Misato's Fan Service Center: Book 1, Issue 3

NEON GENESIS EVANGELION LETTERS PAGE

c/o
Viz Comics
P.O. Box 77010
San Francisco, CA 94107

Yes, we're still taking entries to improve our letters page title (and it won't take much to improve what we've got above, as I’m sure you'll agree. Be the first to send in the winning title and you'll receive a free subscription to all of PART TWO of this very comic! Please specify which you’d prefer, regular or Special Collector's Edition.)

And if you don't have an idea or a title, write us anyway to tell us what you think of Viz Comics' historic translation of the most popular Japanese manga and anime hit of the last five years!

Yo, 'sup.

I am stoked that the NEON GENESIS EVANGELION manga is now being translated here in the States. In fact, I am very happy about the props GAINAX is reviving over this great anime and manga series. Even tho’ the manga may be a li’l happier than the anime version, I often do wonder if maybe Hideaki Anno ever listened to Nirvana when directing the series (I wish I asked him when he was a guest of honor at Anime Expo ’96). A lot of the episodes (esp. near the end) remind me of Nirvana songs, esp. from their very last studio CD, IN UTERO, whose album title is also fitting for EVA’s storyline. I do wonder If anybody else who has seen the anime and read the manga has also had that same feeling about Nirvana and EVANGELION.

I also wonder the same thing about the popular (and my favorite) rock group, U2, whether any of them have seen EVANGELION, because their latest CD, POP, seems to have the same tone as the series. I’m thinking of “MoFo,” “Wake Up Dead Man,” “Gone,” “Please,” and “Last Night On Earth,” among other songs on the album. I did read in an article that U2 is aware of anime (since their drummer, Larry Mullen Jr., did that track “One Minute Warning” for the American release of GHOST IN THE SHELL). Is it possible that U2 may be on the same artistic wavelength as Anno? Wouldn’t that be a trip to see.

And on the other tip, I do think the ultra-lean,, mean, on-the-edge, completely rocking machine (and my second favorite) group, Smashing Pumpkins, should consider Rei Ayanami as the poster child for their line of Zero T-shirts (she is the pilot of Unit Zero after all)! I do with that their latest song, “The End Is The Beginning Is The End” could have been used for THE END OF EVANGELION instead of the lame-ass BATMAN AND ROBIN movie (Aargh, such a tragic fate that Uma Thurman decided to act from that terrible script). At least the music video for the song would probably be a lot more interesting with the EVA characters. Hmmmm…which reminds me, if Shinji was older and shaved his hair and started a band, would he look and be like Billy Corgan? Hee hee…who knows.

Good Luck!
Danielle Scott
Santa Clara, CA
pirotas@pirotas.com

“Bitterness of one who’s left alone…”
Talented Ms. Scott was also kind enough to send in the lovely drawing of Asuka and Rei reproduced on this page. You may know Asuka from the anime, but she won’t show up in the manga for a while yet (even though she’s on the cover of issue #2). My guess is this picture depicts them in the parking lot of the Valley Fair Mall.

I agree: it seems to me that Nirvana, U2, and Smashing Pumpkins would be a good accompaniment to EVA. As for being a spokes- (or non-speaking-) model for the Zero-wear, it should be noted that Rei’s name actually means “zero”. Beyond IN UTERO, I also think of the song “Been A Son” (from Nirvana’s INCESTICIDE and performed live on FROM THE MUDDY BANKS OF THE WISHKAH) as a theme song for Unit Zero’s pilot. I’d regard Nine Inch Nails’ THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL as rather evocative of EVA as well.

Indeed, who knows what strange stations creators receive? But although Gainax got hip to the MTV concept very early (as witnessed by their 1983 Daicon IV Opening Anime back when they were the amateur film group Daicon Film) and EVA uses many experimental techniques that would seem right at home in a video (especially in its later episodes), very little is known about Anno’s taste in hey-hey-my-rock-n’-roll-and-never-die. Except for his response at Anime Expo ’96 to a question of Mr. Widya Santoso of Her Majesty’s Excise and Customs, Canberra:

Santoso: Would you consider yourself to be more of the John Lennon or Paul McCartney of Gainax?

Anno: I don’t listen to the Beatles, so I don’t know.

Carl Gustav Horn