This light novel series was supervised and penned by Khara's mechanical designer, Ikuto Yamashita, and I must say... it is really nice to see a lot of shelved "conceptual" ideas breathing new life throughout the books! It was a treat to read from start to finish, and while I thought the ending could have been stronger, it was really incredible to see concepts like multiple Rei clones functioning in tandem with autonomous personalities, as well as Hikari Horaki (yes, Hikari Horaki as in the cute country bumpkin, student counsel president) as an EVA pilot! While parts of the story were filled with a lot oftechnical lingo, there were some really compelling character moments and solid writing choices overall.

⚠️ This review of Evangelion ANIMA will contain spoilers ⚠️

This series takes place three years after the events of the series, so the EVA's chosen children are around 17-years-old. It was refreshing to see them seem generally more put together and competent, though I am no way underselling the value of their respective roles in the TV series! It was nice to see Tōji Suzuhara take more of a leading narrative role, he was a commanding character (quite literally a commander, too) and very much the Nick Carraway-like observer to Shinji Ikari in this tale, though much more of a reliable perspective to see the story from!

Asuka Langley Sōryū is more empathetic and put-together, it may sound cursed to cross-reference a dōjinshi in a piece of literature that is authentically near-canon but it I guess it applies since both are AU, but her characterization in this story reminded me a lot of her personality in RE-TAKE. It is easier to refer to Rei Ayanami as merely "Ayanami" in this continuity, since she is essentially six separate living entities! A prototype of Mari Makinami even makes a debut in this series, before Shin Evangelion ("Rebuild of Evangelion") films, but instead of a teenage girl like the rest of the cast - she is instead a small child, that is an animal-human hybrid, created in a lab in the USA... what an interesting idea!

Misato Kisaragi is practically the same Misato from the TV anime, the most Misato-like thing I've ever seen written in literature, to this day, is when in ANIMA - Misato celebrates their victory with beer and frozen pizza. How much more Misato can you get? It's clear that Mr. Yamashita had a firm grasp on every character from the original series, they seemed more faithful in some ways than even some of the later portrayals in Shin EVA. In fact, I think it would be nice to see an ANIMA OVA series or something, given the length... I doubt it would function well as a fully fleshed-out series, but a six-episode OVA or something would be nice.

Sadly, for many Kaworu Nagisa fans, he's merely the guiding voice in Shinji's head - which I am personally okay with, based on my interpretation of him, but some others may be distressed with the lack of Kaworu, as a distinction from Shinji. There's a lot of romance between both Rei Quatre and Shinji, though it ends tragically, and between Shinji and Asuka, there is a bit of Misato and Kaji's long-lasting love affair as well. With characters like child Mari and Rei Six, it felt very much like a child solider, Mobile Suit Gundam-like plotline; which supposedly was the authorial intent, as stated by Mr. Yamashita in the interview in Vol. 1 of the series.

While there is a lot of action and sci-fi elements, there also is the interesting conceptual trappings of Evangelion's WORLD TREE (or, the parallel dimensions) narrative and Instrumentality, and turning reality into nothing more than a dream at the edge of the Mega EVA's sword-hilt... yes, the EVA units have samurai swords in this story! My inner-child craves this sort of plot device! Overall, it is very well thought-out and entertaining story to consume, I would highly recommend it to any Evangelion fan looking for supplemental material that doesn't deviate too much from the original in character-writing, yet has fresh new ideas as well!

Score: 8.5/10