Neon Genesis Evangelion: The Shinji Ikari Raising Project vol. 14

There’s a great line in “Misato Katsuragi’s ‘The Shinji Ikari Raising Project’ Report” (from the “Evangelion Comic Tribute” that Dark Horse brought over last year)  that pretty much sums up the title it’s mocking.  The segment basically takes Shinji’s propensity for tripping, falling, and winding up on one or more of the female cast in a compromising position.  In the “Tribute” story, this is reaching catastrophic levels and now Shinji will trip and skirts will fly up from ten feet away.  As Misato says, it’s not that they’re unaware of this problem, “It drives over ninety percent of what passes for plot events in ‘The Shinji Ikari Raising Project.’”  Truer words have never been spoken.

So if you were expecting something different in this latest volume of the series, then you’re going to be deeply disappointed.  As for the “ten percent” of events that don’t involve Shinji accidentally foisting himself on an unsuspecting member of the female cast, they involve:  Shinji purposefully groping Asuka’s breasts to keep them from being exposed after her top falls off during a volleyball game, Kensuke and Toji shooting bottle rockets at each other, Asuka’s mom starting a maid cafe, and Rei getting buzzed after being splashed with Misato’s sake and coming on to Asuka in the bath.  If reading about these things sounds like your idea of a good time, then you’re welcome to it.  At least Carl Horn’s localization delivers more than a few witty lines, but we’re way past the point where you could argue that it makes this drivel worth reading.