Eriance said: I might have actually liked the show if this was the cast.
Its often been remarked- due to double standards, the characters, or at least the pilots, would be much less crazy if their genders were inverted. Angry Bitch with Hidden Confidence Issues Asuka--> Generic Hot Blooded Badass. Emotionless Girl Rei--> standard Aloof Prettyboy. Clinically Depressed Shinji --> Moe.
This sorta falls apart with the non-pilots, though; Kaji and Misato just trade places with little overall change, Ritsuko gets WEIRD, and Gendo just becomes a frigid bitch not much less out of place from a social expectations standpoint than he is already.
HaroldRowsdower said: Its often been remarked- due to double standards, the characters, or at least the pilots, would be much less crazy if their genders were inverted. Angry Bitch with Hidden Confidence Issues Asuka--> Generic Hot Blooded Badass. Emotionless Girl Rei--> standard Aloof Prettyboy. Clinically Depressed Shinji --> Moe.
Yeah, this is pretty much exactly what Gainax was going for. They intentionally created the characters' personalities to be at odds with the stereotypes of their respective genders. Of course this only applies to the main characters, it doesn't really apply to the non-eva pilots at all.
Perhaps, but I think, as cute as Shinji would be, the show would be substantially less appealing. One of the best parts of EVA was showing our double-standards to characters "Shinji(male) is crying because of his troubles! What a loser!" "Shinji(female) is crying because of her troubles! How moe!" Though the fact that sending emotionally unstable teenagers to fight for Earth's survival is screwed up eight ways from Sunday still remains.
