Pacific Rim is Guillermo Del Toro’s love letter to kaiju (“monster”) films.  He’s 48 years old.

The first Godzilla movie was in 1954.

Gamera debuted in 1965

Mothra in 1961

Ultraman in 1966

Tetsujin 28 (“Gigantor”) started in 1956

Mazinger in 1972

Gundam in 1979

Combattler V, 1976.

These movies and TV shows and manga have been around for over half a century, and involve many iconic and beloved characters and creators. 

So could folks please stop saying “Oh, Pacific Rim is clearly some kind of live action Evangelion movie.” ?

Unless Pacific Rim is hiding some weird quasi-religious psychodrama or catatonic child soldiers or robots running off of extension cords, it’s probably inspired by any number of other sources that existed before 1995 when NGE came out.