For my seventy-fifth Evangelion book review, here is Evangelion no Yuru~i Nakama Yurushito desu. (It’s Evangelion’s Soft Companion Yurushito.), published by Groundworks. This 96-page paperback is a new book that came out a few weeks ago! It commemorates the 10th anniversary of the Evangelion Store’s mascot and product line known as “Yurushito” (Soft Angel, or Weak Angel). The Yurushito product line features cutesy renditions of the Angels (especially Sachiel), and sometimes other Eva-related stuff as well, such as Evangelion Unit-02 in Beast Mode, the Mass Production Evangelions, Jet Alone, and some of the Seele monoliths. Oh, and in case you’re wondering if Kaworu is included since he’s an Angel, unfortunately there is no cutesy version of Kaworu in this book. I guess it’s because Kaworu is already cute and appears in so many other product lines.
This book is not available in English or French, but there are plenty of full color pictures... and they’re adorable! The dust jacket is also removable, and the alternate cover art hidden underneath is a charming pattern featuring the Yurushito characters, printed all in green (a full color version of the pattern can be found inside the book, near the end). The Evangelion Store also has a limited edition release of this book that includes an acrylic stand, however I didn’t get the limited edition because I don’t have enough room for collecting acrylic stands, heh. Anyway, would you like to see some of the cuteness that can be found in this book? Keep reading for the rest of the book review, plus a few more pictures!
The book starts with a charming intro that shows the Yurushito characters gathering for a group photo, and after that is the Table of Contents. Then the next section is “Yurushito no Nakamatachi” (Yurushito’s Circle of Friends), which has brief profiles for the characters. Here is one of the pages, which shows Zeruel, Sahaquiel, and two Angels from the Evangelion New Theatrical Edition (AKA “Rebuild”):
The Angels look so cute in that art style! By the way, as you might have noticed from the book’s cover and what I’ve talked about so far, this book uses a mixture of characters from the original Evangelion TV series and the New Theatrical Edition. This section of the book tends to use their New Theatrical Edition designations when applicable. For example, in the TV series Zeruel was the 14th Angel, but in the New Theatrical Edition they were the 10th Angel and their name wasn’t mentioned, so in the above image you can see that they’re called “10th” instead of “Zeruel”.
However, some of the Angels are given amusing nicknames instead of numbers. In the above image, the 3rd Angel (the skeletal one that can levitate) is called “Janpu mo dekiru yo”, which means “Can also jump”. As for the 7th Angel (the one that looks like a drinky bird), their nickname is “Igaito taoremasen”, which means “Surprisingly doesn’t fall over”!
Moving on, the next part of the book is devoted to 4-frame comics about the four seasons. For example, one of the winter comics is called “Guruguru” (Wrapping Around), and it shows the Yurushito characters sharing one very, VERY long scarf. I found these comic strips to be mostly cute rather than funny, but that’s not a bad thing. The comics are very soothing and wholesome!
After the comics, there is a memories album featuring photos of Sachiel... more specifically, they’re photos of someone in a Sachiel costume, or sometimes photos of a Sachiel plushie. These photos show Sachiel doing various activities such as attending Evangelion Store events, posing in front of landmarks, and frolicking in nature. Check out this photo of Sachiel posing with a huge Evangelion Unit-01 located in Kyoto:
The next section is about a trip through all 47 prefectures of Japan. It’s full of art depicting Yurushito characters enjoying something famous about each place they visit. For example, the illustration for Kyoto shows Sachiel dressed as a maiko (apprentice geisha), and the image for Chiba shows Sachiel as a peanut. Very cute!
After that is an artwork section full of delightful promotional art, including collaborations. Here’s a piece from one of the pages:
In the scan shown above, the picture at the top is for a Godzilla vs. Yurushito collaboration. It shows the Yurushito characters fighting Godzilla, Mothra, and King Ghidorah! As for the picture below that, it shows Rei Ayanami with a Yurushito Sachiel plushie. I love it!
The section after that is “Kyou no Yurushito” (Today’s Yurushito), and it collects some of the Yurushito posts that have been made on Twitter over the years. The pics in this section show the Yurushito characters having all kinds of fun such as eating noodles, and dressing up for Halloween. There’s even a picture of Ramiel, Shamshel, and Sachiel going to the movie theater to see Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time...
Next is a goods archive, which shows photos of various Yurushito merchandise. So many cute things! I wish I had enough room to collect all of them! So far the only Yurushito merchandise I have (besides this book, obviously) is a paperweight of Sachiel posing like Auguste Rodin’s sculpture Le Penseur (The Thinker). Here’s a piece from one of the pages, which includes a photo of the paperweight I’m talking about:
By the way, in the scan shown above, you can see a plushie that looks like a yellow fish, with Sachiel in the fish’s mouth. That fish is actually a shachihoko, a creature from Japanese folklore that is part tiger and part carp. Pretty cool, huh?
The book comes to an end with a cute epilogue called “Mata ne” (See you later), and a couple of appendix pages that you can use to make pochibukuro (a small, decorated envelope for giving New Year’s gifts).
Overall, Evangelion no Yuru~i Nakama Yurushito desu. is a delightful book, full of adorable illustrations. My only complaint is that a number of the pages had multiple pictures crammed together, so the pics had to be very small on those pages. But other than that, I really enjoyed it. If you’re an Evangelion fan who likes cute things, it’s worth checking out! Just keep in mind that the book is focused on the Angels (especially Sachiel), so if you’d rather get a book featuring the Lilin characters or the Evas, you might want to skip this book and go for something else.
Anyway, if this book looks interesting to you, please support the artists by purchasing it if you can! Check if your favorite source for buying Japanese books has it, and if not then ask them if they can order it for you. ^_^
Well, that’s it for my seventy-fifth Evangelion book review. I have plenty more Evangelion books to discuss, so keep checking my blog for new reviews!
