Society

Full-size Evangelion statue appears at Japanese theme park with entry plug synchronization tests

Jun 30 (soranews24.com) - Toei Kyoto Studio Park, also known as Toei Uzumasa Eigamura, is central Japanâ€™s overlooked theme park.

Universal Studios Japan, located over the prefectural border in Osaka, seems to get all the flashy stuff, like the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, a limited-time Final Famtasy roller coaster, and the upcoming Super Nintendo World expansion.

But this summer, Toei Eigamura is getting a new attraction thatâ€™s going to be very hard to ignore: a gigantic, possibly life-sized Evangelion statue.

We say â€œpossibly life-sizedâ€ because in addition to being vague about several plot points and the meaning of much of its symbolism, the Evangelion anime franchise is notoriously fuzzy on exactly how big the Evas are, other than giant enough to qualify as part of the â€œgiant robotâ€ genre. What we do know for sure is that Toei Eigamuraâ€™s Eva Unit-01 statue, whose torso rises from a pool of blood-red LCL, will be 15 meters (49.2 feet) tall, making its upper body completely to scale for certain scenes in the series. As further proof of this, visitors will have the opportunity to stand on Unit-01â€™s palm and pose for pictures.

But why settle for just hopping on Unit-01â€™s hand, when you can hop into its entry plug, the cylindrical cockpit from which the mecha is controlled? According to the statueâ€™s backstory, the Kyoto branch of Evangelion manufacturer/operator Nerv is recruiting new Eva pilots, and candidates will be subjected to various aptitude tests, culminating with taking a seat in the entry plug, grabbing the controls, and measuring your synchronization rate.

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