Random Person: So what is this story about?
Me: I'm not going to spoil it. Let's just say that the latter half of the manga will challenge and exceed the assumptions that we've so far been led to believe. This isn't a fluffy romance, but falls more into the horror genre.
RP: How about a hint then?
Me: I can tell you where Taiyaki got her inspiration. The manga continuity of Neon Genesis Evangelion.
RP: Huh?
Me: Originally published as a companion for the animation, the Manga version written by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto ran for 19 years (1994 to 2013), made a number of changes in plot and character, and it actually had an ending, one that is considered superior to the original anime. It featured an expansion of backstories for several major characters.
RP: For example?
Me: Asuka Langely Soryu (ALS). We actually see Asuka's mother, a blonde German-Japanese woman named Kyouko Langley..... Zeppelin.
RP: Ouch! The Japanese like mangled western surnames, eh?
Me: One of the most important additions to ALS's backstory is that her mother was career focused to the point of being unable to pursue romantic relationships. But she wanted to have a child. So she conceived ALS using donor sperm. She did, years later, marry a man, but he was just an accessory to the strong matriarchal relationship that ensued between mother and daughter. Afterwards it's the same as the anime, with Kyouko being progressively absorbed into Unit 02 (formed from the body of the Angel named Lilith) after an accident, and her developing a form of Borderline Personality/Disassociative Identity Disorder due to her depersonalization that's a side effect of the absorption. The subsequent relationship between mother and daughter feels even more angsty, with ALS feeling rejected, and Kyouko's rejection covering up for intense feelings of essentially cannibalistic desire for her daughter.
RP: So instead of making a NGE doujin riffing off the borderline incestuous relationship between ALS and her mother, Taiyaki did her own manga.
Me: Three essential parts of the original story are in 1×1/2:
- The mother and daughter characters and their intensely matriarchal relationship.
- The mother's mental illness, on the Borderline/Disassociative spectrum.
- Lilith.