Neon Genesis Evangelion (manga)

Neon Genesis Evangelion (新世紀エヴァンゲリオン) is a long-running manga series by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto and published by Kadokawa Shoten; it began in the February issue of Shōnen Ace in December 1994. It consists of 14 volumes, each composed of several "stages" or chapters. It was released before the anime of the same name it was based on, intended to increase public interest. In 2008, it was announced that the Neon Genesis Evangelion manga is approaching its conclusion. In July 2009, it was moved to a new Shoten seinen magazine, Young Ace, being published there until January's issue, when Sadamoto stopped writing the manga, putting the publication on hiatus in order to work on the latest Rebuild of Evangelion film, 3.0: Q Quickening.

The Japanese printing of the manga uses the anime's logo imagery for its title, while the American printing simply uses the English title.

Characters
Sadamoto was the original character designer for the anime with Hideaki Anno as the supervisor; his versions of the characters and plot often differ in subtle ways from the TV series.


 * Shinji Ikari
 * Shinji Ikari's eyes are brown instead of blue. He is also less introverted and expresses himself more, although he is still plagued by self-doubt and hatred for his father to the point where while dissolved in his Eva (episode 20), he imagines that he actually kills him. Also, his cello playing is not a part of the story.


 * Rei Ayanami
 * Rei Ayanami is more of a "human" character in the manga, in that she is slightly more talkative and becomes more connected with the people around her, largely through her interactions with Shinji. The manga also shows her thoughts and feelings, and indirectly shows that she is in love with Shinji. Sadamoto states Rei and Shinji have love for each other, with Rei as a motherly existence.


 * Asuka Langley Soryu
 * Asuka Langley Soryu is not as verbally abusive toward Shinji and more open about her true feelings, but still can be difficult to get along with and initially slightly more of a brat, putting on a "good girl" facade in front of authority figures. Her feelings for Shinji are not quite as obvious, though it is hinted in various chapters that she is attracted to him. She is left in a comatose state immediately after being defeated by Arael. She is a test-tube baby of genius parents, her first meeting with Shinji and his friends is different as Asuka acts more childish than in the series. Asuka would be Shinji's symbol for his longing for the opposite sex, differently from Rei.


 * Kaworu Nagisa
 * Kaworu Nagisa is introduced earlier in the storyline. He fights Armisael alongside Rei in Unit-02. Kaworu is portrayed as being ignorant of many aspects of social interaction, creating some comic relief, but is also colder and more of an unsettling presence than in the anime. Because of this, Shinji dislikes and distrusts Kaworu, while Kaworu makes advances toward Shinji and is upset that Shinji does not return his affections. Sadamoto stated this is because of him picking up Rei's emotions, though Sadamoto says he wrote their relationship as similar to a high school student causing an impression on a younger, middle-school one, "not romance", and that Shinji ultimately rejects him.


 * Toji Suzuhara
 * Toji Suzuhara's English-translated dialogue is heavily accented (due to him being from Osaka), and his hair color is changed. He is more verbally abusive toward Asuka, calling her "bitch" multiple times. He is killed during Volume 6 of the manga series instead of being crippled. Additionally, Shinji is aware that Toji is the pilot of Unit-03 before the battle against Bardiel.


 * Ryoji Kaji
 * Ryoji Kaji is given more of a back story; he tells Shinji of his past to motivate Shinji to return to NERV after the fight against Bardiel (this takes place in a hidden supplies cellar rather than a watermelon patch).


 * Gendo Ikari
 * Gendo Ikari is Shinji's Father, His behavior, looks and final desire are different from the anime series, making him a deeper character rather than a background character. He plays one of the most relevant roles in the manga, even more with the AT-field from Adam. Gendo successfully managed to take full control of that power and became crazy, with godly desires.


 * Yui Ikari/Unit-01
 * In addition to the presence of Yui Ikari's soul inside Unit-01, the Eva's Angelic aspect has its own identity, depicted as the unarmored Eva. This being shows itself to both Shinji and Rei while they are synchronized with the Eva, and it attempts to trap Shinji inside the Eva with itself after the battle with the Angel Zeruel by taking Yui's form and manipulating Shinji's desire for contact with his mother. Rei is able to establish a mental link with this Angelic part of Unit-01 while outside the Eva, and the two acknowledge that they are directly connected to each other.

