Evangelion and Xenogears

[<Id>]

Ok i've been wanting to make a post about this some time now but kept forgetting.

I watched Evangelion some time ago and I had played Xenogears before and I found that the game and hte series have many similarities. Did anyone else notice the same thing?

I loved both by the way. I thought that Eva and Xeno were both awesome with awesome stories.

[Strider]

both have big robots... and both have something to do with god afaik... i havent watched eva so i wouldnt know... my spark for anime was just resurrected a few days ago and itll be a while before i can tell you everything about evangelion.

sincerely,
Strider

[G-Pitts]

As Strider said, they both have big robot and something to do with god but AFAIK, there are no connection between this two.

[Strider]

shouldnt this be in offtopic btw? its not exactly completely about xenogears (which would be in some psx forum anyways)

sincerely,
Strider

[<Id>]

Yeah i didn' really know where to post this.

I know that they are not related but the characters in both seem so alike. Maybe one got some ideas from the other.

[RhombusYSS]

Well there are similar references to god and technology... Evangelion is far darker though, and much much weirder and more convoluted. It was written during creator Hideaki Anno's suicidal period, and Shinji's confidence-lacking and depressed character is fairly autobiographical.

But like I said, certain references to "god" and the like are peppered throughout both, and both have to do with japanese concepts of theology and technology and cultural differences between eastern and western notions of "god".

Hehe, I actually babbled on about this at some length before in a previous thread. Check this out: http://www.ngemu.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=173317&highlight=theology#post173317

[Ryos]

Neither is like the other beyond the fact both have heavy uses of big robots and religion. Xenogears has a few cursory references to the general big mecha genre, but that's about it. There isn't ALL that much of a connection.

[Omegainf]

Id, I agree with you! I'm a big fan of Evangelion, I watch it eveyday and, when I started playing Xenogears my jaw dropped! There are SO MANY similarities!!! The robots, God, the psichological inclination, the characters... I couldn't believe it!

[Ryos]

That's like saying every book with elves and dwarves and swords and bows is just like Lord of the Rings. Similar elements != many similarities != blatant connection.

[Quatro]

Originally posted by Omegainf
Id, I agree with you! I'm a big fan of Evangelion, I watch it eveyday and, when I started playing Xenogears my jaw dropped! There are SO MANY similarities!!! The robots, God, the psichological inclination, the characters... I couldn't believe it!

same here! well if you really are a fan of mech anime, evangelion is a very good one! what is lacking is having a person lie fei in the evangelion series.

[Jonys]

>I watched Evangelion some time ago and I had played Xenogears before and I found that the game and hte series have many similarities. Did anyone else notice the same thing?

yup...i felt the same way first time i watched evangelion....
I like both...and i always see some things alike in both when i play the game or watch eva as well.....

[Kane]

I agree with Ryos. As far as I can see, the only connection is stupidly big Mecha's.

[sights]

Originally posted by Lord Kane
I agree with Ryos. As far as I can see, the only connection is stupidly big Mecha's.

...that's what I think, too...

[<Id>]

Well I mean there is the Mecha's, the religious aspects, characters that have mental meltdowns, dreams about the characters past & present, the whole aspect of a contact, A character who wants to revive/become God to meet someone else (Krelian & the mother: General Ikari & Yui)

I think that makes a lot of similarities. I'm not saying the're the same, there just seem to be surprisingly many things that are the same.

[<Id>]

Oh yeah... I forgot one. You fight angels in Xenogears. THey even named them angels. Sound familiar?

[<Id>]

Originally posted by Strider
shouldnt this be in offtopic btw? its not exactly completely about xenogears (which would be in some psx forum anyways)

sincerely,
Strider

The reaon I didn't post this in off-topic was... well so it wouldn't go off-topic.

[Strider]

the location of a thread doesnt really make it immune to going offtopic... its only a matter of time. I don't really care where this is though, just that the location of it sort of felt odd for me.

sincerely,
Strider

[Ryos]

Originally posted by &lt;Id&gt;
Oh yeah... I forgot one. You fight angels in Xenogears. THey even named them angels. Sound familiar? Gee, like angels are a unique concept. :P I was working on a story along those lines until the brand-new disk I had it on mysteriously died on me a few hours later. Took it as a sign from God to abandon that plot. :P Besides, the concept of angels used in the stories is VASTLY different. Xenogears is a VERY generic look at angels, and Eva's is a more radical basis on the (just a guess here, since I have not read it yet) Torah. Since the number 17 is popular in the Torah (guess it's lucky or something. Almost reminds of the Gospel of Mark with the author's almost obsessive use of threes), I'd guess the origin of the angels is there. The other "similarities" -

Mechas: Oh yeah, those are rare...forget about games like Super Robot Wars or the ninety gazillion big robot animes like Gasaraki, Nadesico, Escaflowne, Gundam, Macross or the many others. :P

characters that have mental meltdowns: Happens all the time. Heck, happens in just about every recent Final Fantasy. If I had a dime for every character who doubted himself in anime, I could buy my own little continent somewhere. It's more of an issue in Xenogears than most other games, but it's definitely not new (another game where this is a major theme is Final Fantasy Tactics, for example).

the religious aspects: Contrary to what some believe, there is quite a lot of religious undertone in Eva. Heck, I could write a book on the religious symbolism in episode 24 alone. :P Eva borrows from a lot of canonical material and later myths (like the medieval creation of Lilith) to weave into its story. Xenogears takes some really basic Christian elements and throws in Chu-Chu for good measure. I discount most of the religious ideas of Xenogears for the simple reason that most of it appears in the second disk, where the developers basically ran out of time and wanted to throw in any possible idea they could in a completely chaotic fashion. If you look at disk 1, pretty much the only religious thing is a pendant with a cross, which isn't even really used for religion, but rather as a pendulum for showing the subtle change between Fei and Id.

A character who wants to revive/become God to meet someone else (Krelian & the mother: General Ikari & Yui): That's plain wrong. I'm not too sure about Krelian's overall goals and personally agree your assumption is correct (hopefully, these will be explained in future chapters of Xenosaga), but that is NOT Ikari's goal. He specifically used Yui to fuel his ambitions. He never loved or liked her - it was her access to power he could not get any other way that he leeched onto.

[SandslashXBro]

They're just so cool, aren't they? Deep, deep plots, deep characters, interesting storyline, well just about everything! I think Eva was too dark tho. :P

[<Id>]

Alright... so I saw some similarities and people make it their goal to destroy any idea I put out. Right.... I can live with that.

Yeah they are awesome SandslashXBro

[Ryos]

> Alright... so I saw some similarities and people make it their goal to destroy any idea I put out.

Pshaw, if you really want me to destroy your ideas, I could expend a lot more effort doing so. I was just trying to show the similarities aren't as close as a lot of people seem to believe. It is a popular argument, but I don't see much evidence from your point of view except when looking at at the two on the surface and not examining the details. If someone has a more documented reasoning, I'm interested in seeing it...

[Quatro]

well since were talking about xenogear, what do you think is the best looking gear for you when they got the anima relic?

[evil aloha]

Xenogears and Evangelion's historys are totally diferent. The only connection is the biG Mechas, but I liked them. I don't think they are stupid! (...maybe are!!)

[SandslashXBro]

billy's, renmazuro!

[Strider]

billy's gear and citan's gear... both are pretty cool

[Tazzmaster87]

there are somthings the same but the main fact is that in Eva the eva's are like humans, they bleed and everything

[Kane]

Holy crap man, this thread is 6 months old!

[Shiori]

Just another Eva nut. :p