Get in the Simulwatch - Neon Genesis Evangelion [End of Eva - 21/7]

Vol 3

Some very interesting developments in this vol 3. As the series reaches the halfway point the character drama has reached breaking point with confessions of love (or like as the language used) and also some confrontations of motivation! Probably the. Most interesting thing the series does is act as a comparison to the main series. In the main series Shinji always feels alone and bottles up his emotions which inturn affects how people treat him. Here he starts with a big friend group and when problems arise he always has someone to talk to about it. It may not solve his problem but hes a far more open and dare I say it, interesting character.

What's really interesting here is the way Shinji is pulled between Asuka, Rei and Kaworu. Asuka doesnt want anything to change for her sake, Kaworu wants the status quo to remain for Shinjis sake and Rei wants to make the most of this rare opportunity she has to live a life for once. Shinji for his part is scared of the changes he's seeing in his friends and himself. The simple life is now over, which he didnt want, and he doesnt know how to react to it. Toji and Hikari are jow a couple, Rei confesses to Shinji and Aida confesses to Asuka. This causes Kaworu to berate Rei and Asuka just runs away from poor Aida. Almost everyone is embarrassed and the fractures have formed!

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I still havent recieved vol 4 yet but hopefully wont be much longer as I'm really enjoying it so far.
 
Finally got back to looking at the games again today. I see the two Girlfriend of Steel titles have actually been fan-translated in their entirity (I was sure at least one of the Eva games must have been), so I'll probably consider them at more length another time. The two that stood out to me the most otherwise are Secret of Evangelion, which seems to offer an alternate/supplementary take on the EoE part of the story, and Detective Evangelion, which is... bananas, frankly.

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Mainly another visual novel-style adventure game with free-roaming brawler action elements (what a combination), Detective Evangelion sees Shinji roped into investigating a spate of strange murders in Tokyo-3 that have begun to include NERV personnel. Despite doing some digging around, however, I've not been able to pin down exactly how the game sets up its story. All the main cast is present in broadly the same roles, but it doesn't seem to follow the continuity of the series at all beyond that.

There is a playthrough on youtube with English commentary by someone who is able to read Japanese, but it's a fairly long game and, although the circumstances of Shinji meeting Rei are very different (he saves her from a kind of zombie monster thing, because of course), I've not yet seen anything about what Shinji's actual connection with NERV is this time round.


Although it's a slight departure from the art style of the series, the game is quite nicely presented and seems to mainly revolve around picking the right conversation choices to get new keywords that will open up further dialogue and advance the story. Any further details on the game in English are pretty sparse, but thanks to reddit and a French wiki, I did find out about some of the stranger events towards the end.

It's not clear if there is more than one ending, but apparently Gendo is murdered, Ritsuko shoots herself after detonating a bomb at the SEELE HQ and Kaji is crushed to death in his garden during an Angel attack. Misato plays a big role in the game, as her father reappears, now a scientist at SEELE, but after an apparent reconcilliation with Misato, transforms and reveals that he is an Angel himself. Misato sends the Eva units to dispatch him, leading to a scene where Shinji begs for her forgiveness, but she accepts that this had to happen and thanks him for what he has done.

I'll not link them directly, but screengrabs for all these events are easy to find on google images.

Perhaps realising how mad this version of the story is, the game also doesn't appear to be taking itself entirely seriously, including a mini-game with Unit 01 doing ten-pin bowling and what looks very much like a cameo appearance for Nadia as one of the victims.

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There was a manga officially released in English as The Shinji Ikari Detective Diary, which I assumed would be an adaptation of this game (according to wiki, one does exist), but it's actually a very different thing. The concept is sort of similar, but the story is entirely different, instead sending Shinji off to work with Kaworu at a detective agency run by Kaji, after breaking an expensive vase (Ouran, much?).
 
So, I promised a while back to give a bit of an explanation of some of the things going on in the video of the Sega Saturn game First Impression, and I'll finally make good on that promise now.

So, as @Professor Irony already mentioned, Shinji loses his memory during an Angel attack, and Asuka decides to make a bit of mischief with it.

She asks Shinji about this and that, things that he doesn't recall now, and then throws a curve ball. "Don't you even remember your girlfriend, Hikari?" she asks.

Shinji is shocked. "I have a girlfriend?!" he exclaims. Asuka assures him that he indeed does.

Back at school, Asuka puts on an act for the girls in class, including Hikari. "Shinji's lost his memory," she bemoans, "and now he doesn't even remember the hot kiss we shared." The girls, Hikari included, are absolutely appalled by Shinji's lack of sensitivity.

Later, in the school grounds, Hikari pulls Shinji aside for a private word. She confronts him with her anger that he could be so insensitive as to ignore a girl's feelings. Shinji puts two and two together and, unbeknownst to him, comes up with five. Thinking on his feet, he decides that he'd better take decisive action and... kisses Hikari. 😅
Oh dear!