Publishing history and critical success
Unlike it is sometimes assumed, the manga is in fact not the original version of the story, but instead it was created as a supplemental designed to promote the TV series and was continued thanks to the series' popularity. Sadamoto has also repeatedly stated that the manga is his own individual work and should never be used as a reference for anything in the anime or the Rebuilds. ''" A: I think that the theme of the animated version is that the main character's attitude changes little by little. I think that in the anime, Anno wrote the script in his own words, and that is why the change occurs.  And the reason for the subtle changes between the animation and the manga is that Yoshiyuki Sadamoto is writing the script using Anno's characters.  I think the anime is...I can't say cuter. But it has the feel of an honors student.  The manga is a little more twisted...the feeling of a flunk-out.  I think the reason behind this is  that Anno was his class president in elementary and junior high schools, and flunking out was something he couldn't do, whereas I never had that problem. (laughs)" Q: You're saying that twisted sensibilities are a subtle difference? A: According to Anno's thought process, a twisted person is one who puts on a cool face, but once you see his inside, you get to the crazy portion, just like all the young people today. My approach is the opposite. On the inside the characters are stoic and earnest, but the outside is twisted, just like a child. So I could never write the anime scripts in my own voice. My Shinji is quite a bit different than that. In the end it is his resistance, his refusal to listen to what Misato has to say, but he still makes the right decision. I think that approach is where our methods differ the most. [...] "Q: Concentrating on the story, where do you think the biggest difference is between the manga and the anime? A:  Well I did write the script of the manga using the anime as a base. [...] And that's the reason I tend to change the script entirely.  I pick and choose what is easiesr to say in manga,  The anime became a craze among the fans, and I wanted to lower the demographic to people about 14 or 15 years old, but the content was so difficult, it just wouldn't dumb down."'' - Sadamoto's "My Thoughts at the Moment", 1996 Though this interview is from April 1996, Sadamoto states that he "wrote the script of the manga using the anime "as a base", further implying that the Evangelion anime was produced first (even though the manga was released first). After the anime ended, Sadamoto decided to keep making the manga. Sadamoto has also stated he made the manga entirely on his own, without consulting anyone, in contrast to the anime's more collaborative production, and that all differences were decided by him, in an effort to "separate it from the anime". He has also denied links to the Rebuild movies, particularly regarding the bonus chapter featuring Mari Makinami, which he regards as just fanservice. Interview with Sadamoto, includes his confirmation that the Mari bonus chapter was just fanservice Next question is about Evangelion Rebuilds, do you know about the symbol of the last movie (repeat sign in music)?: Sadamoto: Just to start, I’d like to clarify my position on the Rebuilds. I’ve only done the main character designs so… (laugh) '''Ah I see. It’s this (shows the symbol of Rebuild 3.0+1.0). We weren’t even able to read the title.''' Sadamoto: (looks) Right, I’m sorry but it’s the first time I see it, to tell you how little my implication is. [...]A question about the Evangelion manga, were you completely free on the script or were you consulting director Anno? Sadamoto: There isn’t any script. When you make anime there are the storyboards, right? We were just sharing them, so I’m on the same level as a fan. I just wrote it on my own, looking at the storyboards. So I didn’t consult anyone, and of course no one from the TV series’ staff intervened in my manga. So, in the last page of the manga there is Mari, one of the Rebuild’s characters… Sadamoto: Oh, that’s not in the storyline, it’s just an extra chapter for the manga volume. It’s even apart from the movies, like fanservice. Just something you mustn’t think too hard about. (laugh) It’s just something that went through my mind, I thought it would be funny if it were like that. '''I see. So it was not a request?''' Sadamoto: It wasn’t and… since she appeared in Jo, Ha and Q, I wondered what her role in the story would be, and when I asked the staff, they told me that it won’t be possible to really go further in one film, so they had to tie the main story up, and that Mari may have almost no screen time. So I wondered what the point was, and decided to add a little bit of her story in the manga, on impulse. So it’s really not something the staff of the movies thought about or asked me to do, just something you can consider as a play of mine. I see, since you know, fans tend to read deep into that kind of thing. Yamaga: Yeah, particularly on Evangelion. They think every little detail has a meaning. (laugh) Sadamoto: Well, but of course when we see Mari in Jo or Ha and see her call Gendo Gendo-kun or smell Shinji’s odor, she’s doing many strange things. Besides she seems to like songs of the Showa era very much since she’s singing them. [...] But again, it’s only me imagining all this. (laugh) Has director Anno decided about that? Sadamoto: Like I said, director Anno hasn’t approved or refuted that idea, he has nothing to do with what I just said.

With the success of the anime, the manga has also become a commercial success; the first 10 volumes have sold over 15 million copies, and the 11th volume reached #1 on the Tohan charts, taking the total to over 17 million. In particular, as the manga has drawn closer to its conclusion, attention surrounding it has reached new heights, with the 11th volume staying atop the Japanese Comic Ranking charts for 4 straight weeks, a remarkable achievement even for long-running series. It won the 1996 Comicker fan manga poll. Volume 12 opened at #1 on Oricon's manga rankings and has sold over 600,000 copies.

The manga ran from December 26 of 1994 to June 4 of 2013. The reason for this is that while ostensibly publishing one "stage" a month in Shōnen Ace, Sadamoto's actual publication schedule was irregular: for example, between the publication in Japan of volume 4 and volume 5, two years elapsed. (Volume 5 consisted of stages 27–29, published in January, March, and May 1998, with a year-long hiatus, then stages 30–33 were published between July/October 1999.) This would only get worse in the 2000s, with multiple years-long hiatuses. In 2016, Sadamoto said he just wanted to finish his involvement in the franchise.

While both the anime and the manga contain language that would normally be censored for television broadcast, the manga uses "fuck" twice (in volumes 4 and 5), although abbreviated to the first letter of the word. The word was not used in the English subtitles or dub of the original series, but appeared in the subtitles and dub for The End of Evangelion.

Apparently, Sadamoto's authorship of the manga caused problems for Gainax as multiple publishers felt "that he was too passé to be bankable".

Viz claims that its releases of Evangelion were the first releases of an unflipped manga in English.

In 2020, a collector's edition was published with 7 volumes that came with bonus material and some alterations and complete new covers.

Trivia

 * The title in the earlier stages of the serialization did not include "Neon Genesis", the title was changed into "Neon Genesis Evangelion" in the September 1995 issue of Monthly Shonen Ace.