Referenced By / Neon Genesis Evangelion

"Neon Genesis Evangelion." [whistles] "Wow... What does he do?"
"Well, he's a good guy, he can fly, and he has a silver sword that can kill bad guys."

Gendo Pose is so prevalent that it has its own page (though not every example there is an explicit reference to Evangelion).

Anime & Manga

The Evageeks wiki has two pages documenting references to Evangelion in other anime and manga.

• The infamous "congratulations" scene at the end of the last episode has been referenced by Sgt. Frog, Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei, I Can't Understand What My Husband Is Saying, Asobi Asobase, and Gintama, as shown in this compilation.
• The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You: In Chapter 56, Rentarou dreams that he is Evangelion Unit-01, and Meme is Rei.
• Burn Up! Excess. Episode 8 has a scene-for-scene remake of the fight with the Third Angel featuring a giant Rio versus a giant Camp Gay transvestite.
• The Dangers in My Heart: Throughout Chapter 142, Ichikawa's friend Kinoshita repeatedly does the Gendo-Pose. Something Moeko calls him out on.
• In Fullmetal Alchemist, the enactment of Father's plan on the promised day looks eerily similar to a smaller scale version of the Third Impact and Instrumentality, especially considering that in both versions, a large amount of souls are removed from their bodies and are united in one place (Lilith's Black Moon or Father's Philosopher's Stone). However, exactly what happened was clearer than in End of Evangelion considering that the plan was actually explained to the audience and because it stuck to the perspectives of the unaffected. Also, Father's ascension looks a lot like GNR's ascension.
• Great Teacher Onizuka:
  • Noboru has the walls of his room plastered with Evangelion posters, and in the Beach Episode he makes a sand pyramid similar to the one Shinji made in the "sandbox scene".
  • Teshigawara is practically a walking reference to Gendo, what with his glove and constant Scary Shiny Glasses.
  • When Miyabi dyes her hair blue, Onizuka assumes she did it to look like Rei Ayanami.
  • Onizuka's biker scarf has the seven-eyed Lilith mask on it, as does one of the S&M tools in the scene where Miyabi and her friends are kidnapped.
  • Onizuka has a poster of Death and Rebirth on his wall.
  • When Onizuka bets on himself against Fukuroda, he says he wants to use his winnings to buy Evangelion trading cards.

• In Hayate the Combat Butler, Hinagiku was forced to sing A Cruel Angel's Thesis by the Student Council Trio.
• The His and Her Circumstances anime has quite a few references to Evangelion — not surprising, as it was a Studio Gainax production that was (for the most part) written and directed by Hideaki Anno as well.
  • In episode 1 Yukino is shown hunched over holding something in her palms, in a pose that is virtually a carbon copy of Rei when she holds Lilith’s egg. In the same episode J. S. Bach's "Air" is playing in the background at one point (a piece used in NGE).
  • in episode 11, when Yukino begins to think of people she's met in the past to compare another person to, a quick use of the freeze-frame feature on one’s DVD player reveals images of Misato, Kaji, Asuka, Shinji, Rei, and Touji, amongst others. Then later on when she’s taunted by the president of a rival class, an imaginary segment has her she growing to the size of a building and looking and sounding very much like a berserk EVA.
  • Then in episode 23, as Yukino gets on a bicycle with Arima, she starts the process with a close-up on Yukino's eyes (similarly to Shinji’s), and quietly says, "Unit One..." before taking off.
  • In general, there are a lot of stylistic choices extremely reminiscent of Eva in the anime, including a lot of elements from the last two episodes (original airing), such as spotlights on characters contemplating their situation and digesting their misfortunes (as was used in abundance in the original ending), and even a Clip Show on episode 14 (as in Eva), except it carried over to the first half of ep. 15 in Kare Kano.

• Interviews with Monster Girls has a couple of references. Sakie getting drunk at home in a tank top and shorts is based wholesale on Misato getting drunk on beer, noises included; when German boy Kurtz is introduced as the "new weapon" against succubi, he's shown in an Imagine Spot in the same pose as EVA-01 coming out of the ground and getting ready for battle.

