>>923500>I wouldn't say that it is. It has some very blatant parallels to it and doesn't really contradict itNERV was created as a direct deconstruction of the Real Robot genre. Look at what NERV does, look at all the logistics. There's a secret military base the size of a city descending miles into the ground, and what's it for? Keeping three Real Robots kinda operational most of the time. Just like in real life (and unlike in Gundam) the actual fighting vehicles you see are the tip of an unbelievably huge logistical iceberg submerged beneath Tokyo III.
Now think about who's actually running NERV: half a dozen angsty tweenagers who all met in college. Think about this for a second: NERV has to have tens of thousands of workers in it, everything in NERV is enormous, and they represent the Eastern hemisphere's last hope in saving humanity. So where are all the people? Why do we never see them? Where's the management structure? Fine, Gendou is commander-in-chief, where's all the people who report to him? Imagine if Tim Cook or Elon Musk only met a dozen people on a day-to-day basis, and they just make machines people buy. This is a stab at Gundam only ever having 10-20 people in the entire army, and everything in the armed forces that's not a gundam being essentially irrelevant but existing anyway (the JSDF in EVA is also a dig at this).
The whole reason for NERV existing is to critique Gundam. I won't even bother elaborating on "wouldn't it be cool if child soldiers drove giant robots ACTUALLY NO IT IS AWFUL" because that's kinda obvious.
Before Anno lost his fucking mind, the intent was that EVA would be a pastiche of Gundam.
