Is Anno a big fan of Cowboy Bebop?

[khronos]

Ever since 3.0 came out, I found some of the new characters very similar to Jet, Julia, Spike (the first three from left to right except Midori):



Has anybody else noticed it?

Btw, happy new year!

[Blockio]

It's been brought up with an overlay recently in another thread I can't find right now;
Anno is a fan of a great many things you would or would not expect, so I can certainly see it being possible

[FreakyFilmFan4ever]

The battle of supremacy between Neon Genesis Evangelion and Cowboy Bebop is a legendary staple of American 90's anime fandom.

The question is, did that legendary battle ever cross back over to Japan?

[hui43210]

Im under the impression that Cowboy Bebop is/was much more popular in North America than Japan. As such, I don't think there was much of a war in Japan between the two. Could be wrong though.

[Heaven Piercing Man]

Not to look down on it, but the only reason Cowboy Bebop was mainstream in the West was because it was "surface" enough since it was not "anime" enough, so high schoolers could openly say they liked it without losing face with the cool kids.

[Mr. Tines]

Has anybody else noticed it?

Even when the characters on the shop front were still just silhouettes...

I think the new bridge bunnies have a very unique look, they are more Cowboy Bebop than NGE, at least to me.

Originally posted here but lost to the mists of time.

[Lacissal]

The new members of the Wunder bridge crew, especially Midori, always reminded me more of the other characters from Diebuster

[intermediateO]

My pet theory is that some of the crew, and the Wunder itself, are actually based off the Gekko State and it's crew from Eureka Seven.

Sumire, Koji, and Midori respectively mirror Talho, Ken-goh, and Gidget. Their placements on the bridge, their ship responsibilities, their physical appearances, and even there personalities line up. I basically always see Gidget when I see Midori.

The bird-like design of the Wunder is also way more similar to the Gekko-gou than any other ship in a Anno's own filmography.
Even the bridge is in the exact same location, as an almost mini-head hiding on the chin of what would be the pseudo-head of the bird.

And even though the Wunder's backstory hasn't been completely layed out yet, it is probably almost exactly the same as the Gekko-gou's.
"An experimental ship that was being made in secret by the military is stolen by defectors of said military and then said ship is used by said defectors to fight against said military."

[Zusuchan]

I feel like if there's any intended correlation between the Wunder crew and some other fictional crew, it's probably the crew of the Nautilus from Nadia. Misato and Ritsuko already have a working relationship similar to that of Nemo and Electra. Of course, inspiration from Cowboy Bepop is entirely possible, too.

[Blockio]

I don't think this is a "one or nothing" situation here; as I said earlier, Anno is a huge nerd, and I can absolutely see all of these being something that he'd throw in a reference to

[Spike]

Yesterday I saw Evangelion 3.0+1.0 and thought the same thing. First one and fourth one from left to right look very similar to Jet Black and Spike Spiegel. It could be an homage. The pink hair girl could be an homage to some Macross character? (the face style looks very different to the usual Gainax, it remind me of that vintage anime style, although I don't know much about Macross).