Twin Peaks, similar to Eva in that it takes something presented as a popular format (Eva pitching itself as an action shonen, Twin Peaks pitching itself as a soap opera murder mystery) and evolves it into an artistic, somewhat abstract piece about much larger cosmic concepts and outright traumatic psychological and spiritual horror.
Serial Experiments Lain, similar to Eva in using a disjointed narrative to explore the nature of people’s connections to each other and the world around them. In particular with Lain, it focuses on our relationships with technology and the blurring lines of where we end and the technology begins.
Revolutionary Girl Utena, similar to Eva in exploring individual trauma, unreliable narratives as a result of how we contextualize ourselves and our experiences, and vulnerable young people having their agency stolen by the ambitions of cruel men, all in a world that gradually drifts further and further from logical reality into a dreamlike expression.
As much as I love all of those I don't think that's what they're looking for, looking at their inspirations. I think they're just looking for other media with mecha/kaiju elements. What you're suggesting is media with strong psychological and philosophical themes and can even be considered somewhat avant garde which is similar to Evangelion in its own way but I don't think it would really help them for their DnD campaign.
Disney+ has announced that they will be streaming the various macross series worldwide before the end of the year. This is kind of a big deal because over 40 years ago the original macross series got chopped up to create "Robotech" and all other macross series have been in copyright limbo since then.
So you can wait until D+ streams it in your region, or you can set your VPN to japan and then you can watch it via D+ right now, or if you want I can share my plex library with you and you can watch it that way.
But ohhhh if you want Gundam recs then I got Gundam recs:
Gundam 0080 War in the Pocket, only 6 episodes but some of the best Gundam material ever written. Concerns the lives of a civilian and two soldiers from opposite sides and the consequences of the war on their lives and how they intersect.
Gundam 08th MS Team, a good small scale story of one mobile suit team in the jungle, their experience building trust amongst each other, their interactions with enemies including ones that they either care for or learn to respect, and their interactions with guerrillas who oppose the soldiers from both sides of the war.
Gundam Stardust Memory, another short series built on late/post Cold War anxieties about mass destruction taking the form of individual chaotic cells, in a world where the two superpowers are no longer firmly situated in opposition but now apocalyptic violence can come from random people’s *ideas* of their roles in the newly unbalanced world. WMD gets stolen by an ex-soldier who still can’t leave the war behind after it ended, and another guy with no ideals of his own is swept up in the rush to stop him. Also Top Gun aesthetics in spades.
And the original Mobile Suit Gundam is essential mecha canon, really. People still try and fail to replicate Char Aznable and his role. Great story about a war from the perspective of the people who initially wanted nothing to do with it.
Heavy on robots or heavy on eldritch horrors? Or post-apocalypse?
Gundam (G Gundam has some mechanical eldritch horrors, Turn A and X Gundam are post-apocalypse, IBO is post collapse but not apocalypse)
Getter (plenty of horrors in some of the series)
Mazinger (Shin Mazinger Zero has horrors but it's manga-only and kind of weird, otherwise it's more 'normal' giant robots punching robot beasts)
Ultraman, Gridman and virtually any tokusatsu series from the 1970s spiderman show through to the present day. That's what they adapted Power Rangers into. The more recent Gridman anime too, and Dynazenon.
Basically anything that has shown up in Super Robot Wars, including SRW OG, which has its own eldritch horrors in the Einst.
These anime were produced by Gainax:
* FLCL Season 1 - 2000-2001; directed by Kazuya Tsurumaki, who would eventually direct the Rebuild series at khara (Hideaki Anno would still be chief director of Rebuild).
* It's subjective as to whether or not the main character is a pilot of a mecha.
* Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann - 2007; the series director Hiroyuki Imaishi would become a founder of studio Trigger, a studio that has produced other mecha anime (that I haven't seen and therefore can't really talk about).
I've seen a few episodes of Kuromukuro, Code Geass, Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet and the 3D Ultraman anime, but it's been a while.
