By The Eva Monkey on Sunday, June 6th, 2004
Post Anime Mid Atlantic Stuff
Well, its been a week since I got back from Anime Mid-Atlantic, where I was involved in three, count em, three panels. First and foremost, Evangelion Q&A, as well as Live Action Anime (which I did jointly with a friend of mine), and a Sentai/Tokusatsu Q&A panel (which I assisted the aforementioned friend with). The convention as a whole was rather boring and uneventful, but nevertheless, I returned from the convention utterly brain dead and incapable of doing any work, hence why I skipped last week’s update. Hopefully I can make up for it this week.
Now that summer is here, I hope to be in full swing working on this site, offering you cool stuff. The only thing of note to speak of at the moment in terms of the site is that you may now comment on news posts. I don’t know why you would want to, but by some chance you would like to point something out, say if I got a detail wrong or whatever, the option is there, just look below the time stamp.
Eva Comics Author Interviewed
I had the opportunity to conduct an interview with Rhine, author of Eva Comics. The interview adresses the comic, as well as fan fiction, and his interest in Evangelion. Read the interview here, and be sure to check out the comic as well. Rhine has also written quite a few Evangelion fan fics, which you can read on FanFiction.net. Appropriately, EvaComics is also the featured site for the week.
New Essays Added to Archive
Amanda Wells was kind enough give permission to archive her Evangelion essays originally posted on her site Noise in My Brain. The Believe it or not, the Evangelion essays are just the tip of the ice berg. Check out the new essays in Written Statements, and be sure to check her site for many more essays and rants on various topics of fandom.
Eva Otaku Updates
Brendan over at Eva Otaku gave his site a nice facelift. There’s just something I like about his minimalist approach at fan site design. He added a blog to the page, as well as another question to the FAQ, which I will be updating here at Eva Monkey accordingly. The new question pertains to Misato’s line in The End of Evangelion, and explains why it is a false translation. Quite an excellent break down of it, a must read if you ever were curious about the relationship between Adam, Lilith, Lilim, and the Angels.
Tiffany Grant Revises Previous Statement
Tiffany Grant revised a previous statement concerning the Live Action Evangelion Project into a full fledged article, and added it to her professional writings on her personal homepage, which has been updated as well. Give it a read, its entitled “Notes About the Live Action Evangelion Movie”.
Carl Horn to work with Dark Horse
It was announced in April that Carl Horn, an editor at Viz for some years, has parted with the company in favor of Dark Horse. Mr. Horn has been the editor of the Evangelion manga since it first began publication in the US. I would like to take the opportunity to wish him luck at Dark Horse.
Though he may not be aware of this site, I would like to say a few words to/about Mr. Carl Horn.
Two years ago, creating a site like this was the furthest from my ambitions. Then came Otakon 2002, where I attended the Evangelion panel put on by Mr. Horn, and Ms. Tiffany Grant. Though it wasn’t what inspired me to be an Eva enthusiast, it did inspire me to want to learn more about Evangelion, as well as cherish the opportunity to continue to hold Evangelion panels at that same convention, and do the exact same thing that I myself enjoyed attending before, only now on the other side of the table. Whether he knows it or not, he has been one of the voices that has guided me to being where I am today, and for that, I thank him, and wish him luck in his endeavors at Dark Horse.
Status of the Evangelion Manga
Volume 8 of the manga has been out in the US for a bit now, and Viz is being quite agressive with releasing the second editions of the Eva manga. The second editions of the first two are out, and the dates for the next few are as follows, provided the dates from RightStuf are accurate.
Volume 3: Jun 9, 2004
Volume 4: Jul 10, 2004
Volume 5: Aug 9, 2004
At the rate they’re going, the second editions for all the volumes thus far should be out be the end of this year. Their quality is ok, not as nice as the original Kadokawa volumes, but that’s to be expected of most manga adaptations in the western market. I’m just glad they cut the price by a third. However I am a bit annoyed that they clipped almost a quarter inch on both sides. The Japanese volumes are 5 by about 7 inches, the new Viz editions are 5 by 7.5 inches, meaning the comic is still slightly scaled up, and clipped on the sides. Its a minor deviation, but still noticable, and depending on how conscious you are to how faithful an adaptation of the original is, its either negligible, or a minor annoyance.
