literaryeagle:

For my forty-fifth Evangelion book review, here is Shin Seiki Evangelion Koutetsu no Girlfriend 2nd Kanzen Kaitai Hakusho (Neon Genesis Evangelion Girlfriend of Steel 2 Complete Dissection White Paper), published by Kadokawa Shoten. It’s a guide to Girlfriend of Steel 2, a “visual novel” that was released for computer, PlayStation 2, and the PSP. This book uses the uncensored graphics from the computer version… I’ll explain more about that later. Anyway, judging from the title you would think this game is a sequel to the first Girlfriend of Steel (I covered a book about the first game in my previous review), however only the gameplay is similar. There is no Mana Kirishima this time around, and instead of taking place during the Evangelion TV series, it happens in another continuity based on the alternate world glimpsed in episode 26 (but instead of being a world without Evas, there are actually Evangelions and Angels present, and Kaworu is there as one of Shinji’s classmates.)

If you’ve read Fumino Hayashi’s manga adaptation of this game (the manga was released in English under the title Angelic Days), then you already have a rough idea of how the story goes, although the manga made some changes such as adding a backstory about how Gendo and Yui got together, and giving Kaworu a role that was considerably more powerful and mysterious. Also, in the game Kaworu likes Rei, but in the manga version he’s, um, less fond of her. (Augh, why?!) Oh yeah, and in the game you can make choices that determine whether Shinji has romantic moments with Asuka, Rei, or Kaworu, while the manga ends up favoring the Asuka route.

Sadly, Kaworu stops being a romantic option partway through the game (although at least he doesn’t tragically vanish like in Angelic Days), so you can only get a “good ending” with Asuka or Rei. There are also several “bad endings” that you can get, including the infamous RoboShinji ending. Anyway, despite the lack of a proper Kaworu ending, you can still get some good KawoShin moments in this game, so I’ll try to show a bit of that along with some good AsuShin and ReiShin stuff (multiship-friendly book reviewing, whoo hoo!). For example, remember in Angelic Days when Shinji ends up not going to Kaworu’s concert? Well, in the game if you actually do choose to go to the concert, you get to see this:





Keep reading for the rest of the book review, plus a few more pictures!

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