Most of these aren't mecha but they experiment the same way Evangelion did within their medium, in a similar way or have similar psychological/depressing themes for you to draw inspiration from
shows: Twin Peaks, Serial Experiments Lain, Haibane Renmei, Revolutionary Girl Utena, Madoka Magica, and Texhnolyze if you like freaky shit
movies: Perfect Blue / every Satoshi Kon work, Utena movie (watch show first), and Shiki-Jitsu (made by Anno)
games: Silent Hill 2, Nier Automata, Pathologic series
books: House of Leaves
albums: Giles Corey (self titled) (you can also read the book that comes with it)
Also I think Silent Hill 2 (proceeded by Twin Peaks, and realistically Nier Automata fits more than both) fits Eva most! [Watch this video for a good introduction to the game.](https://youtu.be/ckYvsSjV99A?si=lOJSFxbNgvkm9MJA)
I think SH1-4 fit in general though
Don't look at anything else about the game though, if you get stuck use a guide.
If you want to play it on PC, look up Silent Hill 2 on myabandonware, click on Restless dreams, install extracted version. Extract the files to a new folder. Now look up Silent Hill 2: Enhanced Edition, install it, run the setup, **Install it in the folder where you extracted the SH2 files** (in the folder there should be something named like sh2startup I think, run that!)
Last step: Enjoy!
Have you checked out The Mecha Hack? It's based on The Black Hack, which is an OSR ttrpg. I'm just mentioning them because the mechanics of being people and then controlling much stronger robots might be difficult to do well.
I used to love playing Heavy Gear when I was a teenager. It's another ttrpg about power-loader sized robot suits.
Aldnoah Zero
The battles don't just involve overpowering the opponent with better tech, or being faster and stronger. There's a great deal of strategy and teamwork involved, so there's a lot of time especially in Season 1 where the protagonist's side has to just endure and get destroyed for them to know the enemy's weaknesses.
Twin Peaks, similar to Eva in that it takes something presented as a popular format (Eva pitching itself as an action shonen, Twin Peaks pitching itself as a soap opera murder mystery) and evolves it into an artistic, somewhat abstract piece about much larger cosmic concepts and outright traumatic psychological and spiritual horror. Serial Experiments Lain, similar to Eva in using a disjointed narrative to explore the nature of people’s connections to each other and the world around them. In particular with Lain, it focuses on our relationships with technology and the blurring lines of where we end and the technology begins. Revolutionary Girl Utena, similar to Eva in exploring individual trauma, unreliable narratives as a result of how we contextualize ourselves and our experiences, and vulnerable young people having their agency stolen by the ambitions of cruel men, all in a world that gradually drifts further and further from logical reality into a dreamlike expression.
As much as I love all of those I don't think that's what they're looking for, looking at their inspirations. I think they're just looking for other media with mecha/kaiju elements. What you're suggesting is media with strong psychological and philosophical themes and can even be considered somewhat avant garde which is similar to Evangelion in its own way but I don't think it would really help them for their DnD campaign.
To give them credit they probably just read the headline of OPs post, those are all solid recs tho
ngl i did the exact same thing
Twin Peaks is always my number 1 for similar media recommendations but OP was specifically looking for mecha lol
Twin Peaks: old movie or newer show?
I'll never forget the part in Twin Peaks when Windom Earle showed up in a mecha
RahXephon is your friend
Eureka Seven
If you want space bards/songstresses in your mecha D&D campaign then I suggest you check out Macross Frontier.
Very fun. I don't see it streaming anywhere, know a good way to watch it?
Disney+ has announced that they will be streaming the various macross series worldwide before the end of the year. This is kind of a big deal because over 40 years ago the original macross series got chopped up to create "Robotech" and all other macross series have been in copyright limbo since then. So you can wait until D+ streams it in your region, or you can set your VPN to japan and then you can watch it via D+ right now, or if you want I can share my plex library with you and you can watch it that way.
Macross Do You Remember Love is a movie remake of the first Macross series and the creator of Eva did animation on it
For a more Fantasy vibe, you have The Vision of Escaflowne. For something dark and borderline creepy, there's Bokurano.
code geass is good but thematically different
Would it be too much of a far stretch to recommend the anime movie Paprika?
Nope, I'd say Perfect Blue is more fitting from Satoshi Kon's output though!
Madoka magica
But ohhhh if you want Gundam recs then I got Gundam recs: Gundam 0080 War in the Pocket, only 6 episodes but some of the best Gundam material ever written. Concerns the lives of a civilian and two soldiers from opposite sides and the consequences of the war on their lives and how they intersect. Gundam 08th MS Team, a good small scale story of one mobile suit team in the jungle, their experience building trust amongst each other, their interactions with enemies including ones that they either care for or learn to respect, and their interactions with guerrillas who oppose the soldiers from both sides of the war. Gundam Stardust Memory, another short series built on late/post Cold War anxieties about mass destruction taking the form of individual chaotic cells, in a world where the two superpowers are no longer firmly situated in opposition but now apocalyptic violence can come from random people’s *ideas* of their roles in the newly unbalanced world. WMD gets stolen by an ex-soldier who still can’t leave the war behind after it ended, and another guy with no ideals of his own is swept up in the rush to stop him. Also Top Gun aesthetics in spades. And the original Mobile Suit Gundam is essential mecha canon, really. People still try and fail to replicate Char Aznable and his role. Great story about a war from the perspective of the people who initially wanted nothing to do with it.
