i don't want to study for my exams so we're talking about neon genesis evangelion and canto 7
and in project moon in general
(this is a bit all over the place i'll probably edit it to be more easy to follow over time. spoilers for canto 7, 9, and like, all of evangelion. also NOT an organised or exhaustive list i'm genuinely just yapping about things as they come to mind)
it shouldn't come as any surprise that amongst many other inspirations ranging from literary works, philosophies and ideologies, pm takes a lot from neon genesis evangelion. it's amongst the chief bases for canto 7 alongside gurren lagann (besides the obvious carmilla and don quixote), but since i've personally only watched nge i'll be focusing on that here. that said i'm not the biggest scholar on the topic or anything, i'll just be mentioning my observations and interpretations because i just wanna talk about what i like
to start with, the eva references have existed in pm since lobotomy corporation in the form of the kabbalah, the tree of sephirot namely. obviously the reference could have been made for its own sake but it's pretty notable that franchises that use it as a basis are usually often inspired by the series (another example is genshin impact, honkai impact 3rd, really anything hoyoverse makes). the tree of life is seen every time you watch an episode of the show since you'll be seeing in the opening, a cruel angel's thesis.
the entire character of carmen is very reminiscent of yui ikari, a principle character very central to the narrative of the story in both cases. their death is a significant catalyst for a counterpart man at the helm of everything, distraught at the loss of them - gendou ikari and ayin. a kind, compassionate scientist with an unwavering faith in mankind and holding the belief that it is worth any sacrifice. they both become the "source" of the franchise's main technological constructs, carmen as the pool of consciousness through which all of lobotomy corp's abnormalities are extracted, yui becoming the first evangelion, unit-01.
both yui ikari and carmen have their deaths symbolically desecrated by gendou ikari and ayin, and in a desperate attempt to recreate their lost loves, both men try and create a replacement or recreation of them, but continue to fail to truly capture the original person - in the form of angela and rei ayanami.
(the hair colour resemblance in both cases is also notable i would say).
in the canto 7 arcs, one of the main things that stuck out to me as the use of the term first/second/third kindred; reminded me heavily of the first, second and third child(ren) terminology in evangelion. the former is a hierarchical classification of bloodfiend lineage, the latter is a bit more literal in that it is used to denote the characters meant to be evangelion pilots - who are always children. bloodfiends conceptually are a heavily codependent hivemind. they can be said to be a sort of collective unconscious (especially given how in the intervallo, sancho is able to hear the voices of every manchegan bloodfiend inside her head; she's carrying them within her very being). the collective unconscious has a physical depiction in evangelion as the sea of LCL - which is said to be where all life originates, as well as smells vaguely of blood (there is also a small implication that it resembles amniotic fluid; eva pilots submerge themselves in LCL to pilot the robots, symbolically a child within mother's womb).
abnormalities and distortions in the context of project moon especially reminds me of eva because carmen is the source from which the vast majority of existing abnormalities originate. abnormalities are said to be the purest form of mankind, and anything that fails to become an abnormality becomes a distortion. distortions, visually, are literal – the boundaries of the character’s self appear to erode, often large in size as if the very atoms of their being are beginning to scatter, expanding from the centre point; their body parts or sometimes their entire body is symbolically transformed into a mocking shell of what it represents for them (heathcliff turning into a wolf, hohenheim losing his head, kromer's lower abdomen turning into a gaping mouth, jia mu becoming a grotesquely overgrown being, kim's hands fusing into the hilt of his sword). distortion is also one way bloodfiends are born.
in evangelion, when the boundaries of one's physical and mental self are destroyed, they burst into LCL and become one with the collective unconscious. in pm, distortions and abnos are what remains of humanity when the physical self is broken down or entirely taken out of the equation. in either case, what remains behind is said to be the "true face" of mankind. in evangelion, once one assimilates into LCL with other people, "love" is finally attained - the loss of one's selfhood means all humanity is now one, and thus no friction and conflict can any longer exist. this is said to be the deepest and truest form of love. the principle sin of la manchaland is lust, exchangeable with love, and a central theme of don quixote's character. bloodfiends propagate for the purpose of having someone love and understand them - "sharing blood" as a method of connecting and bonding with others endlessly until all around them are part of their family and thus, by extension, part of themselves. family is an unbreakable bond not constrained by the fragility of non-familial bonds, since it is a physical fate, not a construct.
incest is present in both media. canto 7 is heavy on incest with how suffocating the bonds of the manchegan family are, as well as the emotional dependency they have on one another. sancho sees alonso as every conceivable role in her life; whether that be parent, partner or friend. he is her reason to exist. she has an immense dependence on him and he on her. in eva, several characters fulfill the absences of their parents through friends and partners, craving deeply for a love that is unconditional, inherent and unmarred by anything. given the voids in their life are formed from a missing family member, they want a connection of total acceptance - something often believed to only be able to be received from family. in either case, love is attained through blurring the lines of social rules and propriety, emotionally or physically - a violation of personal boundaries. project moon literally starts with a daughter grieving how she cannot have her father's love, while said father looks for his lover in that daughter. rien does something similar with ryoshu, symbolically treating her both as his daughter and his bride (great trichiliocosm ego, ryoshu and shiomi's resemblance, shiomi being dressed as a bride).
sancho's lance reminds me vaguely of the lance of longinus - an artifact capable of piercing through any absolute terror field (which are physical manifestations of a person's psychological boundaries, a border containing their soul inside their body). the breaking of absolute terror fields in eva are often depicted as sexual assault-like in nature, invoking penetrative imagery. when someone's boundaries are violated or broken down, it is seen as an attack or an assault. incestuous relationships like sancho and don quixote, angela and ayin, rien and yoshihide, are similarly examples of the violation of societal and personal boundaries, and in two of those cases, the attempt to enmesh another's selfhood into one's own. when a lower kindred attempts to bite a higher kindred, it is a horrible taboo, seen as a form of assault, especially against someone who is superior to you in hierarchy. turning someone into a kindred is a psychosexual act (vampirism cannot be divorced from sexuality; bloodfiends seek to curb loneliness through emotional intimacy), biting a higher kindred would be like a young male animal trying to mate with its mother, it will be thrown off.
in evangelion, the crisis of people turning into LCL is avoided when the protagonist's selfhood is reassured and affirmed to him - that he can and will be loved without losing his whole self for it. that love can be attained even with all of his differences and flaws and the potential of hurting those he cares for. the blood of higher kindreds is said to be purer, stronger, so perhaps you could interpret that as higher kindreds having more powerful selfhoods; therefore, sancho required a sin affinity that allowed her to ignore the taboo, giving her the ability to break through don quixote's boundaries and ultimately defeat him, proving her sense of self stronger than his own, enough to give her independence from the tribe. she is able to find the courage once she is shown that she will be loved no matter what she does - she neither has to pretend to be someone else, nor sacrifice her individuality and live in eternal dependence.
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