Evangelion manga deluxe edition drops to 660 yen per volume on Kindle

Amazon Japan has launched a campaign for the digital edition of Shin Seiki Evangelion, the manga by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto. The seven volumes of the aizōban format —the deluxe edition that collects the original fourteen volumes two at a time— are now selling for 660 yen each on Kindle. The full set costs 4,620 yen, tax included.

The offer applies to the denshi tokubetsuban, the special electronic variant of the kanzenban. Each volume includes the cover illustrations used in the Kadokawa Comics Ace edition, the label under which the series was serialized in Japan, at the end of the book.

A manga that diverged from the anime

Sadamoto, character designer for Gainax's original anime, began publishing his manga version in 1994, a year before the TV premiere. The work followed its own path: it kept the general structure —Shinji Ikari arrives in Tokyo-3, pilots Unit 01, and fights the Angels— but altered storylines, went deeper into the relationships between characters, and built an ending different from both the series and the films.

The serialization lasted nearly two decades. Sadamoto finished it in 2013, with a finale that sparked debate among readers. The aizōban edition later collected the original fourteen volumes into seven larger books, with color pages and extra material.

The regular price of each digital volume is over 1,000 yen, so the discount brings the whole set below what four undiscounted volumes would cost.

The campaign has no announced end date. Amazon keeps it active in its Kindle deals section, where it usually rotates this type of promotion on Kadokawa titles.

A cheap entry point to the origin of the phenomenon

For those who only know Hideaki Anno's films, Sadamoto's manga works as complementary reading. It is not a novelization of the anime: it is a reinterpretation with its own narrative decisions, more focused on personal bonds and with a different pace from the series.

The digital deluxe edition keeps the double-page format of the print version on most devices. On tablets and large e-ink readers, the experience comes close to the physical volume, though without the weight of the printed books.

The 660 yen price per volume makes this campaign one of the cheapest ways to get the complete work in Japanese. There is no Spanish version of this electronic edition: reading it requires Japanese knowledge or waiting for a hypothetical international license.

Are you interested in this deluxe edition of the Evangelion manga, or do you prefer the original fourteen-volume edition? Let us know in the comments.