I don't recall any aliens in Gasaraki; various online summaries seem to reinforce my vague memory that the otherness factor was a matter of sketchily-defined occult forces rather than interstellar BEMs. Then again, theoretically the same could be said about Evangelion, though imho Eva's weird-ass antagonists had a much wider range of design/conceptual detail. Of the various angsty quasi-arcane mecha skiffy that come to mind at the moment, RahXephon probably had the most SFnalish alien antags. Maybe.

I'd chide you for not seeing Eva by drawing comparisons to reading Robert Jordan and Dragonlance without reading Tolkien first, except that I've practically never seen any of Gundam.