edit: ignore, kind of outdated now.
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edit: ignore, kind of outdated now.
Depending on your execution of the comic, you may or may not be screwed. None of these points are actually total important points (except the Rei one). Eva has a very particular style to it and even if you have similar features to it, it'll be hard to nail you on it if it wasn't executed similarly as well... if that makes any sense.
I suggest you watch the show and do you're best to keep your comic from following its themes too closely.
Okay, thanks for the replies. Here are a few differences I've noticed, might be enough to cover me up:
-The actual war between aliens and humans is happening in the background, the main characters are juist a couple of smalltown kids who spend most of their time running away.
-Also, there's no real equivilent to NERV - the aliens are being fought off by, simply enough, the military.
-Neither side has huge, manually-controlled cyborgs.
-From what I understand, the symbolism in Eva is mainly for the viewer - none of the characters say "hey, what's with all the Judeo-Christian imagery?". In Rust, it doesn't tak elong for the aliens' naming pattern to be noticed, and there's a lot of speculation on exactly how they got those names.
-Also, the mythical names are restricted to the aliens, unlike Eva, which has plenty of religious names on mboth sides. So, the military won't, say, create a weapon with a name like "Titan" or "Ragnarok".
I think you're safe as long as you avoid the giant robots + philosophical/screw your brain story combination. That is what Eva is really best known for, and any kind of mecha with a deep story that has followed Eva is immediately attacked by comparisons. (RahXephon, anyone?)
But Shlup's right... watch the anime to be sure, and get rid of anything that's too similar.
Having some half angel, spaced out character isnt exactly new to anime, so you should be able to pull that off, and having religious references and themes isnt knew either. And I'm not sure if you mentioned this, but are you actually using giant robots in your comic?
You worry about Rei is pointless as I do believe she was named for what the word means in Japanese. It is completely representative of who and what she is. I think it means spirit or something along those lines. Your safe with the name in other words.
If you want to check up on Eva info I would say check out http://www.therossman.com/evafaqs.html it has a lot of info on the series. Much more then you'll need. but it could be helpful to make comparisons with the angels and chacrters and such if your worried about it.
Although I wouldn't say many people will get the connection with your comic to Evangelion. Besides as long as it's not a carbon copy, most people won't even care (at least they didn't when my early comics were near identical to 8 Bit Theater)
Thanks again. No, there aren't any giant robots.
Thing is, when I posted a rough draft of another comic's story on a board, everyone pretty much tore it to pieces looking for the tinyiest hint of a rip-off (like claiming that I stole "the Otherworld", a name of a paralell universe, from a Final Fantasy X song title)