All-around excellence. The story is surprisingly well-written, and bounces from heartwarming to action-packed to heartbreaking to tear-jerking with ease. Overall, the hentai material is integrated into the story in a sensible manner, and is actually key to one of the major storylines. My only quibbles are that the first Rei's handling of the changes in Shinji just don't feel right, and Asuka remembering the harpies' destruction of Unit 02 as her being gang-raped by them was the one explicit scene that felt truly gratuitous and over-the-top. As was said in a previous review, if you're of legal age, this is a must-read.
Now, that being said, I do not recommend RE-TAKE 1.5. It's a short interlude chapter which consists of nothing more than Shinji dragging Asuka to a hotel and borderline-raping her, all the while angsting internally over how Rei handled him rejecting her for Asuka. It's pure smut, adds nothing of significance to the plot aside from a reveal that was covered in a much more poignant fashion in the main story, and while Shinji angsting isn't anything new, the tone of this feels very Out Of Character.
Much better than you might think (spoilers)
All-around excellence. The story is surprisingly well-written, and bounces from heartwarming to action-packed to heartbreaking to tear-jerking with ease. Overall, the hentai material is integrated into the story in a sensible manner, and is actually key to one of the major storylines. My only quibbles are that the first Rei's handling of the changes in Shinji just don't feel right, and Asuka remembering the harpies' destruction of Unit 02 as her being gang-raped by them was the one explicit scene that felt truly gratuitous and over-the-top. As was said in a previous review, if you're of legal age, this is a must-read.
Now, that being said, I do not recommend RE-TAKE 1.5. It's a short interlude chapter which consists of nothing more than Shinji dragging Asuka to a hotel and borderline-raping her, all the while angsting internally over how Rei handled him rejecting her for Asuka. It's pure smut, adds nothing of significance to the plot aside from a reveal that was covered in a much more poignant fashion in the main story, and while Shinji angsting isn't anything new, the tone of this feels very Out Of Character.