Evangelion: 5 Anime The Series Influenced (5 It Was Influenced By)

The 1995 classic Neon Genesis Evangelion, directed by Hideaki Anno and animated by Studio Gainax, is one of anime’s all-time great achievements. Evangelion was lauded at the time for shattering expectations regarding what was and was not possible with TV anime as the show broke new ground with its surrealism, opaque plot, and experimental structure.

Of course, Evangelion doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Highly regarded as one of the most influential anime ever produced, its DNA is visible in many of the most important anime titles of the late ’90s and beyond. In turn, Evangelion was deeply influenced by a number of classic titles from its own era, and it drew heavily from mecha, tokusatsu, and science fiction classics to take the form that we know and love today.

10 Influenced By: Ultraman

While the classic tokusatsu series Ultraman might not actually be anime as such, it is a formative influence on Hideaki Anno’s work—so much so that his early works as a college student included his short fan film Return of Ultraman—and therefore is incredibly important to Evangelion itself.

Although Evangelion brings a techy flair to its kaiju fight scenes, anybody with a passing familiarity with Ultraman will see a lot of its DNA embedded in Evangelion‘s famous fight scenes. The very image of Unit 01’s limber, humanoid figure grappling with otherworldly monsters certainly evokes memories of Ultraman‘s famous battle scenes.

9 Influenced: Kill La Kill

Hiroyuki Imaishi is the renegade director of classics like Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, and of course, Kill la Kill, which are both notable for their outlandish, confrontational animation style and eye-catching action scenes. Although Kill la Kill might have a unique identity, the importance of Evangelion to its production shouldn’t be overlooked.

Beyond the obvious factors such as that Imaishi worked on some of his most famous projects with Gainax, the studio that animated Evangelion, there are a number of visual references to Eva that those with a keen eye can pick out. For instance, Ragyo’s office bears a striking resemblance to Gendo’s, and the anime has a tendency to deploy Eva‘s trademark cross-shaped explosions.

8 Influenced By: Naussica Of The Valley Of The Wind

Although it’s important to cite the importance of Studio Ghibli’s work to Anno’s career overall, particularly where the works of Hayao Miyazaki are concerned, there is perhaps no entry in the venerated studio’s filmography that’s as relevant to Evangelion as Miyazaki’s Naussica.

Evangelion fans who watch Naussica will note some important similarities, namely in Naussica‘s deadly humanoid weapons—notably similar in appearance to the unsettlingly surreal Angels of Evangelion—that torch their enemies with deadly laser beams towards the end of the film. This resemblance isn’t coincidental, either, because key animation for that sequence of the movie was handled by none other than a young Anno.

7 Influenced: RaXephon

Perhaps no other anime bears as much of an immediate resemblance to Evangelion as RaXephon does, which is a comparison that has worked for and against the anime in online discussion spaces. Indeed, RaXephon does bear a striking resemblance to its predecessor, especially in that it’s a weird, existentialist robot show where reality itself is subject to interpretation.

Although critics deride it as being simply an Evangelion rip-off, RaXephon does go to lengths to establish its own identity, an effort that makes it worth checking out even for diehard Evangelion fans. The final result is a show that stands on its own in the annals of bizarre, experimental anime involving giant robots.

6 Influenced By: Devilman

The classic 1972 manga from Go Nagai, Devilman, has experienced something of a resurgence in popularity in recent years thanks to the premier of Devilman Crybaby on Netflix in 2018. The story, similarly to Evangelion, follows a protagonist struggling with their own identity as he uses the powers of an otherworldly beast to battle demonic enemies.

Devilman‘s surrealism and brutality are aesthetically similar to Evangelion, but the most important point of comparison to be made is the grim apocalypticism that the story deals with. The iconic climax of Devilman is a world-rending event, similar in scope and presentation to End of Evangelion‘s third impact.

5 Influenced: Revolutionary Girl Utena

The close personal relationship between Kunihiko Ikuhara and Hideaki Anno, as well as the notably surrealist and unsettling presentation of Ikuhara’s magnum opus Revolutionary Girl Utena, has led many anime fans to draw an apt comparison between the two. The most frequently repeated adage is that what Evangelion is to mecha, Utena is to shoujo.

Indeed, many anime fans label both titles as “deconstructions” of their respective genres, and, although the accuracy of such a term is debatable, it is without a doubt that Utena is an anime that wants to take a sledgehammer to established shoujo genre norms. It, like Evangelion, also delivers its narrative through a deliberately opaque lense, inviting fans to form their own theories about Utena‘s deeper meaning.

4 Influenced By: Mobile Suit Gundam

Evangelion is frequently lauded for disrupting the power fantasy at the core of many anime titles; its protagonist, Shinji Ikari, is not a straightforwardly heroic character. He struggles immensely with his role as Unit 01’s pilot, and the psychological pressure incurred by operating the machine takes a serious toll on his personal well-being.

Shinji’s predicament actually shares a number of similarities with Gundam protagonist Amuro Ray’s, and Anno has often expressed deep admiration for Gundam creator Yoshiyuki Tomino’s work. Both characters are young boys forced into life or death situations essentially against their will, and both suffer dramatically as a side effect of their roles.

3 Influenced: Puella Magi Madoka Magica

With some frequency, Madoka fans will describe the surrealist mahou shoujo title as “Evangelion, but with magical girls” and this comparison has a lot of merit to it. Magical girl shows are one of anime’s oldest and most established subgenres, including many classics like Sailor Moon, but few attempt to dismantle the genre’s themes and tropes as aggressively as Madoka does.

Indeed, Madoka deals with its subgenre in a similar manner to Evangelion. Both include shocking descents into surreal territory, apocalyptic themes and imagery, and some intensely existentialist introspection.

2 Influenced By: Space Runaway Ideon

Another of Gundam creator Yoshiyuki Tomino’s works, Space Runaway Ideon and its apocalyptic final film Ideon: Be Invoked are perhaps even more influential for Evangelion than Gundam was. The story follows a group of human survivors using an ancient weapon called the Ideon to defend themselves against an alien threat, something that should sound familiar to Eva fans.

The two stories are also structurally quite similar; both start out as somewhat benign mecha action shows, but they eventually morph into far more surreal, darker stories. Both even have a climactic movie (End of Evangelion and Be Invoked respectively) that showcases a hellish sci-fi armageddon involving giant robots.

1 Influenced: Serial Experiments Lain

The surrealist masterpiece Serial Experiments Lain is one of the most successful entries in the canon of “weird post-Evangelion anime that were produced during the mid-to-late ’90s,” which is something of a genre in its own right. The series follows a girl named Lain grappling with personhood and identity as she becomes more and more interconnected with a worldwide proto-internet system.

Aside from some heady themes and a unique visual style, Lain is a startlingly prophetic portrait of how technologies like the internet can at once make us more alienated and more interconnected. Lain might have first debuted in 1998, but it only feels more relevant today.

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