Writer Yushi Kawata and artist Yukito’s 2014 series “Neon Genesis Evangelion: Legend of the Piko Piko Middle School Students” is comic publisher Dark Horse’s latest addition to their collection of translated alternate universe titles of the popular franchise.

Earth is in danger as monstrous creatures from space known as Angels are on a one-way trip to destroy the planet. The organization NERV’s weapon for fighting them, the Evangelion mechs are almost done but their pilots are far from ready. For some strange reason, middle school students are perfect for operating the giant robots, but due to their obsession with video games, NERV gets creative with their training program. Gendo Ikari and Misato Katsuragi need to get Shinji Ikari, Rei Ayanami and Asuka Soryu to tip-top shape, but it looks like it’s going to take more than arcade games to get the candidates prepared.

Like many of the other recognized parodies, “Piko Piko” brought the sci-fi psychological thriller into a more lighter side. The creative duo took part in a NGE (Neon Genesis Evangelion) tribute anthology and it seemed they carried over the same absurd amount of gags and ridiculous situations. Having Yukito’s illustrations maintain a closeness to the original manga added more to the bizarre story especially seeing the character’s facial reactions. “Piko Piko” embraced the mind-boggling aspect of NGE and ran wild with their concepts.

 

Volume Two of “Piko Piko” earlier hit shelves in November and Dark Horse has the NGE tribute Kawata and Yukito were in available for purchase. For more information, visit Dark Horse’s site.