Naturally, Eva's success resulted in similar anime being created, many of which came from other notable creators! Over time, anime fans abroad would categorize these alleged imitators with a simple, if not amusingly ironic, phrase: "Eva Clone".
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| Okay, now one of you Rei's MUST be able to sing as good as Kaye Ballard, Frank Sinatra, Claire Littley, or Helena Noguerra... Or just don't even bother, like Netflix did. |
Now, to be fair, it's not like people immediately chomped at the bit at simply copying Eva wholesale; this wasn't NG Knight Lamune & 40 debuting barely a year after Mashin Hero Wataru finished airing. No, no... They waited a year after 1997's End of Evangelion, the movie finale, debuted in theaters! But, in all seriousness, the term "clone" is a rather harsh one & honestly is only used by those who simply want to belittle or lessen the potential relevance of these anime. After all, mech anime in general is intensely iterative & runs primarily off of whatever becomes the next big thing. Mazinger Z started the super robot boom of the 70s & Mobile Suit Gundam started the real robot boom of the 80s, while Wataru & Matchless Raijin-Oh started the early-to-mid-90s trend of either making the robots more chibi-looking (though not fully Super-Deformed) or having young children (rather than older teenagers) pilot the robots, respectively. Without "clones" from those eras, we wouldn't have series like the Nagahama Robot Romance Trilogy, Fang of the Sun Dougram, Armored Trooper VOTOMS, or the Brave & Eldoran Series, many of which advanced mech anime & became classics, in their own right. Also, while Eva is one of the most popular anime of all time, it is simply true that not everyone has seen it, or at least saw it before seeing any of these "clones"; for them, those later productions are the valuable & influential ones. In fact, I'm one of those heathens who honestly has no major interest in ever watching Neon Genesis Evangelion in full; let them who is without sin cast the first stone (Wait... No one is shamed about sin on the internet!). However, I am still somewhat familiar with Eva's themes, characters, & some of its important scenes, simply due to a mix of cultural osmosis (i.e. I couldn't NOT know something about it), playing a bunch of Super Robot Wars games (which Eva sees inclusion in somewhat often), seeing the first Rebuild of Evangelion movie (which was mostly a recap of the first six episodes, with some differences), & seeing the climax of End of Eva years ago (because how could I NOT have seen it at some point?!).
Therefore, to celebrate Neon Genesis Evangelion's long-awaited return to legal availability in English via Netflix's streaming option (complete with a [controversial] new English translation!), I want to investigate these so-called "Eva Clones", and see what they tried to bring to the table; I will only be seeing the first 5-7 episodes of each, though, as this is merely a basic look at them. Also, as someone who hasn't seen all of Eva before, do these other productions truly showcase their "clone" status? After all, even the greatest in scientific research can result in a copy showing flaws in a way that even the most lay of people can tell at first glance. I'll be covering up to Eva's 10th Anniversary in 2005, because that's around the time the term itself stopped really being used for most newer imitators (it's still used, but nowhere near the frequency it used to be), but that still gives 12 different anime to cover, so I'll be splitting this up across two parts, & we're starting with 1998 to 2001.
Orphan, a long-forgotten giant ruin from space deep within the ocean, is now trying to resurface, because of the shifting of the tectonic plates, with the help of humans it has recruited. Its doing so causes massive earthquakes on the surface, however, devastating much of the Earth. To combat this, the UN has created the Novis Noah, a giant "ark" that roams the planet in an effort to prevent Orphan's rise. Hime Utsumiya was simply trying to get back home with her younger siblings when the city they're in gets attacked by a "Plate", large discs that broke off from Orphan that can sometimes spawn giant, sentient, bio-organic robots known as Anti-Bodies, similar to the Grand Chers Orphan uses. The Plate spawns a special Anti-Body, called a Brain Powerd, in front of Hime, who befriends the Brain & effectively becomes its pilot. One year later, Hime now fights alongside Novis Noah, while Orphan pilot Yuu Isami decides to abandon the underwater ruins, after having realized what Orphan's rise will do to the rest of humanity.
