Evangelion to other serious mecha

[GAP]

I had yet to watch Zambot 3, Daidarn 3(?) or any of Tomino's non gundam series (although I did see the Be Invoked on Yotube) but how does Evangelion compare to those works? Especially since they all use damaged protagonists as pilots and some of them have some psychology references.

[BrikHaus]

Evangelion was almost as good as Dai-Guard. Almost.

[Xard]

Mobile Suit Gundam is Evangelion rip-off

[InstrumentalityOne]

Getter Robo is an Evangelion rip-off

[Mr. Tines]

Mobile Suit Gundam is Evangelion rip-off

If anyone remembers the link to Quiddity's masterful demonstration of this, that would be a benefit to this thread.

For me -- I've watched all of Ideon, and the first third of the original MSG, and they feel indistinguishable : the ship carrying the giant robot through enemy territory, the waves of slowly upgraded opposing mecha, the teen pilot, the scheming enemy... You could change the names in the script of one, and it would fit into the other.

[Xard]

Getter Robo is an Evangelion rip-off

Mazinger Z is an Evangelion rip-off!

If anyone remembers the link to Quiddity's masterful demonstration of this, that would be a benefit to this thread.

Here

[Dr. Nick]

I had yet to watch Zambot 3, Daidarn 3(?) or any of Tomino's non gundam series (although I did see the Be Invoked on Yotube) but how does Evangelion compare to those works? Especially since they all use damaged protagonists as pilots and some of them have some psychology references.

Ideon and Zambot both play around with the idea that piloting a giant robot is no fun and games. Sure, there's usually plenty of carnage even in the most block-headed super robot shows (looking at you there, Combattler V), but in these shows it doesn't have any lasting psychological consequences for the main characters. Ideon and Zambot are more honest and dare I say more realistic in this respect: piloting a giant robot sucks, and it sucks consistently. I don't think these shows have any actual references to psychology, though. They just have people breaking under pressure.

Like Tines said, Ideon has ridiculous amounts of MOTW, but its horror elements really start to shine towards the very end. The good guys possess a strong robot - and this is an immensely bad thing.

Zambot 3 is an outright nasty series, which retains the cheesiness of your typical super robot fare but ramps up the violence and angst levels something fierce. It's only 26 episodes long, so I definitely recommend it to anyone interested in how the mecha genre started to - I apologize, I'm going to use THAT word here - deconstruct itself. And it has one of the most evil, evil villains ever.

I haven't watched Daitarn 3 yet, but as far as I know, it's the light-hearted counterpart for Zambot. Tomino's shows usually alternate between angsty kill'em all gorefests and cheerful drug-induced unicorn fantasies, and it supposedly belongs to the latter category.

[Jessemon]

I havn't watched a wholelot of mecha anime (or anime in general tbh), but out of what I HAVE watched, I really liked Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket a LOT. It's only a six episode OVA, but it was really well done.

It's much more character driven than most Gundam animes, and takes a really interesting perspective on war. For example, there is only 1 truly "evil" person in the entire show, and he isn't a central character. It's hard to post much else about it without spoiling anything, but I think it's a pretty darn good show.

[GAP]

I did see Char's Counterattack and it was basically Vietnam in space, but Gundam has to be unrealistic real robot show I had seen so far. Its entertaining but Tomino sure loves his kill 'em all just look at Ideon:Be Invoked, a kid got his head decapitated by a fire extingusher when the Ideon went berserk.

Getter Robo is an Evangelion rip-off

Mobile Suit Gundam is Evangelion rip-off

Mazinger Z is an Evangelion rip-off!

Hell any mecha is a ripoff of Evangelion for that matter.

[Jessemon]

I did see Char's Counterattack and it was basically Vietnam in space, but Gundam has to be unrealistic real robot show I had seen so far. Its entertaining but Tomino sure loves his kill 'em all just look at Ideon:Be Invoked, a kid got his head decapitated by a fire extingusher when the Ideon went berserk.






Hell any mecha is a ripoff of Evangelion for that matter.

Well, War in the Pocket isn't really like any other Gundam. There are a grand total of 3 "battles" in the entire thing, 2 of which are very short and significantly more realistic than any other Gundam series. Even the main battle isn't as ridiculous as most other series'. Like I said, the focus of the OVA is on the characters [Edit]and the idea that most people in war are people first and representatives of their factions second (it's sort of a vague All Quiet on the Western Front vibe)[Edit]; not the mobile suits themselves.

[GAP]

I guess the smae can be said about Eva, most of the other Gundams are pretty much about mobile suits.

[Jessemon]

I guess the smae can be said about Eva, most of the other Gundams are pretty much about mobile suits.

Agreed, though I think there are a couple notable exceptions that I've seen.

Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team is a personal fav of mine, though I wouldn't necessarily call the show great. It has a sort of cheesy plot; 2 soldiers from opposite factions meet and fall in love early in the show and end up becoming incredibly important characters to their respective sides. But the show focuses on the common mobile suit solider as opposed to Gundams, and the battles are typically more realistic and rely on tactics and battle prowess as opposed to banging each other over the head with laser swords and bombarding each other with an infinite supply of rockets and bullets.

And speaking of which,

Gundam Wing is actually a huge exception IMO. I think Wing gets a really bad rap in English speaking countries because of it's truly god awful English dub. Wing actually has a pretty complex plot containing a LOT of ideals about what war is and how it should be fought. Most people see GW and think, "Oh yeah, that's that anime that reuses the same battle animations a thousand times and has that one Gundam who kills everything with a giant laser cannon." However, it's MUCH more than that. It's really hard to post a summary because of everything that goes on, but trust me, it's not the grade school hero named Heero who kills everything anime that it's reputation implies.

[Merridian]

Gundam Wing is actually a huge exception IMO. I think Wing gets a really bad rap in English speaking countries because of it's truly god awful English dub. Wing actually has a pretty complex plot containing a LOT of ideals about what war is and how it should be fought. Most people see GW and think, "Oh yeah, that's that anime that reuses the same battle animations a thousand times and has that one Gundam who kills everything with a giant laser cannon." However, it's MUCH more than that.

In my experience, Gundam Wing is typically ridiculed because it took the best things the Tomino-directed Gundam shows had and distilled all of them down into more digestible chunks, and then replaced all of the character models with generic bishonens and boring stereotypes. As Gundam shows goes, the only thing it had going for it was its animation. The mech designs were kinda cool too, I guess.

I'll agree with you that 0080: War in the Pocket is one of the best of the franchise, though. It's not my favorite, but it's probably one of the most accessible and less "lolTomino" ones I've been exposed to (granted, absence of Tomino from director's chair helped). Even Stardust Memory had its share of Tomino moments, he didn't even direct that.

[Bagheera]

Gundam Wing is actually a huge exception IMO. I think Wing gets a really bad rap in English speaking countries because of it's truly god awful English dub. Wing actually has a pretty complex plot containing a LOT of ideals about what war is and how it should be fought. Most people see GW and think, "Oh yeah, that's that anime that reuses the same battle animations a thousand times and has that one Gundam who kills everything with a giant laser cannon." However, it's MUCH more than that. It's really hard to post a summary because of everything that goes on, but trust me, it's not the grade school hero named Heero who kills everything anime that it's reputation implies.

Yeah, it really is. Its philosophy is trite and its characters disposable, making its reputation is well-earned (particularly in comparison to other Gundam series at the time, which were generally a lot more insightful). If you want Gundam, go with UC. Wing is just a joke in comparison.

[Combs]

I've seen it argued multiple times that Eva is and Ideon ripoff. Can anyone who has seen this anime verify any similarities?

[Ornette]

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