General Anime/Manga Discussion 15: The Beach Episode

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I believe it's less a matter of "every pilot is a young teen" and more "the main pilot(s) are all young teens". There are basically always some adult pilots around, but the super uber prototype somehow often ends in the hands of a young kid and everybody around goes "this is fine".

Mind you, Invincible Super Man Zambot 3 and later on the first gundams already had deconstructed the whole "why are we letting the kid handle the giant machine of destruction again?" question.

Evangelion however takes it a step further that said young teen(s) can't really handle the constant pressure. Kappei Jin already starts hotblooded, Ray Amuro starts a bit whimpy but eventually becomes a cold killing machine, while Shinji and Asuka end up sinking lower and lower in despair and madness.