The Anime Trailer Hoax That Fooled People In Japan

The Anime Trailer Hoax That Fooled People In Japan

Yesterday, a purported teaser for the fourth Evangelion movie appeared on YouTube. Loads of famous Japanese websites quickly ran the trailer, and some people got very excited. Too bad it was all a hoax.

The Anime Trailer Hoax That Fooled People In Japan

“At last, the conclusion to the Evangelion series.”

The Anime Trailer Hoax That Fooled People In Japan

This says there will be an announcement on the official site on 31 August 2016.

There was good reason to believe it was real. The trailer appeared on a YouTube channel that claimed to be from Khara, the anime studio behind Evangelion. Many Japanese sites picked it up (here and here, for example).

The Anime Trailer Hoax That Fooled People In Japan

But as our colleagues at Gizmodo Japan pointed out at the time, there were questions as to the trailer’s authenticity. Khara does have a recruiting channel on YouTube that is known to be official, but there was nothing about the trailer there, nor was there anything on the studio’s Twitter or website regarding this alleged teaser. It all seemed fishy.

The Anime Trailer Hoax That Fooled People In Japan

Newtype, the respected anime publication, reported that this teaser was unofficial and that it used existing footage (illegally, at that). It also added that Evangelion‘s creator is currently working on the the new Godzilla movie.

The Anime Trailer Hoax That Fooled People In Japan
The Anime Trailer Hoax That Fooled People In Japan
The Anime Trailer Hoax That Fooled People In Japan

Still, if there was any doubt, Khara officially stated on Twitter that the trailer wasn’t real, saying the trailer and the announcement were not made by the studio and that “all the information and the like in it were completely untrue”. Khara also added that it only had one official YouTube channel and that one was for recruiting. It did not carry this bogus teaser.

Images via My Game News Flash/Hachima/Gizmodo Japan


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