• In Little Witch Academia (2017), Lotte does the Gendo pose once, also some moments of the fight between Constanze's giant mecha and the monster in episode 18 are taken from the battle between EVA-01 and Sachiel.
• Love Hina:
  • When Naru goes into a cosplay cafe, Keitaro imagines her wearing Asuka's plugsuit.
  • After an especially pathetic speech by Keitaro, Naru exclaims: "Hey, who told you to go all Shinji on me?!"
• Lucky Star: In episode 6 of the anime, Nanako has a Beergasm that's a near-perfect frame-for-frame imitation of Misato's famous beergasm.

• No Matter How I Look at It, It's You Guys' Fault I'm Not Popular!
  • In episode 6 of the anime, Tomoko chugs a can of soda and pops her face toward the camera in a way that's very reminiscient to how Misato drank her beer in episode 07.
  • The OVA begins with a shot of Tomoko assuming the classic Gendo pose while wearing a pair of Scary Shiny Glasses. She meets with Yuu and Kii to revise the series and make it more popular in a place that looks like SEELE's meeting room, surrounded by locker doors hovering in empty space like the monolith-like holographs SEELE's members would commonly use while convening.

• From Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt, also a Studio Gainax production:
  • Kneesocks' horn resembles that of EVA-01.
  • In "Panty + Brief", Brief tells his father, "I'm not your doll anymore." Rei says that to her "father" Gendo in "I Need You".

• Scott Pilgrim Takes Off:
  • One of the matte paintings carried by the film crew at Torontowood Studios is modeled after Giant Naked Rei from The End of Evangelion, just with Scott in place of Rei.
  • Even Older Scott reveals that he spiked Present Scott's drink with nanomachines while he was in the future to create an "Anti-Kiss Field" that prevents Scott from kissing Ramona. The way it's portrayed is similar to the AT Fields.
• Sgt. Frog also has plenty of references, partially because Akira Ishida also voiced Saburo, Kaworu’s Expy—this is glaringly obvious in Saburo’s introduction, a parody of the scene in which Kaworu reveals he’s an Angel and makes his move towards the Terminal Dogma in ‘The Final Messenger’. This is Lampshaded at least once—the chamber collecting March Zone Energy creates a manifestation of Rei, who claims to be "the fourth one" and starts talking about "March Impact". The reference goes clear over Fuyuki’s head.

• To Love Ru: In Episode 7, when Ren goes to the theater, a boy who looks exactly like Shinji is sitting next to him.
• Uncle from Another World: Uncle does the Gendo pose with Scary Shiny Glasses and tells Takafumi and Fujimiya how during middle school he watched Evangelion, just like everyone else... but only because SEGA was one of the anime's sponsors.

• Yu-Gi-Oh! GX: Scab Scar Knight looks like Evangelion Unit-01.

Comic Books

• Spider-Verse: Since Peni Parker is basically Spider-man meets Evangelion, her intro issue has cameos by Shinji, Rei, Asuka, and Kaworu as her classmates. The command center also bears a strong resemblance to the one used by NERV, with three Bridge Bunnies. The version of Venom in her home universe, "VEN#m", also borrows extensively from Evangelion Unit-03 and Bardiel.
• Supergod, by Warren Ellis, is about the nations of the world developing Physical God superhuman warriors. Japan is the only major world power without one, prompting the protagonist to make what seems like an oblique reference to Evangelion:
  You know what really surprised me, in all this? That the Japanese didn't have some giant nuclear god-Jesus death robot up their sleeves.

Fan Works

• Plan 7 of 9 from Outer Space. In "Chapter XI: The Old Equations" one of the characters has a flashback to when they were a child soldier piloting a giant robot, with the requisite Evangelion parody.
  "But I mustn't run away! I MUSTN'T RUN AWAY!"
  "Then how about sneaking away very slowly and hoping it doesn't notice? Think about this a minute, will you? Your superiors seriously expect an untrained dysfunctional child to pilot a multi-ton anthropomorphic mechanoid based on mysterious alien super-science whose ramifications and occupational health-and-safety hazards they can't even begin to comprehend."
• Pokémon Crossing makes several references: the subtitle takes its name from the Clair version of Fly Me to the Moon, while one of the characters names her Pokémon after Asuka.
• In the Albedo: Erma Felna EDF / Katmandu / Ace Combat Crossover fic Liberi Fatalis: The Theriantrope Chronicles, one of the important characters, Catherine Walburg, sings the ending theme, Fly Me To The Moon at Act XXV when she had to pose as a bar singer in order to lure Dr. Nick Larkin.

