Fly-by Existentialism

The movie program begins with an exciting two-page spread showing Venom fighting Carnage... shown from the point of view of Carnage’s mouth! Yikes! After that, there are pages showing portraits of Tom Hardy as Venom/Eddie, and Woody Harrelson as Carnage/Cletus:

Pretty cool, right? But what’s even cooler is that the above pages open up to reveal this huge illustration of Carnage vs. Venom:

Neat, huh? The articles on the sides of that illustration talk a bit about the movie, basically introducing the story and which actors play the characters. After that, the booklet has a couple of screenshots of Eddie in the movie, and an interview with Tom Hardy that includes him describing Eddie and Venom as being a science fiction version of The Odd Couple (in other words, roommates with very different personalities).

Next, it’s time for the ladies, with a couple of pages devoted to Michelle Williams as Anne, and Naomie Harris as Frances/Shriek. Here is one of those pages:

The section after that is a column written by Supi Yutaka Sugiyama, who supervised the Japanese dub of the movie. This column once again compares Eddie and Venom to The Odd Couple, but also points out that Eddie and Venom’s fight feels more like a marital spat than a roommates’ quarrel! The Cletus/Carnage/Shriek love triangle is also brought up. Wow, so much relationship drama...

Next is a two-page spread with more screenshots from the movie, and then a Venom vs. Carnage column that talks about their history in the comics. This is followed by another page of screenshots, and then an interview with the movie’s director, Andy Serkis. In the interview, one of the first things he talks about is what drives the characters in the movie... including love!

Moving on, the section after that is called Production Notes, and it gives it a bit more insight into the making the of the movie, including stuff about Kelly Marcel and Tom Hardy coming up with the story together. This part of the booklet also says that the movie is a love story, but not a conventional one. Heh, you can say that again! Oh, and this section also includes some fun behind the scenes photos, such as this one which shows how they shot the part when Venom gives Eddie the mail:

As you can see, they used a long tool to give Tom Hardy the mail, and then special effects were added later to make it look like Venom was giving the mail to Eddie. You can also see Andy Serkis in the photo.

Here’s another behind the scenes pic, showing Tom Hardy interacting with a Venom head placed on a stack of blocks or boxes (with Andy Serkis standing behind the Venom head):

The Production Notes continue for four more pages after that, including insights from the actors, and discussion about the CGI, sets, and costumes. After that, there’s a section called “The Story So Far” which briefly recaps the first movie, followed by a column that points out some highlights of the Venom series, including Venom’s love of chocolate.

After that, there’s a two-page spread of Venom and Carnage in action, a credits page, a page of awesome fan art submitted by various artists for a contest, and a column called “Spoiler Alert! Read after watching the film.” As you can probably guess, this Spoiler Alert section discusses the mid-credits scene where Eddie and Venom get transported into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The booklet ends with a page advertising some Venom, Carnage, and Spider-Man merchandise. Oh yeah, and the back cover shows the movie poster, with a beautiful metallic gleam similar to the front cover. Very cool!

The book starts with a charming intro that shows the Yurushito characters gathering for a group photo, and after that is the Table of Contents. Then the next section is “Yurushito no Nakamatachi” (Yurushito’s Circle of Friends), which has brief profiles for the characters. Here is one of the pages, which shows Zeruel, Sahaquiel, and two Angels from the Evangelion New Theatrical Edition (AKA “Rebuild”):

The Angels look so cute in that art style! By the way, as you might have noticed from the book’s cover and what I’ve talked about so far, this book uses a mixture of characters from the original Evangelion TV series and the New Theatrical Edition. This section of the book tends to use their New Theatrical Edition designations when applicable. For example, in the TV series Zeruel was the 14th Angel, but in the New Theatrical Edition they were the 10th Angel and their name wasn’t mentioned, so in the above image you can see that they’re called “10th” instead of “Zeruel”.

However, some of the Angels are given amusing nicknames instead of numbers. In the above image, the 3rd Angel (the skeletal one that can levitate) is called “Janpu mo dekiru yo”, which means “Can also jump”. As for the 7th Angel (the one that looks like a drinky bird), their nickname is “Igaito taoremasen”, which means “Surprisingly doesn’t fall over”!

Moving on, the next part of the book is devoted to 4-frame comics about the four seasons. For example, one of the winter comics is called “Guruguru” (Wrapping Around), and it shows the Yurushito characters sharing one very, VERY long scarf. I found these comic strips to be mostly cute rather than funny, but that’s not a bad thing. The comics are very soothing and wholesome!

After the comics, there is a memories album featuring photos of Sachiel... more specifically, they’re photos of someone in a Sachiel costume, or sometimes photos of a Sachiel plushie. These photos show Sachiel doing various activities such as attending Evangelion Store events, posing in front of landmarks, and frolicking in nature. Check out this photo of Sachiel posing with a huge Evangelion Unit-01 located in Kyoto:

The next section is about a trip through all 47 prefectures of Japan. It’s full of art depicting Yurushito characters enjoying something famous about each place they visit. For example, the illustration for Kyoto shows Sachiel dressed as a maiko (apprentice geisha), and the image for Chiba shows Sachiel as a peanut. Very cute!

After that is an artwork section full of delightful promotional art, including collaborations. Here’s a piece from one of the pages:

In the scan shown above, the picture at the top is for a Godzilla vs. Yurushito collaboration. It shows the Yurushito characters fighting Godzilla, Mothra, and King Ghidorah! As for the picture below that, it shows Rei Ayanami with a Yurushito Sachiel plushie. I love it!

The section after that is “Kyou no Yurushito” (Today’s Yurushito), and it collects some of the Yurushito posts that have been made on Twitter over the years. The pics in this section show the Yurushito characters having all kinds of fun such as eating noodles, and dressing up for Halloween. There’s even a picture of Ramiel, Shamshel, and Sachiel going to the movie theater to see Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time...

Next is a goods archive, which shows photos of various Yurushito merchandise. So many cute things! I wish I had enough room to collect all of them! So far the only Yurushito merchandise I have (besides this book, obviously) is a paperweight of Sachiel posing like Auguste Rodin’s sculpture Le Penseur (The Thinker). Here’s a piece from one of the pages, which includes a photo of the paperweight I’m talking about:

By the way, in the scan shown above, you can see a plushie that looks like a yellow fish, with Sachiel in the fish’s mouth. That fish is actually a shachihoko, a creature from Japanese folklore that is part tiger and part carp. Pretty cool, huh?

The book comes to an end with a cute epilogue called “Mata ne” (See you later), and a couple of appendix pages that you can use to make pochibukuro (a small, decorated envelope for giving New Year’s gifts).

Overall, Evangelion no Yuru~i Nakama Yurushito desu. is a delightful book, full of adorable illustrations. My only complaint is that a number of the pages had multiple pictures crammed together, so the pics had to be very small on those pages. But other than that, I really enjoyed it. If you’re an Evangelion fan who likes cute things, it’s worth checking out! Just keep in mind that the book is focused on the Angels (especially Sachiel), so if you’d rather get a book featuring the Lilin characters or the Evas, you might want to skip this book and go for something else.

Anyway, if this book looks interesting to you, please support the artists by purchasing it if you can! Check if your favorite source for buying Japanese books has it, and if not then ask them if they can order it for you. ^_^