BODY: The most iconic single frame in modern anime — Eva Unit-01 snapping its restraints and going feral — is now a battle royale flex. On July 4, NetEase Games launched the eighth Evangelion crossover for its mobile battle royale juggernaut "Knives Out" (known in Japan as Kōya Kōdō), and this round leans harder into fan-service than any before it.
The centerpiece is a "Legend-tier" (殿堂級) collaboration item themed on the awakened Unit-01 from Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance. In "Knives Out" parlance, Legend-tier is the rarest cosmetic bracket the game offers — reserved for showpiece skins that players display specifically because everyone knows how hard they are to obtain. Wrapping it around the berserk Unit-01, arguably the franchise's most feverishly loved moment, is a deliberate play for the collector's wallet.
Beyond the marquee item, the event bundles a spread of themed rewards drawn from across the Rebuild of Evangelion film tetralogy, giving both hardcore Eva devotees and casual players something to chase during the campaign window.
That this is the eighth collaboration is the real headline. Few crossovers survive to a second outing, let alone an eighth — a signal that Eva remains one of the most bankable licenses in Japan's mobile market more than a decade after Rebuild wrapped.
The insider take
From Tokyo, the eighth-anniversary count is the story here. In a domestic games market where crossover fatigue is real, an IP that keeps getting renewed year after year is essentially a printing press — and Evangelion, alongside a shrinking handful of franchises, is one of the few that reliably clears that bar. NetEase has been unusually aggressive courting Japanese licenses to keep "Knives Out" relevant against PUBG Mobile and homegrown rivals, and Khara (Eva's rights holder) has grown notably comfortable licensing the berserk Unit-01 imagery it once guarded carefully. When a studio hands you its crown-jewel moment for a "Legend-tier" gacha skin, the partnership has clearly been very, very good for both sides.
Originally reported by 4Gamer.net − 最新記事 (Japanese).