Third Part: Neon Genesis Evangelion: Characters

In the story of Neon Genesis Evangelion are many principle characters. When a viewer steps back and ponders on the characters, they seem to comprise a large cast. But in reality, compared to other animes of the mecha genre, the cast is relatively small.

Within this cast are characters that have great importance to the plot, while others are more minor. Some are only included for their effect on the other characters. And yet, despite their different degrees of importance, they all appear in the end of Instrumentality, either in the anime or the movie (...with the exception of Pen-Pen, the penguin.)

Ikari Shinji is the protagonist of the series. There is not a single episode without him, and his experiences and growth are the ultimate focus of the show. He pilots the biomechanical robot Eva 01, and is known as the "Third Child/Children", indicating that he is the third pilot to have been found for the Eva series. He is a rather isolated boy who does not appear to have had much close interaction with others in his life. Despite this, he does not lack social skills and is not socially awkward, although he is definitely quiet and in some instances extremely thoughtful for a kid of fourteen. His character will be explored deeper later in his own analysis.

Ayanami Rei is the first Eva pilot, the "First Child/Children." Her origins are an enigma for much of the show, but she is later revealed to be a clone of Shinji's mother. Despite this, she is clearly a flawed clone, having inhuman blue hair and red eyes. She is even more isolated than Shinji and, as quoted by Anno, the director of Evangelion: "It's not that she doesn't have emotion, but that she doesn't know what it is." Throughout much of the series, she appears entirely emotionless, except for having an often cold demeanor. She appears to be the least psychologically damaged by any negative experiences while piloting her Eva 00, despite it being the most unstable of all the Evas. Like Shinji, she will later have her own anaylsis.

Katsuragi Misato is the oldest member of the principle main cast at 29 years old. She is the captain, and later major, of Nerv, and directs Shinji and the other Children in battle. Despite her often childish nature, she has a good sense of responsibility and is a strong leader when duty calls. She acts as the guardian of both Shinji and the Second Child/ren, Soryu Langley Asuka, initially taking Shinji into her apartment to keep him from living in utter isolation. While she is a brave and clever leader in battle, she does not have much confidence in guiding the children in personal matters due to her own psychological scars and insecurities. When she was 14, she witnessed the Second Impact, although she did not remember what truly caused it, and later in the series becomes dedicated to finding out the truth. She will have her own further analysis.

Soryu Langely Asuka is half-Japanese, half-German. She is the Second Child/ren, pilots Eva 02 and, as contrast to the reluctant Shinji and the apathetic Rei, takes up this job with relish. Her world is centered on being the very best pilot, and reacts with furious hostility to any sign that this position may be taken by someone else. While she has a relatively lively demeanor and a more outgoing personality, her arrogant behavior prevents her from making many friends. Aside from her psychological issues which stem mostly from pressures from her mother and her mother's later insanity and suicide, she is in many ways a normal girl for her age, at least compared to Rei. She will have her own later analysis.

From left to right: Hikari, Kensuke, Suzuhara Toji

Out of the numerous classmates of Shinji, Rei and Asuka, only three are given any focus in the series.
Hikari is the class representative, and can come off as bossy, but is a very collected, kind, normal girl. She is the only girl in the class who is Asuka's friend, and at times this lets the viewer see sides of Asuka that she would not reveal to other characters. Despite bossing him around a lot, Hikari seems to have something of a permanent crush on Toji.

Kensuke is a bit of a nerd, and has a fascination with the military, military machinery and weapons, mainly the Evas. It is due to his somewhat thoughtless interest in the Evas that he and Toji went out onto the front lines during an Angel Attack, and were nearly killed in the crossfire before Shinji saved them. Kensuke has very little influence on the plot or characters, despite being a friend to Shinji and giving the boy some sense of normality.

