< Neon Genesis Evangelion

Neon Genesis Evangelion/Characters


The cast of Neon Genesis Evangelion and Rebuild of Evangelion.

The YMMV tropes relating to the characters have been moved to that page.

Here be franchise-wide unmarked spoilers. You have been warned.

The Children (EVA pilots)

Shinji Ikari

Voiced by: Megumi Ogata (JP), Spike Spencer (EN), Victor Ugarte (Latin-American Spanish)

I mustn't run away. I mustn't run away. I mustn't run away...

Shinji, the Third Child, is the estranged son of NERV Commander Gendō Ikari. He is the main protagonist and the Ordinary High School Student of the cast, and the series is actually mostly about him and his relationships with the other characters. He witnessed the death of his mother Yui when he was four years old (she was seemingly killed in an early test stage of Evangelion Unit 01), and was abandoned by his father shortly thereafter. He suffers from an extreme lack of self-confidence throughout most of the storyline, has a very low opinion of himself, and generally does whatever is asked of him.

Especially in the early episodes, Shinji is the series' resident Butt Monkey, the victim of almost every joke the scriptwriters could come up with for purposes of comedy relief. He's The So-Called Coward who saves the day occasionally but never gets any respect, the "No Respect" Guy who means well but can't ever get a break, the "Well Done, Son" Guy who desperately wants his father to validate his existence. His day-to-day personality is meek, insecure and indecisive, shaped by his constant fear of being hurt by his relationships with others. Although this is the only way he can cope when dealing with people, it hinders his interactions with fellow pilots Rei and Asuka, both of whom he is attracted to, and with his extroverted and very attractive guardian Misato Katsuragi. Only when piloting EVA and fighting the Angels does an inner core of strength and Determination shine through. Unfortunately, because of his psychological trauma, it often takes a mixture of Unstoppable Rage and suicidal fear to bring it to manifest.

In the first episode, Gendo blackmails Shinji into piloting Unit 01 with the threat that if he doesn't, a severely-wounded Rei will be sent out in his place to certain death. From then on, Shinji is reluctant to pilot his EVA, doing it more out of a sense of duty and moral obligation than anything else. He seems to be the only pilot who fully grasps what is at stake, although he does not want such responsibility, and it weighs heavily upon him and constantly preys upon his mind. More than once he tries to run away or escape from his life as a pilot, only to return when driven back by the knowledge that he can't stand by while the world is destroyed. However, despite whatever conviction influences his decisions, an overriding theme in the series is that his actions are those of a child seeking approval, piloting EVA to earn his estranged father's praise or desperately trying to be accepted and valued by the people around him.

Over the first half or so of the series, Shinji makes noticeable progress toward becoming more stable and more accepting of others. However, beginning with the Angel Leliel's attack, and the increasing toll subsequent Angels' attacks and revelations about the truths behind NERV and SEELE take on him and everyone around him, Shinji becomes increasingly alienated, increasingly depressed, and his sanity slowly erodes. By the end of Episode 24, he is on the verge of a nervous breakdown or starting one. This leads to a major point of contrast between the anime's more hopeful resolution in episodes 25 and 26, and The End of Evangelion, where he becomes much less sympathetic, particularly at the start when he masturbates over a comatose Asuka and later attempts to strangle her. What was once bravery becomes insane recklessness, as his pain drives him to a point where he no longer really cares whether he (or anyone else) lives or dies.

In the manga version, Shinji's personality has noticeable differences, as he is more apathetic, depressive and prone to anger or snarkiness, rather than being fearful and cringing. Although he is portrayed as being a bit more stable, he is fundamentally the same damaged child.

Rebuild of Evangelion's Shinji is subtly different from the original, which is mostly attributed to the movies' different thematic focus.

  • Accidental Pervert:
    • His first actual conversation with Rei starts with this, and is notable for being one of the first major signs that Rei isn't normal.
    • This happens again with Mari in Rebuild 2.0. Again, Shinji is the only one of the two who seems to care.
  • Action Survivor: His first encounter with danger occurs at the feet of Sachiel, which crushes and detonates an army helicopter less than fifty feet from him, and the next encounter is inside Misato's car and beneath Misato as the blast wave from an N2 explosion throws and rolls the car sideways and up a hill.
  • Adorably Precocious Child: Well, he used to be one.
  • Adorkable: His polite behavior coupled with his tendency to get into incredibly awkward situations really makes him this.
  • Anti-Hero: Type I, specifically, with hints of Type IV as the plot advances.
  • Apologises a Lot: Too often, according to Asuka.

Asuka: Stop apologizing to me! Grow some backbone!
Shinji: S-Sorry!

  • Audience Surrogate: Whether people want to admit it or not, Shinji acts much the same way a lot of people would act given the circumstances, asks many of the same questions the audience is asking, and shares many of the audience's views on the events happening in the series (or vice versa, thanks to the story being told from his perspective). This, naturally, leads into a lot of the Fan Wank about the series.
  • Awesome McCoolname: His name can be read as "Wrath of the Divine Child."
  • Ax Crazy: When sufficiently stressed.
  • Badass Adorable: He's more cute than "handsome" or "pretty" and is often one of the only reasons for humanity's continued survival.
  • Beginner's Luck: Subverted in several ways.
  • Belligerent Sexual Tension: With Asuka in practically every installment of the franchise. Everyone Can See It. Even Toji can see it: Asuka starts chewing out Shinji for not bringing their lunches, while he tries to get his side in. Toji tosses off a remark that they're arguing Like an Old Married Couple. Cue double Luminescent Blush (they had kissed not many days earlier), then simultaneous denial in perfect stereo. But due to their personality problems, neither can actually tell the other, leading to... well, The End of the World as We Know It. Luckily, many fanfiction authors go out of their way to fix these problems. So did the canon author in the Rebuild of Evangelion series; her Tsundere and his Shrinking Violet tendencies are toned down considerably.
  • Berserk Button:
    • In the TV series in Episode 3 and Episode 24. Then, in The End of Evangelion.
    • In Rebuild of Evangelion, anyone or anything hurting Rei gets a dose of Shinji's new-found rage. This comes to a head in Rebuild 2.0: You Can (Not) Advance when Rei is devoured by Zeruel, and he decides to take a page from Kamina and rip the angel to pieces with glowing eyes of rage to save her.
  • The Berserker: When pushed past his breaking point, Shinji becomes a brutal killing machine. There's only so much pressure a doormat can take.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: When he's driven over the edge, horror ensues for the Angels, Asuka and possibly for Gendo.
  • Big Damn Heroes: Sometimes as the rescuer, sometimes as the rescued. His one indisputable moment of this comes in Episode 19, in the battle against Zeruel. It was also reenacted in Super Robot Wars MX, but with Rom Stol encouraging Shinji to perform said act in game.
  • Bishonen: Shinji's level of bishie-ness (or non-bishie-ness) is very polarizing in the fandom, although Sadamoto wrote that he designed Shinji to be a delicate/vulnerable-looking bishonen.
  • Break the Cutie: One of the defining examples of this trope, at least in anime.
  • Butt Monkey: To the extreme, but not in a comical way.
  • Byronic Hero: Becomes more in Rebuild of Evangelion as the series progresses.
  • Character Tic: The twitching of his fingers, and opening and closing his hand.
  • Chick Magnet: Asuka, Misato and Rei's actions around him say much... and then there's Kaworu.
  • Clueless Chick Magnet: And yet, somehow, Shinji will find a way to make sure nothing happens.
    • As of Rebuild 2.0, it's official. If you've met Shinji, you will want to screw Shinji. No exceptions.
  • Conscription: It's been said that the reason Shinji gets so much flak from anime fans is because he has far more in common with a Vietnam War draftee than with most Shonen protagonists. While the reasons the animosity are up for debate (like virtually everything else in Evangelion), there certainly isn't any doubt that Shinji was pretty much shanghaied into becoming an EVA pilot.
  • Covert Pervert: As evidenced by his dream sequences. No more than Truth in Television level for a hormonal teenager though.
  • Cowardly Lion
  • Creepy Child: He's all over this in The End Of Evangelion.
  • Deadpan Snarker: He has signs of this in the anime, at least in the beginning, before Break the Cutie rears its ugly head. In the manga, it seems to be his default state when he's catching flak from people, especially to Asuka. On a more subtle level, it also counts as another trait that makes him Not So Different from his father, as seen in Episode 22 where it turns out the younger Gendo also had quite the sarcastic wit back in the day.
  • Despair Event Horizon: In a horribly cruel fashion, he crosses this line more than once. How does that even work? Something will happen that will break him, throwing him into a Heroic BSOD (for example, the incident with EVA Unit 03 where he goes into a complete Freak-Out), and then he will slowly and painfully pull himself back from the brink into some semblance of barely-functioning normality... and then something else will happen to just decimate him all over again and drive him back over the horizon. Each time he "recovers", he is more damaged and less stable than the time before, so it becomes even easier next time for him to be broken. It's only in The End of Evangelion that he becomes permanently fixed beyond the Despair Event Horizon by virtue of the fact that he is so completely and utterly destroyed -- his mind being a broken mess of psychological torment and agony -- that becoming an Empty Shell would be a relief.
  • Determinator: In Rebuild of Evangelion, even if his flesh tears away, he WILL save Ayanami.
    • It's more than that. Willing Unit 01 to reactivate and proceeding to turn physics inside-out and getting torn apart, all to save Rei? Hell yeah, total Badass Determinator. But that's not enough, oh no. Since an Angel's physical form is defined by its AT Field (its soul), what we have here is a boy who by dint of his conviction is able to rip into the soul of the most powerful Angel NERV has ever faced and *tear it apart* to get back the girl he loves. Clearly, Third Impact is just another name for what happens when Shinji's balls drop.
    • But there is also a disturbing implication to this action, namely the fact that Shinji is willing to disregard all consequences, including the death of the entire human race, to be reunited with a girl whom he relies on emotionally. He has basically adopted his father's screwed worldview. And just to drive the point home, the action is centered around the clone of the same woman.
    • He also shows this in the original anime. If you convince him that he has to destroy an angel he will do anything to destroy it. The difference between Rebuild of Evangelion and the original anime is that in the original he is generally terrified out of his mind or on the verge of a psychotic break when in Determinator mode, while in Rebuild of Evangelion, it seems to be more of a function of Unstoppable Rage. The second is probably more emotionally healthy, considering that in the original, he always goes through a period of pretty severe post-traumatic stress afterwards, which he doesn't seem to be getting so much in Rebuild of Evangelion.
  • Determined Defeatist: Kaworu admits that what he admires the most about Shinji, in contrast to Gendo and SEELE, is that Shinji keeps going despite all the heartbreak life causes him.
  • Dreadful Musician: He considers himself as such, but is actually a pretty decent cello player. Case in point: he can play the prelude to Bach's Cello Suite No. 1, a piece known for requiring a considerable amount of skill, very well. Even Asuka is impressed.
  • Driven to Suicide: He comes close to it about twice before The End of Evangelion, after which he is continuously in a state of suicidal depression.
  • The Eeyore: Not (generally) played for laughs: he's genuinely depressed, and we're meant to feel his pain. What makes this even more painful to watch is the contrast the audience sees in episodes 10 to 14, where he actually seems to be genuinely smiling for a short period of time and seems relatively happy (or at the very least content, with a fair bit of emotional stability thrown in for good measure). This doesn't last long though.
  • Even the Guys Want Him:
    • Played straight, subverted, or both at once, depending on how you look at it. His interactions with Kaworu fall into Ho Yay territory, but end very messily. None of his relationships with the other characters turn out well either, due to his insecurities and everyone else's unique psychological issues.
    • On the other hand, Kaji jokingly(?) flirts with him in Rebuild 2.0... and, in Ikari Shinji Raising Project, Shinji gets unwanted attention from both Kaworu and Gendo.
  • Expy:
    • In a sense; Shinji's character design is a Gender Flip of Nadia.
    • He also has a few character traits similar to Noriko.
  • Extreme Doormat: Less so in the manga and Rebuild of Evangelion.
  • Freak-Out: Happens often. Earlier in the series, the occasional Freak Outs just temper into a Heroic BSOD, and eventually, he seems to "recover" for a bit. However, as the series goes on, they become more and more damaging, and it becomes more and more difficult for him to recover from. And then we get to The End of Evangelion and well...
  • Genre Savvy: His Super Robot Wars Alpha 3 incarnation to an extreme degree. He even teaches Kira Yamato Dealing With an Angry Tsundere 101. He demonstrates by subduing a pissed off Cagalli with food.
  • Glowing Eyes of Doom: Second movie, towards the end. They're blood red, and it is truly, unconditionally terrifying.
  • A God Am I: Somewhat becomes this during The End of Evangelion, where he is asked whether or not he wants humanity to continue existing as it is or not. The question being asked shortly after his Despair Event Horizon, humanity is forced to take it up the ass. Or not.
  • Go Mad from the Revelation: Starts late in the series and goes full blast in The End of Evangelion.
  • Hard Work Hardly Works: There's a reason why he's such a good pilot.
  • Hates Being Touched
  • Headphones Equal Isolation: He's often seen wearing headphones, listening to music on his SDAT player, when he wants to block out reality.
  • The Hero
  • Heroic BSOD: Several times over the course of the series, and so much so in The End of Evangelion that after the Dude, She's Like, in a Coma opening, he becomes a passive Death Seeker.
  • Heroic Self-Deprecation: Gendo really did something awful to his self-esteem.
  • Heroic Willpower: He mustn't run away (the one time he does, it's Ten-Minute Retirement).
  • Hurting Hero: Progressively more and more as the series reaches the climax.
  • I Ate What?: In response to trying Misato's cooking.
  • If It's You It's Okay: Possibly towards Kaworu. Shinji is most likely straight considering how he expresses attraction to Misato, Asuka and Rei. However, in the manga, at one point, he thinks "I was attracted to him (Kaworu) even though I knew I shouldn't like a boy like that." The most common fan theories are that he's either Bi or just starving for affection.
  • I Just Want to Be Normal: Desperately clings to any chances at a normal life despite knowing all too well that he's stuck in the world Gendo has placed him in. Even discounting that, the plans Yui made for him effectively means that he never really had a chance.
  • Incest Is Relative: The sexual attraction between him and Rei (who, unbeknownst to either of them, is a clone produced from a mixture of his mother's DNA and Lilith's').
    • Just how genetically close Shinji and Rei are is one of the more debated topics among fans, and is frequently played with in fanfiction, especially among Shippers. Depending on who you ask, a relationship between the two could be Parental Incest, Brother-Sister Incest, Kissing Cousins, or not incest at all.
  • Interspecies Romance: Shinji/Rei might also be this, since she is a Half-Human Hybrid.
  • Introverted Character, Extroverted Actor: Spike Spencer, Shinji's English voice actor, is a perpetually hyperactive, highly sociable guy who loves cracking jokes and being the center of attention and doesn't care much for contemplation... that is to say, he's the polar opposite of Shinji.
  • It's All My Fault: He has a nasty habit of blaming everything on himself. The absolute refusal by the rest of the cast to explain anything to him only makes it worse.
  • It Sucks to Be the Chosen One: Shinji hates being an EVA pilot.
  • I Will Protect Her: In the manga version of The End of Evangelion, Shinji piloting Unit-01 takes a stand against the MP Evas once Unit-02 shuts down and, vastly outnumbered, speaks this line in utter Badassitude:

"I will... protect Asuka!! Never... again... shall anyone die!!"

