When you really love a TV series, sometimes you want to do something to show your support, like cosplaying or writing a fanfic. Or, alternatively, by donating the best part of a million dollars to send a replica prop to the moon.
Right now, Japanese fans of the anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion are doing just that. Using the crowdfunding site Readyfor, they want to raise 100 million Yen (about $840,000) before April 5, and they’re already 34 percent of the way to meeting their goal.
According to Crunchyroll‘s translation, the project aims to fund a lunar lander that will be launched into space on an American rocket, carrying a titanium alloy replica of the Spear of Longinus.
The Spear is named after the so-called Holy Lance, the weapon that supposedly pierced Jesus while he was being crucified. There are actually a handful of “real” Spear of Longinus artifacts in various museums and churches around the world, but Evangelion‘s is a little different. It looks kind of like a gigantic toasting fork, and imbues the owner with godlike powers.
This crowdfunding project is a celebration of Evangelion‘s 20th birthday, as the original series aired in 1995 and 1996. If they manage to reach the 100 million Yen goal (and it looks like they probably will), the plan is to commemorate a scene from the anime by embedding the Spear in the surface of the moon.
Photo via Benjamin Claverie/Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 2.0)