Moral Orel and Shinji Ikari

[Boethiah]

So has anyone else watched this show called Moral Orel? It's a show which at times has a lot of remarkable similarities to NGE, mostly in terms of pushing the boundaries of how dark content could get within their respective mediums. I wouldn't be surprised if the animators had watched NGE, in fact - lots of scenes remind me of how trippy the series could get. In fact, I think there's a character in the show that directly corresponds to one of the characters in NGE.

The most obvious analogue for Clay Puppington would be Gendo Ikari, but that's also the most flawed - Clay seems to legitimately care about Orel, he just displays it in a terrible abusive manner. Instead, I posit that Clay is the equivalent of Shinji Ikari. He and his father despise each other because of the death of his mother, and even before that his father (like Gendo in the manga) viewed Clay as stealing his mother's affection. He shows sexual attraction to anyone who will give him any modicum of affection because he never learned how to process emotion properly - this includes his mother, much like Shinji. A lot of Clay's behavior mirrors Misato's, too, but that's a passing thing.

[Sachi]

I haven't seen Moral Orel since it first aired on Adult Swim, but I can definitely see the correlation. The show is brilliantly honest and dark, and I love how it clashes the light-hearted and innocent with morally offensive subject matter. I remember an episode in particular that mostly exists in Orel's head, which is very much akin to the mindfucks Shinji has in Eva.

[Tumbling Down]

The most obvious analogue for Clay Puppington would be Gendo Ikari, but that's also the most flawed - Clay seems to legitimately care about Orel, he just displays it in a terrible abusive manner.

The same is true of Gendo, though. This is clarified in his death scene.

It's always nice to see this show get some love. I can't think of a television series more underrated.

I haven't seen Moral Orel since it first aired on Adult Swim, but I can definitely see the correlation. The show is brilliantly honest and dark, and I love how it clashes the light-hearted and innocent with morally offensive subject matter. I remember an episode in particular that mostly exists in Orel's head, which is very much akin to the mindfucks Shinji has in Eva.

There's no direct reference, but I do think it's likely that the episode "Grounded" was influenced by NGE.