  • The Kirk: He forms the insecure and indecisive center trying to balance out the emotionless Rei and the overly emotional Asuka.
  • Kissing Cousins: His possible relationship with Rei in Shinji Ikari Raising Project, where she is his distant cousin.
  • Like an Old Married Couple: With Asuka when they're both at their most emotionally stable. It's lampshaded by Touji.
  • Like Brother and Sister: His relationship with Rei has some shades of this, not least due to Rei's origins.
  • Loser Protagonist: A core aspect of his character is his refusal to acknowledge anything about himself besides his failures.
  • Midnight Blue Eyes
  • Mr. Fanservice: There are quite a few shots of him naked.
  • Not So Different:
    • In The End of Evangelion, Shinji realizes the similarities between himself and Asuka.

Asuka: Even just the sight of you gets on my nerves! Shinji: Because I'm just like you?

    • It becomes obvious by the end of the series that he and Gendo actually are very similar people, both being introverted persons wracked with an extreme sense of social anxiety and self-loathing.
  • Oedipus Complex:
    • Especially in the manga, where Shinji throws a punch at Gendo, and later has a dream sequence about killing him. Also, while trapped inside Unit-01, he is tempted by the naked spirit of his mother.
    • His relationship with Rei is often seen as a metaphor for this, even if she isn't really a 100% duplicate of Yui.
  • Ordinary High School Student: At the beginning. On the other hand, his family past is such that he could never have had an ordinary life to begin with, which Kaji makes amply clear in the manga. Also, like so much of Evangelion, deconstructed since it shows how well an actual ordinary teenager would react to being unwillingly thrust into war against Eldritch Abominations.
  • Parental Abandonment: He watched his mother die. Dad is emotionally neglectful/abusive (especially in the manga). Misato tries to fill in, bless her heart, but she simply can't get the job done.
  • Precision F-Strike: In the dub.
  • The Scream: Screams quite a bit throughout the series, and at least three times in The End of Evangelion. Usually coincides with a particularly painful Freak-Out or begging Gendo to stop doing something highly unethical.
  • Short Wimpy and Brunet
  • Shrinking Violet: Generally a passive wallflower in social situations, though he does make attempts at being more social.
  • The So-Called Coward: Subverted; he saves the day again and again, but rarely gets any respect for it.
  • Stepford Smiler: For most of the series he walks around quietly with a little smile on his face, even when it becomes clear he's dying inside.
  • Super Mode/One-Winged Angel/Physical God: When the sync rate with Unit-01 is at 400%. In the anime, manga and Rebuild of Evangelion continuities, this is pretty much only used once, against Zeruel. In the manga, however, it also happens when Shinji decides to protect Asuka during The End of Evangelion...
  • Supreme Chef: So good, even Asuka didn't want to share hers with anyone when he made lunch.
  • Ten-Minute Retirement: Every time something traumatic happens to him in his EVA, he swears off piloting only to be dragged back in not long after due to his own hidden Determinator qualities. The one time when he finally decides to call it quits for good, things don't turn out well.
  • This Loser Is You
  • Took a Level in Badass:
    • Subverted in that everyone was waiting for him to do this. There are at least two instances in which he goes completely, homicidally and brutally ballistic toward his enemies, which at one point included his father along with the rest of NERV and Tokyo-3. And after all of that, he's still quite "wimpy".
    • In fan works, on the other hand, Shinji does this all the freaking time. If you're reading an Evangelion fanfic that's not Original Flavor, there's a 90% chance that Shinji will either Level Grinding in badass or have his natural courage played up over his cowardice and various mental traumas. Whether this works or backfires spectacularly depends on the fic.
      • Super Robot Wars has done this with Shinji a lot, and in ways that are much more realistic than Fan Fics. The most triumphant example would have to be Super Robot Wars Alpha, where the The End Of Evangelion events happen TWICE, two years apart from each other. They get as far as the MP EVAs in @1 and everyone is actually tanged in 3, which thanks to Shinji and the heroes who actually accepted him as friend, doesn't last long. By Alpha 3, Shinji has grown enough to Bright Slap Kira Yamato and leads the charge on Central Dogma against Gendo near the end of the game.
    • There was the time in Super Robot Wars Final where Shinji got Bright Slapped by Bright Noa himself.
    • The Rebuild of Evangelion incarnation of Shinji, in comparison to the original.
  • Tragic Hero: He oscillates back and forth during the series between terrified near-catatonia and insane superhuman courage, though by the end, he's clearly heading for a nervous breakdown, and completely snaps in The End of Evangelion.
  • Trauma Conga Line: Shinji's entire life, basically. A lot of it courtesy of Gendo. As for the result types, he's a result B in the original, but shifts to a variation of a result D in Rebuild of Evangelion.
  • Ugly Guy's Cute Son
  • Unlucky Everydude
  • Unresolved Sexual Tension: After all, he is the central character, and on a fundamental level the series/franchise is all about growing up, including learning about the opposite sex. First and foremost, with Asuka. Also plenty with Rei and Misato (although they both are also mother figures to him) and Kaworu.
  • Unstoppable Rage: Whenever he gets pushed too far by the stress of being an EVA pilot.
  • "Well Done, Son" Guy: He's this way up until the incident with Unit-03, at which point his wanting to reconcile with Gendo dies a very messy death.


Rei Ayanami

Voiced by: Megumi Hayashibara (JP), Amanda Winn-Lee (EN, series), Brina Palencia (Rebuild), Circe Luna (Latin-American Spanish, first dub), Gabriela Ugarte (Latin-American Spanish, second dub)

If I die, I can be replaced.

Rei, the First Child, is a Shy Blue-Haired Girl. She is beautiful, fey and otherworldly, and has a Mysterious Past that is only partially revealed late in the series. When asked why she pilots her EVA, she says that it's because she's "bonded" to it, or that it's her bond to humanity, or something like that. She displays little concern for her own life (see the quote): this takes on seriously creepy layers late in the series.

At first, her only human relationship is with her commanding officer Gendō. Shinji once stops to observe a conversation between Rei and Gendō from some distance, and though neither he nor the audience can hear what they're saying, Rei and Gendō are shown smiling at each other. Gendō, for his part, appears to care for Rei more than anybody else, even his own son. After a failed test forces Rei to eject from her EVA, Gendō, in an uncharacteristic panic, is the first to reach her entry plug, burning his hands while forcing it open to retrieve her. Rei still keeps the broken glasses that fell from his face during this incident, and is initially very defensive of him, as exemplified when she slaps Shinji for saying negative things about Gendō. At one point, Shinji also observes her smiling and appearing to have a friendly conversation with Gendo. This deceives Shinji and the audience into thinking that they are close; later, when Shinji asks Rei about Gendō, she replies that she doesn't know what kind of person he is. By the end of the story, her attitude toward Gendō has changed dramatically.

She is stated in Episode 17 to have strong feelings for Shinji, though her thoughts and feelings are for the most part revealed neither to the people around her nor to the audience. This is changed in the manga adaption where, as well as the pair having more scenes together, she shows much more of a fondness towards him and openly admits it. However, the true depths of her feelings are still hidden until later in the story.

She is in many ways the polar opposite of Asuka, and is compared to Yui Ikari, implicitly and explicitly, on multiple occasions.



Asuka Langley Soryu/Shikinami

Voiced by: Yuko Miyamura (JP), Tiffany Grant (EN), Norma Echevarria (Latin-American Spanish, first dub), Gina Sanchez (Latin-American Spanish, second dub)

What are you, stupid?

Asuka, the Second Child, is an obnoxious, conceited, abrasive German-Japanese girl with a short temper, who alternates between flirting with Shinji and brutalizing him both emotionally and physically. She is a Teen Genius who has a college degree at the age of fourteen, speaks at least three languages fluently, and is very determined and very athletic. She pilots gleefully because she wants to become famous the world over for her intrepid exploits. She glories in combat, and it's very nearly all she lives for. Her naturally red hair and blue eyes also make her exotically attractive by Japanese standards. Her almost pathologically arrogant, rude and selfish personality, on the other hand, is patently offensive even by Western standards... never mind in a country that values politeness, consideration and humility, especially for women, as much as Japan does.

She is infatuated with Ryōji Kaji, Misato Katsuragi's on-again, off-again boyfriend, and throws herself at him again and again in an aggressive manner that is, for cultural reasons, quite shocking to the Japanese (and still fairly obsessive and disturbing even in more demonstrative cultures). She initially offers to be friends with Rei because "it would be convenient", but quickly comes to hate her because she perceives Rei as being akin to a doll or puppet, something Asuka harbors a deep hatred for. At first, she appears to be a potential girlfriend for Shinji: there is a comical and clumsy First Kiss scene between them, and Shinji is one of only two males with whom she ever flirts in the whole series, but she makes her hostility towards him quite clear. She is not the main focus of the program, so her thoughts and feelings are not displayed as much as Shinji's are, but she is shown to have strong feelings for Shinji... the problem (usually for him) is that whatever these feelings are, they seem to be either deeply conflicted or aggressive and violent. Word of God says that Asuka actually is attracted to Shinji, meekness and all, and is hurt by his shying away from her, never realizing that it's her dominant and hateful attitude that's pushing him away.

As the series goes on, she becomes more sympathetic when her own painful past is revealed, which is proportionate to the emotional issues she's developed as a result. Her personality and attitude are shown to be psychological defenses against cripplingly low self-esteem, and that she abuses others partly out of a fear of intimacy and partly out of sheer anger at the world. She does not change for the better, but, depending on interpretation, there is a hint at the very end of The End of Evangelion that she has come to realize how much she has hurt everyone around her.

The manga version of Asuka is not much different: the main changes are to her background (she is a test-tube baby), her introduction (which establishes her as more of an outright Badass than in the anime), and her traumatic past (an extra event is introduced which compounds the tragedy and which plays itself out again through Asuka).


