Ranked #4711

Neon Genesis Evangelion: Angelic Days (Manga)

"Imagine a Neon Genesis Evangelion where dating the right girl is more important than saving the world." As soon as I saw this one, very simple, sentence, I knew (thought) that this would be my all time favourite manga....ever. However, three volumes in I realized that this is possibly the worst manga I've ever read...worse than even Kingdom Hearts.

Story: Wow....where exactly to begin? Asuka likes Shinji, but she won't admit it. Rei likes Shinji...and will admit it...after a while. Touji and Hikari ARE together and provide a sort of...parallel relationship. Kensuke likes Asuka but Asuka cannot stand him at all. Shinji, of course, completely indecisive and has to spend an incredible amount of time being annoying before deciding exactly which girl he has his heart on. That's it...the entire story. Oh, wait. Sorry. Kaoru is in....love with Shinji? Yes....yes he is. That is is. The entire storyline is completely one layer deep. They try to throw in the Angels and the Eva's...but the attempt is terribly conceived and the "battle" is quite poorly drawn. All the complexities that made the original Evangelion are gone...and the only thing that's left is a terribly flimsy premise for a manga. The ending is terrible as well. How many of you saw the ending of the show and went "What...just...happened?" Well...this is kind of like that, only there wasn't a great beginning or middle part. And as for which Shinji picks....take a giant guess....95% of you will be right. I'll give you a hint...if you're hoping for the same person I hoped for...you're wrong.

Art: The only reason why the characters are recognizable is because they are referred to by name so often. I don't understand at all why someone chose this guy to do this manga. He completely, completely butchers EVERYTHING in this. I kept looking at Shinji and Rei (especially Rei) going "who the HELL are they?" There are almost no backgrounds at all, except when there's a scene change or when the artist decided to draw a window or tree. I don't mind having pages mainly blank, but the art that's in here is almost insulting. I could rant almost forever about how terrible the art in this is...but it would be a lot easier for you to download a chapter, preferably in volume 3-6 (that's when the art REALLY crumbles apart) and view it for yourself.

Character: During this entire manga I spent my time reimagining what it would be like if this manga was more like Evangelion....and honestly, the version in my head was a LOT more entertaing (at least to me) than what was on the page. Every character in here is practically stencilled from every harem manga ever made. Shinji is, of course, completely indecisive. He gives the illusion that he's debating between the two, Rei and Asuka, but he knows which one he goes with. The characters have absolutely no depth at all. Even Kaoru, who people STILL debate about, is so shallow and weakly developed that even I was feeling so bad for him.

Enjoyment: I finished this manga....I barely read the last 3 volumes, by the end of the second volume I had stopped hoping that it would improve. It never did improve....In the hands of almost anyone else, this manga would have been incredibly amazing. I was so suprised by how terribly handled this manga was. It'll stand on my bookshelf as the worst manga I have ever purchased and read....and that includes Kingdom Hearts (I've mentioned that before)

Don't read this, unless you're really curious. If you hate it in the first volume and think that it might improve, I am telling you right now that it won't. This has nothing to do with evangelion except for the name and the characters. There is absolutely no appeal in this anime. Don't get me wrong, I was HOPING so badly that was going to be amazing. I thought that this was going to be my favourite manga...my favourite series. Sadly, it vastly underperforms. So...read it, or don't read it. Just please, don't be like me and expect it to be amazing because it has the name "Neon Genesis Evangelion" attached to it. read more

Neon Genesis Evangelion: Angelic Days is, simply put, a high school romantic comedy version of the original Evangelion anime. When I first learned about it, I thought that it might be a fun alternate version of a series that I consider to be brilliant or, on the flipside, a laughably bad retelling with little of what made the first series great. Unfortunately, it turned out to fall into the latter category.

Doubtlessly, most anime and manga fans are familiar with the original Neon Genesis Evangelion’s story. Angelic Days share the basic plot – teenagers are chosen to pilot giant robots and learn about growing up in the process – but little else. There’s none of the weirdness that you might expect, and certainly none of the depth. All the story really has to offer is a straightforward tale about kids and giant robots. It still has some of the mystery that comes with the mecha genre, but nothing about the plot stands out, especially when you remember that the original Eva did it better. As for the romantic elements… well, they’re nothing to write home about. Gendo and Yui, who star as students in a sidestory that takes up all of volume five, have a nice little love story, but other than that none of the character’s love lives are particularly interesting, and certainly not unique. Really, Angelic Days boasts no unique or even notable plot elements.

The artwork, which could have improved my opinion of this series, did exactly the opposite. It’s very sparse in terms of detail, and not at all attractive. The best way to describe the main fault is that it’s quite… droopy. Most of the characters have almost limp posture, clothing, and hair. In addition, there’s something that bothers me about the character’s faces; at any given moment, they seem either lifeless or annoying. It’s just not a very good-looking manga.

As for the cast… well, quite frankly, the cast of Angelic Days sucks. All of the unique characters that made the original Evangelion interesting are replaced by one-dimensional shells of characters. You have the average joe main man, the shy new girl, the grouchy but loving childhood friend, and more. If you’ve ever read a romantic comedy manga, you’ve met these people already, just not inhabiting the Eva cast’s bodies. While arguably an alternate universe has the right to reinvent characters, they should at least be reminiscent of the originals in ways other than name.

If you’re a fan of the original Neon Genesis Evangelion anime or manga, you’re probably going to check this out regardless of what you hear. Still, keep your expectations low, because Angelic Days is nothing like normal Evangelion, and not in a good way. Even if you’ve never seen or read Evangelion, however, do yourself a favor and read one of the hundreds of other manga that cover mecha, romance, or both in a more original and enjoyable way. read more

Girlfriend of Steel 2, called Angelic Days in the U.S, is based on a video game by Gainax of the same name, which in turn is based on the Possible World sequence from Episode 26 of the anime. While the art of the manga isn't anything outstanding, I've personally seen worse and luckily, Mr.Hayashi's style improves as the manga goes on.
The plot itself is more or less the same as the Girlfriend of Steel 2 video game, although a few original things are added: namely, the events in Volumes 5 (a flash-backward to Kaworu's past) and 6 (a flash-forward after the events of Volume 4).
One surprising thing (although I personally didn't miss it much), was the lack of fanservice, considering the video game version of this story has nothing but this.
I personally enjoyed this manga, especially since the characters were based on their anime counterparts, with the notable exception of Rei. The balance of Shinji liking both Asuka and Rei, as well as the eventual pairing, was done quite well.
If you like the idea of Evangelion having a more "normal" and romantic side to it, then give Evangelion: Angelic Days a shot. read more