Whew! What an exhilarating read. I've been a fan of the anime for quite some time and I think it's a hot mess, but glorious and stunning in its own way. Reading this manga was a pleasure and I feel it's certainly different enough from the anime to warrant a read through for fans.

This manga seemed to make a little more sense to me than the anime. Maybe it was because I could take my time digesting the ideas, or maybe it's the simple difference between the two different art forms? Who knows.

The idea of the Human Instrumentality Project attempting to create a "perfect" world by taking away pain and suffering without realizing the pain and pleasure is what makes life worth living and frankly, makes life - life. There's a line from Shinji where he says something like "It doesn't feel bad, but it's not good, either." That kind of sums it up for me. You need bad and good to make up a whole of experiences in life. Bad stuff sucks, but it needs to be there to make the good that much better. (...or something like that....) Highly reccommended. ( )

The ending of the manga is worlds better than the ending of the anime. ( )