  • Ace Pilot: Deconstructed.
  • Action Girl: More so in the manga where we see her in action outside of the EVA.
  • Alpha Bitch: In the anime especially. Is more bearable in the manga, and in the Rebuild of Evangelion films, she isn't an Alpha Bitch at all even when a jerkass, depicted as completely antisocial in school rather than the popular girl like in the anime.
  • Anti-Hero: Type IV. As deeply flawed as Shinji and with similar issues, but in a more extroverted fashion.
  • Arrogant Kung Fu Guy: She uses her overconfidence and Ace Pilot status to obfuscate just how screwed up she is.
  • Ax Crazy: If anyone or anything that isn't named "Kaji" or "Hikari" pushes her buttons. This effect is turned Up to Eleven if Shinji is the victim or if she is in Unit-02, and passes the horror threshold in The End of Evangelion when she fights the MP EVAs, dispatching them with brutality that is at times almost sickening.
  • Attention Whore: Due to her abandonment issues.
  • Back from the Dead: She's the first human being - besides Shinji - who gets out of Instrumentality.
  • Badass Adorable: As usual, she's a cute tsundere girl who's also one of the most accomplished and capable EVA pilots upon her introduction.
  • Badass Bookworm: While not quite to the extent of Rei, Asuka did manage to graduate from college, and she does have quite a good knowledge of Science: the only reason she has trouble in the exams is because she hasn't mastered Kanji.
  • Bandage Babe: During the last scene of The End of Evangelion. She suffers from similar wounds to Rei's.
  • Bastard Girlfriend: Deconstructed, since her abuse is neither played for laughs nor sexy.
  • The Berserker
  • Blood Knight
  • Blue Eyes
  • Break the Cutie: Her breaking happened a little later than Shinji's but was much harsher and traumatic.
  • Break the Haughty: Since her entire self-conception revolves around being the best EVA pilot, anytime she fails is a major blow to her confidence.
  • Broken Ace: EVA pilot, intelligent, already has a university degree, the most popular girl in school... and packing childhood trauma equivalent to Shinji's.
  • Broken Bird: She already qualified for this at the start of the show. This being Evangelion, It Got Worse, and after the Mind Rape, she was almost completely broken.
  • Broken Smile: She's currently featured on the page image.
  • Bungled Suicide: It's implied that she tried to cut her wrists in Episode 24, when she's seen in a bathtub with water that looks like it's stained red, and may have been starving herself. Section 2 finds her and she's too weak to resist being taken into custody.
  • But Not Too Foreign: She's born to a half-German, half-Japanese mother and an American father of unknown ethnicity (though if Langley is assumed to be his surname, he's likely English), and has an American passport.
  • Cannot Spit It Out: For extra fun, she has a hard time even admitting her feelings for Shinji to herself, let alone telling him. Of course, it probably doesn't help that on the occasions when she subtly or not-so-subtly flirts with him, it doesn't work at all.
  • Catch Phrase: "Anta Baka?", meaning "What are you, stupid?".
  • Character Development: Following her Mind Rape, she starts questioning who she is and nearly kills herself in the process. After returning from the LCL, she shows Shinji a sign of affection by caressing his face (though it's clear she's still mad at him).
  • Character Escapist Phase: After her Mind Rape and before her suicide attempt. She briefly became obsessed with videogames to cope with her horrible reality. Even Hikari was worried about her playing games all the time. Not surprisingly she is the trope picture.
  • Clingy Jealous Girl:
    • In the presence of Kaji. She's very possessive towards Kaji whenever it seems like he's paying attention to another woman; this makes his past flame Misato the main object of her jealousy.
    • Also towards Shinji, not that she would ever admit it. Even catching Shinji looking at Rei can trigger an outburst, and then there's Episode 22, where in the midst of her Heroic BSOD, she spots Shinji and Rei talking to each other. The next time she interacts with Rei, Asuka goes into a screaming meltdown and slaps her. This is often much more explicit in Alternate Continuity works. Mana Kirishima seems to really bring this out in her. She also plays this trope painfully straight while Shinji is viewing an alternate world in Episode 26 where he was never an EVA pilot: she is instead his next door Childhood Friend, and doesn't like how much attention he seems to be giving to New Transfer Student Rei.
  • Cruel and Unusual Death: The way that Asuka checks out in The End of Evangelion is definitely not for the faint of heart... or stomach.
  • Defrosting the Ice Queen: There are shades of this immediately following her introduction. She steadily becomes less and less of a Jerkass to Shinji until finally they have an awkward kiss scene. Unfortunately, then things went south when she interpreted his awkward reaction to the kiss as a rejection. Then her jealousy flares back up once he surpasses her as a pilot, and his relationship with Rei grows warmer. Then came the Mind Rape...
  • Designer Baby: Asuka is a test-tube baby in the manga adaptation, apparently from a bank that was very particular about its donors. Her feeling of being "special" is partly tied to this, which makes her loss of confidence even more painful to her as the story progresses.
  • Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Asuka hates the very thought of anyone feeling sorry for her, as she has a pathological fear that it means people have seen through her thunderous surface and therefore think she is weak and pathetic.
  • Driven to Suicide: Shortly after her mental breakdown and Mind Rape. It fails when she is found, but she falls into a coma.
  • Expy: She is a Gender Flip version of Tetsuya Tsurugi. Tetsuya is the Trope Codifier and Trope Maker of Hot-Blooded Ace Pilot in the Super Robot Genre. He also would be a Deconstruction if he actually was not THE FIRST ONE. He was so arrogant whoever doubted his skills had troubles with him (in fact, suggesting he had lost was one of his Berserk Buttons). He could not stand someone showed him up, and often he seemed more concerned about showing off than protecting people when he fought. He also was a Tsundere Would Hit a Girl, even if she was his Love Interest and Battle Couple. Deep down, he was not a bad person, but when he was angry, upset or jealous, he could be a BIG jerkass. However, all of that arrogance and rudeness was a cover-up to hide he was an orphan child with huge abandoment issues, a HUGE Inferiority Superiority Complex and an utter lack of self-confidence. He was deadly afraid of if he was not the best pilot ever, he would be replaced and forgotten, and then he would be worthless (piloting Great Mazinger was his way to prove the world he existed). His adoptive father did nothing to address those issues, being more concerned with training him to become a soldier than with treating him like a father. Tetsuya's arrogance, jealous and lack of self-trust caused many troubles throughout the entire series, until he finally got a nervous breakdown and went through a very tragic Break the Haughty moment. And it must be mentioned in one storyline of one of the original series he fought nine mass-production models of his Humongous Mecha. Honestly, the only differences between Asuka and him is Asuka is red-haired and female.
  • Eye Scream: The poor girl is doomed to this in both continuities. In The End of Evangelion, she gets stabbed through the eye when a fake Lance of Longinus flies at Unit-02, and as a result of the high sync rate she bleeds profusely. In Rebuild 2.0, the EVA she is piloting is infected by Bardiel and ripped apart by Unit-01, who chops down on the plug with her still inside it. The previews for 3.0 show her with an eyepatch.
  • Fiery Redhead: The page picture.
  • Foreign Cuss Word: Asuka's American voice actress can speak German, and peppers Asuka's speech with German profanity.
  • Foreign Fanservice: Has German, Japanese and American heritage.
  • The Gadfly: A rather Jerkass example.
  • Girlish Pigtails: Wears true tsundere tails.
  • Glory Hound: Her Attention Whore issues lead to her striving to hog the spotlight (and, consequentially, the praise) when it comes to being an Evangelion pilot.
  • The Glomp: On Kaji.
  • Hair-Trigger Temper: Asuka's temperament is perpetually on thin ice, and she unloads almost as often as Shinji or Rei steps upon it.
  • Hates Being Touched: After her Mind Rape.
  • The Hero: In the radio drama Shin Sentai Evangelion, she creates her own sentai series and says she'll be the leader because she's wearing red.
  • Heroic BSOD: Episode 22 starts with Asuka going into a mental breakdown that sends her sync ratio plummetting, then she gets Mind Raped.
  • Hot-Blooded: Especially compared to Rei and Shinji. She's prone to screaming her head off when piloting.
  • Hot Girls Are Bitches
  • Hurting Heroine: She has a lot of emotional baggage under her haughty surface.
  • Icy Blue Eyes: Which she gives a number of cold stares with over the course of the series.
  • Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Spam Attacked to Gorn levels with her death in The End of Evangelion.
  • Inferiority Superiority Complex: Asuka's attitude and abrasiveness are a psychological coverup for her self-esteem issues.
  • Japanese Politeness: Is constantly annoyed by Shinji apologizing. Is also the most prominent foreigner on the show.
  • Jerkass Facade: Acts like one to not have anybody pitying or dominating her. As stated above, she's much less so in the Rebuild of Evangelion movies.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Manga version, post her initial appearance in Volume 4. For example: she's actually visibly worried about Shinji when he's liquefied and sealed inside his EVA; in the anime, her reaction was much more guarded. She also expresses out loud the desire to save Touji during the Unit-03 incident, and, considering the argumentative relationship between the two, that's saying something. She's also this in the Rebuild of Evangelion movies.
  • The Lancer: Shinji's polar opposite who is actually very similar to him beneath the surface. Their conflict with each other is a driving force throughout the series.
  • Leeroy Jenkins: Part of the series' Deconstruction of the Hot-Blooded Ace Pilot is Asuka's occasional tendency to be this. Her first attempt to work together with Shinji was a disaster, after which she got better as she learned to work together with her teammates before reverting back to this due to her mental breakdown.
  • Like an Old Married Couple: Her bickering with Shinji is Lampshaded by Touji in class when he addresses them as the "newly weds" making them both Luminescent Blush.
  • Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Masculine Girl to Shinji's Feminine Boy.
  • Master of the Mixed Message: Towards Shinji.
  • The McCoy: The emotional, hot-tempered and unpredictable part of the main trio.
  • Mind Rape: One of the cruelest examples ever: became the Trope Namer.
  • Ms. Fanservice: A contender for the position with Misato and Rei.
  • Narcissist
  • Panty Shot: In her first appearance. Hilarity Ensues.
  • Patient Childhood Love Interest: In the Anime's Alternate Universe scenes, she is one.
  • The Perfectionist
  • Plucky Girl: Though her pluckiness is presented in a rather negative light.
  • Poirot Speak: In the Mexican dub.
  • Precocious Crush: On Kaji.
  • Pride
  • The Rival: Whenever Kouji Kabuto and Asuka meet in the Super Robot Wars series, they often butt heads.
  • Slasher Smile: During her battle with the EVA Series.
  • Smitten Teenage Girl: She's 14 and has a crush on the much older Kaji, who, despite acting like a Casanova toward most of the adult female cast, simply isn't interested. It's also a subversion, however: Asuka forces herself to be attracted to Kaji because she wants to seem mature; by contrast, she hides the feelings she ends up developing for Shinji.
  • Spared by the Adaptation: Okay, odd example, considering the ending of The End of Evangelion, and it's still not quite certain here, considering that Third Impact has just been initiated, but in the manga, Shinji manages to save her before she is killed by the EVA Series.
  • Spell My Name with an "S": Is it Soryu, Sōryū, Souryu, Sohryu, Soryuu...? ADV's subs for the Platinum Edition use Sohryu, while the official English translation of the manga uses Soryu.
  • Stepford Smiler: A combination of the Depressed and Unstable types.
  • Tall, Dark and Snarky
  • Team Prima Donna: Although she is a very good pilot pilot when not in the middle of a mental breakdown.
  • The Tease
  • Testosterone Brigade Bait
  • Troubled but Cute: She's a dysfunctional, extremely troubled loner and easily one of the cutest characters in the series along with Rei.
  • Tsundere: Very tsun, with a heavily repressed dere side. She's essentially an answer to the question, "How messed up in the head would a person actually have to be to act like an anime tsundere?".
  • Tsunshun: Describes her perfectly. She's not the page image for nothing.
  • Tyke Bomb: In the manga.
  • Unknown Rival: Her relationship with Rei has elements of this in the original show: Asuka is very vocal about her dislike of Rei, while Rei barely acknowledges Asuka's existence. While much of this is fueled by their contrasting personalities, Asuka's dislike markedly increases as she develops an interest in Shinji.
    • It does bear mentioning that some of Rei's internal dialogue indicates that she actually does view Asuka as a rival for Shinji's attention, but this being Rei, she never treats Asuka as such or even realizes that she does secretly view Asuka as such (yes, Rei's mindset is honestly that screwed up). The manga takes this further, especially during Rei's mental confrontation with Armisael.
  • Unresolved Sexual Tension: Practically the walking embodiment of it. Most of all, with Shinji.
  • Waif Fu: Her first appearance in the manga involves gratuitous handsprings during a fight scene.
  • Well, Excuse Me, Princess!: It is clear that at least some of her meanness towards Shinji stems from her belief that Misato's acceptance of his apologetic and passive behavior only enables it. She embodies it completely during the Episode 26 fantasy sequence.
  • Wife Husbandry: Inverted and subverted. Asuka is the closest thing Kaji has to a daughter, Asuka desperately wants to do stuff with Kaji, but despite Asuka's continued advances, the most Kaji ever does is let her down gently.
  • The Worf Effect: Despite starting out with highest sync rate and being described as a very talented and competent pilot, she is also the one who suffers the most defeats on the battlefield, which eventually severely worsens her confidence and erodes her psychological stability, causing her sync rate to drop drastically.

The Rebuild of Evangelion version of Asuka differs quite a bit from the depiction in the original anime. Her last name is changed from Souryū to Shikinami, her loathing for dolls is seemingly gone, and so is her obsessive crush on Kaji. While still having made a remarkable achievement at her age, instead of graduating University at the age of 14, she joined the European Air Force, reaching the rank of Captain at age 14. While still kind of a jerk most of the time, Asuka Shikinami is merely hostile, selfish and arrogant as opposed to being pathologically narcissistic. Not only is she more emotionally healthy, she's actually willing to open up to other people, displaying some affection for Shinji and coming to respect and befriend Rei. Her character design, while starting out the same way as in the anime, undergoes a small but rather drastic change at the very end of Rebuild 2.0, namely an Eyepatch of Power.

Tropes Present in Rebuild:

  • Defrosting Ice Queen: She actually gets to become a better human being.
  • Eyepatch of Power: In the preview for Rebuild of Evangelion 3.0, which makes her, implied disfigurement notwithstanding, even cuter. God save us from the tsundere that is to be unleashed.
  • Flanderization: The tsundere aspect.
  • Hand Puppet: She is seen talking with one soon after moving in with Shinji and Misato. Unless her backstory has changed, it might mean she isn't quite as healthy as she seems to be.
  • I Just Want My Beloved to Be Happy: When Asuka determines that Rei loves Shinji, she decides to let them be together despite her own feelings for him.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Shikinami Asuka Langley has a genuinely considerate, caring and kind-hearted side that finally qualifies her as a traditional Tsundere as opposed to a mere female Jerkass.
  • Pet the Dog: In Rebuild 2.0, she takes Rei's place piloting Unit 03 so that Rei can host her party (even though she insists it's just so she can pilot an EVA while Unit 02 is sealed off, Misato thinks otherwise).
  • Tsundere: While it's debatable whether or not Soryu ever was one, Shikinami is undeniably a tsundere, as she does show more of a good side.

Touji Suzuhara

Voiced by: Tomokazu Seki (JP), Joe Pisano (EN, eps 3-18), Michael O'Connor (19-20), Brett Weaver (21-26, Death and Rebirth, The End of Evangelion), Justin Cook (Rebuild of Evangelion), Enrique Medeiros (Latin-American Spanish, first dub), Luis Daniel Ramirez (Latin-American Spanish, second dub)... whew!

Hey, bigshot! What're you starin' at so intently?

Toji, in his first appearance, punches out Shinji because his little sister was injured during Unit 01's fight with Sachiel. However, after experiencing firsthand what Shinji has to go through as an EVA pilot, he becomes sympathetic to Shinji. He has Shinji pay him back with a punch of his own, and he, Kensuke and Shinji become friends. Later, he is selected as the Fourth Child, only to have his EVA taken over by the Angel Bardiel. During the ensuing battle, Asuka and Rei are quickly defeated by the Angel-possessed Unit 03. Shinji balks at orders to attack, wanting to try to save the pilot, and Gendō orders Unit 01's Dummy Plug to be activated. Out of Shinji's control, Unit 01 tears Unit 03 apart, then rips out and crushes the Entry Plug, crippling Toji.

There are a few noticeable differences between Toji's portrayal in the anime and manga. Shinji's payback for his punch is different, and their out-of-classroom antics are shown more. Also, he reveals to Shinji that he is Unit 03's pilot prior to its activation/takeover, and he is actually killed when his Entry Plug is destroyed.


  • Adaptation Dye Job: Switches between black (anime) and brownish-blond (manga).
  • An Arm and a Leg: Toji survives the slaughter of EVA-03, but Shinji can't stop Unit 01 from crushing his entry plug with the dummy system overriding his control... and so, Toji wakes up in the hospital light a left leg, all thanks to Gendo Ikari.
  • Apologetic Attacker: When he first meets Shinji and slugs him. Inverted an episode later when he has Shinji hit him so he can apologize for the earlier incident.
  • The Big Guy: He has the muscled look and boisterous personality to fit, though the one time he gets to pilot his EVA leads to him getting incapacitated before he can do anything.
  • Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: In the anime, his last scene is of him talking to Hikari when she visits him in the hospital. He is mentioned a few times here and there, but, aside from some brief moments in Episode 26 and The End of Evangelion, he doesn't make any more on-screen appearances.
  • Covert Pervert:
    • In the manga, Toji tries to teach Shinji how to turn cleaning the stairs into a peeping opportunity, but gets caught by Hikari.
    • Inverted in the anime when he gives Asuka her "change" after she takes her "viewing fee" in Episode 8.
  • Custom Uniform: Toji always wears the same tracksuit ensemble. It's clearly not the school's gym uniform, but for some reason, he never gets in trouble for it.
  • Death by Adaptation: In the anime, Touji survives the No-Holds-Barred Beatdown by the dummy-controlled EVA Unit 01, though has become crippled. In the manga, however...
  • Demoted to Extra:
  • Four Is Death: He's the Fourth Child and pilots the fourth created EVA (counting Unit-00). He only dies in the manga adaptation, but it doesn't end well for him either way.
  • Heel Face Turn: From raging bully to Shinji's friend over the course of two episodes.
  • The Idiot From Osaka: Subverted. He fits the stereotype in quite a few ways, having the accent and being a brash, short-tempered guy, but his more stable mental state compared to other characters and strong moral compass sets him a bit apart from it.
  • Jerk Jock: Subverted. He initially comes across as one when he beats up Shinji, but it turns out he has a very good reason for being angry and later on becomes friends with Shinji. In fact, he proves afterwards to be quite the Lovable Jock, being unquestionably loyal to his friends and family, having a friendly, down-to-earth demeanor most of the time, as well as proving to be one of the show's more mentally stable characters.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's loud mouthed and rough, but he's one of the most moral characters in the entire series, even more so than Shinji himself; though to be fair, Shinji receives much harsher tests of moral character a lot more frequently than Toji does.
  • Kansai Regional Accent: Of the Brooklyn rendition in the manga.
  • Only Sane Man: or at least the most mentally stable man
  • Spared by the Adaptation: In The End of Evangelion.
  • Thirteen Is Unlucky: The 13th Angel possesses Unit-03.
  • Token Good Teammate: The only child who never performs any morally reprehensible act beyond punching Shinji during their first meeting. He supports his friends through thick and thin and only pilots his EVA out of his love for his sister.