According to date of debut, the first man to "tackle" Eva was the creator of Gundam himself, Yoshiyuki Tomino... At least by accident. According to interviews with Tomino, early 1998's Brain Powerd was originally conceived of prior to Eva's debut, but he wasn't able to fully commit to producing it until after Anno's work came out, and simply conceded that people would inevitably compare the two. To be fair, there are some similarities, but they're mainly surface-level, like an Earth devastated by a mysterious force, the robots being bio-organic & somewhat sentient, & some aspect of familial conflict when it comes the male lead character (Yuu's family is the de facto leader of Orphan). Of course, then there's the actual execution of the series, which is 100% "Tomino" in every way, whether it's the overuse of saying full names, the deliberately awkward pacing at times (the first two episodes feel like they could have been four), the look into the human condition (parenthood, & especially motherhood, is an immediate theme to see), the stark refusal to explain some basic things, even vaguely, early on (like why Yuu's sister Iiko constantly refers to herself as "Quincy Issa"), or the fact that the OP sequence showcases nearly every single major female character butt naked; look it up yourselves, pervs. Also notable is Yoko Kanno's musical score, both in how beautiful it is, but also in how awkwardly implemented & ill-fitting it can sound in many scenes. The story is that Kanno was apparently told to compose without seeing a single visual for reference, and it really feels like that. Still, Brain Powerd has that "gotta keep watching" feeling to it that defines just about any Tomino production, even if it's a sort of awkward charm, so while it's not really a "clone" by any intention, though some elements are similar, it's still something that has to be tried out, at the very least.
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Hikaru Touno is enrolled at the Hokkaido Robot Training Institute to earn a license to use a giant robot, but is effectively helpless at actually piloting one. Still, her teacher Mutsu sees potential in her ability to (accidentally?) perform more complex movements, so she gets the chance to compete in some road training, where she'll be up against fellow students, like her roommate Hana Izumisaki & a new exchange student from Amsterdam named Maria Vlaanderen, who was brought in by RTI teacher Kuji & seems to have taken an instant liking to Hikari. In reality, though, RTI is merely trying to see which student is good enough to pilot the Dinagiga, a titanic robot whose failed start-up sequence years ago caused a giant explosion that devastated a part of Hokkaido... And now Dinagiga is truly needed, as an equally titanic alien robot crash landed near RTI, & it wants to devastate.
Of course, not every "clone" will necessarily make it out of the initial growing stage, which in terms of anime production means that at least one will be an unfinished work. That's the situation with Chou Kidou Densetsu Dinagiga, a two-episode OVA from mid-1998 based on an idea by Takeshi Doi, an self-proclaimed TV/radio/internet writer/director, who had previously told the story via a trio of radio dramas that came out on CD earlier in the year. And, oh boy, does this OVA wear its Evangelion influence on its sleeve! In fact, that's only one arm, as on the other sleeve is a strong influence from another Hideaki Anno classic, Gunbuster!! Hikari is essentially a more happy-go-lucky variant of Gunbuster's Noriko Takaya (though each episode being book-ended with letters to her nameless big brother are a direct reference to Dear Brother), Hana is a bit of a fusion of Eva's Asuka & Gunbuster's Kazumi "Onee-sama" Amano, Mutsu & Kuji give off very strong Ryoji Kaji & Misato Katsuragi vibes (right down to the two being lovers), the classmates here feel similar to Shinji's classmates in Eva, & while Maria starts off as though she'd be the Rei of the OVA, she's actually the Kaworu expy! In fact, even the character designs by Hiroko Kazui (Detakoto Princess, Eden's Bowy) look like they're trying to imitate Yoshiyuki Sadamoto's, at least for some characters. However, and to be fair, the main reason why Dinagiga feels so much like a true-blue "Eva Clone" is simply because it never got more than these two episodes, and I'd imagine if it had been given the chance to continue, it would have shown more of its Gunbuster influence, as the story here feels more like a Gunbuster salad, but with Evangelion dressing on top. It's not exactly a "bad" OVA, you can tell that Takeshi Doi wanted to do more with it (hell, his Twitter handle is still @Dinagiga!), and the animation itself is actually rather nice, but unfortunately it's "aborted TV series" feel means that it'll never escape its existence as an "Eva Clone"; or even a "clone" of Gunbuster, at that.
