Zoids Genesis, Evangelion Movie 1: Jo Recommendations
This is the first film in the Rebuild of Evangelion film tetralogy, a series in which Hideki Anno has revamped Evangelion into a story that's less psychologically intense, and is easier overall to understand than its parent TV series. This particular film is nearly identical to the first six episodes of the TV series, just on a much higher, Hollywood style budget. The two currently released sequels (2.0: You Can (Not) Advance and 3.0: You Can (Not) Redo) are where it deviates from the original series' overall plot.
However, many of the reasons I found the original Evangelion similar to Zoids: Genesis are still intact:
Living Mecha, Post-Apocalyptic World, and some really dark scenes.
Like the original, Rebuild of Eva takes place in the year 2015, 15 years after an event called "Second Impact" destroyed half of the world's population, much like the Great Cataclysm in Zoids: Genesis did to Planet Zi. Now, in the present, towering alien monsters known as "Angels" are attacking the fortress city of Tokyo-3 to try and initiate Third Impact, which would wipe out the rest of the life on Earth. To combat them, the UN backed organization, NERV has built giant cyborgs known as Evangelions as the last line of defense.
Shinji Ikari is called to Tokyo-3 by his estranged father and Commander of NERV, Gendo, at the same time as the attack of the Angel "Sachiel". Gendo coerces Shinji into piloting the untested Evangelion Unit 01, and much like Ruuji was able to activate Murasame Liger, Shinji is able to do so with Unit 01.
Compared to the original series, though, Rebuild is a little more lighthearted, especially in the second film, where the interactions between Asuka and Shinji are reminiscent of some of the comedy that cropped up in Zoids: Genesis.
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