Viz Media, the largest distributor and licensor of manga in North America, announced today that it will participate in the same-day worldwide release of Volume 13, the latest volume of Yoshiyuki Sadamoto’s Neon Genesis Evangelion on November 2nd.  The latest volume of this adaptation of the anime science fiction saga of the 1990s is rated "T+" for "older teens."  It will carry a cover price of $9.99 and will hit retail across North America on the same day that it debuts in Japan.  Volume 13 of NGE will also be available digitally on November 2nd via Vizmanga.com and the Viz Manga App or iOS devices at a cost of $4.99.

 

This Neon Genesis Evangelion manga series is NGE co-creator Yoshiyuki Sadamoto’s personal interpretation of the Evangelion characters and saga.  The events in Volume 13 take place during 2015 after the "Angels" have returned and Shinji Akari has been forced to pilot the Evangelion biomechanical unit.  Mankind tilts on the brink of the Third Impact as the events in this crucial final volume unfold.  Seventeen years after the publication of Sadamoto’s first NGE volume, the conclusion of his series is drawing near, perhaps this volume will shed some light on the many mysteries of  contained in the various Evangelion endings.

 

Having an English language version available the same day that a manga volume is published in Japan takes away the timing advantage that illegal scanlated manga often has on licensed print and digital publications.  The coordinated global debut of NGE Vol. 13 is a positive move on the part of Kadokawa Shoten NGE’s Japanese publisher and its licensees around the world that could pay dividends if it can be replicated on more bestselling titles.