I am writing as a representative of the Neon Genesis Evangelion Mailing List, an international on-line forum based in the United States. Even before its release, the Evangelion series generated a considerable amount of interest in North America, Asia and Europe. Evangelion recently won the rec.arts.anime.misc newsgroup's annual poll for "Favorite TV Series," defeating such well-established series as "Ranma 1/2" and "Maison Ikkoku."

We believe fan networking has made a considerable contribution to Neon Genesis Evangelion's success. Much of this networking has taken place on the Internet: in interactive forums like ours and the rec.arts.anime.misc newsgroup, and, of course, on fan-maintained websites devoted to the series.

A major topic of discussion within our group has been the "sameness" of the many Evangelion websites. We feel this is the result of the guidelines posted on Gainax's website. Many fans with Evangelion websites have commented that they found these guidelines to be unprecedented, overly restrictive, and stifling.

We understand that the copyright holders of Neon Genesis Evangelion are completely within their rights to establish such guidelines and sympathize with their desire to protect their property. However, we are respectfully requesting that these guidelines be "loosened" and/or reworked to permit graphics outside of the images posted on Gainax's website or "fan art" and, if at all possible, sound and animation files. We understand that the appropriate copyright statement should accompany all postings of any Evangelion-related graphic or multimedia files.

It is our intention to open our discussion to several larger internet forums in order to collect signatures for a petition we intend to present to the copyright holders of Neon Genesis Evangelion. It is NOT our intention to embarrass King Records or Gainax in any way or to harm sales of this remarkable series in North America, Asia and Europe.

Again, it is our belief that the changing/loosening of Gainax's guidelines would be beneficial both for the marketing of the series and to Evangelion's fans world-wide.

Respectfully,