Kaworu Nagisa

Voiced by: Akira Ishida (JP), Kyle Sturdivant (EN, series), Greg Ayres (Director's Cut), Aaron Krohn (Movies), Jerry Jewell (Rebuild of Evangelion), Ernesto Lezama (Latin-American Spanish, first dub), Edson Matus (Latin-American Spanish, second dub)

Singing brings joy and revitalizes the human soul. I think that song is the highest achievement of the Lilim culture. Don't you agree, Shinji Ikari?

Bishounen, as fey and mysterious as Rei, and possessed of an unnatural calm, Kaworu is the last major character to appear in the anime, puts in only 13 minutes of screen time in one episode, yet is a critical character for a variety of reasons, and marks a significant turning point in the plot.

Kaworu is sent by SEELE as the Fifth Children in order to replace Asuka when her synchronization ratios fall too low, a task he handles with startling ease. He shows a strong interest in Shinji, showing him more physical and emotional affection than probably any other character, which Shinji appears to accept, to a degree he shows to none of the other characters. Kaworu even goes as far as to say that he loves Shinji and was born to meet him. He also expresses an appreciation for humans and their achievements, particularly music. The next morning, however, Kaworu reveals his true nature as Tabris, the 17th Angel, and attempts to invade Terminal Dogma. After failing to achieve his goals, he concludes that because his success would cause Shinji to die, he cannot be allowed to exist and asks Shinji to kill him, which Shinji reluctantly does after a full minute of animation showing nothing but a single frame of Unit 01 holding Kaworu in its hand. He later shows up in The End of Evangelion to help Shinji make the decision to reject Instrumentality.

Kaworu's behavior towards Shinji and their interactions are very open to interpretation, and have been hotly debated since the show aired. A homosexual subtext clearly exists, and is carried through to both Alternate Continuity works and some official artwork. However, how much this particular aspect of Kaworu's personality is emphasized, and how Shinji tends to react to him, vary greatly depending on the work in question.

In the manga, Kaworu is a much more prominent character, showing up well before the battle with Armisael, and fighting against the Angel in Unit 02. His personality is also noticeably different, making him a more sinister character and drastically changing his interactions with the cast, especially Shinji. His fate is ultimately the same, but plays out in a fashion that is more complex than in the anime. It remains to be seen if he will appear again.

Oh, and wait until the third Rebuild of Evangelion movie comes out...


  • Ambiguously Gay: Since Kaworu is like Rei (a human body with the soul of an Angel... in his case, Adam's soul), the human concept of sexuality doesn't seem to exist for him. That said, a lot of what he does around Shinji is really questionable. Also, while he has more knowledge about human emotions than Rei does, he is just as oblivious to them as she is and doesn't see any sexual undertones in his interaction with Shinji, and also doesn't see anything wrong when he does something that makes others uncomfortable.
  • Anti-Villain: Allows himself to be killed so that Shinji and humanity can survive: of course, that's if he was a villian in the first place (though he definitely was one in the manga).
  • Ascended Extra: He only appeared in one episode of the original anime, but is a more major character in all other adaptations. The original drafts of episodes 25 and 26 show that he was meant to play a larger role, and he does in the movie versions of the intended ending. More of a case of Demoted to Extra.
  • Batman Can Breathe in Space: In Rebuild of Evangelion, he's shown on the moon without a spacesuit. Or any clothing for that matter.
  • Bishonen: As Akira Ishida's star-making role, it's no surprise the route his career took afterwards.
  • Bishonen Line: The last Angel is also the most human.
  • Breakout Villain: He only appeared in one episode in the original series. Then Death & Rebirth advertised him heavily, he made an appearance in The End of Evangelion, was among the main cast in several AU spin-offs, and now he's become a more prominent character in the manga version and the Rebuild of Evangelion movies.
  • Closet Key: Seemingly is this for Shinji, though Shinji seems to be more Ambiguously Bi than anything.
  • Creepy Child: Considered one in universe as well as out. His ever-present smirk, universal way of speaking and lack of any social skills make others incredibly suspicious of him almost immediately. The manga plays this to the hilt: even Kensuke, looking at him from their classroom while he and Shinji are on the street, sees that something about Kaworu isn't right.
  • The Determinator: What he admires about Shinji, in contrast to Gendo and SEELE, is that Shinji keeps going despite all the heartbreak life causes him.
  • Dissonant Serenity: Not only does he smile a lot despite the fact that he is introduced at a moment in which events have taken a turn for the tragic, he even manages to smile as he asks Shinji to kill him.
  • Early-Bird Cameo: He appears at the very end of vol.7 of the manga, a full two volumes before his actual introduction. The first Rebuild of Evangelion movie has him in a scene at the very end.
  • Enigmatic Minion: The Trope Codifier. He does possess the soul of a Seed of Life, which pretty much is as close to a god as one can get without being of the First Progenitor Race.
  • Gory Discretion Shot: His death. But that sound...
  • Guile Hero: He betrays SEELE's orders and follows his own agenda.
  • Heroic Sacrifice
  • Hope Spot: Someone who thinks that human culture and Shinji saving the world by piloting a giant mecha are actually pretty awesome? In Evangelion? Obviously he had to be killed off.
  • Humanoid Abomination: The most powerful of the angels, in fact.
  • Humans Are Special: Believed that humanity, and Shinji, should control the future, not angels or SEELE's plots.
  • I Am Your Father: When Gendo and Fuyutsuki visit SEELE's moon base in Rebuild 2.0, he addresses one of them as "otousan" (Japanese for "father").
    • Or, if Gendo fused Adam onto his hand in that continuity, he could also have been referring to that.
  • I Cannot Self-Terminate: Why he asked Shinji to kill him. Unless it was a Batman Gambit, intended either to break Shinji or force him to recognize that he wanted to live hard enough to kill the one person to ever show him affection and think he was worth something.
  • I Just Want My Beloved to Be Happy: An Alternate Character Interpretation. Canon for Neon Genesis Evangelion Gakuen Datenroku, and there are hints in Rebuild of Evangelion.
  • Inconsistent Dub: The French translators cannot seem to agree between Kaworu or Kaoru.
  • Jerkass: Seeing how polite he is in the show, it's jarring to see how he behaves in the manga.
  • Just As Planned: He's just as unflappable as Rei, though he replaces her stoicism with an omni-present knowing smirk. The few times we see him change his expression from this terse smile are the only times we can be completely sure that he is being genuine (and even in those cases, he's usually still smiling too).
  • Laser Guided Tykebomb: SEELE's equivalent of Rei Ayanami, until he either decided to deny them their victory or reveals that he was never going to in the first place.
  • Leitmotif:
    • Beethoven's ninth symphony, fourth movement. Oddly, they even get the mood right, going to the largo parts just before he dies. Fittingly, he earlier described it as one of the greatest achievements of human culture, which is part of what he's dying to preserve.
    • Before he enters Heaven's Door, the choir's singing "Und der Cherub steht vor Gott/Steht vor Gott/Vor Gott!" (replace "cherub" with "angel").
  • Manipulative Bastard: In the manga at least, where he's a completely different person.
  • Meaningful Name: "Nagisa", though not with the same kanji, means "messenger". Also, Tabris is the Angel of Free Will: very appropriate for a character who decided to Screw Destiny, even at the cost of his own life. Not to mention that Tabris, as the name being so different indicates, is from an entirely different tradition/version of Christian mythology than the other angels.
  • Mercy Kill/Shoot the Dog: Shortly after he and Shinji meet in the manga, Kaworu kills a starving kitten that was following Shinji around, reasoning that a swift death was kinder than letting it die of starvation.
  • Morally Ambiguous Albino: Much moreso in the manga.
  • Mr. Fanservice: An unintentional example, much like how Rei was with her unintended role.
  • No Sense of Personal Space: Yet another thing Kaworu doesn't get about humans or willingly ignores. Especially noticeable in the scene where he reaches for Shinji's hand while they're bathing, to say nothing of what he does in the manga.
  • No Social Skills: Although he is easy around people and very confident overall, his knowledge of human social mores is pretty much non-existent. Given his fear of loneliness and background, one can assume he hasn't had much human contact before the events of the series. Justified in the manga, as it's implied that he's been kept in stasis his entire life.
  • One-Episode Wonder: Or two episode wonder. While he only shows up in Episode 24 of the original series, the movies later released give him a larger role as Shinji's Spirit Advisor in the new "Episode 26".
    • He appears for a little bit in Episode 25 as well, but more just a freezeframe of him and the text "Why did you kill him?" over and over again.
  • Physical God: If he hadn't surrendered, they wouldn't have had a prayer of stopping him from causing Third Impact.
  • Power of Love: What he represents in Shinji's subconscious mind. What he and Rei symbolize, and the feelings he had for both of them, are what make Shinji decide to break free of Instrumentality and go back to living as a human.
  • Punny Name: Nagisa means "messenger", the same as the Greek angelos.
  • Screw Destiny: Third Impact, the entire point of an angel's existence (supposedly) was within his reach and he decided not to. Of course, he is the Angel of Free Will.

Kaworu: But people must act of their own free will, or nothing will change at all.

  • Shirtless Scene: In Rebuild 2.0, he gets a brief one on his first appearance, sitting there half naked on the Moon.
  • Shout-Out: A minor one to either Zyuranger or Power Rangers: Kaworu pilots his EVA from the outside, which is a common trait of Sixth Rangers.
  • Sixth Ranger Traitor: Betrays SEELE by not causing Third Impact in the moment of his/their victory.
  • The Smart Guy
  • Spanner in the Works: To SEELE, and since Gendo's goal involved Shinji accepting instrumentality...
  • Spell My Name with an "S": In the original anime, it was Kaoru. But since his name is written in katakana, it's technically Kaworu (which is how it's officially spelt in romaji).
  • Spirit Advisor: Along with Rei, he appears to Shinji after Third Impact: they, and what they represent, are what convince Shinji to leave Instrumentality and give life another try.
  • Stealth Pun: Koui ("kindness")/Koi ("romantic love").
  • Technicolor Eyes: Like Rei, his red eyes are a sign of his inhuman side.
  • Thanatos Gambit: It's agreed he was playing a deeper game, the question is what, given that he obviously wasn't after Third Impact. His stated goal is to help Shinji and humanity survive: Alternate Character Interpretation says that he was just out to hurt Shinji more, but that would make him inspiring Shinji to return to life a Nice Job Fixing It, Villain.
  • Trickster
  • White-Haired Pretty Boy: One of the earliest quintessential examples in anime history.
  • Yandere: He slowly becomes this in the manga adaptation. Also, in the Angelic Days manga, Kaworu is Shinji's childhood friend, and is severely possessive of the boy when Asuka or Rei get too close.


Mari Illustrious Makinami

Voiced by: Maaya Sakamoto (JP), Trina Nishimura (EN)

The smell of LCL... My favorite smell in the world.

A new character from the Rebuild of Evangelion continuity, Mari Makinami is the designated pilot of Unit-05 and the undesignated pilot of Unit-02 later on in 2.0 when she makes off with it to join in the battle against Zeruel.

In contrast with Shinji, Asuka and Rei, she's shown to genuinely enjoy piloting, taking pleasure in killing the Angels and describing it as "fun". Also in contrast with the rest of the main cast, she appears to be a relatively sane person... outside of battle, at least.

Her personality has a few feral aspects, such as her fixation on scent and her reckless style of fighting.

  • Action Girl: She's an EVA pilot, and when inside her mecha, she demonstrates clear competence despite her highly aggressive approach to fighting Angels. She has one Angel kill under her belt in the second movie, and scores further kills during the third movie with an implication of having achieved other kills during the Time Skip.
  • Attack! Attack! Attack!: Her default strategy.
  • Badass Adorable: A dark type. She's a cute teenage girl, but with the bloodlust and talent to destroy Angels when she's piloting an EVA.
  • Blood Knight: If not Axe Crazy.
  • Blind Without'Em: This trope may be an act for her, however. In the 3.0 preview, she's seen without them off and still being able to see fine enough to glare at Rei.
  • Blue Eyes
  • But Not Too Foreign: Half Japanese, half British, according to the pamphlet included in the Evangelion 2.22 Blu-Ray.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: She's pretty perky for an EVA pilot, retaining her cheerful, aloof outlook on life even in the face of gruesome pain and impending apocalypse.
    • Not to mention charging into her battle with Unit-05 against the bone Angel while singing a jaunty little tune.
  • Crash Into Hello: Turned Up to Eleven: she crashes into poor Shinji with a parachute.
  • Cute and Psycho: A corollary to a love of violence and cute persona.
  • Deadpan Snarker: "Things just seem to work out for him, huh?"
  • Double Agent: Possibly. Her sneaking into Japanese territory via parachute indicates she's up to something, as does her line "I don't really feel comfortable bringing adults into my affairs." Plus, jacking Unit 02 without official approval isn't exactly standard NERV procedure. The preview for 3.0 also indicates she's collaborating with SEELE, likely behind NERV's back.
    • On the other hand, they could be interrogating her.
  • Foreign Fanservice
  • Gag Boobs: She complains that her original plugsuit is too tight around her chest, and then jiggles her boobs enthusiastically when she gets her new one.
  • Girlish Pigtails: Her hairstyle incorporates a pair of pigtails gathered just around the level of her jawline, and it's befitting considering her playful and exuberant personality, as well as her apparent fondness for the color pink.
  • God-Created Canon Foreigner: Anno apparently wrote her up specifically for the Rebuild of Evangelion movies, and has described her as the only character who is not "a part of him".
  • Hair Color Dissonance: Within canon her hair is brown, but in supplemental materials (like the picture above) and in fanart, it often gets represented as violet.
  • Hot-Blooded: People are calling her a female Kamina, for Heaven's sake. It doesn't help that she openly sympathizes with Unit 02 while it turns into a robotic, coked-up man-frog from the Wrath circle of Hell.
  • Marshmallow Hell: With Shinji.
  • Meganekko: For the most part.
  • Ms. Fanservice: Particularly that moment when the camera focuses on her well-shaped bust as she says "this [plugsuit] is a nice fit!". She seems to know it too, proclaiming she's glad that "they finally got my measurements right!" as the camera cuts to her chest.
  • Nice Girl: Her actions toward Shinji seem like this... time will tell if this ends up being a subversion or not.
  • Nightmare Fetishist: She seems, uh, awfully fond of LCL. While it remains to be seen what role LCL will play in Rebuild of Evangelion, it's difficult not to think of the original series, where it's essentially the blood of Lilith (and smells like it, according to Shinji). It's that and, of course, Tang.
  • No Name Given: Outside of supplementary materials, her full name doesn't appear in her debut film at all with the exception of the credits and preview of 3.0.
  • No Sense of Personal Space: To Shinji.
  • Precision F-Strike: "Just... fucking... die!!"
  • Sixth Ranger: Literally and figuratively.
  • Slasher Smile: Oh, yes.
  • Strange Girl
  • Surprisingly Good English: Maaya Sakamoto speaks English just well enough that she can at least be understood without subtitles, which if nothing else puts her a few measures above Koichi Yamadera's "English" earlier in the film.
  • This Is Sparta: See Precision F-Strike above.


