Fans of Evangelion Manga

[Nikkolas]

So this is something that kind of frustrates me.

I watched NGE for the first time about 2 years ago. It was...okay. Problem is the first half sucked and was beyond generic to me. Evangelion was known to me, even before I watched it, as an intense character study where we got into the heads of some really screwed up people. Sorry but that isn't conveyed well in DANCE IF YOU WANT TO WIN. Something tells me we wouldn't still be talking about Eva's legendary impact on the industry if all we had was the first half of the anime. No, it's the second half of the anime when things got good and interesting.

Of course, even then the show had its problems. People have told me, and I even sort of agree wit hthis viewpoint, that "Eva isn't about the plot." Basically, all that stuff with SEELE and where the angels came from and so-on? Not important. So the fact everything is needlessly cryptic and I didn't understand any of what was going on didn't matter.

nd like I said, I came to accept this. It's why I think the end of the anime is perfect while End of Evangelion is one of the worst experiences of my life. EOE was nothing but trying to wrap up the convoluted mess of a story. By contrast, what did EOE do for the characters? Kill them all off. Oh and have Shinji jerk it to a comatose girl. Great character development!

So why am I saying all this and what frustrates me? The lack of appreciation I've found for Yoshiyuki Sadamoto's manga. I own all the volumes of it and I enjoyed reading Eva way more than I ever enjoyed watching Eva. Yet, it's not even that I've met people who have experienced both and are like "I prefer the anime but the manga was still good." I would be okay with that. It's more like "the anime was genius, the manga was stereotypical garbage."

I don't understand this.

Of course, the first thing people go after is Manga Shinji because he's different from Anime Shinji. Well guess what? Sadamoto explained why this is.
http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg21 ... a9fb17.png

Not that he needed to, as it's really self-evident. Shinji is such a personal character. It's why you either love him or hate him. But it's only natural that Sadamoto's Shinji acts differently and thinks differently from Anno's Shinji. This is not a flaw or a weakness, it's simply an unavoidable part of writing a series like NGE.

Personally, I really liked Manga Shinji because, to me, I really saw more of the parallels with Gendo in the manga. In the manga, after what happens to Kaworu, Shinji is rendered into a supreme misanthrope just like his father. In fact, Gendo appeals to him on this level. I know this scene is much vaunted for how Manga Gendo says he never truly loved Shinji but for me, the most significant part is that Gendo appeals to Shinji to go along with his plan based on all the suffering Shinji has endured. Basically he said "you've been hurt so much you don't want to be feel anymore. I know how that goes."

There's also something Manga Shinji says that I really like. He basically calls out everyone for using him. The thing about Shinji is that he was always being used, even by people who cared abut him such as Misato. Everyone in Shinji's life had such crippling emotional issues that they turned to this poor boy for some type of help. I really liked that Manga Shinji recognized this and didn't want any part of it.

Also I mentioned not liking EOE earlier. That's another area I feel the manga improves. I actually enjoyed Sadamoto's version of End of Evangelion. Asuka lives, for one. Her death was entirely pointless in the anime version, anyway. Just more grimdark for the sake of grimdark.

I really loved the manga's emphasis on Shinji's and Rei's relationship and Rei's character in general. She establishes herself a lot faster in the manga, showing a clear aversion or suspicion when it comes to Gendo. There are so many great scenes between her and Shinji and one the manga's version of EOE calls back to is when her and Shinji held hands and took a little walk together.

Now, all this being said, the manga isn't perfect. To say it diminished Asuka's role would be an understatement. And while I understand what Sadamoto was going for with his version of Kaworu - basically taking his alien-ness in a negative light instead of a positive light - I still vastly prefer the anime version of Kaworu. Anime Kaworu is probably the best character in the anime.

So...yeah. That's my piece. Anyone here read the manga?
Did you like it?
If so, what did you like?

[Destiny_Gundam]

Not exactly sure where you hear people being harsh on the manga, but in my experience it's been regarded mostly positively. People tend to prefer manga Shinji because he has more of a spine and as a Shinji/Rei shipper I'm quite happy that they were pretty much an official couple here (and their portrayal have since bled over into Super Robot Wars and the Rebuild movies).

Most people just poked fun at/complained about the fact it took nearly 20 years to finish the damn thing. I only remember broad strokes about it rather than specifics because it was such a long wait so I can't comment that much more on it. I did like it though.

