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Chiba man destroys Evangelion Unit 01… pachinko machine

Master Blaster Apr 25, 2025
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You can (not) do that.

While casinos are just over the horizon in Japan, the pinball-like quasi-gambling industry of pachinko still remains the biggest draw for those willing to put their money on the line for more money. And in their efforts to lure in their target demographic of middle-aged men, they often borrow the IP of beloved anime and video game franchises for machines.

One such pachinko machine is Neon Genesis Evangelion: Roar to the Future. It’s the 15th pachinko machine based on the existentialist mecha anime and boasts a center-grip handle allowing you to shoot balls with either hand and most notably a big animatronic head resembling that of Unit 01 mounted on the top right which opens its mouth and roars at key moments of play.

It’s certainly an eye-catching machine and very sophisticated looking. Still, if I were a pachinko machine engineer with my designs placed in an environment where people are betting and, more often than not, losing their money, I’d deeply consider what a pissed-off gambler would do to it.

The reason can be seen in an incident that occurred on 8 April. Security camera footage from a pachinko parlor in Ichikawa City, Chiba Prefecture, showed a man go berserk mode, pry the Unit 01 head open, and shake it aggressively in three separate attacks.

▼ A news report on the incident in which the subtitle editor had a field day

After he left, the staff found the Unit 01 with its mouth hanging half open and trembling while making a rattling sound. The cost to repair it was said to be about 70,000 yen (US$490) but the whereabouts of the vandal are unknown. According to staff, he wasn’t a regular at that parlor and didn’t have a membership card, which could have made it much easier to track him down.

At the time of the report, it still wasn’t clear whether the pachinko parlor would press charges as taking the machine out of commission would count as an obstruction of business charge. Meanwhile, readers of the news online had fun with the anime-theme act of wanton destruction.

“Angel attack!”
“He should play the stocks instead. Then he just has to worry about breaking his smartphone.”
“Seems like incidents of people attacking machines have gone down recently.”
“But if they get rid of the Unit 01, what am I going to hit my head against when I stand up?”
“70,000 yen seems a little cheap for that.”
“The fact that something like this makes the news makes me feel like Japan’s a nice place to live overall.”
“They need to equip those machines with AT Fields.”
“Perhaps this is the Third Impact.”

There has been talk that the dawn of casinos in Japan poses an existential threat to pachinko parlors, whose numbers are already on a steady decline. Perhaps their end will come in the form of a series of indestructible and angry gamblers wreaking havoc, while they themselves must delve into their own psyche and come to terms with the emotions and fears that have driven them to this point. They can then revisit this crucial moment from different perspectives in subsequent feature films.

Source: FNN Online Prime, Itai News
Featured image: ©SoraNews24
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