The series that are sometimes called the three greatest masterpieces of Japanese mecha anime by fans are ‘Space Battleship Yamato’, ‘Mobile Suit Gundam’, and ‘Neon Genesis Evangelion.’ These three series gained a blockbuster level of success within the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s generations of anime, respectively. There is an overlap of fans within the many people who enjoy Mobile Suit Gundam and Neon Genesis Evangelion, and a question that frequently comes up as a topic of conversation is, ‘If the characters from Gundam and Evangelion fought, who would win?’
Mobile Suit Gundam
The first Mobile Suit Gundam series anime aired on Nagoya TV and others in 1979. What spurred the development of this project was the huge success of sci-fi anime Space Battleship Yamato. Mobile Suit Gundam introduced many revolutionary new concepts to the genre at the time such as realistic weapons, characters with real depth, and the treatment of the Gundam mecha as a tool of war, which made it much deeper than other mecha anime.
However, a big reason why Gundam became popular all over the world was the large merchandising built around its iconic mecha. The Gundam series has grown to encompass a number of works over the years that help to form the storied and detailed ‘Gundam Universe.’ Until now, Gundam series anime has never been officially broadcast overseas, but since it is now being uploaded on Youtube, the series has once again became a hot topic worldwide!
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Neon Genesis Evangelion” is set in the year 2015, where a catastrophic event known as the ‘Second Impact’ has occurred. Teams of 14-year-old boys and girls are trained to became pilots of huge humanoid battle weapons called ‘Evangelion’ and get drawn into battle with the mysterious enemies known as ‘Angels,’ who are invading Tokyo-3.
Eva is a well-written series that incorporates analysis of topics beyond its stories of battle, such as ethics and religious thought. Every character in Eva has developed loyal fan bases, and many agree that it is the inspired fleshing-out of their personalities that makes them more memorable to their fans. Evangelion began with the original TV anime, and then a theatrical release known as ‘End of Evangelion,’ released in 1997 as an alternate take on the series ending. The “Rebuild of Evangelion” film series, first begun in 2007, ‘rebuilds’ the series with a new setting and story.
So Who is the Strongest?
Both Mobile Suit Gundam and Neon Genesis Evangelion are sci-fi anime that share a futuristic war setting, so naturally many people tend to compare these two works! If you just look at the character proportions between the two anime, the mecha in Evangelion have a minimum height of 40 meters, which is incredibly large when compared to the 18 meter tall Gundam! Evangelion mecha are also typically faster than Gundam mecha! If you only consider these aspects of the characters, it is natural to assume that the Evangelion mecha would probably win!
However, if you compare the extra weapons that the Gundam mecha can use, along with the protection of their I-field barriers, these could help to give them an edge over the Evangelion mecha! All of these factors mean that Gundam and Evangelion characters both have their strong points! This makes this debate especially hard to answer, and as a result we still wonder which side would win if they really did decide to fight!
