News & Updates

Evangelion 3.33 has been released in Japan on DVD and Blu-ray. There’s still a ways to go before domestic versions become available, however for those of us who partake in fansubs, we can finally enjoy the film in proper high quality goodness.  As of writing this I haven’t checked, however I expect raws are popping up on torrent sites right now, and fansubs will also start popping up within a day or two.  A decent soft and hard subbed version should be available by weeks end.  I already  have plans to get together with a small group of friends this weekend to enjoy it.  I look forward to being able to finally discuss the film over on Eva Geeks.

Just the other day, I was thinking to myself, “I should post something to my site”.  At the time, I was thinking of something along the lines of a helpful resource or guide (not what you are seeing instead).  Not much later afterwards, two links floated their way over to me saying: “please, click on us, you know you want to”.  From that, I am reevaluating whether I want to be Facebook friends with certain people (THANKS A LOT ALEX) and whether I should tell my brain to keep its mouth shut, because well, be careful what you wish for.

These two things.  These two things right here. WTF JAPAN.  SERIOUSLY.  WTF?

First: For the home video release of Evangelion 3.33, fast food chain Lotteria is doing a promotion involving a nonuple decker cheeseburger… that’s a burger with nine patties and nine cheese slices.  Apparently it’s a clever play on Evangelion Q, which is pronounced “kyuu”, which is the word for nine in Japanese.  All I have to say is that if you can’t even fit the thing in your mouth, it’s probably a bad idea.  The only reasonable part of this is that it comes with a Spear of Longinus fork, which easily (not so obvious sarcasm) solves the question as to how you are expected to eat this monstrosity.  (Source)

Second: The Round 1 bowling chain is providing patrons with the option of wearing an Evangelion themed bowling pin costume while they bowl.  Because, of course, it’s not enough to just go bowling, you should also cosplay as the activity that you’re engaging in, and to go the extra mile, it should also be themed around your favorite anime, because, well… when in Japan.  I think Lotteria should up the ante on Round 1 and offer their patrons a costume of the nonuple decker cheeseburger while they eat the nonuple decker cheeseburger.  Because it’s not enough to just eat a nonuple decker cheeseburger, you should also dress up as a nonuple decker cheeseburger while you eat one. (Source)

I really just… I don’t even.  God damn it Japan, god damn it.

A while back, Shirt.Woot did a promotion with Funimation for the North American release of Evangelion 2.22, where the shirt theme wold be “Robots Save the World”.  I thought it was kind of cool to see Evangelion unexpectedly creep its way into my daily life, however I thought that it was kind of a waste to do the theme, but completely ban Evangelion shirts from the vote, even those that were considered parody.  Why do an Evangelion thing, but disallow Evangelion things?  I still don’t understand this.

So this morning, I checked TeeMagnet, an aggregator for daily/weekly shirt websites to see this design of Eva Unit-01 in the vein of the Decepticon emblem from Transformers.  I thought it was cool, and I swear I’ve seen it before recently.  After the thing with Shirt.Woot, I’m pleased to see something other than Doctor Who, Firefly, and Star Wars.  I know those sell well, but let’s see something like Evangelion for a change.  I’m currently debating getting myself one, because I have absolutely no willpower whatsoever, not to mention, my other Eva shirts have gotten pretty worn out.  Maybe you could use a new Eva shirt too.

Just keep in mind, this is a daily shirt, you may not be able to buy it after today.  So if you want it, get it now!

To quote Simon Tam, “This must be what going mad feels like”.  Apparently in late September of last year, Dark Horse Manga, in a bid to own ALL THE THINGS, licensed Shinji Ikari Detective Diary.  I am just finding out about this now.  Why on earth did no one tell me this?  Or did no one care to pay attention or say anything about it at the time?  This manga is not scraping the bottom of the barrel.  No, that would be too insensitive to the barrel, and everything that came out of it, including both Angelic Days, where they stumble upon the Geofront and Nerv headquarters by exploring a spooky sewer tunnel, as well as Ikari Shinji Raising Project, where they… wait… what was that one about?  All I remember is a lot of panty and crotch shots.  Oh well.

Shinji Ikari Detective Diary is probably the loosest, most painfully idiotic thing I have ever heard about, and it somehow made it to two volumes.  The firm statement I made in many an Evangelion panel was that it was so terrible, no one bothered to raw scan it, let alone to translate it, so I cannot even fathom how anyone thought it was a good idea to license it, especially in this economy.  Grain of salt: I haven’t actually ready it, however I’ve looked through the scans, and trust this one LiveJournal user’s assessment.  Yes, I had to go to LiveJournal to get information or a review about this thing.  That’s when you know shit got real.

I don’t see any information available for the release.  And I regret the fact that, despite my reservations, I will most likely purchase it when it comes out.  Because, you know, my Evangelion shelf clearly doesn’t have enough shit on it yet.

Get ready kids, Evangelion 3.0 is coming to home video in Japan on April 24th, and you know what that means, right? The wait is almost over.

Get excite.

Source: http://www.khara.co.jp/news/2013/02/000272.html

Ten year ago today, I launched EvaMonkey.com.

Ten years.

TEN.

Do you have any idea how long that is in internet time?