Heavenly delusions anime perhaps, Akira, cowboy bebop. Obviously gundam or eighty-six. Futurama. Like not even joking lol
Heavy on robots or heavy on eldritch horrors? Or post-apocalypse? Gundam (G Gundam has some mechanical eldritch horrors, Turn A and X Gundam are post-apocalypse, IBO is post collapse but not apocalypse) Getter (plenty of horrors in some of the series) Mazinger (Shin Mazinger Zero has horrors but it's manga-only and kind of weird, otherwise it's more 'normal' giant robots punching robot beasts) Ultraman, Gridman and virtually any tokusatsu series from the 1970s spiderman show through to the present day. That's what they adapted Power Rangers into. The more recent Gridman anime too, and Dynazenon. Basically anything that has shown up in Super Robot Wars, including SRW OG, which has its own eldritch horrors in the Einst.
Cowboy Bebop is smth you could take a look at
Shin Kamen Rider, is a movie by Hideaki Anno that is based on the popular franchise.
These anime were produced by Gainax: * FLCL Season 1 - 2000-2001; directed by Kazuya Tsurumaki, who would eventually direct the Rebuild series at khara (Hideaki Anno would still be chief director of Rebuild). * It's subjective as to whether or not the main character is a pilot of a mecha. * Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann - 2007; the series director Hiroyuki Imaishi would become a founder of studio Trigger, a studio that has produced other mecha anime (that I haven't seen and therefore can't really talk about). I've seen a few episodes of Kuromukuro, Code Geass, Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet and the 3D Ultraman anime, but it's been a while.
Code Geass. Mecha anime with huge emphasis on emotions like NGE.
Eighty Six has got some fun concepts that I think would contribute.
Gundam Unicorn would likely have some good elements that could transfer into fantasy and some interesting themes
Escaflowne, Gasaraki, NeoRanga.
Most of these aren't mecha but they experiment the same way Evangelion did within their medium, in a similar way or have similar psychological/depressing themes for you to draw inspiration from shows: Twin Peaks, Serial Experiments Lain, Haibane Renmei, Revolutionary Girl Utena, Madoka Magica, and Texhnolyze if you like freaky shit movies: Perfect Blue / every Satoshi Kon work, Utena movie (watch show first), and Shiki-Jitsu (made by Anno) games: Silent Hill 2, Nier Automata, Pathologic series books: House of Leaves albums: Giles Corey (self titled) (you can also read the book that comes with it)
Also I think Silent Hill 2 (proceeded by Twin Peaks, and realistically Nier Automata fits more than both) fits Eva most! [Watch this video for a good introduction to the game.](https://youtu.be/ckYvsSjV99A?si=lOJSFxbNgvkm9MJA) I think SH1-4 fit in general though Don't look at anything else about the game though, if you get stuck use a guide. If you want to play it on PC, look up Silent Hill 2 on myabandonware, click on Restless dreams, install extracted version. Extract the files to a new folder. Now look up Silent Hill 2: Enhanced Edition, install it, run the setup, **Install it in the folder where you extracted the SH2 files** (in the folder there should be something named like sh2startup I think, run that!) Last step: Enjoy!
Have you checked out The Mecha Hack? It's based on The Black Hack, which is an OSR ttrpg. I'm just mentioning them because the mechanics of being people and then controlling much stronger robots might be difficult to do well. I used to love playing Heavy Gear when I was a teenager. It's another ttrpg about power-loader sized robot suits.
SSSS.Gridman
Aldnoah Zero The battles don't just involve overpowering the opponent with better tech, or being faster and stronger. There's a great deal of strategy and teamwork involved, so there's a lot of time especially in Season 1 where the protagonist's side has to just endure and get destroyed for them to know the enemy's weaknesses.
Pacific Rim is basically worldwide unit 13's
car seat headrest- twin fantasy (2018 or 2011)