Misato's Fan Service Center: Book 1, Issue 6

O ye of great Vizion, I was inspired by issue #3's comparison of several of the characters from Eva to modern pop figures. To me, the anger and betrayel that Shinji has been going through seems more passionate than Smashing Pumpkins' music can convey, but not as strong as say, Tool or Metallica. I'd been having Soundgarden running through my head all day, so I tried rewriting a couple of the songs from their album Superunknown from Shinji's perspective, and they came out pretty well...

Daniel Snyder
Berkeley, CA

Does this mean that Soundgarden is mid-range in passion? Superunknown and Nine Inch Nails' The Downward Spiral were my favorite albums of 1994; I'm sorry Soundgarden broke up last year, but thirteen years together is an achievement for any band. Mr. Snyder re-writes their songs, "Fell On Black Days," and "The Day I Tried to Live"—I think the latter title could apply to Eva in general. My personal favorite tracks on that great disc are "4th of July" and "Like Suicide."

Dear NERV Center,

I find it so refreshing to see a robot anime/manga series that is different from the ones I have seen in the past. To be honest, how often fo you see a book, or anime, or movie where the antagonists are Angels? According to the book of Revelation, aren't the angels supposed to assist in destroying the world? Warning—don't read too much into that question.

I like the idea of the Special Collector's Edition for this manga but the only problem I have with this edition is the fact that the Japanese sounds in the book are not "subtitled." Hey, I would like to "hear" the Japanese version of those sounds. That's the only reason I will not collect the special edition regularly.

Thank you again for bringing this series to us. I hope Viz will include a letters page for all their translated manga books. Manga titles such as Evangelion, Mixx Zine, Ranma 1/2, Lum, Drakkun, Inu-Yasha, Patlabor, Oh My Goddess!, and those in the manga style such as Gold Digger and Reality Check! are the only reasons why I still collect comic books.

Sumimasen for your time,
Clifton "Chi" Hardy, Jr.
"C-town," GA

No problem, Mr. Hardy. Didn't we hook up at Anime Weekend Atlanta? Perhaps it was that party Sunday night which ended with hotel security saying "What we have here is failure to communicate." It would be great to have a letters page for all of Viz's manga titles, but we must have letters! [Manga Vizion monthly manga magazine accepts and will print letters regarding any of Viz Comics' titles! Send mail to the same address as above. Hint, hint!—editor Annette]

As a matter of fact, your point about the sound effects in the Special Collector's Edition is an excellent one. To quote Derek Wildstar, "Good idea!" While we can't subtitle the effects themselves (we try to keep any retouching of the art to a strict minimum, such as translating signs or readouts), we're going to inaugurate an index of effects to be put at the end of each installment. This index will indicate the onomatopoeic sound, where it's located, and what it means. For example, something like: "Page 4: ji-wa ji-wa—sound of cicadas." That way, those who want to see the art of Eva in its original format, but who don't know Japanese, will be able to get more information value out of the comic, and, of course, learn to recognize the meaning of the original sound effects.

As Bruce Dickinson would say, "This next song's about religion... actually, it's about washing your car... actually, it's about opening a pair of curtains..." Sure, the angels in Revelations figure into its vision of the end of the world. Rev. 9:1 jumped out at me: "And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit." Sounds just like the star-shaped Fifth Angel, Ramiel, descending from the sky and then trying to drill its way into NERV headquarters underground in episodes #5 and #6 of the anime...

But it can't so simply be said that the angels of Revelation are the Angels of Evangelion. Certain images from the book seem likely to have been borrowed, such as the sea becoming blood—you may take it literally or as some sort of "red tide"—but it's portrayed vividly in the crimson water where the Antarctic ice cap used to be in episode #12. Gendo speaks then of how this world has been purified of original sin. The price demanded for such purification in the Bible is, of course, blood. Antactica has been "purified" of life, as well.

However, the names, and perhaps the attributes of the Angels as well, are from the sources beyond the Old or New Testament, including apocryphal Judeo-Christian lore. The use of the Angels as a motif in Eva is a very complicated one, to say the least, but on one level, it's a revival of the idea of Angels as dangerous creatures, strange and terrible to behold, who are willful, jealous of human beings, and even rebellious against God.

Thanks to Katy Isaacs at Cal Tech. Guard that cannon, Harvey Mudd waits always. In answer to Sam Luu, location unknown, (he wrote us a while ago but the envelope disappeared): the Evangelion movies—Evangelion: Death, an edited compilation of the first twenty-four TV episodes, with some new footage and dialogue), and The End of Evangelion, a very different but related version of the events of the final two TV episodes, using largely new footage (the first part of The End was originally released together with Death under the title Evangelion: Rebirth, creating a bit of a cliffhanger)—are reported by one source as slated for release in Japan this spring, possibly in segments attached to the final TV volumes.

Again, A.D.V. Films has indicated that they have no plans to acquire the Eva movies, leaving the possibility that they may be released in the U.S. by a different company, a situation not without precedent (for example, the Patlabor TV series is licensed by Manga Entertainment). How many issues of Eva are there going to be? Right now—if everyone keeps supporting the title—there's at least another year and a half's worth of comics to go. Thanks also to Dennis C. Hwang and Laura Blackwell of San Francisco. We received a letter from Glen Garcia of San Antonio, TX (which has a pretty cool district known as River Walk; it's a lot like the bar-hopping district in Gainax's 1987 film The Wings of Honneamise), and "PJ" from Dothan, AL, with the cool stationery. We're looking forward to more of your letters (which, as you know, may be edited for length) and art. Next time: we announce the winner of the "name the letters page" contest—the same person who will win a subscription to Book Two of the Eva manga!

Carl Gustav Horn

A. Yeo (or P. Talbot) as the envelope was return addressed— we're not quite sure who made the drawing) of Christchurch, New Zealand sent in this drawing of leggy supermodel/NERV Operations Chief Capt. Misato Katsuragi.