As someone who saw Neon Genesis Evangelion melt the airwaves back in the 1990s, I sometimes get the hunger for another anime that hits as hard. Something bold, unpredictable, and soul-shaking. But Evangelion wasn't born in a vacuum. It stood on the shoulders of earlier giants and sparked a new generation of experimental works. It made anime feel dangerous, intimate, and utterly original in a way few other shows have before or since.

For this list, I’ve picked ten series that either laid the groundwork for Evangelion, carried forward its legacy, or carved out bold new territory in the same psychological, philosophical, or mecha-rich space. Each entry is judged not just on how it echoes Evangelion's tone or themes, but also on how confidently it pushes the medium forward on its own . Some of these shows are cerebral. Some are emotionally raw. All are unforgettable.

10 RahXephon (2002)

Directed by Yutaka Izubuchi, Produced by Bones

A mysterious city is sealed off from the rest of the world. A teenage boy who becomes the pilot of a mysterious, god-like robot. From the opening moments, RahXephon draws immediate comparisons to Evangelion. But its creative team, led by Yutaka Izubuchi, wanted to go in a more harmonious direction. This is a show about resonance: of time, memory, and music.

Izubuchi described the series as an attempt to "heal" the fractured sensibility left by Evangelion, and that warmth shines through. From Yoko Kanno’s stirring score to the painterly visuals produced by Bones, RahXephon builds a world that’s both dreamlike and tender. The plot bends in on itself in ways that reward a second viewing, making it one of the richest spiritual successors to Hideaki Anno’s landmark work.

9 Space Runaway Ideon (1980–1981)

Directed by Yoshiyuki Tomino, Produced by Sunrise

Long before Evangelion, Space Runaway Ideon was already shattering expectations for what mecha anime could be. The story follows a group of refugees aboard a mysterious alien robot powered by an unknowable force. As they are hunted across the galaxy, the Ideon’s immense power grows unstable, leading to escalating violence and psychological collapse.

Director Yoshiyuki Tomino, often called “Kill ’Em All” Tomino, crafted a deeply pessimistic series where death is arbitrary, and the universe offers no mercy. The series' final film, Be Invoked, ends in total annihilation. It predates Evangelion’s own apocalyptic finale by over a decade. For Anno and others, Ideon was proof that giant robots could carry spiritual weight. It is not just a precursor to Evangelion, it is the primordial scream that made it possible.

8 Serial Experiments Lain (1998)

Directed by Ryutaro Nakamura, Written by Chiaki J. Konaka

No battles. No mecha. Just a girl named Lain Iwakura and a dial-up connection that will change everything. Serial Experiments Lain explores the dissolution of identity in the internet age, and it remains one of anime’s most unsettling deep dives into psychological horror.

In a 1999 interview, writer Chiaki J. Konaka said he wanted to depict the anxiety of the digital era overtaking Japan. With glitchy visuals and an unnerving silence that often fills entire scenes, Lain builds its dread slowly. Lain’s descent into the virtual realm, the Wired, mirrors Evangelion's themes of alienation and human connection. It’s a less visceral but more cerebral journey: one that makes you question where the line is between self and system.

7 Eureka Seven (2005–2006)

Directed by Tomoki Kyoda, Produced by Bones

Renton wants to fly. That’s all. But when he meets the enigmatic Eureka and s a band of sky-surfing freedom fighters, his coming-of-age becomes a war story. Eureka Seven reinvents the mecha genre with a hopeful heart and fluid motion.

Director Tomoki Kyoda, a self-professed Evangelion fan, wanted to create a series that embraced youth instead of punishing it. The result is lushly animated and emotionally charged. While Renton’s journey shares DNA with Shinji Ikari’s, Eureka Seven opts for healing rather than collapse. It doesn’t shy away from trauma, but it insists there’s something beautiful on the other side. That rare optimism makes it a necessary counterpoint to Evangelion’s more apocalyptic tone.

6 Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (2002–2005)

Directed by Kenji Kamiyama, Produced by Production I.G

In a hyper-connected future where the human mind can be hacked, Major Motoko Kusanagi leads Section 9 against terrorists, AIs, and philosophical riddles. Stand Alone Complex is a slow-burn cyberpunk epic with the patience to ask hard questions.

