Tony Takezaki’s Neon Genesis Evangelion

Now there are two “Evangelion” manga from Dark Horse that are worth your time!  Tony Takezaki provided several of the more memorable contributions to that other manga, the “Evangelion Comic Tribute,” as he asked the big questions like “How would Shinji really respond to an aquarium of naked Rei Ayanami clones?”  You can expect more of the same here, starting with a riff on the random nature of the anime’s “Next Episode” previews, continuing on to the bizarre and sordid story of Gendo and Ritsuko’s love life, Misato’s attempt to fool Eva-01 into thinking she’s young enough to pilot it, and the cast’s efforts to find the real meaning behind fanservice.  Most of this stuff winds up coming off as genuinely funny, provided you’ve got a decent amount of familiarity with the series.  There are a few sections that don’t, as they either wind up crashing due to the cultural barrier (still wondering what was up with that “Jo-Ha-Kyuuuuu” nonsense) or good taste — unless there’s some gaping void in your life that is just waiting to be filled by the underlying scatology of what really happens when Eva-01 ingested the S2 engine.

Honestly, most comedy manga don’t have me laughing out loud with every chapter.  This one does a much better job than most, and I think that’s all down to one thing.  If you guessed that it’s, “The English localization by Carl Horn,” then thanks for reading this site for as long as you have!  It’s clear that Horn isn’t going for a literal translation in regards to the gags, and the comedy is that much better for it.  No, I don’t think Takezaki intentionally put references to “Psycho” and “The Far Side” in his manga, but I thought they were funny and in an “anything goes” book like this, that’s all that counts.  I’m actually kind of disappointed that this is going to be the only volume of this series as I’d love to see Takezaki take on the “Rebuild of Evangelion” films.  Then again, it’s probably for the best.  Better to leave the readers wanting more, than to keep rehashing everything to the point where they can’t remember what they liked about it in the first place.

I’m looking in YOUR direction, “The Shinji Ikari Raising Project!”