Oh well, at least that OP sequence is astounding.
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A massive explosion happens in the sky above above the Middle Eastern country of Belgistan, which the United Nations interprets as that of a weapon of mass destruction. This results in the start of a war with the country, especially when its shown that a small, third-world country like Belgistan is able to drive back the likes of the United States; unbeknownst to all, the country is being supported by a organization called Symbol. Yushiro is the youngest son of the Gowa Clan, a mysterious & powerful Japanese family with connections to technology, politics, & the military, and is being sent to Belgistan to showcase the power of his family's Tactical Armors, large power-armor-esque robots that are better than even the best tanks. Yushiro's deployment, however, is merely part of a larger plan that his brothers & father have for him, as Yushiro's natural talents also has use in summoning a mysterious force by way of the Noh Dance of Gasara. The last time they had Yushiro attempt to make contact, however, he was stopped by Miharu, a psychic woman who's being used by Symbol, as she warned Yushiro to not bring back "the terror".
To be fair, most things attributed as "clones" aren't actually literal copies of the "original", but rather are simply taking advantage of the storytelling possibilities that the "original" opened up with its success, and that results in some similarities from a storytelling perspective. That's probably the best way to describe Ryosuke Takahashi's Gasaraki from late 1998, as instead of the various "foreign" influences that Anno utilized, Takahashi instead relied on two things a fair bit more "Japanese": Shinto & Noh. Beyond that, however, this is so far the furthest away from an "Eva Clone" that I've noticed amongst these anime. While Brain Powerd did admittedly have enough surface level similarities to be taken as a "clone", though, Gasaraki honestly has so few that you have to essentially squint to really notice them. Sure, Miharu definitely has a strong visual similarity to Rei, and Yushiro's brothers & father definitely fit the Gendou Ikari envelope to an extent, but beyond that it's honestly a bit of a stretch to call this series a "clone" of Eva. Instead, it's more along the lines of Takahashi's usual mecha fare, with the focus being on emphasizing a semi-realistic world in which the TAs could believably exist; an entire scene in Episode 2 is literally about explaining how a TA actually operates. Sure, there are some more fantastical elements, like Miharu's ESP, the mysterious force the Gowa Clan wants to summon, & even the muscle-like polymer that allows the TA to move like a human, but overall Gasaraki is about as far from an "Eva Clone" as one can get, while still giving the feel that this show owes its existence to Evangelion. I know that sounds sort of odd, but while Takahashi's anime only looks to take the most basic of cues from Anno's anime, it's because of the success of the latter creator that the former would even be allowed to make an anime like this.
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Kazuki Yotsuga is able to see visions of a world much like the one he lives in, only it's under attack by giant robots, with another robot he calls Hartzenen fighting back against them. This has ruined his social life, as the visions mix with his normal sight, resulting in him reacting to things that no one else can see. At the same time, though, Kazuki writes about his visions as a story he publishes on his own website, which catches the eye of Mitsuki Sanada, one of the school "idols". She asks Kazuki to come to her home, so that he can explain his visions, only for him to find out that it's actually because her father, Ken Sanada, is a crackpot scientist in parallel world theory, and has created a teleporter that can send someone to said parallel world... If it really exists. Through an accident by Mitsuki, Kazuki gets teleported to the world he sees in his visions, one where he was never born, & Ken Sanada is the head of the Earth Defense Force that's fighting back against the forces of Dr. Rara, Ken's rival who wishes to take over the world. Kazuki is also shown to be a natural pilot of "Core Robots" like Hartzenen, which can only be piloted by women, so he's secretly enlisted to the EDF, while Mitsuki actually went to the parallel world to look for Kazuki, only for her to appear one month prior & become enlisted as a pilot, herself. If they have any chance at getting back home, they have to win the war, so that this world's Prof. Sanada can finally get back to fixing his own teleporter.
