Fans of Japanese animation who consider the television shows and feature films of the “Neon Genesis Evangelion” franchise the ne plus ultra of sophisticated giant-robot anime will want to take a look at a new series, “Lagrange: The Flower of Rin-ne,” that is startlingly similar to “Evangelion” yet completely different in spirit.

For more casual cartoon watchers, or for those curious about the varieties of foreign TV now easily available on the Internet, “Lagrange” is interesting for its mode of distribution: new episodes are posted on Hulu each week simultaneously with their broadcast in Japan. Over the last few years an increasing number of Japanese animated shows have been “simulcast” (sometimes with a lag of a few days) on Web sites like Hulu, the Anime Network, Crackle, Crunchyroll and Funimation, eliminating the wait for DVD sets or reruns on domestic television and creating a virtual Japanese living room for American anime aficionados.

“Lagrange” takes the premise of “Evangelion” – a teenager pressed into service to save the planet because of an affinity with a mysterious, extraterrestrial humanoid fighting robot – and subverts it by changing the hero from a depressed, insecure boy to a cheerful, relentlessly positive, athletic girl.

The fundamental metaphor is unchanged: the teenager succeeds as a robot pilot – that is, grows up – when anger or fear or libido becomes uncontrollable and the heroine-hero bursts through the limits put in place by controlling or concerned adults. That’s the equation of many science-fiction stories, but the direct parallels to “Evangelion” are unmistakable, including a pair of secondary pilots who could have been cloned from the earlier series.

“Lagrange,” though, is much lighter, without the angst and, so far, the off-the-deep-end philosophizing of “Evangelion.” Rather than faceless, mute angelic destroyers, the enemy is a race of pretty-boy aliens whose interplanetary war has spread to Earth – they’re like Duran Duran in space. In a nice touch that could be read as feminine or perhaps just humanistic, the heroine, Madoka, frets about the damage the robot battles do to her hometown (the coastal city of Kamogawa) and takes pains to land in empty lots or on top of abandoned buildings – addressing a concern many of us have felt as we watched one animated Japanese city after another being flattened.

If you’re turned off by the silliness, confusing back stories and adolescent sexuality of Japanese cartoons, “Lagrange” won’t change your mind. It’s the grim seriousness of the “Evangelion” series, after all, that wins over people who wouldn’t otherwise bother with anime. But “Lagrange” is well drawn, with a sweetly appealing heroine and a reasonably adult sense of humor – not a bad way for a teenager of any age to spend a half hour. Seven of 24 planned episodes are available at Hulu or at the Web site of VIZ Media, the show’s producer.