NERV staff

Misato Katsuragi

Voiced by: Kotono Mitsuishi (JP), Allison Keith (EN), Tony Rodriguez (Latin-American Spanish, first dub), Marisol Romero (Latin-American Spanish, second dub)

The hedgehog's dilemma...the nearer we get, the deeper we hurt each other...

Misato is the beautiful late-twenties Genius Ditz who is appointed to be the guardian and personal tutor for Shinji Ikari and Asuka Langley Shikinami Soryu, as well as their tactical commander in battle.

She is a very complex character, with three important aspects to her personality:

She is one third Plucky Comic Relief: her obvious crippling alcoholism is played for laughs, especially early in the series. She even has her own theme music for the comedy portions, which sounds like a sort of musical paraphrase of all the wacky 1960's sitcom theme music you ever heard. She wears extremely skimpy clothes when off duty, has a pet genetically engineered penguin named Pen-Pen who can beat her at chess, and is a borderline Cordon Bleugh Chef. She is a cheerful, optimistic, ditzy, hedonistic slob, if a bit on the immature and irresponsible side.

She is one third Action Girl: tough, smart, cunning, hard-nosed, determined and ultra-competent in strategy and tactics, particularly as the series nears its end.

The last third of her personality is what unifies those two seeming opposites: despite her age, she is, like Shinji, a broken-hearted child, striving to live up to crushing responsibilities, yearning for love and acceptance, and trying desperately to hide how very sad, lonely and afraid she feels by pretending that she's either tougher or more cheerful than she really is (by Episode 21, after Ryōji Kaji dies, the mask cracks). She can be childish, touchy and short-tempered (she loves to tease people, but loses her temper whenever anyone tries to tease her) because she is so insecure. Most of her problems come from not knowing if she should hate her father for leaving her mother, or love him for sacrificing his life to save her own during Second Impact.

She hates the Angels, blaming them for her father's death and her own near-fatal injuries in the cataclysm of 2000, and that hatred drives her to amazing feats of cunning to defeat them. Unfortunately, it also drives her to say the worst possible things at the worst possible moment to Shinji near the end of Episode 24, in the aftermath of Tabris' attack on NERV (see Kaworu's entry above for details), traumatizing him even further and pushing him into his final slide toward a nervous breakdown.

She and Shinji become very close, perhaps even come to love one another, as the series goes on... though not in any openly romantic way. In The End of Evangelion, she kisses him just before her own heartbreaking heroic death, though her motivations for doing so are subject to debate. It is very sad to watch, as the series goes on, that whenever Shinji is in the most pain and needs Misato the most, she's either wallowing in drunken self-pity or angry that he doesn't share her rage, and whenever Misato is in the most pain and needs Shinji the most, he can't handle seeing her in pain and tries to ignore her... not because he doesn't care, but because he doesn't know what to say or do. [1]

Her on-again, off-again boyfriend is the aforementioned Ryōji Kaji: their relationship, at least at first, is all about Belligerent Sexual Tension.

The only noticeable difference in the Rebuild of Evangelion movies is that she starts as a Lt. Colonel and the Second Impact looks quite different.


  • Adult Child: Played for tragedy.
  • The Alcoholic: Borderline.
  • Armor-Piercing Slap: Gave one to Ritsuko after Shinji is absorbed into Leliel. The slap was powerful enough to knock Ritsuko's glasses off.
  • Beauty Is Never Tarnished: She has serious scars, but considering their placement on her chest, most of the characters never get to see them, and the audience doesn't see them much either.
  • Beergasm: The happy yell she lets go of when she knocks back her first cold one after work provides the current page image.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: She's friendly, but it is not wise to piss her off.
  • Big Breasts, Big Deal: Our (and Shinji's) very first image of her has an arrow scribbled by her to point it out to us.
  • Broken Bird: Her personality is mostly a coping mechanism for her childhood traumas.
  • Bunny Ears Lawyer: She is certainly a Hard-Drinking Party Girl and definitely marks for Plucky Comic Relief, but there is a very good reason why she is top of the military chain of command within an organisation like Nerv.
  • Butt Monkey: She has her moments, mainly when the series gets comical, and she finds herself on the receiving end of Ritsuko or Shinji's snide remarks.
  • The Captain --> Majorly Awesome --> Colonel Badass: Proves her Badass credentials several times in the anime, The End of Evangelion, Sadamoto's manga and Rebuild of Evangelion, and she starts out as a Captain in the original anime and manga before being promoted to Major, and as Lieutenant Colonel before becoming a full Colonel in Rebuild of Evangelion.
  • Christmas Cake: And not happy about it.
  • Click. "Hello.": To Ritsuko when she was about to show Shinji the origins of Rei.
  • Clingy Jealous Girl: She gets quite jealous whenever Kaji runs off to flirt with another woman.
  • Cool Big Sis: Subverted. Misato attempts to be this towards Shinji to get closer to him. It doesn't work.
  • Cordon Bleugh Chef: Ramen and curry do not mix well. But tell that to her...
  • Creepy Cool Crosses: Wears a cross pendant that her father put around her neck just before sealing her in the capsule that saved her during Second Impact.
  • Cute Mute/Dumb Struck: For at least a few years after Second Impact due to Heroic BSOD.
  • A Day in the Limelight: Episode 7.
  • Deuteragonist: Per Word of God, Misato is the secondary hero, following Shinji.
  • Disappeared Dad: Her father was a scientist who was caught in the middle of the Second Impact with his crew. 14-year-old Misato was the only known survivor of the expedition. Do your math.
  • Flanderization:
    • Fanon has a field day with her cooking and driving, making her a high-level Lethal Chef (sometimes to the point that Even the Rats Won't Touch It) and a codifier for Drives Like Crazy, even though nobody actually says anything that implies questionable driving skills on Misato's part, and in all apparent instances, she was either 1) attempting to protect Shinji from a just-stomped-into-wreckage gunship's explosion, 2) trying to dodge death by stomping from a massive alien monster, and 3) was deliberately trying to scare Shinji after he insulted her.
    • Despite the claims of both fans and herself, she is not a slut. In fact, all evidence in the series says that she's only had sex with one person in her entire life: Kaji.
  • Gainaxing
  • Genius Ditz: Sure, Misato might appear like a quirky woman with a perky attitude and an alcohol problem who often fails to act her age, but she has one hell of a knack for tactics and working out very effective short-term plans on the fly.
  • Hangover Sensitivity: She gets quite a few hangovers.
  • Hard-Drinking Party Girl
  • Heroic Sacrifice: See Taking You with Me below.
  • Heterosexual Life Partners: With Ritsuko and Kaji
  • Hot-Blooded: A milder example.
  • I'll Take Two Beers, Too!
  • I'll Tell You When I've Had Enough!: When she's pissed off and drinking, don't try to stop her.
  • I Need a Freaking Drink: She does drink a lot.
  • In Vino Veritas: When she's sober, she's a force to be reckoned with. Drunk... not so much.
  • Killed Off for Real: The poor gal takes a fatal bullet wound in The End of Evangelion, but just to make sure the audience knows for sure she's kicking the bucket, her body gets incinerated by a sudden, very unexpected explosion.
  • Kotono Mitsuishi
  • The Ladette: She enjoys drinking copious amounts of beer, has an interest in cars, and is quite the disorganised slob in private. She also has a notable aversion to wearing high-heeled shoes, judging from Kaji's surprise upon seeing her wearing them at a wedding.
  • Mama Bear: Fiercely protective of the Children, especially Shinji. The best example comes in The End of Evangelion, where she leaves the command center mid-battle to rescue Shinji, takes down several JSSDF soldiers who were about to kill him.
  • Messy Hair: When she wakes up, obviously.
  • Motor Mouth: During her college days, according to Ritsuko. She even wonders while talking to Naoko if Misato is compensating for her Cute Mute years (see above).
  • Ms. Fanservice: Competes with Asuka and Rei for this.
    • Played up in the previews of next episodes, in which she regularly comments on how much fan service she's giving (at least until things start going south).
    • Taken further in the manga, especially in still art.
  • Not a Morning Person: Especially when she has to attend Shinji's parent/teacher conference.
  • Parental Substitute: Usually comes across as a mother-figure for Shinji.
  • Pin-Pulling Teeth: Done beautifully for her death scene in the manga. JSSDF soldiers approach her slumped and fatally-wounded body; she turns her head towards them, revealing a pin in the corner of her mouth. She then shows them the hand grenade she's holding.
  • Precision F-Strike:
    • "So fucking what if I'm not you??"
    • And in Volume 4 of the manga, albeit the one there is censored.
  • Scars Are Forever: A large scar on her chest, which she got in Second Impact.
  • Sensei-chan: She is one in the alternate universe depicted during Instrumentality.
  • Shipper on Deck: Seems to be one for Shinji/Rei, if the look on her face as she sends the former to drop off the latter's new ID card is any indication.
  • Shotacon: Possibly towards Shinji.
    • The breakfast scene in Episode 7 may make one wonder. Or not.
    • There's also her attempt to comfort Shinji after Rei's death, which can easily be seen as a come-on.
      • This is more straightforward in the Japanese version with her saying "This is just about all I can do for you." and leaning in for what may be a kiss.
    • Her kissing Shinji just before her death in The End of Evangelion and the manga.
  • Shout-Out: In the Super Robot Wars games featuring Evangelion and Gundam (UC timeline), Misato gets a crush on ace pilot Amuro Ray, alluding to their seiyuus' other famous anime roles as Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Kamen respectively. She also makes some Sailor Moon comments when admiring the Nobel Gundam from Mobile Fighter G Gundam on Super Robot Wars MX, and points out similarities in voice with Vega from Gear Fighter Dendoh and Murrue Ramius from Mobile Suit Gundam SEED (two other characters voiced by Kotono Mitsuishi).
    • In addition, Anno has pointed out that her character design (most easily seen by her hair) is based on Sailor Moon's, as well as her character being "a 29-year-old Usagi Tsukino".
  • Smoking Hot Sex
  • Stepford Smiler: Acts like a Bottle Fairy to hide her daddy issues and emotional problems.
  • The Strategist: To an exceptional degree, and enough that even Gendo recognizes her skills.
  • Taking You with Me: Her death in the manga. When the military comes to kill her for letting Shinji reach Unit 01, she just smiles and pulls out a grenade from her jacket, blowing everyone up.
  • Tsundere: Type A towards Kaji.
  • Unresolved Sexual Tension: She's the closest thing the series has to a sexpot, so there's plenty of sexual tension to go around. The tension with Kaji is resolved, at least in the most literal sense, so that leaves the winner of this trope as Shinji. Lampshaded in the closing credits song to You Can (Not) Advance, which is a love song from Misato and/or Rei to Shinji.
  • Urban Legend Love Life: Her flirtatious facade hides a desperately lonely woman who only has eyes for Kaji.
  • Work Hard, Play Hard: At least, until it all goes wrong.

Doctor Ritsuko Akagi

Voiced by: Yuriko Yamaguchi (JP), Sue Ulu (series), Colleen Clinkenbeard (Rebuild of Evangelion), Maru Guerrero (Latin-American Spanish, first dub), Gabriela Gomez (Latin-American Spanish, second dub)

The interaction of men and women isn't very logical.

Ritsuko is NERV's resident computer scientist, tasked with the development and upkeep of the MAGI supercomputers and research on the Evas. She, Misato and Kaji have been friends since college, and she often acts as a foil to Misato. She is also something of a Crazy Cat Lady. She dyes her hair blonde: late in the series, we see her in a Flash Back as a teenage girl with dark brown hair.

Ritsuko is extremely intelligent and competent, but has a coldly logical and often cynical attitude, and can be callous and petty. She also doesn't seem to really understand human nature, and is in some ways childishly naive. Secretly, she is romantically involved with Gendō Ikari, as was her mother Naoko before her death ten years before the series opens. Despite Gendō's ambiguous intentions, she has convinced herself both that he loves her and that Rei is actually her rival for his romantic attentions, and she deeply resents Rei because of this. She also shows little concern for the lives of the pilots during battle, and is ready to sacrifice them should such a tactic seem necessary, a position Misato vehemently disagrees with.


Ritsuko: I will kill you first, then I will die myself. They say this happens often. In cheap dramas.


Gendō Ikari

Voiced by: Fumihiko Tachiki (JP), Tristan MacAvery (series), John Swasey (Director's Cut and Rebuild of Evangelion), Humberto Solorzano (Latin-American Spanish)

There is no one else who can pilot the Evas. As long as they survive, that is what I'll have them do.

Gendo Ikari (neé Rokubungi) is the secretive head of NERV and Shinji Ikari's estranged father. While he is not the series' true Big Bad, he is without a doubt one of the main antagonists. He is NERV's liaison to SEELE, and a member of SEELE's Committee for Human Complementation, but in reality, he is playing his own scenario which runs counter to SEELE's plans. To see this plan succeed, he is more than willing to use and betray everyone around him without hesitation, from his own son to NERV's central personnel to SEELE itself. He is confident, brooding, self-possessed, self-controlled, cunning, intimidating, cold-blooded, amoral, humorless and utterly ruthless: the very definition of Manipulative Bastard.

Yet, for all of this, the series gradually makes clear that Gendo's primary motivation for all of his bastardry is, in fact, love. In college, he met and fell in love with Yui Ikari: while it's possible that he had ulterior motives, his love for her was genuine, so much so that he took her surname when they married. After Yui's death in Unit 01, Gendo became focused on a plan to reunite himself and Yui through a modified version of SEELE's plans for Third Impact that would involve the Angel Adam and the Evangelion which now held Yui's soul. Everything that he does in the series is just step after step toward seeing this plan to completion.

For some, Gendō appears to be quite the ladies' man. First, Yui fell in love with him, and he with Yui. After Yui's death, he took Naoko Akagi as a lover, then her daughter Ritsuko after her death, although in both cases it's revealed that these trysts were solely to use them for their knowledge. He also has a brief and thin friendship with Rei, which is a sore point with Ritsuko: he shows more concern for Rei than he does for his actual son, but to Ritsuko (and the audience), the whole thing seems to have some unpleasant undertones.

