Other: Neon Genesis Evangelion - Illustrations 2007 to 2017

 

Content Warning: Capitalism?

While I haven’t had a chance to really discuss this yet, but I REALLY like Neon Genesis Evangelion. As you’ll discover (if I ever get around to actually completing stuff), I’ve picked up some of Eva related stuff over the years. I have soundtracks, some spin-off manga, but only a few art books. When these were easier to find, I wasn’t as into them as I am now, so I kind of missed out. And, I have say, I don’t enjoy art books that are connected to a series or product nearly as much as I like art books of artist’s work (Luis Royo, Boris Vallejo, etc). So, this one was sitting in my Amazon cart for a few years until I picked it up as part of my birthday present to myself this year. Also, the price had dropped to something reasonable.

This art book comes at an interesting time for NGE as a product, and for the fanbase as well. If you’re unfamiliar, the original NGE anime came out in 1995, but has remained wildly popular (for the most part) ever since, and even had a pair of movies that released in 1997, that were kind of a wrap up/retelling of the original ending (we’ll discuss that more when I get to them), but the product was mostly dormant in terms of anime and movies. However, merchandise and doujinshi (fan comics, more or less) and other things related to Eva continued to sell well throughout the years. I think the best way to put it is that Eva never stopped being popular or really faded away. Eva is a classic for a reason, which I will be discussing as I work on my review of the series. But, even though it remained popular, there was nothing new to draw people in

Until the Rebuild of Evanglion films in 2007, which is when this book starts its collection., making this a really good period to chose for this collection. Because, not only was there a new series of films releasing, but there was even a new character! This is important, as Rei Ayanami was once nicknamed “The girl who can sell anything” by marketing companies in Japan. Because she was.

And that’s what brings me to thing I really want to talk about with this collection. While there’s some lovely pieces of just art, most of the illustrations in this collection are marketing material and advertisements. We have a few movie posters, but there’s ads for partnerships they had with clothing companies, stamps for smart phone messaging, images of for a tourism bureau, and so on. And you can see it in the art. The poses are there to show the character, but what they’re wearing. Parts of the collection just feel like I’m looking at one of those old advertising fliers or magazines you used to get in the mail, like the Sears catalog (yes, I’m old). And it makes me a little sad. I usually enjoy these sorts of things to see how the sausage is made, so to speak, the work behind the designs and how the characters develop into what we see on the screen. And this is less than and more “look how cool Shinji looks in this hoodie you can buy!”

All of that said, I do enjoy this collection. If I push the advertisement angle out of my head, I can look at that same picture of Shinji in a hoodie and see what Shinji could have looked like, if he hadn’t have been forced to become a pilot of a giant robot in a post/current apocalypse. And, I also have to admit, that some of the outfits are very nice. There’s a clear eye for what designs and patterns, and maybe even cuts of an outfit, and how they match or compliment the character.

If you’re curious about who’s in this collection, it’s mostly Asuka, Rei, and Shinji, but Mari is also very present. Which does make sense, as she was a new character and needed to be seen, so people would be curious about her. Mind you, she barely gets any screen time in the first Rebuild, and not enough after that one, but it’s nice to see her almost fitting in to the setting almost seamlessly. I hesitate to say much more about her, as I have to save those thoughts for when we get to the Rebuilds, but visually, she fits in without issue. One interesting thing I did notice about her use in the pictures and advertisements, is that she replaces Shinji in some ways. Usually, Eva pictures and ads have what I call “the trinity” (yes, I stole the term from the DC fandom, deal with it), where the pictures have Shinji, Asuka, and Rei featured prominently. But what I noticed in this book was that, even on the cover, it’s Asuka, Rei, AND Mari, with no Shinji in sight. I can guess a few reasons for this, the first being the matter I’ve already discussed, that she’s a new character and needed to be shown off, but I also think that it is something pointed towards the fandom. Let’s be honest, the anime fandom in general, and the Eva fandom is particular, skews heavily in the male direction. I’m not going to get into the weeds of the reasons behind it, as that’s not what I want to discuss at the moment, but let’s just take that as a fact. This explains why Mari is now in the trinity. We don’t need Shinji up there, when we can have three cute girls instead. Now, you don’t have to choose between The Doll (Rei) or The Bitch (Asuka), because you can have The Weirdo (Mari). Or something like that. No matter what you might think of her, Mari became an important of Eva as an advertising tool. And this book will make that clear as you read it.

