I like Five Star Stories, watched the movie and read part of the manga.
Protagonist is a cute boy and also a mecha engineer, he pilots the "Knight of Gold" to save his beloved Lachessis from the evil Juba, the setting is inspired by the Islamic world, probably the Maghreb.
Here's an MAD that describes it well :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vb-eCgSQOis>>37274Anno, that garbage heap.
The only movie director whose movies get worse over time.
Gunbuster was great, Metal Skin Panic MADOX was great, Royal Space Force is Gainax's masterpiece.
And then he started departing from reality and selling his mental illness and self-taught knowledge of psychology and theology as if there was some meaning to it, when his skill is really that of a visual artist.
Shinji is a perversion of the bishounen archetype, where instead of looking weak and being strong he's just weak and pathetic and would probably drop out of high school if not for Gendo. Asuka should've been the main character, every other member of the cast should've been part of her harem.