Those of you who know me well know that I started working on an Eva book a few years back. I was hoping to publish around the time of the 10th anniversary, but it fell through. Part of why it never happened was because I was intent on Japanese translation work and couldn't obtain funding. The other part was that Brian Ruh announced the book that he was working on, which left me content to simply be a contributor to another book project.

But recently, a friend got me hooked on the idea again, so I've been gearing back up again in that regard. But before I go and burn the candle at both ends, I'd like to ask people what sort of book they might be interested in. I was thinking about a few formats, either for one book, and depending on how much comes of those formats, developing them out into separate books.

1. Original Content From Interview and Research.

Rather than go and just write a lousy FAQ style book akin to "The Unofficial Guide to Evangelion", collect various interviews and resources together to address various topics in Evangelion and its fandom. How the show came to be, what influenced its creation, the lives of the people at gainax, the eva phenomenon, etc.

2. Collection of Essays.

Gather together a collection of essays of various kinds. Reviews, stories, criticism, gripes, etc. This is more like what Terminal Dogma is supposed to be like. These essays are not limited to explaning Evangelion, these can simply be explanations of how Evangelion impacted a persons life, or it can be a lengthy essay about Gender in evangelion. One's already been written, I even have it archived.

3. Analysis / Criticism

Slightly different, this is a collection of articles that are detailed analysis of Evangelion from different perspectives. For instance, someone with a background in English and Literature could write a Literary Analysis of Evangelion, adressing story construction, plot, characterization, and dialogue. Someone with a background in art (like myself) could write an article about the visual style and design of the show, from character design, to mechanical design, to scene composition, to even art that is referenced in the show. This is along the lines of The Evangelion Style, if you're familiar with the book. This would be a much more academic style book.

It would be interesting to include a little bit of each in one large publication, but I think these formats would be better off developped out into separate books. The kind of thing where the most immediately viable format, or the format of most interest would be first, and then if I still had interest in publishing stuff to pursue another format.

I'm more or less back to the drawing board on this, I pretty much abandoned the idea for about a year, and now I'm back to batting it around. And I've been sleeping weird hours, so I apologize if this post is jumbled at all.

But I'm curious about what people would be interested in seeing in a book on Eva in the English language. We've only got that lousy Unofficial Guide, and The Notenki Memoirs, which isn't even really about Eva. But I feel strongly that we need an actual book on Eva. Not simply because there's something nice about the physicality of a book, but also because (as has been said) getting information about a subject online is like trying to take a drink from a firehose on full blast.

This is a great idea! I personally would like to know the following regarding all things Eva:

1) The truth behind the whole Evangelion Kaibunsho bit.

2) More on the origins of Eva; and, more importantly, info on Anno himself surrounding Eva.

Our Pal Hal wrote:1) The truth behind the whole Evangelion Kaibunsho bit.

2) More on the origins of Eva

(A) Obtain complete and utter access to the Japanese language.
(B) Collect loads of (mostly) old stuff that's all in Japanese.
(C) Line up various Important Japanese Persons for interview.
(D) ?????????????
(E) Profit!!!

@Aaron: Write the book you want to write. Otherwise you'll never write anything at all.

Reichu wrote:Line up various Important Japanese Persons for interview.

I guess now would be an appropriate time to cash in that favor Tsurumaki owes me.

Reichu wrote:@Aaron: Write the book you want to write. Otherwise you'll never write anything at all.

Good advice. Sadly, of the the three ideas, I don't know which I want to do. I think the ease of producing each and interest in producing each balance out.

I want to produce an original book, but that would be a much more difficult project.

The collection of analysis would be difficult to find disciplined people to critique Eva, but fairly easy to produce in terms of acting as an editor rather than an author. But it's less interesting than an original book.

The collection of essays is easy, as people love to talk about Eva, and easy to produce as an editor. But, much less interesting to do.

They really do balance out like that. I think I could produce any of the three formats. I'm curious to know which people think would be of most interest to readers. Although you have to keep in mind that a wealth of input from the Japanese is UNLIKELY. Unless of course you fundraise for me.

I figure this would be as good a place as any to ask: Carl Horn once said that he was "personally ripped off by Gainax". What exactly was he referring to?

Give it a try primate

Can I analyze the scene by scene in EoE when all the images flash on screen? I think that there is some meaning buried in the pictures from the 4 minutes of it I watched...

I have an essay. PMing you.

@ Rei-chan

Just whom are these, as you wrote,...

...<snip> Important Japanese Persons...

...exactly? :P

Hailtheplatypus wrote:Can I analyze the scene by scene in EoE when all the images flash on screen? I think that there is some meaning buried in the pictures from the 4 minutes of it I watched...

Opteron-O3 wrote:I have an essay. PMing you.

I don't want to seem rude at all as I say this, so please bear with me.

This isn't a request for essays or content. I haven't decided which direction to take the book in. I'm primarily interested in what people would like to see. If you would like to see a collection of essays so that you might contribute one, please phrase your replies along those lines. While I feel that I should make the book that I want to make, I still want to be receptive to other feedback and ideas.

If you get it published then i'll pick it up.Im shure that you'll have a space in the back of the book thanking everyone who made it possible.
It it were me,id list everyones names here on the forum...hey im just saying!Seriously,good luck with it.

The collection of analysis would be difficult to find disciplined people to critique Eva, but fairly easy to produce in terms of acting as an editor rather than an author. But it's less interesting than an original book.

I've been dallying; I have to get back to work....

Sorry about being off topic with my previous post... but I think in order to write a book that would provide understanding of Eva some of the following would need to be written

1) Detailed explainations of symbolism- The show is obviously full of symbols, many of them are either missed or cryptic use... I think it would be an interesting to point out these symbols; explain their meaning, and explain their relation to the series.

2)Eva in context- Due to the fact that Eva was deeply personal, I think it would be essential to explain how eva represents Anno's life during the time the show was made.

3) Eva's impact on anime- I think it would also be significant to explain how eva effected anime's development


I think this would really make eva more understandable for people who understand the show ,yet still wish to look deeper. Although I have no pull over what is made, I would love to see some of these ideas used in the book.

Here I'm reminded of a quote from FLCL, in which Naota's father is talking about the symbolism of robots. Haruko asks Naota what he's talking about, and Naota replied, "He wrote a whole book about the deep mysteries of Eva."

That quote always made me laugh... whatever we do needs to be done with taste and not be done to confuse fans...

I'd love to see some kind of compilation all of our theories, from Akira Katsuragi to fem-Kaworu. Yes, him/her, too. ;)

Hailtheplatypus, I just realized: is your username a reference to the Christmas episode of Invader Zim? I should probably check the username thread before asking this, but, you know... I didn't.

You could probably blend all of that together into one book.

One section would be devoted to the beginnings of Evangelion and its aftermath, and another section could be a collection of essays, and etc. But seriously, just get started on it, I'm sure you'll figure out some way to organize it after you get started and know what you have to work with.