Coffee maker UCC Ueshima Coffee began selling the UCC Coffee Milk & Coffee Evangelion Can on May 18.

　The product, featuring Evangelion characters on UCC Coffee Milk & Coffee, is being launched prior to the release of the movie Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance. The design employs art created just for the cans by Rebuild of Evangelion’s animation director Hidenori Matsubara and Petit Eva character designer Ryusuke Hamamoto. The lineup includes six varieties featuring pilots and art from Evangelion and Petit Eva, like “Rei Ayanami holding a can and an Evangelion Unit 00.” There is also an accompanying campaign in which people can win limited-time goods like a special Asuka Langley Shikinami figure.

The company also sold similar goods with its coffee when Rebuild of Evangelion was released in 1997. The project originated when episode 11 of the Neon Genesis Evangelion anime, “Within the Stagnant Shadow,” was airing on TV Tokyo. In the opening scene, a character from the series buys a can off coffee that looks just like a UCC Coffee Milk & Coffee can from an “ICC” (rather than “UCC”) vending machine next to a Laundromat and gulps it down. When someone at UCC discovered this, they promptly contacted Gainax and the project was born.

　The coffee is selling for 120 yen.