Manga

The Neon Genesis Evangelion manga is a still-running series by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, published by Kadokawa Shoten. It was released prior to the broadcast of the anime with the intention to increase public interest, although its publication schedule has been irregular. For example, volume 3 was released six months after volume 2, while volume 5 was released two years after volume 4.

Albeit it is true that Gainax gave Sadamoto the go-ahead, that doesn’t mean that the manga is as “official” as the anime. It was Hideaki Anno, with the collaboration of Akio Satsugawa and Youji Enokido, who worked on the original script of Neon Genesis Evangelion, Sadamoto was only the character designer. When Sadamoto was given the opportunity to work on the manga, he rewrote the story according to his point of view.

Apart from his personal tastes, the manga was also influenced by Japanese surveys on “who is your favourite character?”. Rei and Shinji turned out to be, respectively, the most favourite male and female characters. Kaworu, who appears in only one episode, was ranked number three and Kaji ranked number seven. All these characters are given ampler space: Kaworu is introduced much earlier than its anime counterpart, Kaji is given a background story and the number of Shinji/Rei situations increases.

Sadamoto changed many things in respect of the original script. Plot-wise, for example, there are twelve Angels instead of seventeen and after the fight against Bardiel Toji dies, instead of being crippled. Characters-wise, Asuka is less verbally abusive and behaves like a brat, Rei is slightly more communicative and human, Shinji is more sarcastic and shows more hatred toward his father, and so on. But the differences don’t end here, and there is one change in particular that affects the topic of this shrine.

Throughout the majority of the manga interactions between Rei and Shinji are favoured at the expense of interactions between Asuka and Shinji. In general, the manga characters behaviour greatly differs from that of their anime counterparts. The “original” Shinji would have never thought of going on a date with Rei. And even though manga Shinji will eventually confess his love to Asuka, both relationships (Shinji with Rei and Shinji with Asuka) take a different meaning in the manga.

How far the manga can go to influence what happens in the anime? When talking about what is canon and what isn’t canon, Shin-seiki’s Tiers of Canonicity is the answer. Basically the manga acts as a mean to support what has been shown in the anime. On the other hand, if something is present only in the manga it cannot be passed as canon. If Kaji, in both the anime and manga, wrongly identifies Lilith as Adam it is safe to assume it is true. However, Asuka being a test tube baby is valid only within the manga context, for in the anime she does have a father. He is a real man and not an anonymous sperm donor.