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 12 volumes, each composed of several "stages" or chapters. It was released before the anime of the same name, and was 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 (as of vol. 11) 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.


 * Asuka Langley Soryu
 * Asuka Langley Soryu is not as verbally abusive toward Shinji and somewhat more open about her true feelings, but is still as 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 a test-tube baby of genius parents, her first meeting with Shinji and his friends is different, and she is left in a comatose state immediately after being defeated by Arael.


 * 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.


 * 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).


 * 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
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.

While the manga has been running for more than 12 years, only 12 relatively modest volumes have been published. The reason for this is that while ostensibly publishing one "stage" a month in Shōnen Ace, Sadamoto's actual publication schedule has been 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.)

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.