Films — Live-Action

• In One Hour Photo, Jake shows Sy a Mass-Produced Eva action figure, referring to it as a "good guy", making several glaring mistakes, including mispronouncing the series' name. As it turns out, according to Robin Williams (who played Sy) all the Cowboy Bebop moments were intentional trolling.
• Both Pacific Rim and its sequel have a buttload of references to Eva as listed here. Both films even go so far as to have their own version of Rei Ayanami courtesy of Mako Mori.
• In Kong: Skull Island, the Skullcrawlers are partially inspired by the first angel Sachiel.
• Shin Godzilla, which was directed by Anno, unsurprisingly features a lot of references to Evangelion, even featuring the same music tracks in some scenes.

Video Games

• ANNO: Mutationem: At Skopp City, there's a civilian dressed as Asuka wearing her jacket from Rebuild of Evangelion.
• Asura's Wrath: In the true ending DLC part IV: Nirvana: The Brahmastra's Head is ripped off it's body and falls to the earth in a matter similar to Giant Naked Rei's head from The End of Evangelion, With a bonus of being a Shot for Shot recreation of the original Colony Drop from Mobile Suit Gundam to boot.
• The Battle Cats:
  • One of the advent bosses of the game is called “Cruel Angel Clionel” in reference to the song “Cruel Angel’s Thesis”.
  • The True Form of Balaluga, Piccolan Pasalan, has parts of Sachiel incorporated into his design.
• Civilization: Beyond Earth: Supremacy appears to be channeling Neon Genesis Evangelion. Compare the CARVR mech◊ with EVA 01◊. Oh, and their strongest unit, which is bio-mechanical, is called the Angel.
• Kirby is no stranger to eldritch horrors, so some references were inevitable.
  • Kirby's Dream Land 3: One of the enemies, a spider-like monster called Mariel, shares some uncanny resemblances to the angel Matarael (sometimes translated as Matariel), with a body being a full head in a geometric shape and baring 4 extremely thin legs while being fullyblack at the same time.
  • Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards: One of the stages on Rock Star is a floating structure that eerily resembles the angel Ramiel, being an octahedron.
    • Originally, the Lance of Longinus was supposed to be one of the sharp things that come out from Kirby when he used the Needle+Needle Combo Ability.
  • Kirby Star Allies: The first form of Void Termina looks like a buff version of the angel Sachiel.
• Marvel: Contest of Champions: The "Multi-Vers-Onality" trailer (introducing Peni Parker to the game) continue to showcase Peni's Anime roots by having Shinji, Rei and Asuka cameo and reacting to Peni being Late for School.
• Skullgirls:
  • One of Filia's alternate palettes is based on Zeruel's design from the Rebuild movies.
  • One of Painwheel's palettes is based on the Evangelion Unit-01.
  • One of Double's quotes directly says "Second Impact!".
  • One of the Halloween artworks◊ shows Cerebella with a costume based on Zeruel's NGE design.
• Overwatch: South Korean mecha pilot D.va wears what is essentially a plugsuit with sponsor patches sewn on. The real giveaways are the white pauldrons on the shoulders (identical to those on Shinji's and Rei's suits), the big chunky wrists on the gloves, and the matching headset — although in D.va's case the clips resemble rabbit ears more than cat ears.
• The Barrier scroll from Dandy Dungeon conjures octagonal barriers that look just like the A. T. Field. This is just one of the dozens of nods to Japan's popular culture in the game.
• In BoxxyQuest: The Gathering Storm, the secret third ending recreates the iconic shot from The End of Evangelion’s poster, with Catie and Tyalie in place of Shinji and Asuka, and the final boss’ remains standing in for Rei's giant head.
• Sonic Frontiers:
  • GIGANTO is a walking Evangelion reference with its bizarre proportions, Slasher Smile, and being ostensibly piloted by a young girl with a robotic demeanor. The shot of it grabbing Sonic during their first encounter is framed identically to the scene of Unit-01 grabbing Kaworu. Said young girl also shares the exact same voice actress (in English and Japanese) as Rei.
  • The Final Boss SUPREME is also a Palette Swap of GIGANTO carrying an immense laser rifle in much the same way as the Evas' various ranged weapons.
  • WYVERN bears a strong resemblance to the angel Gaghiel, being a long fish-like creature with More Teeth than the Osmond Family. They even die the same way: someone way smaller than him forces his mouth open so he'd stuff himself with missiles. The main difference is that, in WYVERN's case, the missiles were his.
  • The True Final Boss, THE END, takes the form of a purple moon after being purged from SUPREME, which brings to mind Lilith's Black Moon. This is actually confirmed by Word of God to be a reference to Lilith.
• In Yakuza 0, one of the extended optional subplots for protagonist Kazuma Kiryu sees him participate in a Pocket Circuit Racing league during which he races against a varied cast of fellow racers. Once Kiryu completes all the quest-line and thereby proves that he is the fastest pocket racer in Kamurocho, all the characters he has encountered during the quest-line show up for a Curtain Call at the end and applauds him while telling him "Congratulations!" Kiryu smiles at this and says "Thank you, everyone!" This is very overtly a reference to the the final scene from "Episode 26".
• Whether intentional or not, Baion's plans in Solatorobo: Red the Hunter can be seen as a Whole-Plot Reference to Evangelion, since his goals revolves creating that game's version of the Third Impact so he could help the world start from scratch after feeling that the latest generation of sentient life fell into the same trappings as humanity did years ago, not helped that he is also an Archnemesis Dad who's a spitting image for Gendo. And despite Elh being set up as a Rei Ayanami Expy, it's actually Red who's backstory closely resembles Rei's. In a more intentional note, the color palette for the DAHAK Type-RX is the same as EVA Unit-01.
• Fate/Grand Order: The Protagonist sometimes wears a plugsuit. In the crossover with Fate/Samurai Remnant, Yui Shousetsu wears a plugsuit in First Ascension, and at one point, the villains causes endless clones of her to spawn, similar to Third Impact in End of Evangelion.