It should be noted that the site has been around for a bit longer than that, I began the site in the summer of 2002, hosting it on a Keenspace server for a web comic that never got started (don’t ask).  But it was not until late in the month of January that I went and registered the domain and formally launched EvaMonkey.com.  It’s been a long time, especially so when you consider the lifespan of the typical fansite.  Do people even still make fansites anymore?  Or do Facebook pages, Twitters, Tumblrs and subreddits fill that need for people?  At any rate, ten years of service to one’s fandom seems like an especially big milestone for me, one that I feel deserves some reflection, so indulge me if you will. Read the rest of this entry »

In case you missed it, the first 6 minutes and 38 seconds from Evangelion 3.0 popped up on the internet earlier today after having been aired on Nippon Television Network along with TV edits of Evangelion 1.0 and 2.0, in promotion of Evangelion 3.0, which is being released to Japanese theaters tomorrow (the 17th), although because they’re in the future, that would actually be today for them… right now.  Anyway, if you haven’t seen it, I highly suggest you do watch it, seeing as how (with the exception of trailers and a possible camrip which would look like shit) it’s all you’re going to see between now and the Japanese home video release another year from now.  I don’t have much to say about the trailer itself, just that it features a pretty cool Eva battle in space.  Yes.  In space.  Supposedly it’s the film’s opening, which, if accurate, could make the story interesting.

Evangelion 3.0 opening on YouTube
Evangelion 3.0 opening (Direct Download Mirror)

As I said previously, Viz reissued volumes 1-3 of the Evangelion manga in an omnibus format which many retailers are referring to as “3-in-1″.  Previously, I couldn’t find a photo of the book, or the book itself for that matter, so I was kind of weary.  It’s an odd philosophical thing (like the tree falling in the woods) but if I can’t get my hands on it, or at least see a photo of the thing, I can’t really verify its existence as a tangible thing.  However I did manage to get a copy myself this evening, and I’d like to share some details and observations.

First off, for the cover, it uses the illustration they used for the cover of the second edition of volume 2.  It should be noted that this illustration was not originally used for that volume.  It was an editorial decision that was made to better fit the overall tone of that volume, if I remember correctly.  Clean versions of the actual covers of volumes 1-3 are printed in the front of the collection.  Right off the bat, you’ll notice two main things, the page size is a little bit bigger than the second edition, and just a tad bigger than the first edition (yeah, the one from ten years ago).  Not nearly as big as one of those monthly Shonen Ace magazines, but it’s getting there.  Surprisingly enough, the spine width is just a tad thinner than two of the second edition volumes, so it would seem they used a lighter paper stock.  The other noticeable difference is that all of the color artwork has been preserved and has been printed on nice glossy paper, much like in the original Japanese releases, which is a nice touch.  Other than that, all of the additional materials and translation appears to remain the same.  I’m not curious enough to go panel by panel, but I imagine it’s one to one aside from a minor edit or two.

If you’re a newer fan of Evangelion, or if you’ve just never taken the plunge with the manga, this may be a great opportunity for you.  It looks like Amazon and Barnes & Noble are the cheapest at the moment, even after domestic shipping.  According to Amazon, volume 2 is due for release March 12th, and volume 3 is due May 14th.  And again, if you like reading your manga digitally, you might want to check out the Evangelion manga on Viz’s Manga app.

One of the biggest weaknesses Yoshiyuki Sadamoto’s Evangelion manga has is its sporadic progress over a long length of time.  The series has had 13 volumes in about 18 years.  Keeping an ongoing series of that age in print can be a difficult task for a publisher.  Many of the old volumes, especially volume 9, are scarce and can be very difficult for fans to obtain.  I had previously reported that Viz Manga had added the Evangelion Manga to its online viewer, however it abruptly ended after it had only published the stages up through volume 3.

We had heard that they would be reissuing the manga in omnibus form, with about 3 volumes per book.  I was very pleased to hear they were doing this, especially with the recent release of volume 13.  According to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and RightStuf, the first 3-in-1 release was today, however you can never be so sure of these things.  To my frustration, I could neither find it at my local Barnes & Noble (which claimed to have it in stock), nor find anyone who has it, let alone a finalized product shot.

In the process of attempting to verify it’s existence, I ended up on Viz Manga’s website, where I noticed that their digital Evangelion manga offering had received a fairly major update.  Rather than individual stages, they now have the manga available as complete volumes, and even better, they have the entire run available for digital purchase.  So if you’re inclined, you can now get the Evangelion manga on an iOS or Android device, as well as on the Kindle Fire.  For those of you who prefer paperback editions, the first 3-in-1/omnibus release should be available for purchase.

Today, Viz Media released volume 13 of the Evangelion manga, and for the first time, released it simultaneously with the release in Japan. Usually, we wait a good 6-12 months to get an English version here in North America, so I’m pleased, as they apparently pushed very hard to get it out sooner rather than later. Unfortunately though, it means we don’t get a supplemental article or afterword from Carl Horn, something that I look forward to seeing with each release.

We’re getting very near the end now, and it looks as if volume 14 will be the last.  As someone who has been reading this series for over a decade, I am very eager to see it conclude, and see exactly what path Sadamoto will take, and how exactly he will end it.  Will it end on the beach with Shinji and Asuka?  We still have a bit longer to wait for that, so start hedging your bets.

Volume 12 ended with Unit-01 breaking free of the Bakelite so that Shinji can board it to join Asuka in the fight against the Mass Produced Evas.  From there, volume 13 continues on up until Unit-01 combines with the Spear of Longinus to form the Tree of Life, and Shinji begins to dream, while the giant Rei/Lilith (and Kaworu/Adam) hybrid grows to cosmic proportions and spreads its wings across the Earth.  With Shinji in a dream state, Sadamoto has another opportunity to differentiate himself from Anno.  That’s my main interest in the manga.  Over the years, Evangelion has grown into a work that is highly interpretive, both by fans, as well as the people who make it, so I enjoy his own little creative touches, the different roads he’s taken.  I look forward to more of that in the future.