(This was actually as a result of a choice of two options offered to the player in typical visual novel style.)

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Later in the game, in Shinji's absence, Asuka and Rei are dispatched in their Evas to tackle the Angel, but are unable land even a single blow against it. Ritsuko realises the awful truth: the Angel has actually stolen Shinji's memory and now has a working knowledge of Rei and Asuka's combat techniques! 😱
Clever, eh?

Shinji then returns to NERV to try to combat the Angel himself.

###

One other thing I thought was worthy of comment was how some of the characters seem to relate to each other somewhat differently from how they do in the anime. Misato is seemingly on the kind of terms with Asuka that allow her to call her an idiot in jest and, also, Rei calls Shinji "Shinji-kun" in the more familiar way Misato does, rather than her usual, more distant "Ikari-kun", using his surname.

Shinji is heard calling Rei "Ayanami-san" rather than his regular "Ayanami", but this can be explained by his memory loss making him unfamiliar with all around him, and addressing people more politely as a result.
 
Funnily enough, I remember one of my mates saying something completely innocuous in a youtube video like "you've just got to do that", or something to that effect, which it then automatically transcribed as "you've just got to bomb Iraq". Concern.
 
Angelic Days vol 4 (finally been able to carry on with it)

Well I have to say this made some pretty big and bold story decisions. Deepened the mystery and left the series in a pretty unexpected place for the next volume. Much like the other volumes the character work is where this shines and the Eva action is where it does not.

We start in a pretty interesting place with Tokyo 3 surrounded by 4 or 5 Angel's from the main series in a stand off with Nerv. Neither side willing to make the first move. This puts all the kids on stand by and high alert as they have time to fret about what's important to them and resolve why theyd be willing to fight. Especially in light of the cpnfessokns last time! Shinji sees Tojis resolve to fight for Hikari and is left struggling to decide who hes fighting for.

Eventually they go out to fight and the action isn't great tbh. I could only really follow it because I've seen the series so I know what each Angel's abilities already are. Shinji ends up trapped in a wierd space where Kaworu, or maybe just a vision of him tries to coerce Shinji to abandon the present and return to the past when life was simpler and they were all only friends. Shinji finds his resolve and makes his choice. This was probably the biggest surprise so far that the manga would do this still with 2 volumes to go. Essentially Shinji chooses
Asuka. Even though the past was easier he doesnt want to go back to it. After the fight the children are split up and sent to bases over the world but resolve to return one day. We then see them return presumably several years later but Kaworu has disappeared and no one can remember him. The mystery of who Kaworu really was seems to be where well head next...

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Vol 5

Very different volume this one. We go back to the time Gendo and Yui were at school together (I'm guessing Shinjis age in the main story). The artist has done a great job of making them look similar but not identical to Shinji and Rei. Its really cool to go back and see a story of young Gendo and how his childhood and personality compare to Shinjis (both series Shinji and Angelic days Shinji). I also noted how the first four volumes have one chapter title split into 4 parts, whereas here we had 4 untitled chapters that went back to chapter 1. Almost like this can be read as a completely separate story.

So we start with a Gendo that feels abandoned by the world. His mother left him a d he knows lives with his gran and fells utterly alone. Sound familiar? Expect Gendo is angry. Really angry and lashing out at everyone and getting into fights. It struck me that this couldn't be series Gendo as if hed suffered like this why would he let Shinji feel that abandonment as well?

Well theres a girl who doesnt think hes all bad, but Yui is shy and has no confidence to speak her mind and cant get near to him. Who then turns up? Only Kaworu looking exactly as he does years later!

Kaworu meddles with both them pushing there determinations and resilience and gives Gendo the chance of what seemed like a mini Instrumentality moment where he could reject the world and create an empty space to live in. Yui however is resolved to finally get to know Gendo even though her friends and parents begin to shun her for having an interest in him and is able to save the day.

This volume both does and doesnt answer the mystery surrounding Kaworu. Hes clearly some sort of Vangard for Adam. But also tells Gendo now has the chance to save the world before disappearing. Its almost like the Angel's are more of a test for humanity in this series rather than harbinger of doom.

There is also part where the class are ment to write a letter to someone. We see that Yui writes "I like you" to Gendo. At the end we see Gendo finally write his letter. He writes "I'll protect you". This made me feel much more that this Gendo would work for both Shinjis. Imagine saying that and then years later not being a le to keep that promise and losing Yui anyway. It's not a surprise he'd abandon Shinji, even if inadvertently. In Angelic Days both he and Yui are still around but Gendo is completely wrapped up in his work and almost never home. It's a different sort of abandonment but still real.

