Shinseiki Evangelion: Gakuen Datenroku
Neon Genesis Evangelion: Campus Apocalypse

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Story:

For 22 chaps (which is short of me) the story does well. It seems to end abruptly, but there's enough closure for a spin to a series to like, but you'd have to be familiar with the main story to understand some of what's going on.

What I don't like the most is it's one of those stories that "hints" a "never ending battle" type-thing. Like a "This time may be called upon us again" thing. I'm one of those people highly annoyed by that. I'm putting this here for future reader's sake, in case you're one like me.

Art:

One of the best! Everyone's design is very ... sleek and sexy looking! I like the female school uniforms, Kaworu's uniform and the details on the landscapes.

Characters:

Asuka has very similar issues as she does in the main series, but Shinji's issues have a surprising twist to them, I say in a good way. You certainly wouldn't except what goes down in this series if you're very attached to the original.

There isn't any sure "closure" with Rei's character, unlike some of the other mains of the series, but it's still a cuteness to it.

What I enjoy most is it's a series that doesn't try to force Shinji into picking between Asuka and Rei. The series more allows for Asuka and Rei to pick HIM.

Don't expect anything to happen different with Kaworu in this. Just like other series, because he's an angel he'll get close to Shinji, but then "disappears".

I enjoy seeing a more confident Shinji running around with a gun! He's not all "*sob* OH LAWD WHY?! *sob*" all the time.

Enjoyment:

I've seen a good share of EVA spin offs now, and it's better -- It's just better. The fact that is has more focus than Shinji, Asuka, Rei, (and sometimes Kaworu, even tho we know it won't happen) love conflict going on makes it better.

Overall:

If you're interested in seeing the NGE characters in a fantasy action with not as much psychological impact, and drawn all sexy you'll enjoy this!

If all you enjoy is the comedy factor of Shinji, Asuka, Rei, Kaworu love conflict you'll hate it, because in this it doesn't exist.

Remember reading this a year ago and feeling empty due to how disappointing it is
I actually like the concept and up for a reimagining of the anime's story but the way they did it was lack luster at best
It for one is far to short and started to feel rushed towards the half way point
The abrupt as hell ending is probably the worse part of all of this as if the auithor gave up and slapped it on
The highlight here is the art style witch i found my self drawing some of the characters in it
over all this is a missed opportunity It ... would be better if the writing was moar thought out and had moar chapters to pad it out

It was just so, unbelievably nothing.

I'll begin with my struggle to even finish the manga. A short read, nothing to be scared of. Spin-off, alternate universe from the titular Evangelion franchise. Grounded in a focus for the scholarly aspects from the world, even amidst the inherent angel threat. You've got some similar struggles, you have some allusion to something bigger, and a good hook to tie it all together. I was interested in around four chapters, until I inevitably started falling asleep every chapter, and every page I read.

What happened then? Imagine a story that properly sets up stakes, an interesting world, powers, ... and baseline to what the characters do between conflicts, but then, chucks it all out because there's no time for that. The first big conflict, one which should've just challenged the characters, wasn't used to propel the story forwards, but to outright finish it. It's as if a big conflict happened at the fourth episode of a twelve episode series, only to tell you that's the ending.

What happens when you need to wrap up everything neatly with that sort of abyss of a plot? Walls of text, walls of philosophical jargon that's trying to sell you the story they couldn't set up. Loads of messages, about friendships (which never actually got any development), the resolution of internal conflict (which was revealed, and wrapped up in the same chapter), and a cosmic plot about timelines, and eternal, fruitless searches to fix grief. There's nothing here.

Yes, a spin-off can bring climaxes to characters, because of what we know from them, but the events themselves aren't even cathartic when the story is this much of a rushed mess. There's no catharsis. This manga has two different stories, one that's a nice setup for an otherwise cliché'd manga, and a bunch of epic resolution out of left field.

The art is very 2000s in a negative, dated way. The fight scenes don't have proper geography, the powers aren't clear, the world isn't clear, the anti-war message couldn't even land, since, there's nothing to land. “We aren't the bag guys, actually”. Cool point, do the whole manga about that, not five things you can't wrap up.

After all that, the manga slaps us with an out-of-nowhere, “that's it folks, the battle marches on”, like a Devilman Lady, without at least some good parts.

I can blame manga for many things. Bad writing, bad pacing, bad everything, but there's terrible manga I finish in a day, which are way longer than this one. How is it, then, the manga is 22 chapters long, and it took me over a month to complete? A boring manga, is a million times worse than just a bad manga. This was the most sleep inducing piece of fiction I've ever experienced. There's no other manga that's imprisoned me in a single page, for three times, in one day, trying to just consume the information. I couldn't for the life of me get past some walls of text without falling asleep, or changing whatever I was reading. I finished one other short manga, while I was trying to finish, THIS SHORTER MANGA.

The effort is appreciated, but that felt like fanfiction which had two options: Be abandoned forever, or wrapped up in a binge writing session, with no pauses to look at what was written at all.

2.4/10. Not worth a second of my time, but again, the manga wasn't made to spite anybody. I hope that passion goes somewhere better.