Neon Genesis Evangelion 2-in-1 Edition, Vol. 5: Includes vols. 13 & 14 (5) (Neon Genesis Evangelion 3-in-1 Collection)

I finished rewatching Evangelion not that long ago and I wanted to see how the story was different and how things played out in the manga so I decided to buy the whole series. I know I could have just read it online for free but you see, I’m a physical copy kind of guy AND I’m bad at spending money. That’s why I’m here but back to the subject matter. The mangas came in on time. No damage on them and I read them within a span of a week or two (cause a guy can get busy) overall 10 out of 10 must buy if you love the series.

Neon Genesis Evangelion volume 5 is the conclusion of the Evangelion manga and adapting the End of Evangelion movie more specifically the Human Instrumentality Project. Where as before the manga was similar but ultimately the same. We have reached a new endgame as the manga spilts from the original series ending. We have an all new ending and a bonus chapter dealing with some rebuild material.

The new ending is the star of the manga in the original movie it’s a bleak ending when the orange Fanta apocalypse occurs Shinji rejects humanity and proceeds to strangle Asuka as the waters turn red in this new world. The manga gives us the good ending or the very least a more optimistic ending. Where Shinji defeats the angels and stops STEELE human instrumentality giving humanity a chance to forge there own future. The ending was a surprise given how it’s a meme on how dark and edgy The End of Evangelion is. It perfectly captures the fact that the manga became its own thing separate from the anime.

However, the characters arcs where given more focused and even surpassed the anime. That’s the heart of the adaptation the character development from Rei to Asuka and even Kaworu get more time and additional scenes to flesh out the characters all while the action takes a secondary role which it’s still there and beautiful drawn but it plays second fiddle to the slower dialogue focused scenes. This could have backfired if the writing sucked but the writing was top notch from start to finish. By far my favorite character to be enhanced from the additional writing is Shinji Ikari. In the anime Shinji is whiny and has daddy issues. In the manga he’s the same, however it goes in depth of why Shinji is the way he is it shows him living with his aunt and his father wanting nothing to do with him as soon as his mom passed away. He also acts differently in certain situations like when interacting with Tojj. Shipping Wars this manga is a W for Rei x Shinji I know saying that will cause a war but it is what it is.

In conclusion, the Evangelion manga was fantastic from start to finish. The art never dropped in quality and the story changes worked for it and not against it. The extra features were nice the lore guides and explanations were a nice bonus in most of the volumes although volume 5 is the shortest and doesn’t have these bonuses. Neon Genesis Evangelion manga is a masterful adaptation of the original anime. It’s a perfect entry point to the franchise, it’s a great read for those who watched the anime and it’s one of the best adaptation I’ve ever read. Neon Genesis Evangelion is a magnum opus.

For the people who are itching to get the fifth omnibus volume (or even get the entire series now that it's finally completed), let me assure you that the ending is satisfying, and Viz has done the series justice - so go ahead and be confident in your purchase. The rest of the review will delve into spoiler territory, so if you haven't seen the anime series, I wouldn't recommend reading until you've finished the books or anime.

With that out of the way, let's take a deeper look at the fifth omnibus. The last volume was released in the late summer of 2013, which means it's been quite awhile since we've last seen our characters. We left off with all hell breaking loose; SEELE had sent everything it had on an assault against the NERV base. Soldiers were ripping apart personnel, and mass-produced EVAs were annihilating everything in sight. While Asuka was trying to defend NERV by herself and Gendo rushed off to proceed with his plans reuniting with his wife, Shinji, the hero of Unit-01 was left in a state of mental turmoil. Essentially, we had just reached the first part of the End of Evangelion movie storyline.

This volume shows the resolution, which adheres pretty closely to End of Evangelion. Don't expect any major twists that you haven't seen before in the anime. However, the author, Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, thankfully took some liberties with the ending to showcase additional much needed scenes. We get better background on Shinji's mother, symbolism is better emphasized, and we finally get a "proper" ending to the series. In the anime continuity, one of the coolest things we see in the ending is how Shinji has the decision between keeping all of humanity as one big fluid mass or restoring humans to their original forms. Shinji makes the decision of restoring humans to their original forms, but we never really see the restoration of the world in the anime series - all we get is Shinji and Asuka on a beach surrounded by the sea of LCL. In the manga ending, we see the restoration of the world as well as how Shinji and some characters are living in it (similar in tone to the Evangelion episode where Shinji dreams of living in an alternative peaceful reality.). Whether or not this is a better ending than the anime is up for debate, but it was an ending that needed to be delivered in some form, and I'm glad it was here. My only complaint is that I wished the last chapter was expanded upon as we don't see all of the main characters interact with Shinji after the world is restored.

The Evangelion manga series as a whole has been consistently amazing and by no means is a lesser adaptation from its anime counterpart. I'm not going to lie, I do prefer the anime over the manga. There's more content, and most of the particular scenes which have raised the series to legendary status are not found in the manga series. What we do get, however, is a better paced, higher-quality version of Evangelion that includes important content that was never addressed before. This is one of the few rare instances where I would actually recommend that people who didn't like the anime to give the manga a shot, as the manga does a great job acknowledging and removing the problems that the anime had. The manga series does great stand alone, and I am more than happy to have it as part of my collection.

Viz has done a really fantastic job with the series and a good job with this volume. On the plus side, the translation is excellent for the most part. There was one instance where I found the phrasing to be weird: "You think you'll show up now to steal the show...?!" which would have been better said as: "You think you *can just* show up now to steal the show...?!" Otherwise, I found the rest of the writing to be well done. The color pages and inking are just sharp and gorgeous like the other volumes. Noticeably missing, are the essay extras - one of the things I took great pleasure in with the previous volumes. Unfortunately, there's only the story content in this volume, which was a little disappointing as we have less volumes (2 volumes in this book) for the same price ($20) as the other omnibuses. It's not a huge deal as whatever extra man-hours Viz needed in order to not mess up the localization of Evangelion is well worth paying extra. That being said, having some interviews about the Rebuild series would have been a nice bonus for sure.

The Evangelion manga series is not going to surprise you with new content like the Rebuild series. It is a focused adaptation that addresses the weaknesses of the anime. Yoshiyuki Sadamoto and Viz put a lot of effort into creating something wonderful, and it is a fantastic story for old and new Evangelion fans alike. Rest easy Shinji, you deserve it.

This book contains the final two chapters in the Neon Genesis Evangelion manga series (in English!). The quality of the product is outstanding and comes with extra pictures and even some personal notes from the voices and creators of the original TV show! In addition, there is a list in the back with the translation of any kanji used in the content (I found that to be helpful for sound effects).

I personally enjoyed this entire series in that I was finally able to understand everything without having to watch a 26 episode TV show plus a movie--a movie, I might add, that made things more confusing (also my personal opinion).

As a fan of the show, I recommend this for quality and content.

Amazing series, beautiful manga edition, I liked the ending in the manga better than the original in the anime

Awesome quality and feel. If you're a fan of Evangelion you'll like this volume.

Love this series

loved the book and was in great condition

Evangelion is my favorite manga/anime by far!! I've never rly had any interest in reading manga but after watching the anime + rebuilds of Eva, all I wanted was to read the manga. SO SO GREAT!! definitely recommend buying/reading this

Quick delivery as well as overall exceptional quality.