I think it was sometime in 1997 that I first said "Eva is so awesome, I wish they would make tons more Eva stuff!" If only I could go back in time and kick myself in the face.

The march issue of Asuka magazine will contain the first installment of Shin Seiki Evangelion: Ikari Shinji Tantei Nikki, or "Shinji Ikari's Detective Journal", a comedy manga illustrated by Takumi Yoshimura. Now I'm sure that Yoshimura is a more than competent artist and I mean no disrespect to him whatsoever, but God, what the hell is this nonsense? Did Angelic Days really sell so incredibly well that we need more of these Eva-lite titles? Shinji's a DETECTIVE now? That's like launching a Sailor Moon spin-off manga where Usagi is an award-winning marine biologist...wait, come to think of it, that sounds awesome. I would totally buy that. Umm, let me come at this from another angle....

If I think about it rationally, despite the fact that I'm personally a little fed up with Evangelion, there's really nothing wrong with providing different takes on characters that fans clearly like- although since when Shinji was included among those characters that fans like, I couldn't tell you, but whatever. Nobody gets upset when CLAMP recycles their characters for new projects, because the end result is usually interesting enough to stand on its own merits. But maybe Eva has just gotten this treatment one too many times already- if multiple alt-universe humor manga are coming out for this franchise, then where the hell is my alternate universe Sailor Moon title? Or even another take on Fate/stay Night, to pick something more current? I'll bet Saber would make an awesome waitress. Or horse-diver.

Sure, Eva is still popular enough to support some niche titles, but it's hardly the only franchise that applies to, people; if you insist on milking the franchise cow so hard, why can't you see that there's more than one cow? ACKNOWLEDGE THE MULTIPLICITY OF COWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Via Anime News Network]