Suzuhara Toji is Kensuke's friend and later Shinji's. We learn little about his background, other than the fact that he has a little sister who was injured in the attack of the first Angel that Shinji fought. He blames Shinji for this once he finds out he pilots the Eva 01, and punches him for it. After being saved by Shinji from the second angel, he quickly changes his mind and insists that Shinji punch him back (a very simple kid, eh?) After this, he becomes a friend to Shinji, arguably, as I see it, a better one than Kensuke. I can not see Kensuke and Shinji becoming as good of friends without Toji around, but I can see Toji and Shinji getting along just as well without Kensuke. And after Toji is nearly literally removed from the picture, Kensuke also disappears as well.
The event that takes Toji away from the show is what causes the series to take a turn for the darker. Up until episode 18, the series had taken a somewhat lighthearted monster-of-the-week flavor. In this episode, Toji was chosen to be the Fourth Child/Children. He was put into Eva 04 as a test. However, the Eva had been taken over by the angel Bardiel, and after activation trapped him inside. It destroyed the area and went towards Nerv.

What followed was arguably one of the most disturbing scenes in the entire show. The angel-infected Eva 04 dispatched the other Evas until Shinji was left. He refused to fight the Eva/Angel, knowing that a pilot was inside, but not knowing who it was. A dummy system was commanded to take over, and it utterly destroyed the Eva/Angel, and crushed the plug that Toji was in as well. Shinji only saw it was Toji when they removed him from the plug in the aftermath.
In the anime, Toji miraculously survived, although with the loss of a leg and arguably some severe mental scarring. It is worth noting that in the manga, Toji died, which made Shinji's emotional response to the affair all the more sympathetic and the whole event more tragic.
Either way, in both the anime and manga, Toji disappears from the story. It is very likely that Shinji was simply too afraid and ashamed to approach him afterwards.

From left to right: Aoba, Maya and Hyuga

These three characters are part of the staff at Nerv. They are directly involved in both managing the Evas, as well as partaking in monitoring and some controls over the Evas during combat. Although their roles vary by degrees of importance, through them we get different perspectives on the events that occur.
Aoba is arguably the most obscure character. He does his duty well and never shows much weakness or great sensitivity, although he is not cold. Overall, he's arguably an average person. The main exception is in The End of Evangelion movie, in which a very intriguing and character-defining scene takes place that sets him apart from the rest of the main cast. This will be explored later.
Maya is smart and has a warm admiration for those in authority over her. She's arguably the most sensitive of the main staff, being the only one to turn her face away and even seem to cry during the more horiffic events such as the Dummy Plug or the berserk Eva eating one of the angels.
Hyuga has a pretty strong crush on Misato, although he's not forward about it for multiple reasons. He's helpful to her and loyal to her above all the other Nerv supreriors. Later in the series, he helps her in her search for the truth of the Second Impact.

Ryoji Kaji is Misato's old boyfriend, an agent for Nerv, a triple agent, and someone who holds his own agenda at priority one. His mission is one that Misato joins in and, after his murder, continues. He seeks the truth of the Second Impact and in the Instrumentality that takes place in the series, is one of Shinji's greatest guides to truth. His character is somewhat of an icon of truth-seeking in the series, and of acceptance of the truth, including the truth of what has occurred in one's past.
He used to be Asuka's guardian, and Asuka has a very strong crush on him. While Kaji is a huge flirt, he is decent enough not to do any of the sort towards Asuka and fuel her rather strange, dependent infatuation towards him. Possibly due to his easygoing personality, he gets along well with Shinji. After Shinji quits being an Eva pilot after the event with Toji, another angel attacks. During this attack, Kaji does not try to lecture or push Shinji into piloting and saving the day. He just tells him that the choice is his, and that no one else can do it in his place. This leads to Shinji choosing to return to being and pilot, cementing his identity as a pilot.
Kaji also plays a very large role in Instrumentality as well as conveying some key themes of the series, which will be explored later.