[Quiddity]

I watched NGE for the first time about 2 years ago. It was...okay. Problem is the first half sucked and was beyond generic to me. Evangelion was known to me, even before I watched it, as an intense character study where we got into the heads of some really screwed up people. Sorry but that isn't conveyed well in DANCE IF YOU WANT TO WIN. Something tells me we wouldn't still be talking about Eva's legendary impact on the industry if all we had was the first half of the anime. No, it's the second half of the anime when things got good and interesting.

Of course, even then the show had its problems. People have told me, and I even sort of agree wit hthis viewpoint, that "Eva isn't about the plot." Basically, all that stuff with SEELE and where the angels came from and so-on? Not important. So the fact everything is needlessly cryptic and I didn't understand any of what was going on didn't matter.

nd like I said, I came to accept this. It's why I think the end of the anime is perfect while End of Evangelion is one of the worst experiences of my life. EOE was nothing but trying to wrap up the convoluted mess of a story. By contrast, what did EOE do for the characters? Kill them all off. Oh and have Shinji jerk it to a comatose girl. Great character development!

I feel the opposite way; I loved EOE (sans that scene you reference) and consider the TV series ending to be arguably the worst I've seen in any anime. Of course Eva is (largely) about the plot. You can't rip away the thing that made people watch the show in the first place and claim it had nothing to do with the show. Wrapping up the characterization for certain characters is critical yes, but not when you ignore 95% of everything else in the show. Add in the fact that (IMHO) the overall end result of the Shinji character goes against much of what the TV show give us and it just makes it all the worse.

The manga is something I've been looking forward to checking out for a long time, but simply haven't had the chance to do it yet. Hopefully someday!

[LightningCount]

Nikkolas: I read Volume 2 of the manga back in the day when it first came out. I enjoyed it quite a bit. I liked Sadamoto's character subtleties. However, I've always been more of an anime viewer than manga reader in terms of consumption, so I've never tracked down the rest. (Plus, for years, it was unfinished and released in an apparently stuttered fashion.) I think it was hard for most people to keep up with the manga because of its release schedule in comparison to the completed anime's prevalence. That's probably why you're not hearing a lot of talk about it.

I'm not in a hurry to track it down right now, either, as I've had an up-and-down relationship with EVA. I've never been an uber-fan, just a casual one. I think I actually like the first half of the anime better than the latter half and EoE. The Rebuild of Evangelion 1.11 might be the best representation of the franchise I've seen (sort of feels like it does what Sadamoto's manga was doing in a "spiritual"--not "actual"--sense); but then Rebuild of EVA 2.22 left me with mixed feelings again, particularly because of how it rushes through the middle of the TV plot without fully capitalizing on what was there and what could be added/evolved (as was done with EVA 1.11). I have yet to see Rebuild of EVA 3.33; I have heard a lot of bad things about it, but I'm still hopeful it will be good.

At this point, while I respect EVA and enjoy (even love) aspects of it, I largely think that its essence has been refined and expanded upon by the RahXephon anime, The Big-O anime, and the Fafner anime franchise (the new Exodus season of Fafner has basically solidified this, particularly if it can get its ending to feel right). They're all different animals, mind you--just as EVA is--but I think they have crystallized a lot of what EVA was working on.

[Kuruni]

I own one done by Tony Takezaki. It's funny as hell, especially Keroro...eh, I mean "Kaeru" guest chapter. But the joke can be pretty gross at time (at one point the berserk EVA-01 poo on field, and throw it toward building - exactly like how you might expected from a crazy person). Still, the Ultraman parody and penniless Gendo's flashback are pretty cool.

[Destiny_Gundam]

I own one done by Tony Takezaki. It's funny as hell, especially Keroro...eh, I mean "Kaeru" guest chapter. But the joke can be pretty gross at time (at one point the berserk EVA-01 poo on field, and throw it toward building - exactly like how you might expected from a crazy person). Still, the Ultraman parody and penniless Gendo's flashback are pretty cool.

That's the Comic Tribute. This thread is specifically about the official manga adaptation of the TV series.

I am collecting the Shinji Ikari Raising Project, though. It's a lot better than that crappy Angelic Days one as the art doesn't suck and it leans more Shinji/Rei than Shinji/Asuka.

[zetatype]

Well I never finished the manga (vol.11), but based on what I read I have to say the manga is the superior version. The manga to me is just a much more polished story and does a better job of portraying Shinji.

Granted I still like the original series. I thought the 1st rebuild movie did a decent job of setting things up, but the second movie is where it really showed potential. And then the third movie came out and...you know, I still don't know how to feel about that movie. Maybe once the English dub comes out I'll finally have an answer.