Wow. I didn't honestly expect that to carry as much punch as it did this time around, having seen the anime first, I didn't anticipate reading Shinji's front row seat to horror to almost get me teary-eyed but yeah, it totally did. I'm not even talking about the the death, which was a big thud considering it didn't play out that way initially and I expected the same here but just the shot of Eva holding the plug with Shinji's scream, just brutal. The final pages with Toji pronounced dead followed by Hikari's fantasy, devastating.
I'm a bit conflicted over which version I prefer. As morbid as it sounds, I do prefer Toji dying. It felt it a bit cheap to have him live though I recall liking the brief scene we did get of him and Hikari. The more emotionally devastating version is better. That goes true for the anime on another account though, I spoil tag this just in case,
with Shinji not knowing it's Toji until the event is over. Having this awful reaction to just killing a human compares nothing to the shock of discovery that human was a close friend. I also like the idea that Shinji would so vehemently disagree with his father on concerns to just killing a human, that he doesn't need a connection with them in particular to hold his stance.
