I laughed, I really did, reading how DM misleads the reader with screencaps of Ayato in ambiguous positions. Although, perhaps he doesn't. Some said before that the whole story is about Ayato killing off members of his harem one by one. Now that's misleading.

RahXephon is like a work of art, really.

DM's screencaps are quite effective in making the point. But here's some text:

That is not to say that RahXephon is trapped in the shadows of its source of inspiration — It is a story of human emotions that stand very well on its own. Perhaps because I’m not fluent enough in the language of the heart to fully appreciate the depths of Evangelion, but I found its presentation of human psychology rather incomprehensible at times, perhaps overly avant garde for the sake of it. RahXephon has its fair share of Alice-in-wonderland moments, but somehow manages to do a better job of tying things together while remaining relevant. In that sense, RahXephon provides a much more engaging and emotional experience.

Indeed. Although, DM obviously didn't watch the interview that came in DVD extras and addresses the issue of EVA. I'm going to cut and paste from earlier:

Oshii: [...] These days, the fact that there is no controversy concerning copying in animation and that there’s no awareness of it is a big problem. In my mind, the greatest achievement of EVA is that it is self-aware of being a copy. That was a huge change, and it was a big turning point. That’s why I pay attention to Anno. Not about what he’s going to make but as a situation. [...]

Izubuchi: You’re telling me to consciously master that (laughs). But for this job, I don’t really know if it’s a copy [of EVA] of not, but I did feel like I wanted to try and see if that route couldn’t be followed once more. I suppose that might mean that it’s a copy of a route that’s perpetuated to this day.

Look guys, I would like nothing more than for K-ON becoming better Manabi than Manabi. Go wild with the copying, just make it good.

UPDATE: IKnight of Animanachronism comments (no permalink -- how disappointing):

If you've seen something before, and it resembles what you're watching now, then it forms part of the basis for understanding what you're watching now in your mind, whether or not there was any actual influence. This works backwards in time ('Legend of the Galactic Heroes? Liked it better when it was Code Geass!'), and across geographical/cultural divides (hence why Simoun reminds me of early Biggles), too.

Oh LOL (emphasis mine). Man, I so need to make a special exemption against long series and watch that.