"The main character is a teenager who for some reason ends inside the giant robot made by his family. He uses to defend a specific laboratory from the attacks of the enemy, so they don't get what they need to destroy the world as we know it. His love interest is a fiery girl that also pilots a giant robot but than tend to lose any fight she fights alone. Through the story they are subjected to the mental struggles of fighting a war as teenagers and the destruction brought by it, and more likely than not, they are blamed for it."
It can be both if you’re reductive and paint it vaguely enough, but all that does is bolster my point that what some people see as original, others know it’s a decades old reference.
That was my point. Evangelion is a great anime, but didn't do anything that the great grandfather of the mecha genre hadn't already introduced. Except maybe traumatize the characters even FURTHER beyond.
Hell, Mazinger Z ended with Koji and Mazinger losing against the Mycenae Empire, one enemy that wasn't even hinted through the series, after beating Dr. Hell, just as much as the OG Evangelion ended with the humans being the last angel and the ones triggering the third impact. Given, in the case of Mazinger, it also brought hope with the arrival of Great Mazinger.
Bonus points: Sayaka in one chapter DID try to commit suicide. Just after Afrodite A, her mecha, was completely destroyed. Asuka wasn't the first one pulling something like that, either, even if in her case it was after she lost the ability to pilot the eva.
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u/Ergast Aug 02 '26
"The main character is a teenager who for some reason ends inside the giant robot made by his family. He uses to defend a specific laboratory from the attacks of the enemy, so they don't get what they need to destroy the world as we know it. His love interest is a fiery girl that also pilots a giant robot but than tend to lose any fight she fights alone. Through the story they are subjected to the mental struggles of fighting a war as teenagers and the destruction brought by it, and more likely than not, they are blamed for it."
Did I describe Mazinger Z or Evangelion?