Gendo's abandonment of Shinji shortly after Yui's death is one of the key factors behind Shinji's emotional problems, and over the course of the series, Gendo does little to bridge that gap. Indeed, Gendō and Shinji spend as much time opposing each other as they do fighting the Angels. He is merciless where Shinji is kind, confident where Shinji is fearful, calculating where Shinji is hopelessly naive. He is Shinji's twisted and sinister mirror image, and it's obvious that on some level there is an Oedipal conflict taking place. What the story doesn't reveal until The End of Evangelion is just how similar Gendo and Shinji really are under all their differences.


Fuyutski: You said it was luck you left the day before but you took all your files with you... even though the expedition wasn't over!
Gendo: Those weren't shredded? How careless.
Fuyutski: And I've been looking into your finances as well, quite a sum for a college professor!
Gendo: Remarkable, are you now teaching economics as well?

  • Fallen Hero: Yes, really. The flashback episode makes it clear that he and Yui were planning to try to prevent the Third Impact after all of the Angels were defeated. After her absorbtion into Unit-01, he decides to plot out his own version so they can be reunited.
  • Fond Memories That Could Have Been: Three words. "Forgive me, Shinji."
  • Former Teen Rebel: Gives the impression that he might have been one during the first meeting with Fuyutsuki. He still has hints of it, in that he's in flagrant breach of regulation by always wearing his uniform in an unzipped state, and frequently displays a lowkey devil-may-care attitude to his superiors, though that's also been seen as a sign that he is only focused on his quest and has pretty much moved beyond caring about what the world thinks of him.
  • Four Eyes, Zero Soul
  • Freudian Excuse: It's clear someone or something made him lose his grip even before Yui's death. It's strongly implied that he had a decidedly less than pleasant childhood.
  • General Failure: There's a reason he hired Misato to run military matters.
  • Generation Xerox: It is implied a few times, especially in The End of Evangelion, that Gendo shares most of his character traits with Shinji.
  • A God Am I: His true objective (made Anviliciously clear) in the manga.
  • Happily Married: To Yui before her death.
  • The Heavy: As the chief agent of SEELE, Gendo is directly responsible for triggering the events of Second Impact and organizing the global push towards Human Instrumentality.
  • Hot Dad
  • Inferiority Superiority Complex
  • Jerkass Facade: He truly does care about Shinji, and in his dying moments, he regrets everything he's done to him.
  • Karmic Death:
    • Unlike everyone else who got to be embraced by images of their loved ones before turning into LCL, Gendo is picked up by Unit 01 and bitten in two. He did deserve a good metaphorical smacking from the cosmos, and his death (provided that it isn't just a remorse-fueled hallucination, or what happened to him actually counts as dying) drips of poetic justice.
    • In the manga, Ritsuko manages to shoot him in the throat after she herself is shot.
  • Knight of Cerebus: Became this after activating the Dummy Plug in the Unit-03 incident.
  • Kubrick Stare: One of the three "ingredients" of his signature pose.
  • Love Makes You Evil: An extreme version.
  • Love Redeems: A reverse zig-zag. Before he met Yui, he had few friends and was accustomed to hatred. Then he met Yui, fell in love with her, and actually became a somewhat decent and caring guy. Then Yui died, and he did a full 180 into Love Makes You Evil territory and spent the rest of his life trying to find a way to bring her back... and was willing to destroy the entire human race to do so.
  • The Maiden Name Debate: Gendo (Rokubungi) took Yui's surname when he married her. Worth noting is that this fact is not revealed until late in the series and is the first strong piece of evidence that Gendo's love for Yui is no act.
  • Manipulative Bastard: In every appearance. Though it's somewhat notable that he's almost always a Manipulative Bastard by accident. To paraphrase the man himself, he just isn't good at interacting with other humans.
  • More Than Mind Control: Gives the impression of having this over Rei and Ritsuko, although this is proven to be nonexistent by the end.
  • Necromantic: He still thinks of Unit-01 as Yui.
  • Not So Different: He and Shinji are more alike than they both know.
  • Not So Stoic: Gendo's true agony begins to leak out in The End of Evangelion, culminating with his final apology to his son.
  • Perpetual Frowner:
    • While he shows off the occasional triumphant smirk when something goes Just as Planned, he spends most of the series with a downcast scowl on his face. His only truly warm smiles tends to happen when he is around Rei.
    • Notably, the flashback episode shows that the younger Gendo tended to default to a confident smirk for his standard expression. After losing Yui, the frown that his older self will be known for appeared and was there to stay.
  • Pet the Dog:
    • The few occasions when he treats Shinji well, and his dying words in The End of Evangelion: "I'm sorry, Shinji."
    • It's also made pretty clear during the course of the series that he loves Rei like a daughter, and is willing to go to great lengths to protect her. Though their relationship is... complicated.
  • The Philosopher: Comments a great deal on science, scientists and the state of humanity.
  • Psychotic Smirk: It's usually hidden behind his hands.
  • The Quiet One: He usually speaks little, and when he does, he never says a single word more than he has to.
  • Scars Are Forever: His hands, as a result of opening Rei's entry plug after the failed activation of Unit 00. His scars are much worse in the manga too.
  • Scary Shiny Glasses: Former Trope Namer and so iconic that this coupled with his signature pose have long been the subject of meme and Shout-Out.
  • Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: In his final (and only) soliloquy, he states that the reason he abandoned Shinji was because he was afraid of hurting him, in the process giving Shinji one of his deepest emotional scars.
  • Shadow Archetype: Of Shinji.
  • The Stoic: His default facial expression hardly ever changes.
  • Sugar and Ice Personality: Very icy, with the sugar only showing up around Rei.
  • Sunglasses at Night
  • Tall, Dark and Snarky
  • The Unfettered
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: Zigzagged. We don't have a great idea of what his goals were before Yui's contact experiment, but they seemed to be similar to what the committee had in mind. After the contact experiment, he merely wants to be with his wife again and doesn't seem to care much what happens to everyone else.
  • White Gloves: First used to hide his scars. Later used to hide the embryonic Adam, which has been fused with his hand.
  • Yandere: For Yui.


Doctor Kozo Fuyutsuki

Voiced by: Motomu Kiyokawa (JP), Guil Lunde (series, Director's Cut), Michael Ross (movies), Kent Williams (Rebuild of Evangelion), Jesse Conde (Latin-American Spanish, first dub), Rolando de Castro (Latin-American Spanish, second dub)

As long as one soul still exists, it will be eternal proof that Mankind once existed.

Dr. Fuyutsuki is the Deputy Commander of NERV, Gendō Ikari's right hand man, and is as clos e to a confidante as Gendō will allow. In his life before NERV, he was a college professor. Yui Ikari was one of his interns, and he carried a torch for her for some time. He never acted on his feelings, but was shocked when Yui told him that she was marrying Gendō. Years later, Fuyutsuki discovered the truth of Second Impact and confronted Gendō, but was persuaded by Gendō to assist him with the Eva project rather than exposing the coverup.

Fuyutsuki is far more ethical and a much more decent human being than Gendō, but he has allowed himself to be carried along by events until it is too late to act on his ever-growing misgivings. His being The Stoic (and in comedic situations, The Comically Serious) doesn't exactly help.


  • The Comically Serious
  • Comic Book Fantasy Casting: Just like Gendo, his character design is based off of a star from UFO, in this case George Sewell. In fact, his character design mirrors Sewell so much that the only difference in appearance between them is hair color. Which means that he canonically looks British, not Japanese... certainly not the weirdest thing in this show.
  • The Consigliere: often spars verbally with Gendo, mostly by questioning his motives, alternatively trying both to remind Gendo to act with patience and not do something overly reckless in his ploys against SEELE, and also acting as a conscience of sorts, trying to remind him of the human costs of his actions.
  • Cool Old Guy: Fandom considers him this, since he's among the few more or less sane people in the cast.
  • A Good Way to Die: Accepts his fate to become LCL with no fear at all.
  • Hot for Student: Towards Yui, although he didn't make his feelings known (not that it would have made a difference, since she loved Gendo).
  • Only Sane Man: And how.
  • The Philosopher: Engages in some philosophical banter with Gendo on occasion.
  • The Professor: To Yui and Gendō. Throughout the entirety of the series, the only time Gendo refers to him as "Professor" is during flashbacks and his final descent into Terminal Dogma.
  • The Stoic: Is generally pretty reserved, though not as much as Gendo.


Ryōji Kaji

Voiced by: Koichi Yamadera (JP), Aaron Krohn (EN, series), J Michael Tatum (Rebuild of Evangelion), Enrique Cervantes (Latin-American Spanish, first dub), Gerardo Garcia (Latin-American Spanish, second dub)

The gulf dividing men and women is deeper and wider than any ocean.

Ponytailed, Perma-Stubble-ed, confident, and charismatic, Kaji is half James Bond and half Handsome Lech... and he switches back and forth frequently and without warning. Exactly whose side he's on in the wheels-within-wheels world of Evangelion is almost impossible to determine. He seems to be a Double Agent at the very least: he may even be working for more than two powerful entities, although his own personal drive to know the truth of Second Impact, the EVA project, and the rest of SEELE and NERV's secrets are his truest motivation.

He and Misato were lovers in college, but by the start of the series have been broken up for several years. Asuka has a crush on him and is anything but subtle about it, but to his credit, he does not take her up on her premature offers. It doesn't help that, in some continuities, he's strongly hinted to have been her guardian after her mother's death. Much to Misato's chagrin, Kaji flirts with several of the female staff, including Ritsuko and Maya. As the series progresses, Kaji and Misato renew their stormy relationship, and Kaji briefly becomes more of a father to Shinji than Gendō ever was. Tragically, he digs too deep when he rescues Fuyutsuki from SEELE after they kidnapped the old man shortly after the 14th Angel. SEELE (or NERV) responds by having him assassinated.

In the manga, Kaji's role and personality are unchanged, but he is given a tragic backstory: he was a war orphan and Street Urchin who carries a huge burden of guilt for ratting out his friends to soldiers so he wouldn't be killed for stealing their supplies.

While not quite an Expy, Gainax have revealed that Kaji is strongly "based" on Col. Paul Foster from the TV series UFO. They also add that Foster was not nearly the lech that Kaji is (though admittedly Kaji's lechery is partially an act).


  • Anti-Hero: Type II.
  • Big Brother Mentor: To Shinji.
  • Bi the Way: Some of his lines to Shinji can be interpreted as heavy flirting.
  • Call to Agriculture: Chooses to enjoy his last hours this way.
  • Casanova/Casanova Wannabe/Chivalrous Pervert/Handsome Lech: Take your pick. He seems to compulsively flirt with virtually everyone he talks to save for Asuka and Gendo at one point or the other over the course of the series. It could be an act, it could be a psychosis, or maybe he just likes to mess with people, we'll never really know.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Has a sly quip for every situation, even his own death.
  • Double Agent: He is working for NERV, but is secretly in league with SEELE, and is later revealed to also be an agent of the government. We later learn that he had an agenda of his own entirely separate from any of these three groups.
  • Engrish: Kaji's attempts to speak to Americans in Rebuild 2.0. Everyone else who speaks English in the film is really quite good, but Kaji is ear-crunchingly awful. If it weren't for the subtitles, he'd almost be unintelligible. What makes it worse is that it's smack-dab in the middle of a dramatic scene, and the sheer Narminess of his accent almost completely ruins the tension.
  • Estrogen Brigade Bait: Both in and out of universe.
  • Heroic Self-Deprecation: Although he doesn't show it, it's revealed in an artbook that Kaji is a self-hating mess.
  • Informed Attribute: We find out that he's a self-hating wreck on the inside from a series art book.
  • The Mole/Reverse Mole: He's all over the mole map.
  • Murderer POV: He speaks directly to his assassin in his final moments, even chiding him for his poor aim in the manga.
  • Perma-Stubble: His face always sports some stubble, giving him a sloppy and laid back appearance at all times.
  • Smoking Is Cool
  • Stepford Smiler: Is calmly smiling even when he's about to be shot to death. Supplementary materials reveal that he's a self-hating wreck who's just very good at covering up his problems. This is one possible explanation for why he didn't do anything to stop his own death.
  • The Stool Pigeon: ...in the manga, of the Betrayer Barry model. As a kid, he and his friends were stealing food and supplies from a military base; when he was caught, he gave up his friends.
  • Street Urchin: His backstory in the manga.
  • Survivor Guilt: In the manga, due to his friends being killed by the soldiers he ratted them out to.
  • Tall, Dark and Snarky: Tall, good looking and always ready to crack wise about the situation.
  • Unresolved Sexual Tension: He flirts with almost every female he meets. Most (not all) are appreciative, or at least pretend to be. On occasion, he even seems to be trying to flirt with Shinji, although it's not entirely clear if this is out of genuine interest or just habit... flirting may be how he manipulates people.
  • Urban Legend Love Life: Behind his flirtatious facade, there are hints that he is in fact a very lonely man, and no question that he only has eyes for Misato.


Maya Ibuki

Voiced by: Miki Nagasawa (JP), Kendra Benham (EN, series), Amy Seeley (movies), Monica Rial (Director's Cut), Caitlin Glass (Rebuild of Evangelion), Alma Wilhelme (Latin-American Spanish, first dub), Mariana Ortiz (Latin-American Spanish, second dub)

Oh God! I can't watch...!

Dr. Fuyutsuki isn't the only one who's in love with someone he can never have: there is also Maya Ibuki, a shy, pretty and kinda tomboyish woman in her early twenties. She is Ritsuko's assistant, and is very much in love with Ritsuko, although this isn't revealed until her final scenes in the story. She is a very sympathetic character: bright, sweet and one of the few happy, well-adjusted, and normal characters, though with this bunch, that isn't saying much.


Aoba: [hands Ibuki a gun] Release the safety.
Maya: I can't! I just can't shoot this thing, Aoba!
Aoba: Of course you can! You've had basic training!
Maya: But I shot at targets, not at other human beings!
Aoba: Idiot! You kill or you die!

