{"id":60491,"date":"2026-02-25T23:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=60491"},"modified":"2026-02-25T16:25:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T07:25:15","slug":"yoko-taros-dark-retelling-of-monster-hunter-rise-resurfaces-after-the-announcement-of-his-brand-new-evangelion-anime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/yoko-taros-dark-retelling-of-monster-hunter-rise-resurfaces-after-the-announcement-of-his-brand-new-evangelion-anime\/","title":{"rendered":"Yoko Taro\u2019s dark retelling of Monster Hunter Rise resurfaces after the announcement of his brand-new Evangelion anime"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Animation studio Khara recently announced a brand-new original entry in the long-running Evangelion anime series, helmed by FLCL and Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX director Kazuya Tsurumaki. However, what made the biggest headlines is the fact that the anime\u2019s scenario would be handled by none other than NieR and Drakengard director Yoko Taro. As the announcement suggests that the new anime will feature a completely original story, many fans on X have been discussing and theorizing what Yoko\u2019s take on the Evangelion universe would look like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"\u30a8\u30f4\u30a1\u30f3\u30b2\u30ea\u30aa\u30f3\u5b8c\u5168\u65b0\u4f5c\u30b7\u30ea\u30fc\u30ba\u5236\u4f5c\u59cb\u52d5 \u521d\u5831\u6620\u50cf 2026\u5e742\u670823\u65e5\u767a\u8868\" width=\"1160\" height=\"653\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/tC_DJWqHXD4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>As fan discussion snowballed, one user managed to dig up an old \u201cfan work\u201d Yoko Taro made back in 2021, when he started playing Monster Hunter Rise, to further help illustrate what it would look like if Yoko had full creative control over an existing IP. \u201cI have a really bad feeling about this. For those who don\u2019t know, he\u2019s this kind of guy\u2026,\u201d the user joked, suggesting how Yoko\u2019s antics may end up influencing the worldview of the new Evangelion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"ja\" dir=\"ltr\">\u30a8\u30f4\u30a1\u65b0\u4f5c\u3001\u30b7\u30ea\u30fc\u30ba\u69cb\u6210\u3001\u811a\u672c\u30e8\u30b3\u30aa\u30bf\u30ed\u30a6\u3063\u3066\u3001\u3059\u3054\u30fc\u304f\u5acc\u306a\u4e88\u611f\u304c\u3059\u308b\u306e\u3060\u304c\u2026<br>\u77e5\u3089\u3093\u4eba\u5411\u3051\u306b\u8aac\u660e\u3059\u308b\u3068\u3001\u3053\u3046\u3044\u3046\u65b9\u2026<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Byq6vyLa1y\">https:\/\/t.co\/Byq6vyLa1y<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/yeExGti3KA\">pic.twitter.com\/yeExGti3KA<\/a><\/p>&mdash; \u308b\u304b\uff5c\u30ac\u30f3\u30c0\u30e0\u8cc7\u6599\u30b3\u30ec\u30af\u30bf\u30fc (@bure_ttr) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/bure_ttr\/status\/2025918430751465692?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 23, 2026<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The \u201cfan work\u201d in question is Yoko\u2019s own rendition of the Monster Hunter Rise story, <a href=\"https:\/\/fusetter.com\/tw\/meRpcOv2#all\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">posted on his Fusetter page<\/a>. In a couple of short bullet points, Yoko sums up the main story beats of his fantasy version of Rise, while also redefining some of the gameplay elements and the worldview. And just as you\u2019d expect, it\u2019s pretty dark from the get-go, and becomes gradually even more depressing with a \u201cdoomed ending\u201d as a cherry on top.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the post, he writes: \u201cThe elderly muscular guy becomes a human shield in the Rampage that happens after the tutorial and dies. What\u2019s more, the reason for his death is a blunder made by the player.\u201d But, of course, the deaths don\u2019t stop with Fugen the Elder. \u201cEither the girl selling dango [Yomogi] or Hanae in the Buddy Plaza die. The one who doesn\u2019t die turns evil and sets fire to Kamura Village. The chorus part of the Buddy Plaza soundtrack disappears,\u201d he continues. To add some more context, \u201cHanae in the Buddy Plaza\u201d likely refers to Buddy Handler Iori, who is voiced by Natsuki Hanae in the Japanese version of Monster Hunter Rise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIn order to stand up to the final boss of the game, who doesn\u2019t take damage from normal attacks, the player can craft a weapon using either of the village\u2019s Wyverian twin sisters as materials. After crafting the weapon, the vocal track from Kamura Village\u2019s soundtrack disappears.\u201d Furthermore, Yoko proposes that as the main characters of the game are killed off one by one, they get replaced by shopkeepers and other low-profile NPCs. The player slowly becomes ostracized by them, labeled as \u201cthe one who brought misfortune to Kamura Village.\u201d They also become progressively unwilling to sell you items and weapons, causing the game\u2019s difficulty level to rise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIn the highest-difficulty stages, the monsters become able to talk. The \u2018true meaning\u2019 behind monster and Kamura Village is revealed. This is also when the player realizes why character voice lines were introduced in this installment.\u201d Finally, Yoko writes the conclusion to his story: \u201cAfter you\u2019ve cleared all of the village quests, Kamura Village turns into ruins, and you\u2019re only able to continue the game in multiplayer. The players, having lost everything, just keep on relentlessly killing monsters, void of emotion, spreading the\u3000barren wasteland of a world (The End).\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Related articles:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nier-automata-creator-yoko-taro-says-hes-actually-been-working-on-a-lot-of-projects-recently-its-just-that-they-got-cancelled-midway\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>NieR: Automata creator Yoko Taro says he\u2019s actually been working on a lot of projects recently, it\u2019s just that they got cancelled midway<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nier-automata-creator-yoko-taro-says-there-are-less-weird-people-in-the-gaming-industry-nowadays\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>NieR: Automata creator Yoko Taro says there are less \u201cweird\u201d people in the gaming industry nowadays<br><\/strong><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nier-automata-creator-yoko-taro-says-hes-actually-been-working-on-a-lot-of-projects-recently-its-just-that-they-got-cancelled-midway\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><br><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Theorizing what a Yoko Taro-penned Evangelion might look like, fans have managed to dig up his old retelling of Monster Hunter Rise&#8217;s story. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":60497,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-60491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - 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