Neon Genesis Evangelion Comic Tribute

I picked this up with the hope that Carl Horn would have a very wide latitude to work with in localizing these stories given that this would be a collection of parody shorts from a variety of mangaka.  The good news is that not only was that apparently true, you can also tell that he and translator Michael Gombos were actually working with some quality material here from the get-go.  Yes, every anthology (and yes I do mean EVERY ANTHOLOGY — NO EXCEPTIONS EVARRR!!!11!) contains some good stories and some bad ones, but this collection contains some of the funniest comics I’ve read in quite some time.  This comes with the caveat that you have to have watched the “Evangelion” TV series to get all of the jokes.  If you have, then by all means go out and buy this now.

A good deal of this collection’s success arises from the way it exploits familiar conventions of the series to great comedic effect.  Ever wonder what happened to the LCL that the Eva pilots breathe while they’re on a mission?  Takemura Sessyu did and the results are as disturbing as they are funny.  What about the logistics behind how Shinji keeps tripping and winding up in compromising situations with girls in “The Shinji Ikari Raising Project?”  Astroguy II has you covered there.  Tony Takezaki pops up throughout the book with some of its best material as we get to see what Shinji was really thinking when he saw all those naked Rei clones floating in a tank, a showdown between him and Misato over some toothpicks, and exactly what lengths Rei will go to in order to please Gendo.  The 4-panel contributions from Hideki Ohwada, who shows us what director Hideaki Anno was really planning for the new Eva movies, and Yoko Sanri, which illuminate the lighter side of several key scenes from the series, are also quite funny as well.

Best of all, though, are the three “Neon Genesis Revolutionary Legend Evangelion” shorts by writer Yshi Kawata and artist Yukito.  I’d never heard of either before, but their delightfully warped takes on the core cast were truly inspired.  Showing us a Rei who smirks and offers half-dissolved suckers to Asuka?  Giving us a Gendo who aggressively tries to avoid having anything to do with being a parent or responsibility?  Revealing what Kaworu’s face REALLY looks like?  All genius and I wish that we had gotten at least one more short from them here.  It’s enough to make me want to see their series “The Legend of School Revolution Mitsurugi” brought over here.

As for the stories that don’t quite work, it probably won’t surprise anyone to learn that they’re the ones which actually took themselves somewhat (at least) seriously.  “Shinji and Asuka’s Hot Day” by Ran Igarashi starts off like it’s going to be a nice slab of fanservice-driven comedy, but the tenor of their interactions quickly becomes too serious for that and not interesting enough to make up for the change in tone.  Jun Abe’s “Eternal Fourteen” has the cast reuniting after ten years without selling us on the idea that any time has really passed, save for a cheap visual joke about what the years have done to Toji’s hairline.  It does partially redeem itself with the goofy last few pages as Shinji and Rei destroy Tokyo.  Then there’s Yun Kouga’s “I Forgave You Long Ago” where her dead-serious, impressionistic tale of Shinji coming to terms with himself (complete with shounen-ai overtones courtesy of Kaworu) feels jarringly out of place with everything else here.  The worst part is that aside from realizing that Kouga did. not. get. the. memo. that this was meant to be a comedy anthology is that her story is also pretty dull on its own terms.

As far as I’m concerned, the only thing missing from this is commentary from Horn in “Misato’s Fan Service Corner.”  I would’ve liked to have known how this particular project came about as well as his thoughts on the stories contained here.  Instead, we get a promo for Dark Horse’s next “Evangelion” spinoff series “The Shinji Ikari Detective Diaries which still looks deeply skippable to me after the utter misfire that was “Campus Apocalypse.”  Oh well, at least we’ll still have “The Shinji Ikari Raising Project” though I’ll certainly miss the bizarro comic verve that this anthology possessed.