Manga Review: Neon Genesis Evangelion

Title: Neon Genesis Evangelion
Author: Sadamoto Yoshiyuki
Release: Monthly
Status: Ongoing
Genre: Seinen, Sci-Fi, Mecha
Art: B
Originality: A
Story: A
Characters: S
Humor: B
Action: B

Impression: This is the manga adaptation of the infamous Evangelion anime series which follows the original story almost to the letter. When I first tried reading it, I was turned off by the manga’s painfully slow pacing since it took the entire first volume to show just enough plot to fill up one anime episode which is a no-no for any monthly publication. It did finally pick up speed around when Asuka showed up and they did that dance thing. In comparison to the few videos I’ve seen on youtube and the End of Evangelion movies I can safely say that the characters are much more likeable in this version of the story since they don’t spend as much time pouring the angst on us. It also seems to be missing whatever scenes that made Asuka and Rei so worship-worthy to the fanbase cause I honestly can’t see very much appeal here. If I didn’t know that Asuka was a famed Tsundere I wouldn’t be able to pick up whether or not she actually had romantic feelings for Shinji. On the other hand, Rei’s relationship with Shinji was fleshed out quite brilliantly and her character development proved to be fascinating though I still don’t what’s so appealing about her. Personally I felt the real strength of the cast lies with the side characters rather than the main trio as they managed to show off just as much depth with less screen time. In summary, this story really does deserve all the praise it gets for all of its fascinating characters and developments and it seems the author is pulling a twist ending on the fans as it seems to be going for a different direction from the previous two endings GAINAX pulled on us.