Forum - View topicThe Mike Toole Show - Evangel-a-like
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Petrea Mitchell
Posts: 438 Location: Near Portland, OR |
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If that ending is cribbed from anything, it's spoiler[Blood Music]. Whose author's name should sound familiar if you remember the secondary characters. (I was going to include a direct link for you to see, but that apparently disturbs the spoiler protection.) |
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Petrea Mitchell
Posts: 438 Location: Near Portland, OR |
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I'll second most of that. I do see a certain level of comedy, or at least absurdity, in what happens with most of the secondary characters near the end. spoiler[I picture the writers going: "Oh, no! Everyone except two or three people is completely irrelevant now! What do we do with them?" "I know, let's trap them on an island and write in GUNS FOR EVERYBODY!" I'd probably have been less happy with this approach, except my favorite character is the one who wins the elimination round and gets to shoot the villain.] |
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Echo_City
Posts: 1236 |
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What about the classic Martian Successor Nadesico? That definitely took shots at Eva, and IMO should be sub'd in place of Gasaraki. I don't see how Eva and Gasaraki are similar enough for Gasaraki to make the list, especially in when there are shows with far more obvious and essential links to EVA. For what is a parody without the original creations? For similarities, Gasaraki had mechs & a chick who was kinda/sorta like Rei. That's all I can see. IMO the mech's link between myth and machine was much different from Eva's. It made sense, which alone puts it worlds above Eva's link The chick being like Rei is negated by Yushiro being very little like Shinji. 
Someone who is a lot like Shinji, however, is Akito Tenkawa, main character of Nadesico. The article mentions how GAINAX decided to create the "anti-EVA" with Gurren Lagaan, and that was GL's merit to being on the list. Nadesico already had all the best "anti-EVA" elements that GL would have over a decade later; Nadesico has the immortal Gai Daigoji, aka a hilarious Kamina. The "EVA aspects" of Dai-Guard and Martian Successor Nadesico in parody might not be as blatant as Dual!, but they're certainly there, and more present than in Gasaraki. My $0.02. |
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Apollo-kun
 Posts: 1213 Location: City 7, Macross 7 |
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DRWii
 Posts: 636 |
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I hope this doesn't sound nit-picky, but the "Evangelion" movies actually came out in 1997. As a big "Eva" fan, I felt obligated to point that out.
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Emerje
 Posts: 7338 Location: Maine |
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Yeah, this is the one I was looking for in the article as well. It borrows from a lot of different things at once, but took a lot of parody influence from Eva. Emerje |
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ZakuAce
 Posts: 525 Location: SE Wisconsin |
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I was also a bit surprised that Nadesico wasn't mentioned. Otherwise, another great article, Mike. Really enjoy your column!
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Shenl742
Posts: 1524 |
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The constant references to Dai-Gard here mystify me, as I don't remember anything Eva-like about it. It was pretty much a modernized 70s robot show with beaurocratic hijinks mixed in. Still a good show though.
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treatment
Posts: 149 |
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I reckon Mike didn't mention Nadesico coz it's not a clone of Eva at all. There's a superficial similarity between Rei and Ruri, but that's about it.
Both EVA and Nadesico were pretty much just peers. EVA was a parody of the super-robot shows, while Nadesico was parodying the space-battleships/super-dimension shows, alongside the super-robot shows. also, Nadesico >>>>> Eva Ruri >>>>> Rei. Nadesico themesongs >>>>> Eva themesongs 
Last edited by treatment on Mon Jun 06, 2011 1:20 am; edited 2 times in total |
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treatment
Posts: 149 |
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Dai-Guard most definitely blatantly took the Angels-designs concepts, which was, in turn, blatantly ripped off from the 70's super-robot shows by EVA. |
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Shenl742
Posts: 1524 |
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Or they just skpped the middle-man and took them from the 70's super-robot shows...like they did with everything else in Dai-Guard Though yeah, you've got a point...I'm just saying I don't think it's big enough to warrant being on Mike's list. |
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maaya
Posts: 976 |
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if you talk about the majority of shows ... but come on, there are still masterpieces like Guardian of the Spirit or Denno Coil being created today.
Well, Rei pretty much became the "prototype" of this character type. Even in the most recent series these quiet characters still look similar to her very often. Maybe you could do a column about Dark Magical Girl Shows (Utena, Princess Tutu, Tweeny Witches ....), since right now Madoka is very popular? Would be interesting to see the comparisons and learn about some other titles.[/quote] |
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dlian
Posts: 8 |
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I always thought Gurren Lagann owed way more to Gunbuster and Gunbuster 2 than Evangelion.
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Kicksville
 Posts: 1175 |
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In terms of Brain Powered being played up against Evangelion by Tomino himself, could I get some clarification on where and how he referred to it in that way? I've heard everything from "He said it'd be better than Evangelion" to "It was in production without knowledge of Evangelion and not intended as a response to it". The only really linkable example I have is here, which sources an Animerica interview as a source on the latter. (And it's not like anything said there necessarily means he didn't say something like what Mike mentioned)
I don't really doubt that even if it was in planning without knowledge of Eva for a time, the way BP ultimately turned out was influenced by it (especially given how there's more people on a show than just the director and whatever he directly intends), but I just wish I could get it straight exactly what Tomino said. |
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Top Gun
 Posts: 4575 |
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I've had what one could call a..."complicated" relationship with Evangelion, wavering between vehemently defending the series from a few of my friends who pretty much hated it, to agreeing with them myself, to settling somewhere in the middle. As it stands, I find the series very interesting from the standpoint of seeing what happens when you combine an attempt at mecha deconstruction with a severely-depressed director, but I can't say I enjoy it much as a series itself; there are just too many massive structural flaws. More than anything else, I sort of wish people would just stop talking about it at some point, which is why I was ready to grit my teeth when I read the sidebar.
 Fortunately, Mike did his usual great job, so this wound up being a good read.
I've only seen two of the shows on the list as of now, though there are one or two more that I'd like to try at some point. I have to say that I personally found RahXephon to be a decidedly better work than Eva. It obviously owes a great stylistic debt to the latter, but I think BONES was able to refine the concept and produce something that works far better as something I can sit down and actually enjoy. Ayato comes across as a far more human protagonist than Shinji could ever hope to be, and his actions throughout the series generally match what one would expect of a person placed in those circumstances. The overall plot is significantly more coherent and structurally sound, too. I'm glad that there are other people out there who view Gurren-Lagann as GAINAX essentially inverting Eva, as that crossed my mind the first time I saw it. (Depending on my mood, I might even call it GAINAX's apology for Eva. ) Simon really is the "anti-Shinji" in almost every sense...hell, about a third of the way through the series, he winds up going through a brief funk where he almost is Shinji, yet he manages to yank himself out of it and turn it into a Crowning Moment of Awesome. Beyond the spectacular animation and over-the-top manliness, one of the reasons I love the show so much is its fundamental belief in the human spirit, that people throwing themselves heart and soul into a task can move the heavens themselves if they strive hard enough...in that way, too, it's about as far from Shinji's worldview as one could possibly get. I do agree that it fundamentally benefits from having Eva a decade before it to serve as the original point to its counterpoint, though.
And as a few people mentioned, Eureka seveN definitely owes some influence to Eva as well, but much like Gurren-Lagann, I think it winds up acting like something of an inverse. Hell, its central message is basically that the power of true love can overcome anything.
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