I admit to having my own ambiguities with seeing something promoted as if to put down something else. It just might be in my case that I seemed to sense comments about Gurren Lagann being not just "a rebuttal to Evangelion," but "a rebuttal to all anime of the decade before it," with "manliness" held up as the universal antidote... and while I suppose I got around to watching Gurren Lagann just as soon as it was officially licensed and released on DVD (having somehow missed its "fansub days"), I was a little pleased to be able to find different sorts of enjoyment in the series. I suppose I take an odd sort of pride in all the different sorts of anime series I can enjoy, although the way "North American animation" seems to get crammed in the corners of my viewing time does sort of amount to the reproach.
It's true there have been any number of things (official works and "fan projects") proclaimed as "anti-Evangelions" over the years, and for Gainax itself to have made something that could be interpreted in that way must have amused some people. I've also seen suggestions that Evangelion just happened to be itself a "commentary" on older "giant robot shows," except that when it arrived in North America most fans hadn't seen what it was a response too and didn't quite interpret it in a satisfying way...
It's true there have been any number of things (official works and "fan projects") proclaimed as "anti-Evangelions" over the years, and for Gainax itself to have made something that could be interpreted in that way must have amused some people. I've also seen suggestions that Evangelion just happened to be itself a "commentary" on older "giant robot shows," except that when it arrived in North America most fans hadn't seen what it was a response too and didn't quite interpret it in a satisfying way...
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