So far we've seen two iconic mech anime creators put forth their own takes on what Eva did, though at least one wasn't on purpose... So how about the creator of harem anime icon Tenchi Muyo!? Yes, Masaki Kajishima stepped into the ring in early 1999, only a week or so following Gasaraki's finale. Though apparently not directly confirmed in the show itself, Kajishima did later indicate that 1999's Dual! Parallel Trouble Adventure is a distant prequel to the entire Tenchi timeline, with 2002's Tenchi Muyo! GXP having the most in relation to it, as the Hartzenen makes the occasional appearance in it. Really, that's the best thing to take into consideration when looking at Dual!, because this isn't so much an "Eva Clone" as it is a "Tenchi Fanboy Who Just Also Really Likes Eva", because the Evangelion influence here is super surface level, while the Tenchi influence takes control here, mostly. Kazuki isn't so much like Shinji Ikari as he is like Tenchi Masaki, fellow "anomaly" Mitsuki is only vaguely similar to Asuka in that she is ever-so-slightly tsundere towards Kazuki, & Prof. Sanada is absolutely nothing like Gendou, outside of them both being the heads of their respective organizations. As for the other major characters, there's D, a bioroid housing the spirit of the barely-living alien that was found in the ancient artifact that lead to the creation of the Core Robots (& Rara's world domination plans), who is easily the most like her Eva original, in this case Rei. Finally, there's Yayoi Schwael, the original pilot of Hartzenen who Kazuki wound up saving after coming to the parallel world; since she's unable to continue piloting, Kazuki takes her spot on the team. Yayoi definitely feels more Tenchi than Eva, as she fits the "older woman" member of Kazuki's harem (you can easily tell that having her life saved has made her smitten with Kazuki), and I'd hesitate to really consider her similar enough to Misato. Also, in true harem anime fashion, come the end of Episode 5, which is what I watched up to, Kazuki is living in the same building as Mitsuki, D, & Yayoi... Cue the hijinks! In all fairness, though, I did have a lot of fun with what I saw of Dual!, so take that however you want.
But, yeah, aside from some minor character similarities & the fact that Mitsuki & D's Core Robots literally have the same exact coloring as Asuka & Rei's Evangelions, respectively, Dual! isn't exactly the "Eva Clone" it can be touted as being. There's no doubt Masaki Kajishima was inspired by Hideaki Anno in some ways here, but very much more in a "Hey, that looks cool!" way than anything truly substantial.
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17 year old Yuu Kananase has been found by his old friend Ryo Tachibana, beaten up by people he once thought were his "friends". Tachibana tells Yuu to join the International Military Service Organization/IMO, which Tachibana is a part of, promising that it'll not only give Yuu new direction but also "real friends". Yuu winds up visiting, only for him to be found out as a natural pilot for a Rimhugen, which shouldn't be possible, as Rimhugens are giant robots that are only utilized by the IMO, so he should have no idea how to pilot one. Yuu gets put into the 18th Squad, lead by Kaori Kananase (no relation), alongside childhood friend Nanna Aihara, who he hasn't seen in years, ace pilot Wolf Ericmeyer, & later Nell Maqmahausen, a mysterious & quiet girl who's actually the best natural Rimhugen pilot of them all. Not long later, the IMO is asked to send pilots by the American army (which is where 90% of the IMO's funding comes from) to help with a battle in China, putting Yuu & Wolf into the front line for the first time ever. There are secrets within the IMO, however, the most unknown being a "Legacy" that everyone is trying to figure out, & how Yuu relates to it.
This next one might just be the least understood of them all outside of Japan, for a couple of understandable reasons. In early 2000, Masami Obari threw his highly stylized hat into the ring with Platinumhugen Ordian (or Ginsou Kikou/Silver-Armored Calvary Ordian, in Japanese), which in many ways shows no shame in how similar it can be to Eva. Yuu's more jovial & go-get-'em attitude definitely feels like a direct response to Shinji's general meekness (though Yuu has his own deep-seated emotional problems to get through), Kaori is the Gendou of the series, Nanna is easily the Asuka expy (though more like one of those happier, alternate universe versions), & Nell checks all of Rei's boxes rather well; granted, they aren't 1:1 copies, but the similarities are unavoidable. Wolf, however, is definitely one without a direct Eva match, as Shinji didn't really have a "friendly rival" to challenge him to be better. As for why Ordian may be the "least understood", it's mainly because it's never been licensed for English release before, & it's been realized that the old complete fansub that covers the entire show was actually a rather terrible translation, either misunderstanding things or downright getting it completely wrong. The first six episodes have since been re-translated by others, however, and do help explain things better. For example, Kaori Kananase was originally translated as being Yuu's outright older sister in the old fansub, though the new translation (& listening to the Japanese, myself) reveals that Yuu's reaction to hearing Kaori's name is actually "I've never met anyone with the same last name as me. You think we're related?", only for Kaori to answer with "No, we're not."; sure, there is more to that, but it's that kind of mistranslation the old fansub has. This applies all the more so to the second half of the series, which pretty much drops the whole "training to be soldiers in real war situations" concept, and instead focuses on more of an Eva-esque plot involving deep secrets & more pseudo-scientific concepts, like "Remake", all with a sprinkling of Norse mythos throughout (see: Nanna's namesake).
