CBR Neon Genesis Evangelion: Comic Tribute

If you thought Evangelion was a serious dramatic series, then you must read this book!

Fly me to the moon, and let me review Evangelion among different mediums:

 Neon Genesis Evangelion (anime) - The End of Evangelion
Neon Genesis Evangelion (manga)
The Iron Maiden 2nd / Shinji Ikari Raising Project / Petit Eva / Campus Apocalypse / Detective Diary

Comic title: Neon Genesis Evangelion: Comic Tribute
Art & stories by Mine Yoshizaki, Hideki Ohwada, Yun Kouga, Nawoki Karasawa, Yoko Sanri, Keiichi Tanaka, Rui Takato, Astroguy II, Kotaro Yamada, Sessyu Takemura, Jun Abe, Tony Takezaki, Rikdo Koshi

Published by Kadokawa Shoten (Dark Horse Comics in the USA)/GAINAX/Studio khara 
From 2010 (2013)
Lineup Evangelion series/parody manga
Format: Tankōbon/Manga-sized softcover trade paperback.

Considered by many anime purists a seminal work of fiction. Love it or hate it, you have to admit Neon Genesis Evangelion is a cult classic vintage anime that covers so many subjects and tropes now common to the entire medium. In fact it was designed by creator Hideaki Anno and the rest of the crew at GAINAX as their ultimate tribute to everything they loved growing up.

Giant robots. Giant monsters. Post-apocalpytic science-fiction. Fanservice. And deep physiological interrogations about life! Along questions regarding God, mankind as a species and some oedipal issues and you got an idea of what Eva is about.

Over the years, after the success of the TV series, there's been various spinoff manga series. After a shojo manga, The Iron Maiden 2nd, an ecchi comedy series, Shinji Ikari Raising Project, a comic strip parody, Petit Eva, a more straightforward shonen, Campus Apocalypse, and a detective series, The Shinji Ikari Detective Diary, we now have an anthology parody collection from several well-known popular mangaka!

Neon Genesis Evangelion: Comic Tribute is a doujinshi anthology. An officially-licensed fan-produced comic collection making fun of the entire franchise, with the blessing from its original creator Anno who's always willing to make fun of his own work.

Usually in Japan, there's an entire market of fanwork produced around popular franchises called doujins (and yes, it's not always necessary porn).

Due to the immense popularity of Evangelion, this "comic tribute" was released as a direct-to-tankōbon (manga-sized softcover trade paperback). There's already been spinoff manga series after the infamous episode 26 and other complete r-imaginings of the series, so why not an official compilation of short parodies, by fans and for other fans?

The book here was officially published by Kadokawa Shoten, and only licensed by Dark Horse Comics outside Japan so far.

Don't let your first thought detract from you, this is actually one of the better spinoff EVA books out there.

It feature the works from the artists behind Sgt. Frog, Macross, Macross Frontier, Excel Saga, Samurai Champloo and many more!

The stories collected here range 2-panel comic strips to 8-page short stories.

The book features "Neon Genesis Revolutionary Legend Evangelion" by Kawata Yushi and Yukito, "Drowning in L.C.L." by Sessyu Takemura, "Let's Study with NERV!" by Teri Terio, "Neon Genesis Tanakagelion" by Tanaka Keiichi, "Misato Katsuragi's The Shinji Ikari Raising Project Report" by Astroguy II, "Tony Takezaki's Neon Genesis Evangelion" by Tony Takezaki, "Neon Genesis Evandoglion" by Karasawa Nawoki, "Mr.Director Anno" by Hideki Ohwada, "Shinji and Asuka's Hot Day" by Igarashi Ran, "Don't You Dance Like You Want to Win!", "In Sickness Unto Sudden Death Overtime", Eva-san", "Decisive Battle! Evangelion Online!", "Angel Fight", "Eternal Fourteen", and finally "I Forgave You Long Ago".

As you can see a few authors were given more stories to tell, I imagine the editors at Kadokawa Shoten particularly liked their work and wanted to give more spotlight to these particular authors.

There's also a few odd pinup illustrations to fill in the book.

The topic of these stories are all over the place. From watching the main cast dealing with the public approval ratings dropping because they've been too whiny to making fun of said episode 26, making even fun of the Shinji Ikari Raising Project series, and even Anno's original attempt at making live-action Eva sequences (true story!).

Playfully making fun and mocking the fanservice the series is famous for. There's a crazy parody story where Misato and Ritsuko try to get Shinji's interest to study and the start wearing skimpier and skimpier clothes. It's insane!

All these well-respected authors having fun, mocking all the aspects of the Evangelion series. The very serious plot, the fanservice, the recurring jokes, Shinji's clumsiness, the tropes, etc.

This comic tribute is perhaps not for everyone. Considering there's a lot of jokes and obscure references. Let's just say if you already have some trouble with the meeting between Shinji and "Sgt. Frog" you might not get this book.

There's even plenty of fanservice from the various ladies of Evangelion as well as some great comedy.

I particularly liked the 4-koma comic strips, those worked great.

The book is really awesome, it's all over place.

It's a really fun read and with great art. The stories range from very fun to bizarre. I'm thinking about one where the final angel is a naked old guy dressed as a monster.

They make no attempt to explain any of this to casual fans, you really must be heavily familiar with both the series and the genre to fully enjoy this book.

It makes fun of the story, of the fandom, and the various clichés of the series.

It's a pretty easy and quick read. It's hilarious. The character are heavily played with and put through all kinds of shenanigans.

My favorite stories include the "behind the scenes" story with Anno and the 10 years later-tale.

It's crazy. And there's really only one rule throughout the book. gorgeous artwork all the way through to make this raise slightly above the usual silly fanmade non-sense.

Overall, this Evangelion: Comic Tribute is a really funny read. It's a Must Read and comes Highly Recommended!

It's a great anthology parody. All these authors were all clearly having fun with the franchise.

It's really funny. There's some really funny, clever and out there spoofs in this.

Compared to some of the EVA spinoffs, this is the only manga that actually felt like a proper tribute to Evangelion. There's some some really funny, inventive and crazy gems in here. Whether you love or hate the actual series.

There's a sort of follow-up to this comic tribute, another anthology tribute this time entirely written and illustrated by also Tony Takezaki, Tony Takezaki's Neon Genesis Evangelion .

They also certainly seemed to like the work of Kawata Yushi and Yukito, since they were given the opportunity to do several stories. In fact, they have just been put in charge of the all-new upcoming spinoff series that just launched, a sort of "Evangelion X game department" story.

I give it:

3 / 3 Bobobos!