  • Gender Flip: Whether intentional or not, Maya is basically a female version of Shinji appearance-wise; this has carried over to some non-canon Neon Genesis Evangelion works, such as Gakuen Datenroku, and has also fueled Wild Mass Guessing that she may be a child of Gendo's from a relationship prior to Yui.
  • Lipstick Lesbian: Her sexuality isn't immediately obvious in that while she is certainly boyish looking, she's not really butch either.
  • Machine Worship: She's extremely enthusiastic about the prospect of the Magi supercomputers running everybody's lives, and most of her Ship Tease moments come from watching someone do something amazing with computers.
    • In Episode 11, Aoba rolls his eyes at her blatant technophilia, making him one of the few people in or out of the show to comment on this.
    • One exception to this is the Dummy Plug, which she openly distrusts even before it's first activated. It's also the only thing that ever causes her to openly protest against Ritsuko's actions.
  • Only Sane Woman: Deconstructed. Compared to the character traits and emotional baggage of most of the other characters, Maya is pretty normal... perhaps even too normal for her own good, considering the very abnormal events that take place around her. She doesn't work well under pressure and often loses her cool during traumatic moments, particularly whenever an Evangelion is butchered in front of her eyes or when NERV HQ is under attack.
  • Sempai-Kohai
  • Shorttank
  • Vomit Discretion Shot: Twice in the anime, during Unit 01's destruction of Bardiel and when Unit 01 starts eating Zeruel, and again in The End of Evangelion, when Unit 02 is being torn apart.


Makoto Hyūga

Voiced by: Hiro Yuki (JP), Matt Greenfield (series), Keith Burgess (movies), Mike McFarland (Rebuild of Evangelion), Enzo Fortuny (Latin-American Spanish, first dub), Roberto Mendiola (Latin-American Spanish, second dub)

It's okay, Major... besides, dying beside you wouldn't be a bad way to go out.

A geeky, bespectacled computer technician in the command center: he is in love with Misato Katsuragi, but is too shy to approach her. She is aware of his feelings and feels no shame about manipulating him to gain information (or to do her laundry), but otherwise, she sees him as a friend and contact.



Shigeru Aoba

Voiced by: Takehito Koyasu (JP), Jason C. Lee (series), Vic Mignogna (Director's Cut), Phil Parsons (Rebuild of Evangelion)

Idiot! You kill or you die!

The long-haired, guitar-playing computer technician in the command center. Unlike everyone else in the series, he seems to have no one he truly cares about, although he appears to get along well with Maya and Makoto.


  • Air Guitar: Is seen playing one in a brief 'blink-and-you'll-miss-it' moment towards the middle of the series.
  • All There in the Manual:
    • Supplemental publications and Word of God have stated that Aoba is an atheist/nihilist, which is also why his Instrumentality is so different from everyone else's.
    • There's also a few references here-and-there to him having an Unrequited Love for Maya. How canonical this is could be up for debate.
  • And I Must Scream: While everyone else touched by a messenger Rei gets to enjoy seeing a form of their most trusted loved ones before being turned to LCL, Aoba trusts nobody, so he gets the exclusive horror of being suffocated by a mob of Reis, cowering and screaming like hell under a table.
  • Asexuality
  • Bridge Bunny

GEHIRN staff

Yui Ikari

Voiced by: Megumi Hayashibara (JP), Kim Sevier (EN, series), Stephanie Young (Rebuild of Evangelion)

Any place can be paradise, as long as you have the will to make it so.

Shinji's mother, Gendō's wife, creator of Evangelions... she is a linchpin for a lot of things that happen in the story, and while Shinji is the main character, Yui is more central to the overall plot. Despite this, we see very, very little of her in the story, almost entirely in flashbacks. A great deal about her is left open for the viewers to interpret.

Yui's treatment in the manga is virtually identical, but certain aspects of her attachment to Unit 01 are changed, and also played with in a very disturbing fashion.


  • Action Mom: Sort of.
  • All There in the Manual: One of the Evangelion games tells us that Yui is a daughter of a SEELE member, which is why she received their backing in the first place. Canonicity is debated.
  • Badass: Whenever Unit 01 awakens.
  • Berserk Button: On no account should you EVER hurt Shinji inside EVA Unit-01 while Yui's soul is aware of it. You will pay the price.
  • The Berserker: Whenever Unit-01 awakens, it attacks its enemy with frenzied animalistic fury, and will tear its opponent apart given the chance.
  • The Chessmaster/Puss in Boots: One alternate interpretation of her character, reinforced in The End of Evangelion. The implication that she was acting on her own accord throughout the whole series is disturbing.
  • Happily Married: To Gendo, before her death.
  • Hot Mom
  • Hot Scientist: She was a very beautiful woman, as well as a prodigiously talented scientist.
  • I Am a Humanitarian: Unit-01 eating one of the Angels.
  • Mama Bear: The Eva her soul is imprisoned in goes apeshit more than once to protect Shinji.
  • Missing Mom: Her contact experiment happened when Shinji was 4.
  • My Beloved Smother: In a benign sense: it's pretty much a given that if Yui shows up in any Neon Genesis Evangelion work as an actual character (games, fanfic, Episode 26), it's abundantly clear that she wears the pants in the Ikari household, and Gendō and Shinji simply follow her lead.
  • My Death Is Just the Beginning: It's been hinted by conversations in certain flashbacks that she had planned both her "accident" and Shinji's presence during it in advance, for an as-of-yet not explicitly explained purpose; it seems implied that she "was running out of time" (i.e. someone was targeting her for assassination, and she was rushing to finish her work beforehand).
  • Posthumous Character: Kind of.
  • Sealed Badass in a Can: Her goodness might be debatable, but her badassery is very much certified. Whenever Yui's soul seizes control of Unit-01, shit gets wrecked. Of course, how much of that is stemming from her original personality and how much is stemming from being a bundle of raw emotion stuffed in a giant bio-mechanical monster that doesn't obey human biological laws is hard to say.
  • Sealed Good in a Can: Although "good" is debatable.
  • Ubermensch: Leaves her human vessel in order to go against the shadow organization suppressing humanity, and (secretly) guides humanity to a new path of existence.
  • Unstoppable Rage: Note to giant alien monsters who may be reading this: do not give Yui-sama a reason to take control of Unit 01 because she will kick your ass.


Naoko Akagi

Voiced by: Mika Doi (JP), Laura Chapman (EN)

I acted like a mother only when it suited my desires... which wasn't often.

Naoko Akagi is Ritsuko's mother, and was the creator of the MAGI supercomputers, basing each on a particular aspect of herself. She and Gendo Ikari were lovers for some time after Yui's incident with Unit 01, but Naoko learned through the first Rei that Gendo was only using her for her genius. She killed Rei, and died violently shortly thereafter.


  • Berserk Button: Rei calling her an old hag and revealing that Gendo was just using her caused her to snap.
  • Driven to Suicide: Ambiguous in the anime; strongly implied in the manga.
  • Hot Mom: If not Hot Crazy Mom.
  • I'll Kill You!: If you call her a hag, she most likely will.
  • Love Makes You Crazy: Hated Yui Ikari's guts and praised her "death", then finally exploded when she pictured Rei I as Yui calling her an "useless old hag" and strangled her.
  • Morally-Ambiguous Doctorate: Just pure crazy, up to and including murdering Rei I.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: After suddenly realizing she just strangled Rei.
  • Posthumous Character: Sort of, since she survives in some form as the MAGI.
  • Room Full of Crazy: The interior of at least one of the MAGI cores is covered with post-it notes left by Naoko, some of which are notes, some of which are threats, and one of which reads, "Ikari, you jerk!".
  • Yandere: Over Gendo.
  • Your Cheating Heart: She had an affair with Gendo Ikari after the death of Gendo's wife, and Rei seems to have witnessed it.


Kyoko Zeppelin Soryu

Voiced by: Maria Kawamura (JP), Kimberly Yates (EN)

Come die with me, Asuka...

Kyoko Sohyru was Asuka's mother, and developed Unit 02 at NERV's Germany Branch. When Asuka was five, Kyoko went through the same contact experiment that fused Yui Ikari with Unit 01, but only the maternal part of her soul was absorbed into the EVA. As a result, she was committed to a psychiatric hospital. While there, she became convinced that one of Asuka's dolls was actually Asuka, referring to the real Asuka as "that girl there" and ignoring her. On the day that Asuka was selected to be Unit 02's pilot, she came to the hospital to tell Kyoko the news, but found that Kyoko had hanged both herself and the doll.

Her manga portrayal is basically the same, although an extra scene is added to the time before her suicide that compounds the tragedy and how it damaged Asuka, and she appears to play more of a role in her reveal to Asuka before the battle with the Mass Produced EVAs.


Other characters

Keel Lorenz

Voiced by: Mugihito (JP), Richard Peeples (series), Tom Booker (movies), Bill Jenkins (Rebuild of Evangelion)

The beginning and the end are one and the same. Yes... all is right with the world.

As the chairman of SEELE, Keel Lorenz is NERV's superior and commissioner of the EVA project. He possesses secret Dead Sea Scrolls that tell of a way to evolve all life into a perfect being with no cares, that lives in eternal bliss inside this being's mind. Despite his "honorable" intentions, he is perfectly willing to force the issue when things don't go his way, up to and including killing 'em all.


  • Assimilation Plot: Wishes to enact Third Impact as a means of merging all humanity's souls into one via Instrumentality to end all suffering.
  • Big Bad: Being SEELE's Chairman, he is effectively the driving force behind the events of Second Impact and the subsequent global push towards human Instrumentality. However, the plot of the series centers around the events at NERV directed by Gendo Ikari, a SEELE agent who effectuates the organization's will while secretely pursuing his own agenda; Keel is seen only occasionally by the audience, and often in the form of a featureless black monolith.
  • Bigger Bad: To Gendo and to the rest of SEELE.
  • Cyborg: Keel sports a heavy degree of state-of-the art biological implants and a visor to cope with dehabilating injuries that would otherwise leave him frail, crippled and nearly blind. When further inspected, those injuries he suffered and extensive, painful surgery could be an underlying reason behind his suffering and motivation for Instrumentality: he wants to end his own pain.
  • Evilutionary Biologist: Of sorts. Worth noting is that Konrad Lorenz was an evolutionary biologist.
  • Karma Houdini: In The End of Evangelion, Keel and the rest of SEELE are the ones responsible for the actions of The End of Evangelion, but unlike Gendo, SEELE got what they wanted and is also absorbed into LCL. This could be subverted entirely if Yui's words are correct; once people start escaping the LCL prison, he would be completely alone. However, if Keel imagines himself as through his own heart, he can be fully restored in a perfect human form... without needing any cybernetic implants anymore.
  • The Man Behind the Man: Gendo is The Heavy, but only acts as The Dragon to this man and his council. They fund NERV, providing them with the resources to conduct the experiments and research to carry out the Human Instrumentality Project, but never directly interact with the protagonists, leaving the day-to-day operations to their subordinates.
  • The Philosopher: He's prone to waxing rhapsodic about the nature of humanity, fate, destiny and evolution, amongst other things. To say nothing of founding SEELE entirely to exert his philosophical conclusions into reality.
  • Robotic Reveal: After reverting to LCL in The End of Evangelion, Keel is revealed to be a cyborg, from surgery done to fix damage caused by unknown injuries or a condition.
  • Spell My Name with an "S": Canonically, his name is Keel Lorenz, but it's frequently spelled "Kihl".


Kensuke Aida

Voiced by: Tetsuya Iwanaga (JP), Kurt Stoll (EN, series, movies), Greg Ayres (Rebuild of Evangelion)

This is SO COOL!!!

Kensuke is, at the start of the series, Toji's best friend. He reveals to the class that Shinji is a pilot, and later bonds with Shinji after he runs away the first time. He is very computer savvy, and is a die-hard military Otaku, constantly badgering Shinji to get him pilot clearance and practically salivating over the trip to the Over The Rainbow in Episode 8.



Hikari Horaki

Voiced by: Junko Iwao (JP), Carol Amerson (EN, series), Leah Clark (Rebuild of Evangelion)

Sit down, you guys!!

Hikari is the no-nonsense Class Representative of Shinji's class, and the second-born of three sisters. She later becomes Asuka's best friend, and tries to give her emotional support in the later episodes as Asuka becomes more and more distraught. She nurses a crush on Toji as well.

Her role in the manga is unchanged, but she gets more scenes with Shinji. However, near the end, she has essentially shunned Shinji, feeling that having him around is a too-painful reminder of Toji's death.


  • Alliterative Name: Hikari Horaki.
  • Class Representative: She's this to the Children's class, and takes it seriously enough that Toji's preferred (mocking) way of addressing her is through referring to her simply as "Class Rep".
  • Girlish Pigtails: Pretty appropriate choice of hairstyle for one of the series' most idealistic and innocent characters.
  • Theme Naming: She and her sisters are named after the Tokaido Shinkansen's three train services, with each sister's age corresponding to the increasing order of the services' speeds (Kodama -> Hikari -> Nozomi). Interestingly, the Hikari service was the first one out of the three to be introduced; no points for guessing which of the sisters was first seen in-series.
  • Through His Stomach: To Toji.
  • Tomboy and Girly Girl: She's the Girly one, with Asuka as the Tomboy.
  • Tsundere: Possible: either she's a Type B (deredere aka "sweet default mode), or...
  • Yamato Nadeshiko: At least the beginnings of one, and Touji is just that good at getting under her skin.

Pen-Pen

Voiced by: Megumi Hayashibara (JP), Amanda Winn-Lee (EN, series), Mandy Clark (Director's Cut), Monica Rial (Rebuild of Evangelion)

WARK!

Pen-Pen is Evangelion's main non-Butt Monkey comic relief, and a mysterious character to boot. Gainax has never stated where he came from: all that is known is that he is Misato's pet penguin. He is also superintelligent (for a penguin), being able to read and watch television, and has claws that are used for grasping objects. What anyone would need a superintelligent penguin that can grasp objects and live in warm temperatures for is not known, but he's both cute and funny. He is also one of the few characters not to undergo an emotional breakdown at some point... as far as we know.

Given that penguins were native to Antarctica, which was destroyed by Second Impact, there may also be some hidden significance in Pen-Pen's presence in Misato's life.

When he leaves the story, you know that a change in tone is imminent.

In the manga, he is a result of genetic experimentation, and was saved from being euthanized by Misato.


  • Everything Is Better With Penguins: Is a penguin and widely agreed to the only character not to have any unsympathetic moments.
  • Shoo Out the Clowns: See below.
  • Shoo the Dog: Misato eventually sends him away to live with Hikari's family, where he'll be safer.
  • Team Pet: He serves as the beloved cuteness-and-funny-generating family pet for the first half of the series.

The Angels/Seeds of Life

The Angels are the monstrous adversaries that NERV is committed to battling. Little is revealed about them, except that the "molecular structure" of their DNA is very analogous to that of human DNA, their presence was predicted by the secret Dead Sea Scrolls in SEELE's possession, and that should an Angel make contact with Adam (one of the two Seeds of Life, the other being Lilith), it will cause a version of Third Impact that would annihilate humanity and leave the Angels (or just that particular Angel; it's unclear which) as the dominant life form on the planet.


