Evangelion: ANIMA (Neon Genesis Evangelion: ANIMA)

Three years after Shinji Ikari prevented Third Impact during the Battle at NERV HQ, the Earth is at peace once more. NERV has been reorganized under the command of Misato Katsuragi, and Shinji leads the EVA team with the help of his friends Asuka Langley Souryuu and Rei Ayanami. Advancements in technology have led the organization to upgrade its Evangelions, and three Series-0.0 units have been placed into low Earth orbit to watch over the planet.

Just as NERV is on the verge of upgrading Shinji's Unit-01 Type-F, one of the Unit-0.0s goes out of control and crashes near Tokyo-3. Soon after, NERV is attacked by a mysterious Angel Carrier—an oddly modified Mass Production Evangelion. It is now up to Shinji, Asuka, and Rei to stop this attack and identify their mysterious new enemy.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Evangelion: ANIMA, written by Evangelion mecha designer Ikuto Yamashita, presents an alternate universe look at the world of Neon Genesis Evangelion if Shinji had stopped Third Impact during End of Evangelion.

The series was published digitally in English as Neon Genesis Evangelion: ANIMA by Seven Seas Entertainment under the Airship imprint from August 22, 2019 to June 24, 2021, and in print from October 29, 2019 to August 3, 2021.

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Neon Genesis Evangelion

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Characters

Souryuu, Asuka Langley

Main

Ikari, Shinji

Main

Ayanami, Rei

Main

Katsuragi, Misato

Supporting

Nagisa, Kaworu

Supporting

Kaji, Ryouji

Supporting

Suzuhara, Touji

Supporting

Fuyutsuki, Kouzou

Supporting

Horaki, Hikari

Supporting

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Mar 18, 2022

abystoma2

Mixed Feelings

Evangelion, but with slightly more mentally stable characters.

Evangelion: Anima has long been a bit of mystery to western fans. Very short bit was fantranslated, but after a cease and desist, the English version indeed ceased and desisted, the LN falling back into obscurity. Until Seven Seas finally released the whole thing, that is.

Based on the very little info I had about this saying that it takes place in a world Shinji created, I expected it will be another more slice of life spin-off. This turned out to be completely incorrect. If you want that, you’ll have to go for Angelic Days instead. While it’s still ...

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Oct 20, 2022

EggheadLuna

Recommended

Spoiler

This light novel series was supervised and penned by Khara's mechanical designer, Ikuto Yamashita, and I must say... it is really nice to see a lot of shelved "conceptual" ideas breathing new life throughout the books! It was a treat to read from start to finish, and while I thought the ending could have been stronger, it was really incredible to see concepts like multiple Rei clones functioning in tandem with autonomous personalities, as well as Hikari Horaki (yes, Hikari Horaki as in the cute country bumpkin, student counsel president) as an EVA pilot! While parts of the story were filled with a lot of ... technical lingo, there were some really compelling character moments and solid writing choices overall.

⚠️ This review of Evangelion ANIMA will contain spoilers ⚠️

This series takes place three years after the events of the series, so the EVA's chosen children are around 17-years-old. It was refreshing to see them seem generally more put together and competent, though I am no way underselling the value of their respective roles in the TV series! It was nice to see Tōji Suzuhara take more of a leading narrative role, he was a commanding character (quite literally a commander, too) and very much the Nick Carraway-like observer to Shinji Ikari in this tale, though much more of a reliable perspective to see the story from!

Asuka Langley Sōryū is more empathetic and put-together, it may sound cursed to cross-reference a dōjinshi in a piece of literature that is authentically near-canon but it I guess it applies since both are AU, but her characterization in this story reminded me a lot of her personality in RE-TAKE. It is easier to refer to Rei Ayanami as merely "Ayanami" in this continuity, since she is essentially six separate living entities! A prototype of Mari Makinami even makes a debut in this series, before Shin Evangelion ("Rebuild of Evangelion") films, but instead of a teenage girl like the rest of the cast - she is instead a small child, that is an animal-human hybrid, created in a lab in the USA... what an interesting idea!

Misato Kisaragi is practically the same Misato from the TV anime, the most Misato-like thing I've ever seen written in literature, to this day, is when in ANIMA - Misato celebrates their victory with beer and frozen pizza. How much more Misato can you get? It's clear that Mr. Yamashita had a firm grasp on every character from the original series, they seemed more faithful in some ways than even some of the later portrayals in Shin EVA. In fact, I think it would be nice to see an ANIMA OVA series or something, given the length... I doubt it would function well as a fully fleshed-out series, but a six-episode OVA or something would be nice.

Sadly, for many Kaworu Nagisa fans, he's merely the guiding voice in Shinji's head - which I am personally okay with, based on my interpretation of him, but some others may be distressed with the lack of Kaworu, as a distinction from Shinji. There's a lot of romance between both Rei Quatre and Shinji, though it ends tragically, and between Shinji and Asuka, there is a bit of Misato and Kaji's long-lasting love affair as well. With characters like child Mari and Rei Six, it felt very much like a child solider, Mobile Suit Gundam-like plotline; which supposedly was the authorial intent, as stated by Mr. Yamashita in the interview in Vol. 1 of the series.

While there is a lot of action and sci-fi elements, there also is the interesting conceptual trappings of Evangelion's WORLD TREE (or, the parallel dimensions) narrative and Instrumentality, and turning reality into nothing more than a dream at the edge of the Mega EVA's sword-hilt... yes, the EVA units have samurai swords in this story! My inner-child craves this sort of plot device! Overall, it is very well thought-out and entertaining story to consume, I would highly recommend it to any Evangelion fan looking for supplemental material that doesn't deviate too much from the original in character-writing, yet has fresh new ideas as well!

Score: 8.5/10

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Mar 3, 2023

PorthosMoonPower

Recommended

If your favourite part of Evangelion was the religious imagery and lore, then you're in luck, because Anima certainly delivers in that aspect. Due to being in a novel format, Anima has the freedom to have lots of intriguing ideas that an anime wouldn't have the time to flesh out. The lore and mysteries of the original series (such as what exactly SEELE is) are expanded on in a way that feels consistent with Evangelion as a whole. The Christian references are more involved, prominent, and meaningful (though still fairly aesthetic and surface-level), and the global impact of the events is explored -- something the ...

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