Kamiyama, in a 2004 NHK interview, stated that the series reflects Japan’s unease with becoming post-human. While Evangelion focused on internal crises, Stand Alone Complex probes societal decay and blurred boundaries between humans and machines. It’s rigorous and intellectual, but also startlingly emotional. In many ways, the Major is Evangelion’s logical evolution: composed on the outside, fractured within. The series demands attention and rewards it with a layered narrative that still resonates today.

5 Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket (1989)

Directed by Fumihiko Takayama, Written by Hiroyuki Yamaga

At just six episodes long, War in the Pocket is one of the shortest entries in the Gundam franchise and easily the most emotionally devastating. The story centers on Alfred Izuruha, an ordinary boy fascinated by war, who unknowingly gets swept up in a conflict that will shatter his illusions forever. Unlike other Gundam entries, the series avoids sweeping political statements and instead tells an intimate, heartbreaking story of a single life caught in the crossfire.

Director Fumihiko Takayama and writer Hiroyuki Yamaga (of Studio Gainax fame) crafted a war story with no real villains and no real heroes, only people doing what they think is right. The final episodes are a brutal reckoning. In its anti-war stance and depiction of emotional fallout, War in the Pocket shares Evangelion’s moral clarity but hits with quieter and arguably sharper force.

4 Texhnolyze (2003)

Directed by Hiroshi Hamasaki, Written by Chiaki J. Konaka

Texhnolyze opens with silence, violence, and despair that never lets up. Set in the underground city of Lux, where gangs fight for control and bodies are enhanced with unstable cybernetic limbs, it follows Ichise, a fighter who loses everything and is slowly rebuilt into something post-human. The plot is often opaque. The world is cruel. The characters barely speak.

Writer Chiaki J. Konaka, returning after Lain, called Texhnolyze his “purest” work. That purity comes in the form of emotional desolation. There’s no joy here, only decay and the suggestion that evolution might mean erasure. If Evangelion is a scream into the void, Texhnolyze is the long silence that follows. For those who can endure its grim worldview, the payoff is one of the most challenging and thought-provoking anime ever made.

3 Knights of Sidonia (2014–2015)

Directed by Kobun Shizuno, Produced by Polygon Pictures

In Knights of Sidonia, humanity lives aboard a massive seed ship, fleeing extinction after the Earth is destroyed by shape-shifting aliens called Gauna. The story follows Tanikaze, a gifted pilot thrust into a centuries-long war in deep space. It’s hard sci-fi with body horror, cloning, and identity crises all rolled into one.

Based on Tsutomu Nihei’s manga, the series shares Evangelion’s interest in existential dread and the psychological cost of piloting. But instead of teenage anxiety, Sidonia is about legacy and survival and what remains of humanity when the world has already ended. Its oppressive tone and eerie visuals mark it as a true spiritual cousin, even as it moves in its own, terrifying direction.

2 Bokurano (2007)

Directed by Hiroyuki Morita, Based on the Manga by Mohiro Kitoh

Fifteen children are tricked into g a contract to pilot a giant robot that defends Earth. What they don’t know is that each battle ends in the death of the pilot. That’s the setup of Bokurano, one of the most emotionally brutal anime of its era. Each episode peels back the life of one child, showing their hopes, trauma, and ultimately, their choice to sacrifice themselves.

Director Hiroyuki Morita itted in interviews that the story nearly broke him. He altered some elements from the manga to make it more digestible, but the central tragedy remained. Where Evangelion asks if suffering is necessary, Bokurano posits that sacrifice is inevitable. It’s a series that challenges viewers to sit with uncomfortable truths and never offers the easy comfort of heroism.

1 Ergo Proxy (2006)

Directed by Shuko Murase, Written by Dai Sato

Ergo Proxy begins with a mysterious virus turning androids violent and spirals into a dark odyssey through abandoned cities, rogue memories, and mythic metaphors. Re-l Mayer, the gothic inspector, crosses paths with Vincent Law, a seemingly harmless immigrant with a hidden identity. Alongside them is Pino, a robotic girl who sees the world with innocent eyes and quietly breaks your heart.

Director Shuko Murase and writer Dai Sato leaned into Western philosophy and post-apocalyptic aesthetics to craft a show unlike anything else on TV. While some episodes of Ergo Proxy take bizarre narrative detours, others are startling in their clarity. It’s a meditation on fear, selfhood, and the illusions we build to survive.