Manga Monday: Neon Genesis Evangelion: The Shinji Ikari Raising Project Vol. 15

12/15/2014 4:25pm
[please insert image Shinji Ikari 15.jpg here]
In the most recent Neon Genesis Evangelion movie, Evangelion 3:0—You Can (Not) Redo, Rei Ayanami is a character who no longer seems so much a clone as a copy—I mean, a photocopy, the kind you get after you make one copy, then put it down on the glass to make a copy of that copy, and then repeat the process, copying each copy until what you started with hardly seems there any more. Rei was never exactly the type to whoop it up, but she used to be the iconic female character of Evangelion, a role that has been largely transferred to Asuka (the one with the eyepatch) and Mari (the one with the glasses). I apologize, by the way, for the spoiler about Rei being a clone, but that was revealed back when Bill Clinton was president. In his first term, even.
Rei is the one without the pigment, and on the cover of Neon Genesis Evangelion: The Shinji Ikari Raising Project vol. 15, out this week, you stare deep into her gigantic retinae, blood red, with no melanin between you and her. A smile welcomes you back to this, the longest-running of all the Evangelion spinoff stories. And for a reason, I think. The Neon Genesis Evangelion anime has become so lacquered with tragedy over the years that its characters sometimes seem obliged to fulfill a cursed fate. Did Kaworu really have to put that collar on himself? Why can’t he just be happy and gay, as he is in this manga? 
[please insert image Misato.tif here]
Yes, it’s The Shinji Ikari Raising Project that reminds us how much of the original TV series’ appeal involved fun, humor, hanging out, and compromising situations. It doesn’t take things too seriously—and doesn’t take itself too seriously either, as we learn in vol. 15 that even Evangelion spinoff stories have to deal with the issue of Evangelion spinoff stories (Misato is reading a manga Shinji brought home entitled “Magical Girl Asuka”), lending a bit of a Satoshi Kon’s OPUS vibe to this volume I hadn’t expected. Indeed, those who thought this series was incapable of character growth might be surprised by the latest volume. It takes all the way until page 26 for Shinji to fall on someone. Rei, naturally. 
—Carl Horn
Manga Editor 
In the most recent Neon Genesis Evangelion movie, Evangelion 3:0—You Can (Not) Redo, Rei Ayanami is a character who no longer seems so much a clone as a copy—I mean, a photocopy, the kind you get after you make one copy, then put it down on the glass to make a copy of that copy, and then repeat the process, copying each copy until what you started with hardly seems there any more. Rei was never exactly the type to whoop it up, but she used to be the iconic female character of Evangelion, a role that has been largely transferred to Asuka (the one with the eyepatch) and Mari (the one with the glasses). I apologize, by the way, for the spoiler about Rei being a clone, but that was revealed back when Bill Clinton was president. In his first term, even.

Rei is the one without the pigment, and on the cover of Neon Genesis Evangelion: The Shinji Ikari Raising Project vol. 15, out this week, you stare deep into her gigantic retinae, blood red, with no melanin between you and her. A smile welcomes you back to this, the longest-running of all the Evangelion spinoff stories. And for a reason, I think. The Neon Genesis Evangelion anime has become so lacquered with tragedy over the years that its characters sometimes seem obliged to fulfill a cursed fate. Did Kaworu really have to put that collar on himself? Why can’t he just be happy and gay, as he is in this manga? 

Yes, it’s The Shinji Ikari Raising Project that reminds us how much of the original TV series’ appeal involved fun, humor, hanging out, and compromising situations. It doesn’t take things too seriously—and doesn’t take itself too seriously either, as we learn in vol. 15 that even Evangelion spinoff stories have to deal with the issue of Evangelion spinoff stories (Misato is reading a manga Shinji brought home entitled “Magical Girl Asuka”), lending a bit of a Satoshi Kon’s OPUS vibe to this volume I hadn’t expected. Indeed, those who thought this series was incapable of character growth might be surprised by the latest volume. It takes all the way until page 26 for Shinji to fall on someone. Rei, naturally. 

—Carl Horn
Manga Editor 

Tags

manga the neon genesis shinji ikari raising project monday carl horn Satoshi OPUS Evangelion: Kon’s
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