As for the Manga in Japan, the Limited Edition of volume 9 is out, and the standard edition should be out now, or out soon. I’m a bit dissapointed with the artist, Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, who has somehow managed to skip making a new stage of the comic for SIX MONTHS STRAIGHT. Sorry to break out the capitalized and bolded font, but it needed some additional emphasis. While we’ve managed to get a new volume over here each year for the last 4 volumes, I suspect after the english version of number 9, we may have to wait a while for volume 10. Hell, Japanese readers will have to wait, and have been waiting. There are some rather disouraging rumors that Sadamoto is tired of Eva, and that he wants to stop doing it, and that he doesn’t want to go on for another 2-3 years to finish it. After working day in and day out on the Eva manga for ten years, I can understand, but nevertheless, he has an obligation to the fans, and he’s not making good on his responsibilities. Hopefully they’ll offer him a raise or something to give him some incentive to get to work on the manga.
So what replaces the Eva manga when there isn’t any? Evangelion omake comics by various artists. And they even got collected into a volume in Japan, and if we’re lucky, Viz might take a gambol and bring it over here to the US.
Evangelion Platinum Edition Volume out late July
In case you haven’t heard, the first volume of the Evangelion Platinum edition will be released July 27 by ADV Films. The new volume will feature remastered video, 5.1 Japanese audio, and a new English Audio which is 5.1 as well. The volume will contain episodes 1-5. Special features included are clean opening and closing animation, episode 1 commentary by Matt Greenfield, and episode 2 commentary by Matt Greenfield and Spike Spencer.
Sega Saturn Evangelion game on PC DVD
One of the old Sega Saturn Evangelion games (don’t ask me, I don’t know Eva games that well) is being put out in a remastered PC DVD edition. Sega Japan’s page for the game boasts a few screenshots and a 320 x 240 trailer in Windows Media Player format.
Love & Pop coming to the US
Hideaki Anno’s first live action film “Love & Pop” will be distributed in the US by Kino Video. Viz announced distrobution several years ago, however it faded into obscurity, until just recently when Kino Video bought Viz’s live action library of licenses. Love & Pop was released in 1998 and told a story of teenage prostitution. I’m working on getting a review copy of the film so that I can give you some details about the movie first hand. For now, you can check out the details on Kino’s Love & Pop page.
“Unofficial Guide to Evangelion” details coming soon
I have proofs being sent to me of the Unofficial Guide to Evangelion, being published by Cocoro books. I should have them by the time you read this, and I should have it read and reviewed shortly thereafter. I personnally know nothing of this book, and presumably neither do you. I’m hoping its worth it, and I’ll be sure to let you know ASAP what it contains, and how good (or bad) it is. Here’s to hoping its a good read. For now, here’s Cocoro’s own description of the book:
Neon Genesis Evangelion
The Unofficial GuideWho killed Ryoji Kaji?
What actually happened at the Second Impact?
Does Ritsuko Akagi really love Gendo?
Why does Shinji strangle Asuka?
How long can an Evangelion operate for?Director Hideaki Anno’s extraordinary creation has proved to be one of the most influential anime works of the last decade. Anno has used the medium as no one has before – as a means for personal expression and for exorcising private demons. However, the TV show and subsequesnt feature films have left many hardcore anime fans scratching their heads in wonder.
Neon Genesis Evangelion: The Unofficial Guide sets out to answer the numerous questions that this complex and endlessly fascinating story has raised. From the material world of New Tokyo-3 and the mechanics of the Evas to the spiritual significance of the battle to destroy the Angels, this book unearths the little-known facts and tackles the big subjects of what has been described as an animated masterpiece.