Web Comics

• Questionable Content:
  • Dale pulls the Gendo pose in one comic.
  • Marigold has a NERV messenger bag in #1523.
• Sexy Losers: In strip #11, Touru is trying to psych himself up by saying "I mustn't run away, I mustn't run away...".

Western Animation

• In the Adventure Time episode "BMO Noire", BMO and Neptr have an exchange highly reminiscent of the famous exchange between Rei Ayanami & Kaworu Nagisa in "The Final Messenger".
• The art book for Avatar: The Last Airbender states that Hei Bei's design is based on the Angels.
• In the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic episide "Scare Master", Rei appears as one of the "unplanned guests" cut-outs who appear as one of the "scares" at Fluttershy's "scary tea party", alongside Sailor Moon, Bulma, Ranma, and Utena.
• Steven Universe has a few:
  • In ‘Laser Light Cannon’, Steven’s desperate monologue when the cannon doesn’t seem to work resembles Shinji’s when Unit-01 wouldn’t move during the fight against Zeruel. Like Unit-01, it rises to the challenge, powered by the hero’s mother, who no longer has a physical body.
  • In "Space Race", Pearl’s spacesuit◊ bears more than a passing resemblance to Rei's plugsuit◊.
  • In "The Test", The Gems congratulating Steven for completing the test is done in an eerily similar way to the final scene from "The Beast that Shouted "I" at the Heart of the World/Take Care of Yourself".
  • In "Joy Ride", Peridot's escape pod fills up with an apparently breathable liquid when in use, just like the Eva cockpits filling up with LCL. To drive the point home, Steven’s initial reaction is holding his breath until it covers his face, directly mirroring Shinji’s.
  • One the promotional arts for "Cry for Help" has Pearl◊ doing the famous shot of Shinji◊ sitting on chair from the original ending.
  • In "Kiki's Pizza Delivery Service", after dealing with Kiki's issues, she and Steven end the dream on a beach like in the ending of End of Evangelion... except with the petrified Mass Production Evas replaced with pizza slices.◊
• Teen Titans: Robin and Slade are forced to work together in a fight, so they invoke the dance fight in "Both of You, Dance Like You Want to Win!" Syncrhonized backflips, leaping straight into the air, and crashing down with a kick.
• The Wakfu episode "Kriss la Krass" introduces a character named "Evangelion", who is actually the temporarily gender-bent Eva.
• In the episode of Gravity Falls, Dipper and Mabel vs. The Future, the sky rips open in a cross shape, just like the Angels' explosions, after Bill Cipher opens the rift to the nightmare world.
• In Regular Show, the episode Brilliant Century Duck Crisis Special references various mecha anime; the title is a reference to Evangelion, and its special opening is based off Evangelion's iconic opening, with much of the imagery being emulated - even the song that plays during it sounds similar to A Cruel Angel's Thesis.
• Misato and Gendo have a brief cameo in the South Park episode "Titties and Dragons".
• The events of the Justice League two-parter, "Legends" are kicked off by Lex Luthor piloting a mech that looks like an Eva with Ultron's face; in the commentary for part 2 on the DVD, when comparing it to the Rog-looking robot, it's even called an Evangelion.
• Kappa Mikey: In Socky's music video, one of the backup dancers resembles Rei.
• Craig of the Creek: One of the posters in the Elders' hideout is a poster for Sadboy Pilotgeddon. It highly resembles the infamous End of Evangelion poster of Asuka and Shinji looking at Lillith/Rei's giant head sinking into the horizon, except she's shedding a single tear.
• Amphibia:
  • Danny Ducker, a crew member of the show, drew some art referencing this◊ specific poster. Sasha as Asuka, Anne as Shinji, and Marcy as Rei.
  • King Andrias at one point creates an energy shield while trying to stop Anne in their fight, which resembles an Absolute Terror Field.
  • The preview to Season 3 shows that Marcy isn't actually dead, and is on life support in a People Jar, which sorta resembles the tank used to keep all the Rei clones in Terminal Dogma, drawing the comparisons between Marcy and Rei.
    • Marcy and Rei were both manipulated by the villains of their respective shows, King Andrias and Gendo Ikari.
    • Sasha is boastful and arrogant, just like Asuka.
    • Anne can be self-centered, like Shinji, but she isn't as 'whiny' as he is.
  • In "The Beginning of the End", Anne and Sasha's synchronized Dance Battle against the mind-controlled Olivia and Yunan, ending in a dual jump-kick that shatters their collars, is a reference to Unit-01 and Unit-02's synchronized dance-battle against Israfel in "Both of You, Dance Like You Want to Win!"
• Invader Zim:
  • The Megadoomer is a take-off on the EVA robots, the final battle in the Christmas Episode segues into a parody of End of Evangelion.
  • According to the commentary for the episode "Hamstergeddon", the scene of Peepi as a Kaiju running towards the giant hot dog is direct reference to EVA Unit-01 in berserk mode during the battle against Sachiel.
• Sym-Bionic Titan:
  • The first fight scene. The army's firepower does nothing to the monster, and then its first attack knocks the Titan flat on its arse against a building. Shades of Shinji's first fight.
  • When Xeexi Mind Rapes someone, their bodies become more vascular, much like what happened to Ayanami Rei.
• The Legend of Korra:
  • The kaiju-style battle between Korra's spirit and "UnaVaatu" is like a cross between Evangelion, with UnaVaatu looking really angel/Eva-y vs. a giant blue woman and Paprika the heroine's dream-self becomes huge to battle her mentor-turned-evil before he can throw the world into chaos.
• The Owl House:
  • Sachiel can be seen as a plush doll in the S1 opening.
  • In "Knock, Knock, Knockin' on Hooty's Door", King's dance outfit is the same as Asuka's from "Both of You, Dance Like You Want to Win!"
  • Hunter being the latest in a line of red-eyed clones of the Omnicidal Maniac Big Bad's deceased loved one is more than a little similar to Rei's backstory.
  • In "Edge of the World", one of the weapons in Bill's armory is the Lance of Longinus.
  • In "Separate Tides", one of the pseudo-parrots on the ship bears a startling resemblance to a Mass Production Eva.
• Voltron: Legendary Defender:
  • The monster that Voltron fights on Balmera uses similar abilities to the Fifth Angel, and its design looks visually very similar to Jet Alone.
  • Pidge gets to do the Gendo pose.
  • Allura's combat uniform resembles a plugsuit and her helmet is reminiscent of the ones worn by Asuka and Mari during Evangelion 3.0's opening sequence.
  • The decontamination scene in Season 2 is obviously referencing the decontamination scene from Rebuild 2.0.
  • In the Season 3 episode The Journey, the scene when the Black Lion saves Shiro while he is running out of oxygen and alone in space is similar to Episode 16 of Evangelion, when the soul of Yui Ikari helps Shinji escape the Dirac Sea of the 12th angel when he is, similarly, alone and running out of oxygen.
  • Acxa's hairclips have been compared to the interface headset seen in the anime.
  • Veronica heavily resembles Ritsuko Akagi with darker skin and hair. What's more, during a briefing on maintaining supplies, Samuel Holt makes the famous Gendo Pose.

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