[EVA] Eva Manga: Like? Dislike? (Was: No Stage this month)

[Carl Gustav Horn]

I wanted to say that I can understand the reasons why someone might  
prefer the anime version of Evangelion to the manga version. The  
anime version was what made the story famous (in many cases, as you  
know, a manga becomes famous before the anime does). The anime is  
more elaborate, and contains many iconic elements one doesn't get in  
the manga--the seiyuu, the music, Anno's directorial approach. Mr.  
Sadamoto's sense of schedules doesn't necessarily win friends and  
influence people (although, as I said, he's always been like that).  
Finally, one may not like his interpretation of the characters. But  
what I do disagree with is the suggestion that the manga is in any  
way an illegitimate version of the "real" version (i.e., the anime).  
If you look at the history of Evangelion, it simply isn't like that.

I personally disliked at first some of the differences between the  
two versions. But I've also changed my mind in some cases about  
things in the anime too, and Sadamoto's version has helped me look at  
the characters more closely. Kaworu is the classic example; at first  
what happens in the anime seems like a pure, tragic  love, and, at  
first, Sadamoto seems to stomp all over this notion. But it's my  
belief that the anime Kaworu didn't understand love at all from a  
human perspective (which, of course, is the perspective Shinji  
desperately needed), whereas the manga Kaworu, despite his attitude,  
actually tried to understand something about the stickiness of the  
heart. That was interesting to me.

--C.