Some bad news for Eva fans as the Crowdfunding project to pierce the surface of the moon with the Spear of Longinus, just like what happened in the 1995 anime, was not able to reach its 100 million yen crowdfunding goal.

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“Project Longinus” only made 54,695,000 yen out of its target 100,000,000 yen, which is just a little bit over half of their intended goal. The project aimed to launch a 250mm spear from an American spacecraft by the end of 2015 or 2016. This was to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Neon Genesis Evangelion, which changed the anime landscape when it premiered back in 1995. All backers who have already payed money for the project will be refunded.

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The Project Longinus executive committee however announced in their Ready For crowdfunding website, that they hoped that this would raise further awareness for private ventures into space, which would of course pave the way for future projects. Hokuto, the Japanese civilian team which is assisting Project Longinus, shared the same sentiment.

Should the project have been a success, the person who has donated 5 million yen, would have gotten naming rights to the Lunar payload release mechanism that will launch the Longinus into the moon. Depending on how much they donated, the donors would have gotten not only get a digital certificate about their participation, but also be entered into a lucky draw where they could win T-shirts, Longinus replicas, and even katanas.

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