Shinji Ikari’s personality is a direct result of his Mom “dying” and his Father being a generally abusive asshole, both of which were the result of the Instrumentality plot. Why is that? It’s because, at least for Evangelion, the characters are fundamentally tied into the narrative of canon. Even something as batshit crazy as Shinji And Warhammer 40k, which stars characters who are wildly OOC compared to their canonical counterparts, tries to maintain many of the fundamental dynamics or over-arching superstructure from the show. Most, like HERZ or (my personal all-time-favorite) Taking Sights distort or deviate from canon, rather than throw it away completely. Almost all Evangelion fanfiction avoids going Pure AU. Which got me thinking about which media adapt well to AU format. (Warning: review and extended essay about what makes an AU work beneath the break.) But Rising is such an AU that it’s all-but-impossible to gel with the canonical source material. Now, anyone who’s read my fanfiction knows that I appreciate a good AU. In this universe, Shinji and Asuka are longtime friends, the Ikaris are a happy family, Rei is a distant relation of Shinji’s, and there are no Angels or apocalypses to be found. The Shinji Ikari Rising Project takes place in an alternate universe (AU), ostensibly glimpsed in the surrealist final episodes of the 90s anime. Now that I’m in a (marginally) better headspace, and can safely explore the edges of Evangelion (the EoE, if you’ll pardon the joke) without falling into a depressive spiral, I decided to actually power through my bête noire of Evangelion spin-offs. I must have skimmed the first few pages a dozen times, always putting it back because it didn’t feel right.
#Neon genesis evangelion shinji ikari manga series
Yet one thing I almost religiously avoided was The Shinji Ikari Rising Project, a Gainax-authorized manga series by Osamu Takahashi.
I went through FFN, AFF, AO3, Wattpad, then down the rabbit hole of individual fan sites, all the way back to bloody Gopher servers. Like refreshing-FFN-several-times-a-day addicted. I must have skimmed the first few pages a dozen times, always Back in the day, I was really into Neon Genesis Evangelion fanfiction.
moreīack in the day, I was really into Neon Genesis Evangelion fanfiction. But why are so many people keeping an eye on these relationships? People like homeroom teacher Misato, school nurse Ritsuko, and Shinji's mother and NERV's chief scientist Yui Ikari.Įach volume of Neon Genesis Evangelion features bonus color pages, your Evangelion fan art, letters, and special reader giveaways!. When Shinji starts to get curious about Rei, Asuka needs to figure out if she wants to be just friends with Shinji or something more. And she always sort of assumed they'd stay together - until the day the beautiful brilliant Rei Ayanami showed up in class! But why are so many Stunning hotheaded Asuka Langley Soryu has been friends with Shinji Ikari since they were little. And she always sort of assumed they'd stay together - until the day the beautiful brilliant Rei Ayanami showed up in class! When Shinji starts to get curious about Rei, Asuka needs to figure out if she wants to be just friends with Shinji or something more. Stunning hotheaded Asuka Langley Soryu has been friends with Shinji Ikari since they were little.