By The Eva Monkey
on Tuesday, February 10th, 2015
While some fans managed to get their hands on it a little bit early, the fourteenth and final volume of Yoshiyuki Sadamoto’s Neon Genesis Evangelion manga had its official release today. It’s been a long-awaited conclusion for some, having begun in December of 1994, and concluding in June of 2013. I for one have been looking forward to seeing Sadamoto’s take on the conclusion since I started reading the manga sometime around 2001.
The release of this last volume feels very timely, 2015 is not only the year that Evangelion is set in, but also the 20th anniversary of Neon Genesis Evangelion. This year we also look forward to the English release of Evangelion 3.33, the possible Japanese theatrical release of Evangelion: Final (fingers crossed), a Japanese blu-ray release of the series (which many are hoping for a western release), as well as other anniversary events that have yet to be revealed in detail. It looks like a great year for Eva fans.
And now, I have some manga to binge on, it’s been years since I’ve read many of these volumes.
Posted in: Manga, Neon Genesis Evangelion (manga), News. Tagged: Yoshiyuki Sadamoto.
By The Eva Monkey
on Thursday, July 31st, 2014
Linkara of Atop the Fourth Wall recently performed a live show at Anime Midwest 2014 where he covered the Shinji Ikari Detective Diary. If you’re unfamiliar with Atop the Fourth Wall, it’s a web show that covers and riffs on comics that are awful in various ways.
Now, I haven’t been terribly supportive of Detective Diary in the past, I’ve mostly expressed shock and confusion that it made it into English, and more recently, deep regret that I inevitably purchased both volumes. I’m not alone in feeling this way about Detective Diary. It may just be a very clever and self-aware parody, but many of us can’t get past the fact that it bears the name “Neon Genesis Evangelion”, and many deride it as terrible alternate universe fan fiction. If you know absolutely nothing about Detective Diary, between Likara’s video, and this one LiveJournal user’s assessment, you should be fairly well covered.
Links for this post:
Posted in: Fandom, Manga, Shinji Ikari Detective Diary (manga), Video.
By The Eva Monkey
on Tuesday, July 22nd, 2014
Either life is imitating art, or things have come full circle, because Sony has produced two Evangelion-themed Walkman devices in Japan, one of which is SDAT-themed. Granted, it’s not a tape player, we’re a good 20 years too late for that, but it is nonetheless an SDAT player. There were two different versions, SDAT and and Rebuild Nerv, to choose from, and there looks to have been three different packages, which ranged from 43,000 yen to 87,000 yen, which is pretty steep. Still, these limited edition devices are pretty cool and always sell well, so good luck to interested buyers.
You can see more pictures and info at Sony’s official site.
Posted in: Merchandise, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Rebuild of Evangelion.
By The Eva Monkey
on Saturday, July 19th, 2014
The final volume of Yoshiyuki’s Sadamoto’s Neon Genesis manga is currently slated for simultaneous release this November. A limited release in Japan will feature an original cover, bookends that will hold the entire 14-volume run, and some details have just been released at the Evangelion exhibit that it will include a bonus story that will include an original female character. There will also be an audio CD included containing music that Sadamoto enjoyed listening to while working on the Evangelion manga.
Personally, having followed the Evangelion manga for the past 13 years, I am very pleased to see the release of the final volume, which I see as the proper conclusion, even though the final stage ran in Young Ace last June. It will be nice to complete the full set.
Sources:
Posted in: Manga, Merchandise, Neon Genesis Evangelion (manga), News.
By The Eva Monkey
on Monday, July 14th, 2014
There have been a bunch of vague and unspecified delays since the beginning of the year in regards to the English release of Evangelion 3.33. Last month, Toonami tweeted that Funimation said 3.33 was “still on hold” and that they were “Working ‘closely’ with studio khara to ‘make it closer to original vision.'”. This prompted a number of people to fill in the gaps, especially those who had seen the dub in theaters. The consensus seems to be that Funimation has done a poor job, not necessarily in translation, but in capturing the same emotions. Scenes where Misato seemed to show a genuine sense of concern for Shinji have been overridden by her just sounding perpetually angry. So it would seem that Funimation has been revising the dub in some amount. That now seems to be confirmed, as Spike Spencer’s newsletter has just stated that he is scheduled to record “pick ups” for Evangelion 3.33. This should be considered good news, considering Spike Spencer, as Shinji, has the most lines of anyone in the film, and smoothing out his lines alone should be a good push towards them completing the dub, and setting a release date for the DVD and Blu-ray, which many fans are eagerly awaiting.
Posted in: Evangelion 3.0, News, Rebuild of Evangelion. Tagged: FUNimation, Spike Spencer.
By The Eva Monkey
on Monday, July 14th, 2014
I’m not a sports guy. Even the sports that I enjoy I would much rather be playing. Maybe that’s the video gamer in me at work. So I wasn’t terribly interested in the World Cup. But, somehow, the internet has found a way to make it relevant to me. As you may know, Germany won this year, so naturally, some artists decided to express their enthusiasm in the form of Evangelion/World Cup fan art featuring Asuka, on account of her German heritage. And I think that’s fucking awesome. Some of the pieces have a speedy quality to them, which probably reflects the “newsiness” of it all, but I think they’re all kind of cool in their own right, so I definitely suggest taking a look.
Posted in: Fan Art, Fandom. Tagged: Asuka Langley Soryu.
