Studio Khara, the studio behind the Evangelion franchise, released some guidelines on how the Evangelion franchise can be used by fans. Some of them are pretty understandable, for example, the fact that fans can’t use the characters for commercial purposes. Unfortunately, some of the said guidelines are a bit questionable. One of them states, that Evangelion characters cannot be presented in a lewd manner.
According to Khara said rules “are to allow fans to create fan art with peace of mind”. Said guidelines aren’t for commercial companies and those should contact Khara in case they want to use the Evangelion property. They also mention that you can use video and audio as “quotations” if you are running your own Patreon on Youtube. In that case, you can use monetization if your content isn’t only about Evangelion.
Moreover, said guidelines stated that fan work can’t promote racism, bigotry, and be against any type of politics. Not only that, fan art can’t be grotesque or too violent, infringe on the rights of others, or show Evangelion characters in a lewd manner. The last point might be a little problematic. You surely encountered some not safe for work graphic featuring at least one of the characters from the series. What’s more, Evangelion, ever since the franchise started, has had a strong presence at doujinshi events (Comiket and other events).
Said guidelines have been released before a collaboration between Evangelion and pixiv. There will be a contest on pixiv, where the artist community website will be holding a project over the next 6 months under the theme of Evangelion. It starts on January 19. In case you didn’t know, four days later, on January 23, Evangelion 3.0+1.0 will premiere.
Source: Khara, press release via Crunchyroll
© khara, inc.
