"Worked better on the screen." by V. Krätke (Netherlands) on May 6, 2006

In this volume, the exuberant Asuka and her Evangelion Unit 02 are introduced. The events of this volume are roughly equivalent to what happens in episodes 8 and 9 of the TV series. Like on TV, this is a relatively light-hearted and action-oriented break from the often gloomy tone of Evangelion. Unlike on TV, it doesn't leave much of an impression in manga form. Unit 02's first battle on the high seas is glossed over very quickly, shown as mere flashbacks early in this volume. Most of the book deals with Shinji and Asuka's first meeting, followed by lengthy preparations for a battle against an Angel that can split in two. To beat the two perfectly co-ordinated halves of the Angel, the plan is to have Shinji and Asuka live together in one confined space for several days, after which their Evas should be able to move perfectly in synch with a music track. Which should allow them to obliterate the two Angels. The endless games of Twister from the anime are scrapped, but it's still a very silly concept. It comes down to two huge robots performing a sort of kung fu ballet. In the anime, you had sound and actual movement, coupled with some very skillful directing. That helped a lot to suspend one's disbelief at this crazy idea. On paper, it's a whole lot harder to pull off. Sadamoto's a very skillful artist, but even he struggles with the material. Basically, a few static poses of the Evangelions with a lot of music notes strewn around the page doesn't work as well as an actual animated sequence. And it's not a very satisfying pay-off for the long and tepid preparations that take up a big chunk of this book. I can only really recommend this to ardent Evangelion fans. They'll probably enjoy the quality art and the scenes that play out differently than they did on TV. Most other readers won't be missing much if they leave this volume on the shelf, however.