  • Adaptive Ability: Ireul's superhigh-speed adaptation.
  • Alien Geometries:
    • Leliel is a nanometers-thick black void with a spherical shadow that's completely disconnected from it.
    • Rebuild of Evangelion's version of Ramiel; see Stance System below.
  • All There in the Manual:
  • Archangel Lucifer: In the roleplaying materials, one of the angels is named Iblis.
  • Asteroids Monster: Israfel, though it only splits once.
  • Beehive Barrier: The AT-field defensive barrier for Ireul, which is hexagonal. The rest of the Angels (for the AT-field is a standard power for all Angels and Seeds of Life, whether or not it was actually shown on-screen) have octagonal fields.
  • Blue and Orange Morality: Their motivations are unknown. All they seem to want is to be reunited with Lilith.
  • Body Horror: The result of Armisael's choice method of attack.
  • Dark Is Edgy: Leliel.
  • Eldritch Abomination: All except Tabris, who is more Humanoid Abomination.
  • Fearful Symmetry: "Hi. I'm Israfel-A, and this my twin Israfel-B. Will you dance with us?"
  • Four Is Death: Bardiel (Toji is the fourth child) and Zeruel (fourteen is "death wish").
  • Giant Spider: Matarael is shaped like an opilione.
  • Healing Factor: Another mostly standard Angel power.
  • Hollywood Acid: Matarael.
  • Humans Are Cthulhu: Lilim, the 18th angel, is humanity itself.
  • Knight of Cerebus: Bardiel, and arguably Leliel.
  • Light Is Not Good:
    • Adam is occasionally referred as "the giant of light".
    • Shamshel's name means "Sun of God". Angel of day. Yeah.
    • Ramiel is the Angel of lightning.
    • Arael's "heavenly" beam of light.
    • Tabris: Albino.
  • Living Shadow: A unique and essentially literal case with Leliel, as the "shadow" is actually its super-thin body, while the floating sphere is its three-dimensional shadow. Don't think about that last part too much: just chalk it up to higher-dimension quantum physics and leave it at that.
  • Lotus Eater Machine: Leliel, Arael (a more sinister version) and Armisael.
  • Meaningful Name:
    • Adam and Lilith are the first humans in certain unorthodox Jewish mythological texts and the progenitors of Mankind and the demons known as Lilim, respectively, while the eponymous Seeds of Life are the progenitors of the Angels and Mankind, respectively.
    • Sachiel is the angel of water (guess where we first see it).
      • Sachiel also means "Covering of God" referencing it covering EVA-01 before self destructing.
    • Shamshel (literally "Sun of God") appears to be an exception to the rule, as neither its name's meaning nor its namesake have any particular relevance to its design or its actions. As it can mean Angel of the Day, however, it might simply be related to the timing of the Angel's appearance.
      • Shamshel is a cherub, meaning he guards Eden. Toji and Kensuke break the rules in order to see Shinji in action, basically gaining forbidden knowledge. It could be that Angel of the Day refers to the phallic appearance, to go with Leliel (the Angel of the Night)'s uterine appearance.
    • Ramiel (literally "Thunder of God") is the angel of thunder; and while the Neon Genesis Evangelion Angel does not control electricity or weather, its energy attack is basically a "thunderbolt" of destructive force.
    • Israfel is the angel of music (its defeat involved dancing to a specific musical score).
    • Sandalphon is the angel of embryos (discovered during a "larval stage", its "voice" is composed of electronically distorted baby wailing), among other things.
    • Matarael ("Premonition of God") is the angel of rain (it "rains" acid).
    • Sahaquiel is the angel of the sky (it appears in freakin' outer space[!]).
    • Ireul (Hebrew Yireuel, "Fear of God") is the angel of terror (the first Angel to penetrate almost every line of defense in the Geo Front, reached closer to Terminal Dogma than any other Angel save Tabris, hacked its way into NERV's database and the MAGI supercomputers with astonishing ease and speed, and was a fraction of a second away from blowing the entire NERV base with its self-destruct system)
    • Leliel can mean "Angel of Night", and is associated primarily with shadows, black and white patterns, and an infinite pocket dimension with no observable properties.
    • Bardiel is the angel of haze and hail (it infests Unit 03 while its cargo plane flew through a thunder cloud). Its name means "humiliated son of God", referencing the fact that it has no body of its own.
    • Zeruel (literally "Arm of God") is the angel of power and strength (it takes out Units 00 and 02 in no time flat, devastates NERV headquarters, and very nearly destroys Unit 01). Also, Unit 01 eats it, regenerating its arm.
    • Arael is the angel of birds (no bonus points for guessing its general appearance).
    • Armisael is the angel of the womb (it's vaguely shaped like an umbilical cord).
    • Tabris is another subversion of this trope, as neither are there any official Judeo-Christian source that lists an angel with that name (or one close to it), nor is the name's etymology clear; Word of God, however, is that he's named after the angel of free will, and the character exercises that free will to allow Shinji to kill him. Whether it's a Heroic Sacrifice or not is up to debate.
  • Mind Probe: Leliel, and...
  • Monster of the Week: Naturally.
  • Our Angels Are Different: Boy howdy.
  • Our Monsters Are Weird: Some of them are really weird.
  • Pocket Dimension: The nature of Leliel's main power, contained within and entered through its flat body and connected to its floating spherical shadow.
  • Pure Energy: Energy blasts and beams; used by Sachiel, Ramiel, Israfel, Zeruel. And for specific forms of it...
    • Energy Weapon: Sachiel's "arm lances".
    • Eye Beams: Sachiel and Zeruel.
    • Wave Motion Gun: Ramiel... especially in Rebuild of Evangelion, where his adjustable energy beam, at its maximum setting, can melt through a goddamn mountain!
  • Rain of Blood:
    • Leliel's quite graphic death: true to its physics-defying nature, the blood spurts from the floating sphere that is its shadow.
    • In the Rebuild of Evangelion continuity, Sahaquiel's cilia curl up like a spider's legs when it dies, and the entire island-sized creature explodes into a fountain of blood that floods most of the city. How they cleaned it all up is anyone's guess.
  • Shock and Awe: Ramiel.
  • Shout-Out:
  • Stance System: The Rebuild of Evangelion incarnation of Ramiel changes form in extreme, often impossible ways to adapt its offense and defense to the constantly changing requirements of the battlefield.
  • Taking You with Me:
    • Sachiel's last-ditch move, which ultimately fails.
    • Sandalphon attempts this with Asuka.
    • Sahaquiel's default and only tactic: it drops small portions of itself in order to refine its aim, then dive-bombs Tokyo-3 with its entire body.
    • Zeruel seems to have been gearing up for one before Unit 01 eats him up.
    • Ironically, that's the exact move that Rei uses to defeat Armisael.
  • Techno Babble:
    • Part of the on-screen exposition on the (in-universe-wise presumed) mechanics behind Leliel's "Sea of Dirac", which is named after a real, currently discredited hypothesis that otherwise bears little to no relation.
    • Also applies for all the Angels, as the MAGI identifies them during each invasion as Blood Type: BLUE. What that means is anyone's guess, especially since none of them have actually blue blood.
      • Humans (and EVAs) are Blood Type: ORANGE. LCL is orange. Hmmm...
  • Theme Naming: Aside from being named "Shito" (which can translated as either "Apostle" or literally "messenger"; "angel" is descended from the Greek word for "messenger"), all names are of Judeo-Christian Angels excluding two cases: Adam and Lilith (see Meaningful Name above).
  • Thirteen Is Unlucky: And how! Bardiel arrives when the show really gets dark.
  • This Is Gonna Suck: Zeruel appears to do a version of this in Rebuild of Evangelion. After Shinji forces Unit-01 into activation, Zeruel rushes forward and attempts to use its Death Ray that has destroyed everything it has been used on so far, but 01 blocks it with an AT Field without flinching. 01's previously cut off arm, then regenerates as pure energy, and 01 prepares to use it to blast Zeruel away. Zeruel's reaction to having it pointed in its face before firing is to lean back and whimper.
  • Tomato in the Mirror: The 18th Angel is Lilim, the offspring of Lilith, more commonly known as mankind.
  • The Virus: Ireul is a colony of nanites.
  • What Measure Is a Non-Human?: "Human" is a loosely-defined term in the Evaverse. In light of this fact...
    • Artificial Human: They (and by proxy, "Mankind"/Lilim) are creations of the First Ancestral Race.
    • I'm a Humanitarian: Both Zeruel (devoured) and Unit 01 (devourer) are technically "human," by the Neon Genesis Evangelion universe's internal terminology.
  • Whip It Good: Shamshel.
  • White Mask of Doom: Present on several Angels, including Sachiel, Zeruel, and nearly every Angel in Rebuild of Evangelion, including Lilith.
  • You Are Number Six: The Angels are almost always referred to by the characters according to their order of appearence (3rd Angel, 5th Angel, etc).

The Evangelions

Voiced by: Hiro Yuuki (JP), Matt Greenfield (EN, TV/Director's Cuts), Jason C. Lee & Taliesin Jaffe (EN, movies), Mike McFarland (EN, Rebuild of Evangelion) The Evangelions are biomechanical mecha designed by GEHIRN, and later by NERV, as a means of fighting the Angels. Their effectiveness against the Angels is based on their ability to generate an AT field, the same form of defense that the Angels use. It's eventually revealed that the EVAs are actually cloned Angels, all based on Adam except for Unit 01, which was derived from Lilith. The EVAs have human souls bonded to them, and are piloted by select 14-year-old teenagers who can synchronize with those souls; in the case of Units 01 and 02, those teens happen to be the children of the women who were bonded to those EVAs.


  • Appendage Assimilation: Yui-sama Unit 01 attaching and then transmogrifying Zeruel's arm to replace her own, and later absorbing his "precious" S2 engine/organ.
  • The Berserker: Whenever you hear an Evangelion roar, someone is about to die messily. No exceptions.
  • Cruel and Unusual Death: Units 02 and 03 are both torn to pieces, by the MP EVAs and Unit 01 respectively.
  • Cyber Cyclops: Unit 00.
  • Eva Fins: The Trope Namer. Units 01, 02, and 03 come with the signature shoulder attachments from the get-go. Unit 00 gets them when its armor is replaced after the Ramiel battle. The MP EVAs don't have them.
  • Flawed Prototype: Unit 00 is massively inferior to the later models, only getting deployed to achieve numerical advantage.
    • In Rebuild of Evangelion, Unit 05 is also referred to as a prototype but suffers from Crippling Overspecialization: it can't leave Bethany's tunnels without switching to battery power, has no ranged attack capabilities and is restricted to using a freakin' jousting lance as its Weapon of Choice as its mechanical pincers can't hold anything else. On the other hand, Unit 05's ass is basically a rocket it uses for Flight.
  • Four Is Death: Unit 04 explodes and takes a whole local branch of NERV and a chunk of the Nevada desert with it. The actual fourth EVA Unit 03 is possessed by the Thirteen Angel.
  • Healing Factor: Unit 01 exhibits some of this, restoring its broken arm during the battle with Sachiel and regenerating its blown-out eye immediately after.
    • The Mass Produced EVAs in the Manga regenerate after being curb-stomped by Shinji in Unit 01. Ironically, for years, Fanon has mistakingly believed that MP EVAs in The End of Evangelion were capable of regenerating, while in reality, they couldn't, they were just that determined to kill Asuka, wounds and missing limbs be damned.
  • Heroic RROD: Shinji forces Unit 01 to do this against Rebuild!Zeruel. The consequences are very grave...
  • High-Pressure Blood:
    • The blood fountaining from Unit 01's eye socket and skull after getting impaled by Sachiel.
      • Rebuild!Zeruel causes a similar reaction when it impales Unit-01's torso. Interestingly, Shinji is projectile-vomiting blood at the same time.
    • Unit-02 demonstrates the trope in both incarnations of the Zeruel battle: both arms in the original, one arm and a chunk of its head in Rebuild of Evangelion.
    • Good God, Unit 03's destruction leads to blood-spattered buildings.
  • Holy Halo: Unit-06. Unit-01 too, but only in Rebuild of Evangelion.
  • Living Weapon: The EVAs are a mecha version—mostly-organic creatures that can fight the Angels on their own terms because, in essence, they are Angels. In The End of Evangelion, Unit-02 takes over the role.
  • Mama Bear: The EVAs are imbued with the souls of their pilots' mothers. Special mention goes to Yui Ikari/EVA Unit-01, who goes berserk at the drop of a hat if Shinji is in danger.
  • Meaningful Name:
    • (Most) EVAs are "made" out of the first Angel, Adam, akin to how the Biblical Eva (Eve) was made out of the first human of the same name.
    • "Evangelion" itself means "Good news", and it was applied to the Bible books about Jesus because they spread the news about the resurrection of the Lord and salvation for mankind.
  • Powered by a Forsaken Child: They need to absorb human souls before they can function at all.
  • Restraining Bolt: The "armor"'s primary purpose.
  • Send in the Clones: They're essentially "clones" (by Neon Genesis Evangelion's loose definition of the word) of the First Angel Adam, or the Second Angel Lilith in Unit 01's case.
  • Slasher Smile: One of many creepy things about the Mass Production Models. Also sported by an armorless, bandage-swathed EVA Unit-01 while undergoing repairs after eating Zeruel, although she could just have More Teeth Than the Osmond Family, as EVAs aren't normally seen out-of-armour.
  • Super Prototype: Unit 01, kinda. Unit 04 might count as well, if we ignore the Explosive Overclocking part.
  • Twinmaker: Freeze-frame play of the director's cut version of Episode 23 reveals that Unit 01 is actually Lilith's missing lower half.
  • Unstoppable Rage: Part and parcel of an EVA going berserk.
  • What Measure Is a Non-Human?: See the Angels' entry above. Also, consequentially...
  • Youkai: Not examples themselves, but from Word of God here, the physical appearance of the Evangelions are based off oni.
  • Your Size May Vary: No official heights have been given for them, and they seem to shift depending on what will look correct in a given scene. This is most noticeable in Episode 8 when after Gaghiel explodes, Unit-02 is launched out of the sea, lands on an aircraft carrier's deck, and collapses. Nothing wrong there, until you remember that just a few scenes ago it was playing "hopscotch" with a ship the exact same size, which means it has shrunk down to the size of its own shoe.
    • Super Robot Wars gave a size to the Evangelions... but that's Super Robot Wars.
      • They are listed as 40m in the Proposal while height comparisons with humans in the shots that feature both put them somewhere around 55m.

Characters from other media

Mana Kirishima

Voiced by: Megumi Hayashibara

From Girlfriend of Steel/Iron Maiden.



Mayumi Yamagishi

Voiced by: Kyoko Hikami

From the Sega game 2nd Impression.



Back to Neon Genesis Evangelion
  1. ↑ See quote above: this is what they describe as the Hedgehog Dilemma, and is the best way to describe her relationship with Shinji.
  2. ↑ The latter point is raised only because those two fics have received their own TV Tropes pages.
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