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Comment by c54 | Hacker News Reader

I read somewhere that Evangelion has similar cultural impact with the Japanese as Star Wars does in the US. In that way naming this app NERV is similar to the US’s “Star Wars” strategic defense initiative…

Except there was a law suit in that case because nobody bothered to get the rights from Lucasfilm

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The government didn't call it Star Wars, they called it SDI. Some lobbyists used that term and they were the ones that Lucasfilm tried to sue.

The lawsuit was dismissed, btw.

> On November 26, 1985, the suit was dismissed by Judge Gerhard Gesell of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, on the grounds that the lobbyists' use of the mark in a noncommercial and non-trade context fell outside the jurisdiction of trademark law. [1]

[1] "Lucasfilm Ltd. v. High Frontier, 622 F. Supp. 931 (D.D.C. 1985)". Justia Law. (via Wikipedia) https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/6...

GP never said the government named it that. Besides which, "Star Wars" was not a term used only by lobbyists, even if they coined it. It's a very common name for that program among the general public.

What does GP mean? I keep seeing this crop up. I'm used to seeing OP for Original Poster

Grandparent. While OP designates the root post, GP is two posts up.

Arguably Gundam is more equivalent to Star Wars - similar initial release timeframe (late 1970's), aimed at a wide audience, lots of toy and video game deals, many different stories with continuity, etc.

Gundam has definitely wider reach, including governmental recognition https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_impact_of_Gundam#Gove... (the whole page is interesting read) but Neon Genesis Evangelion also had huge impact on cultural scene of japan from what I have read, and by now it has similarly been deeply embedded in ways other works didn't.

Also laser swords.

And newtype is very clearly taken from jedi/force.

I was so confused when I clicked this link. I saw "NERV" and knew it was related to Evangelion. But then reading the website it seems so real and legit. But then they're using the real NERV logo from Eva, even with the "God is in his heaven, all is right with the world" subtext. Which makes seem like it must be some sort of spoof. But who'd set up something like this, in light of the recent disaster, and even publish real apps.

Man... the cognitive dissonance I went through mentally bouncing back and forth for a few minutes. I don't think I've ever experienced anything like that before in my life.

I'm glad all the top comments on HN are about Eva though.

They even have Shinji in the contact form as a placeholder, it's definitely not an accidental naming thing.

I've often had this thought myself. It's the simile I've used to explain Eva to people who don't know anything about anime.

But then I think about some of the things in the series and movies and it's incredibly hard to fathom those showing up in any kind of Star Wars IP.

But I love that about it... I've always thought Star Wars sucks to be honest. I love that Japan's is so much darker and angstier.

The original Star Wars is a perfect Hero's Journey story told on film. In a vacuum, it's an incredibly inventive and scrappy film.

Evangelion has the benefit of not being owned by Disney, and thus not being milked into oblivion*. If all we had of Star Wars was the original trilogy, and maybe the "Rebuild of Star Wars" aka the sequel trilogy (speaking purely in story terms of soft-rebooting things), it could probably stand toe to toe with Evangelion on prestige. It's just been watered down so much in the last two decades, as opposed to Evangelion which has been fiercely protected by its original creator.

Weird, I didn't think I'd be defending Star Wars in 2024. And I do much much prefer Evangelion.

*I am aware of how badly Evangelion has been milked for merch, but I'm talking exclusively about media appearances in this discussion. There was Evangelion manga, but I can remember there being three series or less for about 20 years (and two of those were gag manga). In terms of visual media outside the main series (anime, EoE, Rebuild films), I'm pretty sure there's just been a smattering of Japanese commercials using Evangelion characters.

Not so sure about this. I'm walking past a pachinko parlor playing the evangelion theme right now. It's... pretty milked

See asterisk note.

I thought the same until Rogue One. :)

Though there are probably at least 10 anime series Americans know about (Pokemon, Naruto, Dragonball-z, Yu-gi-oh, Death Note, Demon Slayer, One Piece, etc.) more often than Eva. Eva is a relatively strange anime in contrast. Is it that Eva is more "Japan"-coded than the other ones, which are more "American"-coded, thus they would have an outsized impact overseas but not comparatively in Japan?

Time and place sort of thing. There could easily be another timeline where Evangelion and Sailor Moon swap places popularity-wise in the US. The demographic for anime on broadcast television in the late '90s and early 2000s, when Evangelion was getting dubbed, just skewed too young for it to really be profitable in any way. If I remember correctly, it only ever had one complete run on Adult Swim, a late night block which really limited its exposure. I don't think End of Evangelion has ever aired on a major broadcast network. (The Rebuild movies did get play on the revived Toonami about a decade ago, though.)

I don't think Evangelion would ever have been a breakout hit, per se, like DBZ, but depending on the circumstances it definitely could have had moderate success.

Isn't Evangelion (in)famous for its use of Western religious and occult symbolism? I don't think it's more "Japan" coded than say Death Note (with Western characters) or One Piece (based loosely on Western pirate lore.)

It's more Japan-coded in that the framing of Christianity and the occult is from a Japanese perspective: it views Christian symbolism via an outsider's lens, as an abstract, esoteric ancient cult (which it is, but not in the common way it's perceived in the West)

Also, Eva is much more, for lack of a better term, adult-themed, thematically complex, and sexually weird than Pokemon, One piece, etc. This certainly would make it less universally popular as a cultural export.

Eva is on some level a parody of Gundam used to explore adult themes of depression, isolation, loneliness, parental conflict, and figuring out your sexual identity. It's more like Akira or Ghost in the Shell than it is like Pokemon or One Piece. For an American analogy, it's like Watchmen vs. Superman. Watchmen is a case of taking the kids entertainment of superhero comics and using it to explore more adult topics.

Or put another way, they’re both deconstructing a genre

> Though there are probably at least 10 anime series Americans know about ...

I can't help but feel you're significantly overestimating the "average familiarity" here.

https://xkcd.com/2501/

Read the end of the sentence after the parenthetical: "more often than Eva". I mean that if you asked any random American to name an anime, I'd wager if they knew any they'd know one of those much more often than Eva, it's about relative awareness, not absolute awareness.

And I'm pretty sure at least Pokemon is well entrenched into popular culture. Death Note and One Piece have had Netflix series, also indicated a good amount of penetration in the average market.

Eva was on Cartoon Network in the 2000s (a censored version, but still.) That's where I first watched it. Other shows I watched around that time included Ghost in the Shell SAC, Trigun, some Cowboy Bebop.

I recognize most of the names you mentioned, but haven't watched any of them other than to check if they interest me.

Obviously Pokemon is better known, but other than that it's going to depend a lot on age group.

>I read somewhere that Evangelion has similar cultural impact with the Japanese as Star Wars does in the US.

related: "Can You Live Entirely Off of Evangelion Merchandise?" by Red Bard[0].

[0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0Qr9rztRw4

I very much doubt that they licensed the NERV logo from Gainex here.

> The name and logo of "NERV" are used with the explicit permission of khara Inc., the copyright holder of the "Evangelion" series, and Groundworks Corporation, which manages the rights to the series.

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