Blathering by the Author Okay, so here I get a little bit serious about things. I don't know why exactly, but I just feel like talking a bit about Evanjellydonut. Swelled head, maybe? ^^; *The start of it all As some may know, my first non-Ranma fic was Evangelion--an introspective short called "Risen". Completely serious, no real plot, just a stroll in Shinji's head. I was rather loath to write a plot-based story, because it would pretty much mean ruining the continuity (and with a continuity as tight and defined as Evangelion, it seemed... upsetting). Anyways, after "Risen", my attention turned to other things. But I did keep on thinking about Evangelion a bit. Evanjellydonut almost never got written. In fact, the first time around, it didn't get written. Back in early June 1997 (or was it May?), I had a brief mental flash of the title "Evanjellyon". I toyed with it for a day or two, then promptly discarded it, partly for the reason mentioned above, and partly for the fact that I just didn't get any real ideas. ("EvanJellyon", BTW, is now the title for some hentai anime parody of Evangelion--don't ask for details, 'cos I don't know them). Then, in July, I got really, really bored at work one day. And this time, along with a better title--Evanjellydonut--I got some ideas. A genuine parody of all the cereberal quality of Evangelion, of all this mysticism and spirituality. I remembered reading something about how Shinji's soul and body were taken into EVA-01 after the fight with the 14th Angel, and things just exploded from there.... Even then, though, I remember, it was almost on a whim that I actually put the idea down in writing. *Writing this stuff I wanted to keep everyone in character. Well, almost everyone...Rei is the obvious and crushing exception. ^_^ Even though this is a spoof, I just didn't want to mess everyone up, just for the sake of laughs. I wanted real charater development to go along with the plot. It's almost a spoof that isn't a spoof.... Perhaps it's because of how I really care about the characters, something which Jason Langlois pointed out. It's true, I do like them.... That's another reason that I wrote this: the ending of Evangelion, whether the movie or the TV ending, was very bleak, to be sure. If it hadn't been so, if Anno had given them a happier ending, then oh, how much more I would love Evangelion. I really wanted to give them a better time...my favorite arc of Evangelion is the middle, eps 7-15, the funny segment. Afterwards, it all went downhill... the last humorous bit that I can remember is when Kensuke begs Misato to be the pilot for Unit 03, in episode 17. After that, the jokes just disappeared. Suddenly, the matter of staying within continuity just didn't seem too important at all, since the continuity was just so damn depressing. And so, here I am. I had been hoping that perhaps, this would become a signature piece, something that I would be remembered in the anime fanfic world by. The only other thing I can really write is Ranma, and since Ranma fanfics are a dime a dozen now, you'd better be really good at it if you want to be noticed for more than a few passing moments...and I'm just not that good. I will never be in Taleswapper's Reviews, I imagine. But well, with this sudden interest in Evangelion fanfiction (that is, in the English-speaking world; evidently it's been popular in Japan for a while), my timing could not have been better, I think. And plus, who could imagine an Evangelion _spoof_?! ^_^ I wouldn't have been able to imagine it back around the time I wrote "Risen". Not a chance. I am _so_ glad that I did decide to write this, now, especially given how this really almost didn't happen. A few miscellaneous tidbits--there will never be any lemon in this. Yes, Shinji and Rei get a bit cozy, but they'll remain virgins--even offscreen. I've made it a point not to have to use sex to get some laughs. All right, perhaps there is a bit of that, but nothing more than a little innuendo and such. Also, except for occasional cameos, I don't think this will be taking any crossover elements. I do have an idea or two for side stories involving other series, but they won't get directly involved with the main storyline. *Reaction and thanks I almost can't believe how well my audience so far has taken my work. Especially surpising is the number of MST-type C&C's that I've gotten: after releasing the first three parts, I've gotten six--four of them for part three (very helpful, considering the work that I still needed for it). I do believe I'm actually growing an ego. I must be, otherwise I wouldn't bother with writing this drivel here, poorly disguised as author's notes. Maybe "McKinley Morganfield" is rubbing off a little on me. ^_^ Especially pleasing was Mark Doherty's initial reaction: he liked it--but had never seen Evangelion at all. I had enough universal humor added in, apparently, and didn't lean too heavily on in-jokes specific to Evangelion. This has even been called by one person the best spoof writing that he ever read. However, I doubt that it could truly match up with the epics like Lemonade and Lemon Sherbert. Of course, that doesn't mean I won't try. :) I'd like to thank my prereaders here: RpM, who has graciously done some MST-style C&C on some of my stuff; Robert Morrison, who has also done that with some of the other parts of my stuff; Chris "KILL GENDOU!" Davies, whose critical comments have helped me muchly to improve things; Mike Chen, fellow member of The Sound and the Furry Productions; Zen, for general support and free plugs on the FFML; Kevin Shiue, for a bit of helpful commenting (and who has since been inspired to try his hand at humorous EVA writing); Jason Langlois, for overall WAFFy comments ^_^, very highly appreciated; Anne Packrat, an excellent spoofish writer in her own right (have you seen her Perfectly Useless Sailor Space?), and also Mark Doherty, who has recently rectified the problem