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Appliya to Bring Evangelion to the Iphone

Appliya Inc., a Tokyo-based mobile development company, has announced that it will produce the world's first Iphone and Ipod Touch applications based on the Rebuild of Evangelion movies.

Very few details about the nature of the applications have been announced. According to the press release the first applications, due to be submitted to Apple's App Store this month, will be "casual apps" that will "utilize the visual style, characters, and storyline from the Rebuild of Evangelion movies," and take advantage of the devices' touch screen, camera, calendar and clock functions.

Although not specifically mentioning what markets its applications would be available in (The Apple App Store carries a different list of products in every country), Appliya's press release makes frequent reference to international anime fans outside of Japan.

Last month Appliya announced that it had raised ¥29,999,898 (US$340,000) from Japanese Iphone provider SoftBank Mobile Corp. The money is being used for the expansion of Appliya's reach into the international Iphone application market. Appliya's 2009 application schedule is said to be focused on bringing Japanese culture related applications to an international audience.

Numerous manga have been added to the Japanese App Store, including Kindaichi Case Files, The Silent Service, Golgo 13, Sgt. Frog and others, however very few titles have been made available internationally. One notable exception is Yoshitoshi ABe's Pochiyama at the Pharmacy, which is available in the App Store in English.