attraction has closed its doors, as per the official Twitter account. The attraction ended operations last Sunday.
The attraction based on one of the most iconic anime of all time is being closed to build a new roller coaster, though didn’t give any information on the upcoming ride outside of that.
Unfortunately this also includes the other parts of Evangelion World, including its life-sized statue of Eva 01, as well as its accompanying store.
The park first opened in 2010, and allowed fans to take photos with a variety of iconic sights from Evangelion, such as recreating the scene from the first episode where protagonist Shinji Ikari first sees Evangelion Unit 01 in the hangar. There’s also a life-sized Entry Plug cockpit, where fans could pay to have their pictures taken. Additionally this also includes life-sized statues of the character Kaworu Nagisa, as well as the equally iconic Seele monoliths from the anime.
Neon Genesis Evangelion is one of the most culturally important anime, having set up a lot of tropes later entries in the genre would ape. Studio Gainax, the studio that produced the series also went on to split up into A1 Pictures and Studio TRIGGER, who have gone on to create some of the most unique anime since. Meanwhile, series creator Hideaki Anno has gone on to create the popular Shin Godzilla, and has been attached to other revival projects such as Shin Ultraman and Shin Kamen Rider.