Still, in terms of the first six episodes, Ordian winds up similar to Gasaraki in that the Eva influence is definitely there in some ways, but otherwise goes in its own direction, as we see Yuu & his Squad formed, they get their first real challenge in rescuing a cargo ship during a typhoon, & then being sent to China for real combat... Which ends about as well as you'd expect for young "soldiers" who have never seen actual combat before. This is a show that I've really wanted to give another go, but I've been waiting for a new, complete translation, as to properly understand just what the hell the anime is REALLY trying to say. In terms of being a "clone", however, Masami Obari's series is probably the first to feel like an honest "response" to what Hideaki Anno did, but that still took nearly 5 whole years to happen.
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About a year ago, alien creatures attacked the Earth, resulting in mass destruction & various areas being quarantined off, due to them being infested by alien "cells" that absorb & infect any living energy near it. Kei Anno is a high school student who hates going to class, so he takes up an offer by Misako Takashina to join Spirits, an organization that wishes to take on the aliens; Kei is joined by Naoki Matsudo, a childhood friend who wants to keep a look out for him. After some training, Kei is discovered to be the perfect pilot for De:Vadasy, a giant robot that works off of "sexual energy" (literally "ecchi na energy") which was uncovered 20 years ago by Professor Anno, Kei's grandfather. De:Vadasy requires two pilots though, a male & female, with two Spirits cadets being the best pairings for Kei: Naoki, who deep down cares for Kei, & Amala, a mysterious girl who looks eerily similar to the bald girl that Prof. Anno found alongside De:Vadasy 20 years ago.
Again, for most things that come after an iconic production, the term "clone" is a bit of a harsh misnomer, as the people making them are simply taking advantage of a new door being opened. Some other people, though, are perfectly fine with simply creating a basic "clone" just so they can do whatever the hell they want with it, and that seemed to be the case with mech designer Kazumi Fujita, best known for being the man who designed the Zeta Gundam. Originally a renai game (i.e. a dating sim) released for Windows PCs in early 2000 that was only available via mail order from AIC (yes, the anime studio), before being given a normal "packaged" release in 2001, De:Vadasy also came with a three-episode OVA adaptation, the first episode of which was bundled with the game, originally. And, without a shadow of a doubt, this OVA really, deeply, sincerely wants to be Evangelion, so much so that even someone who hasn't seen the show, like myself, can tell. It starts within the very first minute, when you realize that the main character has the last name of "Anno"... As in Hideaki Anno. Then there's Misako, who totally isn't the Misato of the anime. I mean, come on, even the words before the main title, "Sousei Seiki/Genesis Century", are blatantly based on Eva's "Shin Seiki/New Century/Neon Genesis" (the latter is simply a cooler, more fancy phrase), and the last episode even pulls an End of Eva reference by having some people melt into Diet LCL! Finally, in the most amusing one of all, the giant black spaceship that the aliens came from is a blatant copy of Ramiel from Eva... Which itself was a reference to the Super X from Urashiman, making this a reference to a reference. However, to be fair, Naoki isn't exactly like Asuka, mainly because she does have legit romantic feelings for Kei. As for Amala, I will give De:Vadasy credit here, because it kind of pulls what Dinagiga did, by making you think that she's the Rei of the story, but in reality is the Kaworu, but the real twist is that, at the very end, you find out that Kei isn't actually the Shinji of the story... He's the Rei! Overall, De:Vadasy isn't really as bad as its reputation precedes it to be, but it's also nothing really all that remarkable, outside of a twist or two.