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Vol 6

Very interesting volume this. It basically works as a series of epilogue. Each chapter focuses on a pair of characters and we see a short snapshot of their lives after they've all been split up towards the end of volume 4. The running theme throughout is love, the different forms it can take and how each is valid even if it's not ideal. The afterword even mentions that theme for this series was how do you change from child to adult? And how love, and how we react to it plays a huge role in that change.

The first chapter follows Misato and Kaji and they reminisce on the love they had and how they grew apart. It's not entirely sad though and both are now looking towards the future. Misato even gives Shinji some sound advice.

The next chapter is the most I yeresting I feel and surprisingly pairs Rei with Ritsuko. The pair are at a conference with Yui Ikari who is a living embodiment of the unrequited love they have to burden. Ritsuko still pines for Gendo and Rei has realised she will never be with Shinji. It is kinda melancholic but ultimately neither regrets the opportunity to have loved someone.

The third is Toji and Hikari. In a sense this is the least interesting chapter as they have been in love all series and the chapter follows Hikaris worries as shes been separated from Toji for some time. Sure her worries are a real response but I never really feared for their relationship.

The final chapter follows Shinji and Asuka reuniting after time apart and Shinjis inadvertent efforts to ruin things and wind up Asuka without wanting to. It's almost reassuring that even as they grow up and start dating nothing has really changed between the two. Ultimately they've always cared for each other and been honest so they will work to be together but it wont be easy.

There are two mini bonus storys at the end. Showing the kids at school. In one Shinji and Kaworu talk a out the iind if people they are and the type of person they think Gendo is. In the other the girls are studying for an exam.

Overall this mini series was excellent. As a comparison to how things could have been if Shinji had started the show with a strong friend support network it's super interesting. Vol1-4 play out the main story. Vol 5 was interesting in seeing a different side of Gendo and this final vol wraps things up very nicely. I definitely recommend this to anyone who is a fan of Evangelion.

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~AyaMachi~ said:
Bit late posting this but big thanks for sharing some of those Angelic Days highlights @WMD - I've really enjoyed looking at the artwork 😊👍
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WMD said:
No worries. I really enjoyed reading them so it was nice to share that anyway and the artwork was definitely the highlight of it all as well.
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Just wanted to second Aya's sentiment, dude. I really, really enjoyed reading those posts. I learned loads about Angelic Days from them.
😀👍

Can I take the chance to ask you more about this bit? I wasn't quite sure:
WMD said:
Vol 5

Very different volume this one. We go back to the time Gendo and Yui were at school together (I'm guessing Shinjis age in the main story). The artist has done a great job of making them look similar but not identical to Shinji and Rei. Its really cool to go back and see a story of young Gendo and how his childhood and personality compare to Shinjis (both series Shinji and Angelic days Shinji). I also noted how the first four volumes have one chapter title split into 4 parts, whereas here we had 4 untitled chapters that went back to chapter 1. Almost like this can be read as a completely separate story.
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As in, lead back in to the first chapter of the first volume? 🙂

# # # # #

There's also something unrelated that I wanted to drop into this thread just because it's something that's a bit of an oddity. It's a picture of the back of the Manga Force release of Death & Rebirth. Look at the third paragraph on the back of the DVD case:

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"This film brings together Episodes 1 to 24 of the cult series Neon Genesis Evangelion and takes you beyond the death of the 27th Evangelion."

Whaaat...? 😅
The "27th Evangelion"? What's that?

To this day, I still can't fathom exactly what kind of bizarre translation error must have lead to that part of the description.
 
Neil.T said:
As in, lead back in to the first chapter of the first volume?
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No sorry, wasnt easy to explain. But Vol 1s contents were Chapter 1 Parts 1-4.
Vol 2 was Chapter 2 Parts 1-4 and so on.

In Vol 5 however the contents were Chapters 1-4. Basicslly the numbering of the chapters went back to 1. The story itself is set years before the first volume.
 
It's interesting to me how, in a society that strives for perfection with regards to how we're perceived by our peers, Anno has always preferred the broken and incomplete. I really empathise with that, particularly regarding being mentally broken. It reminds me of the Japanese art of kintsugi (fixing broken crockery with melted gold), and how you come to appreciate the gold-lined cracks as part of the piece. I'm digressing but as someone who has had a far from straightforward life, I'm eternally grateful that @Neil.T accepts me baggage and all.

I think if we were all to appreciate that no-one or nothing is perfect, it'd help us live far easier lives. I do understand that Anno's perceptions are largely down to his father's physical disability, but I genuinely find his preference for the deficiencies and imperfections really interesting, and with regards to entertainment such as animation, I find that it makes things so much more believable - I'm certainly more drawn to characters that have flaws and imperfections.

Apologies for going off on a tangent there 😅👍
 
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