Not a paid subscriber, so I’ll comment here:

I think the psychological realism actually is part of the impact of Gundam on Evangelion. Sure, when Amuro finds the Gundam, he gets in without hesitation; but as the series progresses, he’s completely and thoroughly traumatized at having to kill or be killed to protect White Base. So I kind of see Shinji as, on one hand, a 90’s take on Amuro Rey.

At the same time, Evangelion actually more closely resembles the monster-of-the-week Super Robot shows from the 70’s, which also tended to have boys piloting robots built by their dads, and which Gundam also tried to depart from. So in a sense Anno’s imagining Amuro in something more like Mazinger Z.

One extra note: in the manga (made by the character designer, Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, and begun shortly before the first episode—but ended after the Rebuild movies started), they actually launch EVA-01 against the angel, with Rei piloting, as Shinji watches from Misato’s car. It’s implied that this is why Rei was so seriously injured; in the anime, it’s from a different incident that we’ll see later.

But anyway, good stuff so far, and I’m looking forward to more.