Still, when you hear the phrase "Eva Clone", De:Vadasy is easily the poster child for the phenomenon, because it sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo wishes it was Eva, except with more sexual tension.
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| So, in order, we have Brain Powerd, Gasaraki, Ordian, Dual!, Dinagiga, & De:Vadasy. Makes perfect sense, right? |
So, half way through this "investigation", what have we learned so far? Well, first & foremost, I think it's already starting to become obvious that most of these "Eva Clones" don't really copy from Neon Genesis Evangelion as wholesale as the term would indicate. Sure, there are notable similarities, and some do outright copy more than others, but one can also make the argument that most of these cases are no less dissimilar than when Mobile Suit Gundam or Mazinger Z were "cloned" during their respective decades. Instead, these "clones" (mostly) took advantage of what Evangelion did by opening a door that was normally kept closed & deemed inadvisable by investors, producers, & other various executives who focus on whether or not something would make sense, financially. If you want something a little more easy to explain, think of these "clones" as nigh-identical siblings to Eva, where you can definitely tell that they look similar enough on the surface, but when you actually get to know them, you realize that they have very different tastes, interests, hopes, dreams, etc.
Still, there's always the chance that one of them simply wishes they were just like their older sibling... Just look at De:Vadasy, and to a slightly lesser extent Dinagiga. Coincidentally enough, they're also the shortest productions, leaving them unable to truly escape the pull of their "original".
Still, this first half only covers up to early 2001, so check back later this month for Part 2, where I investigate another six "Eva Clones", and it's that latter half that's filled with the more well known examples of the phenomenon, with the likes of Shoji Kawamori, Tow Ubukata, & Dai Sato showing their "takes" on what Eva did.
Neon Genesis Evangelion © khara/Project Eva
Brain Powerd © 1998 Sunrise
Super Mobile Legend Dinagiga © Takeshi Doi/Dinagiga Project
Gasaraki © Sunrise
Dual! Parallel Trouble Adventure © 1999 AIC/Pioneer
Platinumhugen Ordian © 2000 Plum/Ordian Production Committee
Sousei Seiki De:Vadasy © 2000 AIC
Mr. Osomatsu © Fujio Akatsuka/Mr. Osomatsu Project
Those last three names. Let me guess... Aquarion, Fafner, and Eureka seveN, respectively.
ReplyDeleteHere is an interview with Dai Sato upset that people dismiss E7 as an EVA clone. https://web.archive.org/web/20100727193900/http://www.otaku2.com/articleView.php?item=679 He is right about the unfair comparison. While you can say E7 is influenced by EVA, the core themes and what it tries to accomplish is nothing like EVA.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.japansociety.org/resources/content/2/0/5/4/documents/sato_mcgray%20interview.pdf
Here he outright says the target demographic is children. Granted he is only the writer not the director. He also seemed to be very anti otaku culture so could see why he wouldn't want to make a clone of the hottest otaku show, rereading this interviews maybe that's why he hasn't been involved in recent E7 projects. He wrote a kids show and writing modern E7 would be writing an otaku show.
I will be ending with Eureka Seven in Part 2, but mainly because in how much of an opposite it is, conceptually, from Eva. While people did try to deem it an a "clone", it is, if anything in this regard, the tonal opposite of Eva by fostering a message of harmony & togetherness, whereas Eva was very much about people who have problems embracing such concepts. I totally get Dai Sato being upset of E7 being looked at as a "clone", but that actually reinforces why it's the perfect end point for this investigation.
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ReplyDeleteWill you cover Argento Soma?
ReplyDeleteAs Right Stuf's Shawne Kleckner always says, "All good things come to those who wait."
Deletelol I feel like you can't be qualified to judge anything as "not an eva clone" if you've only seen a couple episodes of the show
ReplyDeleterahxephon will be fun
ReplyDeleteYou offered almost no analysis or critique of the titles listed, opting instead to summarize their production history about as effectively as each title's opening paragraph in their respective Wikipedia entry. What a waste of time.
ReplyDelete