#azuchi

Since this book is a light novel and not a manga, it is mostly text, however there are some illustrations. The first eight pages of the book have pictures in full color, and then the other pics in the book are printed in black-and-white. Here is one of the illustrations from the first eight pages, showing an upgraded version of Unit-01 called Evangelion Final Model:

Evangelion Final Model is also the Eva shown on the front cover of the book (shown at the beginning of this review). On the cover, Final Model is wielding a new weapon, the Spear of Lucretius!

Since this is Ikuto Yamashita’s story, many of the illustrations are focused on Eva battles, however there are a few pics of Lilin characters as well. For example, here’s a picture of Asuka wearing a special plugsuit:

Yes, the plugsuit has high heels. According to the notes at the end of the previous volume, Asuka requested plugsuits with heels, because she wanted to be the same height as Shinji. However, that didn’t work out too well for Rei Trois, who ended up tripping while trying to walk in one of those plugsuits. Ouch!

Moving on, here is one of the book’s illustrations that was printed in black-and-white. It shows an attack from Armaros, the enemy Eva:

Yeah, some of the details in that picture are a bit dark. As I’ve mentioned in previous reviews, this is a recurring problem with the English volumes of ANIMA. And since this book is the final volume of the series, I guess it’s not going to be fixed, which is really unfortunate.

Anyway, let’s take a look at another picture now. This image of Mari, Azuchi, and Asuka has a lot going on, although it’s at a weird angle:

If you’re having trouble figuring out the above image, tilt your head to the left. Once you’re in that position, you’ll see that on the left side of the picture is a little girl with cat ears and a tail (Mari), and a dog with floppy ears (Azuchi) is running in the foreground. There are a couple of other animals running in the pic as well. As for Asuka, she’s the one riding a motorcycle on the right side of the picture.

Okay, I’ll show one more illustration from this book, and this time I’ll choose one that’s easier to see! Here’s a cute pic of Rei Six:

By the way, as mentioned in previous reviews, each Japanese volume of ANIMA has a removable dust jacket with alternate cover art hidden underneath, while the English volumes do not have the removable jackets. However, a black-and-white version of the alternate cover art is provided at the back of each English volume, so at least you’re not missing those pics.

Overall, my opinion of Evangelion ANIMA 5 is similar to my view on the previous four volumes: It’s cool that all the chapters of this story are finally compiled into books, but it’s a bit disappointing that some of the illustrations had to be printed in black-and-white. Also, Hiroyuki Utatane’s character drawings are not included, so even though these books are collecting the chapters of the story, they are still not a perfect ANIMA set. However, I’m glad that I finally got to read this story (despite how weird it is), and I’m very grateful to Seven Seas Entertainment for doing an official English release!

Anyway, if Evangelion ANIMA 5 looks interesting to you, please support the author by purchasing it if you can! Check if your favorite bookstore has it, and if not then ask them if they can order it for you. There’s also a Kindle Edition, if you prefer that. ^_^ (EDIT, May 2024: An audiobook version of the English edition is available from Seven Seas Siren! Check if your favorite source of audiobooks has it!)