As a matter of fact, yes- And a whole lot worse at that when it becomes apparent not everyone is working for a common goal or the good of humanity necessarily and the Angels are getting far more clever in their approach.
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Yoshiyuki Sadamoto
Translation/Adaptation: Lillian Olsen, William Flanagan, David Ury/Fred Burke, Carl Gustav Horn
What They Say
Once Shinji didn’t care about anything; then he found people to fight for – only to learn that he couldn’t protect them, or keep those he let into his heart from going away. As mankind tilts on the brink of the apocalyptic Third Impact, human feelings are fault lines leading to destruction and just maybe, redemption and rebirth.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
With Rei’s Eva out of action due to protecting Shinji while fighting an Angel, NERV Tokyo is in need of reinforcements as they are clearly in the Angels sights and so they wait for a new member to come from the German division along with an Eva that was built there. The Angels though aren’t going to just sit by and they attack the naval battle group transporting the giant mech and its pilot but it turns out the transferring pilot is every bit the genius that her reputation claims as she manages to defeat the Angel in just 36 seconds while being forced to leap from ship to ship- and the footage makes a big impact with at least one of her soon to be fellow pilots who wonders what she is like.
Shinji’s expectations are shattered when he and his two friends are walking home they see a fiery red head fighting with a crane catching game at an arcade and as she attempts to shake the trio down for some more money she bumps another person in the arcade causing him to lose his game and a brawl commences that drags the girl as well as Shinji and company into its midst and while she is more than capable of holding her own Shinji winds up on the receiving end of a punch which leaves him with a bruise and a desire never to see the girl again. Of course though given Shinji’s luck he encounters her as she is fighting with a pass card door to enter NERV and he discovers that this girl is the hyped “Second Child” Asuka Soryu who Shinji will have to coexist with to save Tokyo.
And if that first impression weren’t bad enough Shinji discovers that Asuka tends to come across as having two separate personalities depending on who she is dealing with as she comes as somewhat reserved and polite in front of adults but when around Shinji she is completely different as she is far less patient and is given to insults and outbursts when she thinks no adult is present. Her attitude changes particularly in the presence of Ryoji Kaji whom she is deeply taken with…but who has a past with Misato that makes it difficult for her to deal with him leading to her own problems doing her job when Kaji is around and generally irritating her to no end.
The Angels aren’t going to just sit back while their human opponents struggle with these new relationships issues though and with each new Angel encounter the NERV personnel will find that they may be pushed to the limits of their abilities- and perhaps patience. As the Angel have a complete uniqueness to their abilities that will force the trio of young pilots to try to grow up very fast, which is difficult given the relationship struggles each has with each other and also may have when it comes to parental relationships.
If that weren’t bad enough though Shinji starts to learn that he hasn’t been told the true story when it comes to NERV and he finds himself questioning all of what he knows and who to trust, which may actually be a really good idea as an act of sabotage leaves NERV literally in the dark and more than one person there is working to their own goal which may endanger them all. But it is the recruiting of the Fourth Child and an Angel at almost the same time that may put Shinji in a position where he can no longer bear all the weight that has been foisted on his shoulders as the danger of his situation is driven home both in action and memory when he realizes that the first time he saw an Eva wasn’t when he came to Tokyo 3 but actually almost a decade earlier when his life changed forever. Will this psychologically strained youth be able to continue to save the world or is a plan B going to be needed?
While the giant robots fighting nay be the sizzle for Evangelion the real meat of what makes the series special for me is found in the psychology of the characters and this is on prime display in this collection of three volumes as the material gets a chance to showcase some of its lead characters and get an idea for what makes them tick.
Obviously in Shinji’s case it is his relationship with his father –or complete lack thereof- that motivates a great deal of his actions as his need for acknowledgement motivates him at different times to do things that he thinks are impossible, such as piloting an Eva, and helps to explain why, no matter what horrid things happen he can’t just walk away despite his personality having developed into one where he doesn’t really give any effort. In this release Shinji gets a number of jolts from his father telling him that Shinji will never get what he is looking for from him to finding out that NERV has been keeping a lot of secrets to his own repressed memory returning of the real first time he saw an Eva and how that day’s events forever changed his life.
And while Shinji is often criticized for his attitude (both in the manga and by fans) it is pretty amazing how he has nearly the perfect personality to help draw Asuka out as she really tries to project a dominating personality when around him and others her age while trying to act like a properly behaved lady around adults. Perhaps it is this quandary that seems to have her so split where she is more than a little interested in Kaiji but at the same time has moments where she isn’t always cold to Shinji, though some of this may also be a product of her birth as she is the child of a sperm donor and her mother has died which leaves her alone in the world with only her supposed genius to cling to as a reason for being.
The manga also departs from the anime series when it comes to Rei as while she is still very much an enigma here there are moments were she shows a bit of separation from the other interpretation of herself as she speaks to Shinji at one point out of spontaneity and while it was a simple farewell it stands apart as the anime version never quite seemed to get to that point.
Then there are the adults- almost every adult in the series is portrayed as either having some big flaws to being someone who is carrying out a secret agenda or who is simply so emotionally stunted that they are unable to really relate with others around them in anything more than a surface level. A person could probably spend hours taking apart this message and examining each character which helps to make the material feel really special even having read it years ago or having been seen a number of times in slightly different animated form. When added to the amazing artwork of Sadamoto, the Evangelion manga takes on a life of its own and the changes from the animated forms story- such as Asuka’s debut and Shinji meeting her- take on a life of their own that shouldn’t be second to any other version of the events and makes the manga one that even those who think they know everything about Evangelion will find that there are corners they had never thought of still to be investigated in this series. Recommended
In Summary
A new Eva and pilot means that things around Shinji are going to be shaking up as his environment is about to get a major change blowing in. Unfortunately life isn’t going to give him much of a chance to process in a quiet setting as the Angel attacks occur seemingly at a faster pace and each Angel has its own abilities which may push even three pilots to their limit. And that is before NERV suddenly has to face the possibility that they have more problems than outside invaders as they suffer an act of sabotage while one of the new members spends their free time trying to track down the shadowy roots of an organization that is both powerful and dedicated to secrecy. As tensions build loss is at hand and the question becomes who is going to pay a very heavy price in the coming events. Recommended
Content Grade: A
Art Grade: A
Packaging Grade: A
Text/Translation Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Viz Media
Release Date: March 12th, 2013
MSRP: $19.99
