It’s got to be of significant interest to Evangelion obsessives, maybe from kind of a gossipy angle. Not that it’s a cash-in exactly, as it’s clearly a personal work, it's just very niche. Frankly, it borders on untranslatable, and I think it’s safe to say that it never would have been attempted if Hideaki wasn’t such a big name among otakus in the west. Most of the punchlines are referential, and have to be explained in extensive footnotes that lay out exactly which episode of 80s anime Rompers is doing when she says a particular line or strikes a particular pose. She makes the slightly odd choice of portraying them both as babies (“Rompers” and “Director-kun”) and sets them in little gag strips, the majority of which get DEEP into obscure anime shit. I’ve not read any of her stuff yet but by all accounts this book is a significant departure – a humour comic about the early years of her marriage to Hideaki and how Moyoco was drawn into his complex love/hate relationship with anime and specifically otaku culture. I knew Hideaki Anno as the creator of Neon Genesis Evangelion, obviously held up by many as among the greatest anime of all time, but I was not aware that his wife Moyoco Anno (weirdly they shared a surname before they ever met) was a josei legend in her own right. This one for me was more interesting for the pedigree than the content, although some anime fans may disagree.
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