It’s also cool to see how the advertising and partnerships develop as the Rebuild series goes on, as the book starts right when the first one drops, with the art swiftly moving away from the classic styles of the original anime, to the new versions of the characters and their designs, until we reach the end with the third Rebuild movie and a few ads for the final part (which took FOREVER to be completed).

So, if you’re thinking about buying this, ask yourself how much you want to see ads and how important the Rebuild era of the franchise is to you? Because there’s not a lot of the original in here, it’s all new and clean. But that could be what you’re looking... Oh, and there's quite a bit of Kaworu, for those fans of his.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Suggestion: If you got into Eva via the Rebuilds, or if really like them, this is a good collection for you.

Other: The Complete Anime Guide - Japanese Animation Video Directory and Resource Guide

I don't have a picture for this one, so here's one show they talk about

 

Content Warning: Some very dated references and talking points

When you think about anime in America, most people I imagine are reading this probably grew up with Toonami and Adult Swim, at the earliest. However, there’s a longer history of anime in America, which brings me to this book. I found this book in the Goodwill a few years ago for the winning price of $3 and it’s in bad condition. Not terrible but not great. If you like what you read about it, just keep that in mind. A friend of mine referred to it as “the Weeb Dead Sea Scrolls” and they’re not far off. Allow me to fill you in.

Published in 1995 by Tiger Mountain Press, the majority of the text is written by Trish Ledoux and Doug Ranney. That first name might ring some bells for older anime fans, as she’s written several book on Japanese culture and anime. Brief aside, I once met her at PSU when she did a showing of Pompoko. It was… An experience. Anyway.

The book opens with a forward and an introduction, talking about the history of anime in Japan and making some comparisons to the American animation history. The first chapter is the more interesting one, starting with an essay about anime in America, the ones that were brought here with the when, the where, and the how. I found this really interesting, as it points out that for Boomers and Gen X, Speed Racer was the big cultural reference for them before anime was popular. I find this amusing, as I’ve never seen the original show. And I haven’t seen the live action film. This is even more amusing, as they discuss that John Travolta and Johnny Depp were attached to the film when it was in development at the time this book came out. After the introduction for the chapter, there’s a list of all of the anime that had been released on American TV up to this point. It’s a surprisingly short list but they do discuss each show; plot, production history, and cultural impact. There’s some shows and movies in here that I’ve never heard of, such as Prince Planet, Force Five, and Dragon Warrior. If you don’t know, Dragon Warrior is an anime is based on a video game with character designs done by the same guy that did Dragon Ball. Speaking of Dragon Ball, I forgot how dirty that show was and how it was edited. I mean, Bulma is a reference to bloomers, which every old anime fan knows about, whether they want to or not. I also found out that Captain Harlock had been shown on TV in the States! They did a Robotech (I’ve already written about this so we’re not going to get into it) and coupled it with another show to meet the episode number requirement for American syndication. This chapter ends with a description of Dragon Ball (and DBZ) and Sailor Moon. It’s interesting how they’re talking about how this is the Third Wave of anime in the US and wondering if it will stick, and then talk about the two shows that carried the wave forwards until we were flooded with anime in the US.

