They're both about teenage dudes in superpowered mech suits who have to save humanity from an external threat bent on their extinction.
Yep, I guess everything is the same when you dumb it down to the bare minerals. Hey, who cares about tone, storytelling intent, visual direction, artistic intent, and so on. It's all the same because I can make a sentence that is a simplistic summary of both seem the same.
Sure, Evangelion forces you to watch a bunch of broken people failing at everything, but it's much worse for doing so. Do I want to see the main character in my mech show mope around about how no one loves him? Fuck no.
For you maybe not, but dosen't change the fact that Evangelion has very specific intentions with it's characters and story. Things that are very different then what GL was looking to do.
Simon is kind of like what Shinji would be if he wasn't a complete waste of life with some balls. But honestly, it's not his fault. The people around him were horrible failures as well.
So basicly there's no argument? They'd be the same show if the entire context and characters where the same. great logic.
I actually watched Evangelion after my father died. Half the reason I like the show is because I really relate to Shinji and his father issues. It's why the show speaks to me. Only later did I really appreicate what it does with the mech genre troupes. Anyway, I found Shinji very un-annoying. People really overplay his annoyance. He kind of reacts like a normal dumb nerdy teenager and he really dosen't cry that much. He's kind of a mellow 14 year old during the first half who get's very scared when he's tasked to fight giant monsters, which I don't find to be unresonable. It's only in the 2nd half where he really loses it, but seeing as how the 2nd half gets pretty depressing I'm not sure I can fault him. Either way, I've never found the character bad. No, he's not an awesome super fun character, but Evangelion is'nt that kind of show, nor am I wanting it to be.
Simmon is a pretty typical mech show troupe character and so is Kamina and since GL is a fun show about being an awesome Giant Robot show of course they're more fun. Seems stupid to compare the two when they aren't trying to do the same things. GL was trying to be fun and have it's characters be Super Heroes with at least some emotional draw so you care about them. Evangelion wasn't trying to be fun and was trying to tell a more grounded tell about a 14 year old piloting A giant robot in an apocalyptic senerio.
I love both shows, but it seems pretty dumb to compare them.