Guillermo del Toro built this film as a massive homage to Japanese kaiju and mecha cinema. He cited the 1956 manga Tetsujin 28-go (Gigantor in the West) and Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995) as the direct blueprints for the Jaegers. The psychological cost of piloting a giant robot, the interplay between human and machine consciousness—this is Evangelion's DNA fused with kaiju spectacle.
Films That Influenced Pacific Rim