The next chapter is about “anime genres” and I find this a little… Dated? Offensive? I’ve never understood how people want to make up genres just for anime, when genres are not confined to media. For example, cyberpunk isn’t just for video games and RPGs, it’s for books, movies, anime, and even music. However, this chapter discusses some of more important shows in these four genres: Cyberpunk, Mecha, Noir, Romantic Comedy. Now, I will say that the Mecha genre is very much a Japanese thing, it wasn’t completely, even at that time. And Noir is originally a French genre, thus the name. However, I do think that the Japanese and anime does have some very unique spins or takes on these genres. When I think of Cyberpunk, I think of how it was the West worrying about Japan taking control of our technological and economic future. In the Japanese vein of Cyberpunk, it is much more about technology running amok and the corruption of the government and corporations. Mind you, those are still there in the various works of Cyberpunk but the Japanese brings it to the fore. So, for Mecha, there’s a lot to this, and I also think that most Mecha shows have strong influences from Cyberpunk, so to me it’s a subgenre of Cyberpunk during this period. Anyway, moving on. Now, Noir is different in Japan and they talk a lot about samurai anime that was coming out at the time. It’s interesting to see how many of the anime I would consider “classics” are in this genre. So, let’s talk about Romantic Comedy, shall we? One of the most important subgenres in anime and manga is the “magical girlfriend” until recently. And they don’t really name it here. I find this odd, as I have an RPG from about this time that does use the term. And while we think of the Magical Girlfriend subgenre as uniquely Japanese, it actually isn’t. Most Magical Girlfriend stuff is clearly inspired by old American TV shows, like I Dream Of Jeannie and Bewtiched. I think I’ve discussed this before. Ahem. One thing I find interesting is how they talk about Urusei Yatsura, which was a big deal for a long time but I don’t think I’ve seen it around in a while. There’s also Ranma ½, which was a cornerstone of the anime community during this time but has clearly fallen to the wayside. Why is that? Well, I recently picked up some of the show, so we’ll get into it. They also Kimagure Orange Road. When was the last time you heard that name? Have you even heard of it before? Because I saw ads for it everywhere when I was younger and it seems to have just vanished. Weird, isn’t it?

After this bit, there’s two more parts of the book I want to focus on. The first thing is the second half of this chapter. Sorted by genre, they give a summary of every single anime that was legally available in the US at the time. Think about that. There were so few shows, movies, and OVA for sale, they could talk about all of them. It gets even better in the next chapter, where they list each VHS tape, with those same summaries, in about 110 pages. This is mind blowing when you think about how much became available in just a few years after this book was published. And can you think of trying to do that now? There are websites for this now and they have hundreds of things listed. This truly is a time capsule of the anime scene in America at the time.

And speaking of time capsules, the next few parts of the book are lists of websites and online resources for finding fans of anime in America. These websites are USENET and FTP sites, with IP addresses! There’s a list of magazines and conventions that were happening. The book ends with contact information for the various companies that were distributing anime, followed by lists of major players in the production of anime and then the all the things they discussed in the book.

That was a hell of a things, wasn’t it? So, let’s talk about some of the things they did talk about. One thing they keep bringing up is Legend of the Overfiend. If you’re blissfully unaware of what that is, allow me to educate you. Overfiend is one of the most notorious anime to ever be released in the US. Why? Because it’s not only tentacle porn but there’s a lot of snuff and other stuff in there. Terrible things. Yes, I’ve seen it. I own it. I’ll talk about how exactly it ended up in my collection another time but I do want to say that I didn’t buy it myself. I mention this because a lot of people thought that all anime was hentai because of this series. In fact, some companies that were translating and releasing regular anime had an imprint or part of the company that was putting out hentai. Another reason why Overfiend was known was because it got a theatrical release. I’m not even joking. If Akira was what brought attention to anime, Overfiend turned a lot of people off. There’s also Devilman, by Go Nagai, which was another notorious anime that involved a lot of sex and violence. One thing that this book does is point out that America has some history of animation for adults but strangely doesn’t mention Heavy Metal, which I feel is the best known example of it.

To wrap things up, this book is a wonderful thing to look at. There’s no reference to Evangalion, which is was a game changer and wildly popular. Why? Because it wasn’t out in the US at the time. I think it was still getting started in Japan at the time this book was published. Had this book been released a year or two later, it would have been wildly different. More focus on DBZ and Sailor Moon for sure, less focus on Speed Racer and Astro Boy. I love how this is a snapshot of the time just before the anime boom in not only America but Japan as well. I’m glad I found this and will try to take as much care of it as I can. Because they just don’t make things like this anymore…

Rating: 4 out of 5
Suggestion: I would love for every current anime fan to read this, just to show them how different things were back then, but I fear this is going to become lost media.