of not having seen Evangelion. The MST C&Cers--again, Robert Morrison, with his Cephiro Fanfic Review Club and RpM, of The More Things Read. The two others are Sean Gaffney, with help from Sailor Saturn/Hotaru-chan, and Travis Butler, with Windir, Frito, and Lyra. Many, many thanks, again, to them. Other influences--I'd like to thank John Biles (and the rest of Spoof Chase Productions) for writing anime fanfic spoofs and getting me started on that road. (I had wanted Bailesu to be one of my prereaders, but he had to bow out due to his unfamiliarity with Evangelion.) Also, my humorous writing has definitely been influenced by Terry Pratchett-- introduced to me by way of the work of Matthew Trotter, so I'd like to extend my thanks to them, as well. Ah, yes, and Michael Borgwardt, who helped me with the German I stuck in for Asuka. I wish I was still fluent. *Continuing? I'll keep writing Evanjellydonut as long as the ideas keep coming. I'll continue it beyond the 17th Angel, if I can...if I make it that far. I really don't know. I've had a terrible time in the past with extended writings...my Ranma serial works just seem to fizzle and die. But this does seem to hold more promise, so hopefully, I'll keep on going and going with it. Besides, I'm too fond of Evanjellydonut now to let it go easily. I just hope that my later parts will be as good as the first ones. *Part 1: I Left My Soul in Tokyo-3 As with all my other fics, I started out with a great idea. This part almost rushed out on to the computer screen. A lot of it wrote itself, more than my previous works. As I said, it started with hearing about Shinji getting absorbed into EVA-01 after the 14th Angel. So, I decided to change things a little and poke fun at that. The most notable alteration at first is that Touji is the pilot of EVA-03, still. I decided to save Bardiel for later, since I felt that the addition of Touji would spice things up. (Will Hikari and Kensuke turn out to be pilots somewhere down the line? Maybe. I haven't decided. ^_^) It was also here that I felt that Rei needed to become a bit more "normal". Emotive. So I gave that to her, too. And it just kept going from there. I had considered going on with part 1, and have Rei settle down back to her usual, nonemotive self--with a few changes, perhaps--but that wouldn't have given me the possibilities for the later parts. Besides, I do kind of like the idea of Shinji and Rei...probably a little more than Shinji and Asuka. (Since writing this...I've gone far, far, far the other way. Shinji and Asuka belong together. They need each other. Shinji and Rei...they make up a funny couple, though, that's for sure. Good humor potential-- that's why they've worked for this.) *Part 2: The Faces of Death^H^H^H^H^HAyanami This was a little harder to write. As usual, once the initial idea wore off, it was difficult for me to keep up the high standard I had set for myself in part 1. I still think that part 2 isn't as funny or spoofy as part 1, and I get the feeling that the rest of it will never be quite as spoofy as part 1 (maybe I used up too many good parody elements?). But part 2 did come out rather nicely, and established the relationship between not only Shinji and Rei, but also Hikari and Touji. (Hey, if I can't get into a relationship, I'll just write about some.) There is also an implication of Kensuke and Asuka, but...more on that later. Plus Misato and Kaji seem to be working things out now. Heh. One thing that I realized later on was that Asuka really wasn't having a good time in part 2. Don't get me wrong--I like Asuka. I can understand why she's the way she is. But, for the purposes of part 2, I guess I just had to give her a hard time. I promised to let up on her in part 3 and on.... *Part 3: Tenshi Muyou--No Need for Angels Oh, come on...you knew that title was going to come sooner or later. :) Part 3 was terribly difficult to get started. To begin with, it was the magic number for me. With all my previous serial works, I never seemed to get past part 2, and would die somewhere in the beginning of part 3--or, in some cases, never even manage to start a part 3. For days after I wrote the intro bit, something which I had thought up weeks earlier, I just couldn't get going. I didn't know what direction I would take the Angel in...or, for that matter, where the characters would be going, exactly. Then, suddenly, I had the idea for Angel number 13 to pull a Hibiki Ryouga. A large chunk just took off, then. The rest managed to follow. Midway through, I bogged down again. I was particularly worried that I was getting Asuka wrong...I needed her to do some introspection, without being too down on her, but that really was strange...plus it felt like everything was suddenly dragging badly. I kept on going, though, and it seems to have pulled out nicely. As for the Asuka-Kensuke match; though I mentioned it in this part...well, I make no promises either way. (I do now. Asuka-Kensuke is not going to happen. Too fruity even for a spoof. However, Rei is going to try anyway. Heh, heh, heh. ^_^) As it turned out, I _didn't_ quite get Asuka down right--indeed, I still needed a bit of work. That's where the MSTings came in, especially Sean's and Travis's. Hopefully, I got it done better.... *Upcoming parts What, are you kidding? I'm not going to tell you.... ^_^ Besides, as it has turned out already, I've managed to take parts in different directions than I had planned. It wouldn't be good to say I'd be doing this, then change it and disappoint some of you out there. I will say, though, that Part 4 is going to take a while. Well, it's 'cos school's in session, I've got a bit of a writer's block, and I _really_ want to make sure that part 4 lives up to the technical and story-telling success of the previous three. Sorry for this delay. :( I hate it as much as you do. That is, assuming you _are_ one of the people who likes Evanjellydonut.... :P Back to writing!