By The Eva Monkey
on Wednesday, July 9th, 2014
A rumor has been circulating for close to two months now, that Michael Bay wants to work on Live Action Evangelion, and insinuating that it would be his next project. I never got around to posting about it because it was infuriatingly bogus, and I didn’t feel like I should have to write about what was a clear case of clickbait bullshit. But something unexpected happened yesterday. Michael Bay’s official Twitter account actually confirmed it to be false. There’s more to this story, but honestly, I don’t care. All you need to know is that the rumor originated on a Korean drama gossip website, citing a Tranformers fansite that doesn’t exist, and there is a clear pattern where they frequently generate stories in this fashion. So rest easy, Live Action Evangelion is still dead, the last official news was that ADV Films was suing Gainax over the rightsADV Films was suing Gainax over the rights, so that should tell you how likely a film is at any point in the future.
Posted in: Live Action Evangelion, News, Rumors.
By The Eva Monkey
on Wednesday, July 9th, 2014
Otakon has released the official roster of fan panels for this year’s event. I’m pleased to be hosting two panels this year, for what will be my twelfth consecutive year as a fan panelist. It’s hard to believe I’ve been doing them every year since Otakon first incorporated fan panels in 2003. This year’s installment in Evangelion focused on the many ways in which Evangelion, a cartoon, has invaded the public consciousness. The various examples run the gamut from good, to bad, to ugly. Here’s the full panel description:
Japan Loves Evangelion (Entirely Too Much)
At some point, Evangelion graduated from a controversial, yet successful television series to iconography that has pervaded Japan’s relatively conservative culture in a variety of interesting and unexpected ways. From promotional tie-ins with Pizza Hut, Doritos, and Shick, to an entire Evangelion-themed attraction at the Fuji-Q Highland amusement park, there is no doubt that Evangelion has invaded Japan’s public consciousness. And that’s saying nothing of the breadth of merchandise that has been produced over the past two decades. Attire, electronics, sporting goods, housewares… you name it, they’ve probably slapped a Nerv logo or a relevant color scheme on it at some point. We’ll be taking a look at the many ways that prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that Japan loves Evangelion entirely too much.
Also, if you happen to be a fan of old-school gaming and it’s dramatic and occasionally hilarious history, consider checking out my panel about Sega:
Sega does… what Nintendon’t.
After the video game industry crash of 1983, Nintendo was able to explode onto the scene and secure the vast majority of the market, and it remained largely unchallenged until the early 1990s when Sega gained a foothold with the Sega Genesis and games like Sonic the Hedgehog. What followed was the infamous “bit wars” between Nintendo and Sega, an at times childish back-and-forth that has ingrained itself into the collective memory of gaming. We’ll take a look at the history of Sega, how it became a serious competitor to Nintendo, where it went wrong, and how it all fell apart. We’ll look at its well-known blunders with hardware, as well as the advertising and marketing that ranged from absurd to just plain “what were they thinking” weird.
Posted in: Conventions. Tagged: Otakon.
By The Eva Monkey
on Sunday, July 6th, 2014
Dark Horse announced this morning at their Evangelion panel at Anime Expo that they had licensed a single-volume of parody manga by Tony Takezaki. Takezaki has previously contributed to Neon Genesis Evangelion: Comic Tribute, also available from Dark Horse. In all, Dark Horse current holds licenses for:
- Neon Genesis Evangelion: The Shinji Ikari Raising Project
- Neon Genesis Evangelion: Campus Apocalypse
- Neon Genesis Evangelion: The Shinji Ikari Detective Journal
- Neon Genesis Evangelion: Comic Tribute
That’s a lot of Evangelion manga!
Source: Anime News Network
Posted in: Manga. Tagged: Carl Horn, Dark Horse Manga.
By The Eva Monkey
on Wednesday, July 2nd, 2014
If you’re heading to Anime Expo this weekend, be sure to stop by Dark Horse’s Evangelion panel on Sunday. It will be helmed by the illustrious Carl Horn, a veteran of Evangelion in the English language. Before joining Dark Horse, Carl served as editor for Viz’s English release of Yoshiyuki Sadamoto’s Neon Genesis Evangelion manga. He’s also been attached to several others, including the Shinji Ikari Raising Project. He also worked on Animerica back in the day, as well as a few other things. He’s a wealth of knowledge, and has shared that knowledge with fans in a way that I’ve found uncommon among industry folks. He’s definitely someone worth meeting if given the opportunity.
I was invited to be on the panel, however, I am unfortunately on the wrong side of the country. So instead, I connected Carl with the next best thing. This year, Carl will be joined by Rocco Botte and Garrett Hunter of the web series Mega64. Rocco and Garrett have frequently exhibited a healthy interest in Eva, Rocco with his figure collecting, Garrett with his tattoos, and they’ve done things like a lengthy spoilercast for Evangelion 3.33, as well as an audio commentary for The End of Evangelion, which I consider to be significantly better than the one on the official release.
If you’re going to be at Anime Expo this year, be sure to stop by and check out the panel.
For reference, here’s the panel description and schedule information:
Dark Horse Comics releases four different Neon Genesis Evangelion manga: The Shinji Ikari Detective Diary, The Shinji Ikari Raising Project, Evangelion: Comic Tribute, and Evangelion: Campus Apocalypse. With the new Evangelion 3.33 movie in U.S. theaters and on DVD from Funimation, the Eva phenomenon is as alive as ever! Come by to talk about all aspects of Evangelion, and win special Japanese import Eva prizes!
https://guidebook.com/guide/19309/event/9119560/
Posted in: Conventions. Tagged: Anime Expo, Carl Horn, Mega64.
While some fans managed to get their hands on it a little bit early, the fourteenth and final volume of Yoshiyuki Sadamoto’s Neon Genesis Evangelion manga had its official release today. It’s been a long-awaited conclusion for some, having begun in December of 1994, and concluding in June of 2013. I for one have been looking forward to seeing Sadamoto’s take on the conclusion since I started reading the manga sometime around 2001.
