Evangelion and Hard Rock Cafe Japan launch six-piece collection
The Unit-01 collection launches in Japan on 3 November with clothing, accessories, location-specific pins and a special shopping bag.
Evangelion and Hard Rock Cafe Japan are teaming up for a six-piece collection of clothing and accessories, with sales beginning on 3 November. The collaboration combines the franchise's imagery with Hard Rock Cafe's familiar music-themed branding and will be sold through six Japanese rock shops.1
The first collection is built around Evangelion Unit-01. Hard Rock Cafe Japan's official announcement describes new artwork imagining the cafe in the fictional Third Tokyo City, with characters wearing the collaboration's shirts alongside the restaurant chain's own logo clothing.1
What is in the collection
The launch range includes a Unit-01 logo T-shirt, a sukajan jacket, a cap, a pin badge, a magnet and a shot glass. Prices run from ¥1,980 for the shot glass to ¥66,000 for the jacket. The T-shirt costs ¥9,570, while the cap is ¥5,940 and the magnet is ¥3,080.1
The pin badges are limited to 500 per shop, with designs varying by location. The Yokohama badge is scheduled for early November, while the shot glass will arrive in mid-November rather than on the main launch date.1
The products will be available at Hard Rock Cafe shops in Tokyo, Ueno Station Tokyo, Yokohama, Kyoto, Osaka Namba and Universal CityWalk Osaka. Customers who buy any collaboration item will also receive a special shopping bag while supplies last.1
Anime! Anime! independently reports the same six-item line-up and launch date, including the Unit-01 logo collection and the location-specific pin badges.2 Its report also identifies the wider visual direction: the promotional art places the characters in a Third Tokyo City cafe setting rather than simply printing the Evangelion logo on standard merchandise.
Our opinion
This is a more coherent crossover than a logo swap. The imagined cafe setting gives the collection a visual identity, while the location-specific pins make the launch feel tied to Hard Rock Cafe Japan rather than a generic global collaboration. The limited badges and ¥66,000 jacket will make this a collector-focused release, but the wider range leaves more accessible entry points through the magnet, glass and cap.
The launch is scheduled for Japan, and the official announcement does not promise an international release. Fans outside the country should therefore treat overseas availability as unconfirmed rather than assuming the collection will appear in their local Hard Rock Cafe shop.