Shinseiki Evangelion: Ikari Shinji Ikusei Keikaku
Neon Genesis Evangelion: The Shinji Ikari Raising Project

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tl;dr: A solid though repetitive and generic rom-com, though one that would be better to consider it’s own thing despite having NGE in the title.

This is a really bizarre alternate take on Neon Genesis Evangelion. The manga itself really isn’t bizarre at all, rather it’s incredibly generic. But that itself makes the manga bizarre because it’s basically Evangelion stuffed into a really basic and standard rom-com mold. The world this spin off is set in, the Impacts, Angels, and what we know of as Evas don’t seem to exist. Rather the world seems to be running just fine. NERV still exists and is working on ... some sort of high-tech research, and SEELE exists and is trying to stop them, though it is not made clear at all what is being researched or why someone would try to stop it. All that really matters about NERV is that it’s everyone’s workplace. As such, plot wise the manga is essentially just about Shinji, Asuka, and Rei going to school while working part time at a lab.

In addition to getting rid of all of the plot elements, this spin off also gets rid of all the angst. Both of Shinji’s parents are alive and love him, with his father in particular being a very doting father. Asuka’s mom still isn’t all that great of a mom seeing as how she’s an airhead that spends almost all her time in her lab working, but in the little time that they do spend together it is clear that they have a pretty positive and healthy relationship. Rei seems to be a normal girl without any cloning or anything like that involved. Misato and Kaji’s dark past seem to not be a thing and both are just happily working as teachers at Shinji’s school. The love polygon stuff around Shinji, as well as the one around Shinji’s dad, both still seem to be there but are played entirely for laughs without any drama. Touji and his sister are completely okay and Kaworu in what little we see of him seems to be a somewhat eccentric but otherwise reasonably normal guy doing fine as well.

As a result of the changes to their environment, Shinji, Asuka, and Rei are very different characters as well in that they’ve been made incredibly shallow and generic. Shinji is still really indecisive, but not in a dark and complex way, but rather in a harem protagonist way. He also very much embodies the lucky lecher trope to the point it becomes one of the core aspects of this manga. Asuka is now Shinji’s childhood friend and violent tsundere who’s clearly in love with him but constantly hitting him, often a result of the lucky lecher aspects. And Rei is now just a really shy girl that falls in love with Shinji but can’t express herself.

The vast majority of the manga is just short unrelated situations as they live their lives with a bunch of a comedy and ecchi thrown around. It’s a really standard rom-com in every way. There’s not much in terms of character or relationship development. There is what seems to be relationship development at times, but it never sticks. That’s pretty normal when it comes to long running rom-com manga, but what makes it especially weird here is that it goes through pretty much the exact same situations multiple times but treats it as if it’s the first time happening each time. As such, this felt more repetitive than most manga that follow the same formula. Still, all in all it is pretty good at what it’s trying to do, so if you take it slow it’s pretty enjoyable.

With that said, I have no clue why this is an NGE spin off. The only things it takes from NGE are names and designs as well as some really broad concepts. It is distant enough that if the author had made a manga with different names and designs but kept everything else exactly the same then I don’t think anyone at all would consider comparing or connecting the two. The manga in and of itself isn’t bad, but it being NGE feels like a blatant crash grab. I also think that it’s resulted in the manga being received more negatively than it should because of people reading it for NGE rather than for it appealing to them on its own merits and then ending up disappointed. I can absolutely understand wanting to see the characters that went through all the pain and suffering in NGE just living happy normal lives and think that’s a really solid idea for a manga, but this does not seem like a good execution of that idea as it’s taking far too little from NGE for it to really resonate.

The art starts somewhat weak but definitely improves and is pretty solid for most of it. Character designs are from NGE, so they’re good as you would expect. The translation is kind of bizarre in that it’s a really loose translation that’s clearly changing things up a lot and even throwing in a bunch of really specific references and expressions that I think only Americans of a certain generation would be familiar with, while at the same time not translating a bunch of Japanese terms for which English equivalents clearly exist. Overall, I can’t say I was much of a fan of how it was handled.

