All I have to say about RahXephon.
Hahhah
In defence, you could find next to all those scenes repeated throughout the history of mecha and anime in general. I mean, "a city being destroyed by fighters"? "Woman removing sunglasses?" Apocalyptic stuff in general?
Ultimately, not only are the leitmotifs(e.g no crosses in Xephon), influences(Christian-Freudian vs Mayan-Classical) very different, the characters and the plot is nothing alike besides such overarching themes present in almost any fictious media, like chosen ones, growing-up story and mind****. Hell, you could make a similar site for Brave Raideen and RahXephon and for NGE and Akira. RahXephon manga on the other hand, seemed pretty copycat.
I'm not trying to skulldugger NGE(I was going to edit my orginal post to have some sort of content, but the time limit killed that, sorry), it is just that RahXephon appeals to me immensely, whereas I recognize NGE for what it is and can enjoy it's qualities(again mind****, mechas, apocalyptism, humour), but it ultimately feels pretentious and flat, especially when looked in the light of Anno's mental problems and not having a real ending(although EoE salvaged some of that).
Also, no Asuka.
Ei ole koiraa karvoihin katsomista, okei?