Neon Genesis Evangelion: Angelic Days, Vol. 1
Published by: ADV Manga
Story & Art: Fumino Hayashi
based on an original story by Gainax

184 (174) pages.
Original Language: Japanese
Orientation: Right to left
Vintage: 2003. US edition May 2006.
Editor: Javier Lopez
Translation: Jack Wiedrick & Kaoru Bertrand
Graphic Artist: Scott Howard
Original Concept: Hideaki Anno
Original Character Design: Yoshiyuki Sadamoto
Publisher’s Rating: Teen, 13+

Rating: 3 out of 5

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Premise: Kids growing up in a post-apocalypse renewed-urban landscape are still just kids, experiencing first loves and crushes, doing those things that eventually insure the survival of the species. Unless the invaders from space are still coming. And, um, the kids at this particular school…

Synopsis:

Shinji Ikari: our male lead, is a standard Japanese high-school kid. (manga generic; I’m beginning to hate these guys…)

Asuka is an old childhood friend, and she looks out for Shinji. Comes to his house to wake him up and make sure he isn’t late to school, that kind of thing. This is also a standard manga trope, the childhood-friend-who-could-be-more bit; the hypotenuse of the well-worn love triangle. [*yawn*]

As might be expected… a transfer student, Rei, shows up. She’s cute. She likes Shinji. Looks like Shinji likes her, and that makes Asuka mad. Again: seen it, got the t-shirt, thanks.

If we didn’t already know that giant invading aliens–and the corresponding defending giant robots–were just a volume or two away, we’d all give up on this one right now.

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Review:

If I bothered with half points, I’d give this two and a half points. Maybe two and 3/4. I’ll admit that despite the flaws, I can find some things I really like about this comic. So: I’ll give it 3 points. One of the strengths of the five point/star scale is that each step actually means something.

As the cumbersome title informs us, this manga is in fact based on a popular and long established anime property. (it practically built the company Gainax from a minor player into the current entertainment powerhouse, almost single-handedly.) I’m trying to ignore that and everything I already know about this premise and the characters, for the sake of the review. If you’ve seen Neon Genesis Evangelion, then you’ll recognise the characters, and can see that this is an alternate story line. This either excites you, or pisses you off.

I don’t care either way; while the internet was founded for baseless debates, kindly take this debate elsewhere. I’m not going to argue with you about anime-vs-manga.

The characters play true to themselves, even without much background information presented in the comic, and with the different story. In fact, I’ll give Hayashi a little credit and say that the comic is actually better at characterization than the source material.

If you had no idea what Eva (sorry: “Eva” is a nickname we fanboys use to refer to this particular anime) was about, and came in to the property cold, you’d see a fairly standard high-school romance comic with a bit of foreshadowing and a sci-fi twist.

Admittedly, the foreshadowing-and-twist aren’t really anything new either. It may be a tribute to the original concept and story that even shifted 90 degrees and watered-down, these characters still read rather well on the page, and I for one would like to see how the story plays out.

Final analysis: no matter which way you approach it, there’s not that much new here, but you might give this one a try; either for a new take on an old favourite, or for an above-average approach to what are now familiar themes.