>>714076494>>714076585>>714076678Misato is the warm, nuturing, motherly figure to Shinji, which is what Tifa is to Cloud. From Eva FF7 gets the trio of male-female-female heroes, one who dies, and the other gets romantically connected to the hero by journeying through a sea of souls and mentally connecting to each other to work through their issues. So it's a combo of Asuka's role, but the nuturing motherly figure of Tifa. They even look similar.
Without Eva, they would have never done something as bold as having Cloud go through a mental break down and becoming comatose.
>>714076820It's drawn entirely from Westerners, and no evidence Nomura knew about these at all. Evangelion was a huge craze in Japan at the time (it didn't premier in the west until after FF7) and Can Can Bunny 2 was also popular.