Neon Genesis Evangelion: Campus Apocalypse vol. 4

No, it doesn’t redeem the series.  In fact, this concluding volume is disappointing in a different way than its predecessors.  Where the second and third volumes squandered the momentum from the first by proceeding at an abysmally slow pace and dwelling on plot points that should’ve been foregone conclusions, this concluding one actually picks up the pace.  You do get a sense of urgency from Shinji, Kaworu, Asuka and Rei’s efforts to combat Gendo’s evil plot, and things build to about as well a constructed climax as you could expect.  

The only problem is that I stopped caring about what was going to happen to these characters in the previous volume.  There were some nice artistic moments, mostly coming from the always-pleasing and expressive character designs.  I also liked the “dead-eyed” look they gave Asuka’s double compared to the real one.  It’s a minor detail, but you take what you can get here.  In the end, this was a deeply skippable series, unless you’re a hardcore Evangelion completist who has to have everything in connection with the series.  To be honest, the only thing that could’ve saved this series in my opinion would be the revelation that this Gendo was secretly… a pimp!

“This is Gendo.  Yeah.  Plenty of wimmins.  Sure, they do whatever you want. …Well, maybe not that.”