The Shinji Ikari Raising Project is a manga that requires quite specific audience. Not only you have to be a fan of Evangelion, you also need to be able to enjoy near endless stream of almost mindless fanservice. And lets be real, the overlap of those two groups isn't exactly the greatest, which is why I was surprised that this is what the longest running Evangelion spin-off is.

As previously mentioned, most of this manga is pretty much just a continuous fanservice. Titties, asses, face in crotch, face in cleavage, you name it, we have it. Yes, without the Evangelion setting, this manga wouldn't have much ... to offer, would most likely be noticeably shorter and would be almost unknown. That said, if you wanted the fanservice Misato so often advertised and you want it from an official source, this is what to pick up.

That said, there is also one more merit in Shinji Ikari Raising Project - between all the pantyshots there is also some wholesomeness to be found. Not only between the main characters, but most noticeably Shinji's family, which is intact in this alternative version. Yui is still alive and Gendo actually acts as a father. This might be quite nice to use as a "healing" after whatever marks the drama and horrors the original series might have left. Not only that, Gendo is also quite manly in this, and honestly just his GAR moments alone make this worth reading. Too bad those moments aren't that frequent - overall the manga is too long for its own good, a more compact release could have hidden how repetitive the fanservice can get after some time.

Overall, don't even try to read this before the regular Evangelion series. If you're already an Evangelion fan, you will most likely either hate this or feel that this is okay-ish, depending on how palatable do you find the idea of your favourite franchise turning into an ecchi.

Shinseiki Evangelion: Ikari Shinji Ikusei Keikaku, or as it's known in English: Neon Genesis Evangelion: The Shinji Ikari Raising Project, is a light-hearted spinoff manga of the popular mecha anime Neon Genesis Evangelion. The Manga is also loosely based on the Video Game of the same name. I say loosely, because really the only thing the Game and the Manga have in common is their name...

Story (3): There isn't much of a semblance of story here... Shinji, Asuka and Rei basically just go through with normal Junior High School life. There's a little bit of NERV here, but their goal is completely different to the ... series NERV. They are defending the MAGI from SEELE... and that's about it. Apparently SEELE want to use Shinji to get to the MAGI but considering that this Manga is over 100 chapters long, I got bored and dropped it. As you can tell, the Story drags quite a bit, and the whole SEELE thing is extremely underplayed.

Art (7): Just about the one positive thing about this Manga that I will say. It does have some very enjoyable art. It looks like the Anime, so that's pretty good. Unfortunately, some things such as... proportions on female characters can change between chapters for seemingly no reason. As well as the fact that the majority of the art in this story is just shameless fanservice. While I love some fanservice, it does get annoying after a while, especially if it's repeatedly shoved in your face.

Character (4): Characterisation here is all over the place. Some characters, like Asuka and Misato, remain rather faithful to their anime counterparts. And others, like Rei and Gendo... don't... Shinji himself is rather different here, being subject to a perverted makeover that kind've fits his character? Although not much. Rei and Gendo are easily the most different though. Rei is the bad side of this, she's Rei in name only. Literally nothing that makes Rei Rei is shown here. Rei is also the cousin of Shinji in this version. Let that sink in a moment. Gendo however, is the opposite side. Gendo is a complete idiot, but it's hilarious. If you have to read any part of this Manga, read the Gendo bits. They will give you a good laugh.

Enjoyment (5): Despite how much I've disliked this Manga, I did find some enjoyment out of it. Seeing the schenagans that Shinji somehow gets into on a daily basis is sometimes funny. Although the fact it was used to simply objectify the female characters got annoying after a while. Gendo's scenes however? Fucking comedy gold. Literally, as I stated before, the best part of this Manga.

Overall, Shinji Ikari Raising Project is a pretty poor attempt at trying to make a light-hearted Evangelion story. It's plot stretches on far too long. Characters are all over the place in terms of characterisation, which spreads to the shipping (Which leans heavily on Shinji/Rei, creeped out yet?) And overall enjoyment just sits in the middle. That being said, I did get some genuine laughs here, mainly from Gendo, and the Art itself is quite nice. Unfortunately that doesn't save this Manga in the end, and I couldn't finish it. Read Angelic Days instead.