Ikari Gendo is Shinji's father. He is the commander of Nerv, and is therefore everyone's boss, more or less. He has history in the Eva projects, back to being involved in the Second Impact. In many ways, he's similar to Shinji. Both are not physically isolated from others, both are emotionally so. They have very low opinions of themselves, and apparently of each other. The only reason he calls Shinji to Nerv is because he wants Shinji to pilot the Eva. It is also suggested that Gendo, like Shinji, runs away from other people in fear of being hurt or, in Gendo's case, the belief that he would be hurting them. However, any sort of care that he might have is utterly lost.
The largest difference between Gendo and Shinji is that Gendo clearly uses people, usually without any remorse in the least, and he is very cold even towards though he seems to care for even somewhat. Shinji on the other hand, does not use people, especially if he respects them and his feelings of caring for them are pure (Rei is a prime example of this) and he treats them warmly if he isn't undergoing some sort of psychological mope or depression.
Gendo is in contest against the organization of SEELE, which funds Nerv. Both he and the members of SEELE want Instrumentality to occur and see it as their ultimate, supreme goal. Gendo's reason for this is so he can be reunited with his deceased wife, Ikari Yui.

Ikari Yui was the daughter of a member of SEELE, Gendo's wife, Shinji's mother, a rather out-of-the-box scientist and, along with Gendo, a member of Gehirn, the predecessor of Nerv. She died as result of an experiment with Eva 01, which resulted in her soul being trapped inside of it. The presence of her soul within the Eva is probably why it refuses any pilot other than Shinji. At other times, the Eva has moved on it's own, other than going into beserk, in response to Shinji in danger, presumably prompted by her desire to protect him.
While not exactly physically present, she is the source of much of the series' drama. Rei is her clone, made utterly without her knowledge or consent, as something of a consolation replacement for Gendo. She was also the cause of one of the first Rei clone's deaths, and was loved by one of her teachers.

Kozo Fuyutsuki is the second-in-command at Nerv, and takes care of much of the mundane work. He is also arguably closer to the staff than their commander Gendo, though not by much, but is clearly far less harsh on them. He knew Gendo and Yui years earlier before the two married, being Yui's teacher, and it was revealed that he did and still does love her, at least to some degree. He was also involved in Gehirn and has a deep knowledge of the Evas. At one point, he is captured by SEELE and was interrogated, but was freed by Kaji. This resulted in SEELE cornering Kaji and having him murdered.

Akagi Ritsuko is the head scientist of Nerv. She is a college friend of Kaji and Misato, and has apparently been engaged in sexual activity with Gendo, who she seems to have been attracted to for a good while. She is jealous of Rei, who has so much of Gendo's attention. She is one of the few who knows that Rei is a clone, and her jealousy eventually leads her to destroy the Rei replacement clones. In charge of maintaining the Evas, she appears to know the most about them and their identities out of the main cast aside from Gendo.
She has many issues with her mother, who was the lead scientist before her. Her mother also was in a sexual relationship with Gendo (after Yui died) and was similarly dissatisfied due to it being sexual only. In a further parallel, her mother killed the first Rei clone, who bore an even stronger resemblance to Yui than the rest of the Rei clones. After this murder, Ritsuko's mother committed suicide. While Ritsuko's relationship with her mother was reportedly rather strained, she becomes emotionally reliant upon deceased her mother as the series progresses, perhaps due to a realization of the numerous similarities between them.
Ritsuko has some of the most iconic lines in the series in regards to the pain and misunderstandings that can some with human interaction. She is also the only other character besides Kaji who comments on the strangeness that divides men and women. These will be expanded upon later.

Nagisa Kaworu is introduced as the Fifth Child/Children, as a replacement pilot for the now catatonic Asuka to pilot Eva 03. He is remarkable, and can synchronize with the Eva before it is rewritten to accept him. Later in the episode, he is revealed to be Tabris, the final angel. He also has the soul of Adam, the first angel, within him. He descends to where Lilith is kept, and there is willingly killed by Shinji in the Eva 01.
Kaworu is the only character in the cast that offers unconditional regard and care towards Shinji. Many of his words have led to a homosexual interpretation of his character. Shinji, who is blushing throughout almost every scene with Kaworu, seems to think so, even if it's just subconsciously. However, Kaworu is an angel, and arguably does not have any understanding of human sexuality. Additionally, when his word choices are examined as he talks with Shinji, they seem very vague and broad, though not cold or uncaring. He just seems to be vague and broad, and he only truly makes sense when seen as learning to understand humans through Shinji. If Shinji is examined as humanity as a collective, then Kaworu's words take a very different sense.
Whatever Kaworu's approach to their interaction was, the fact remains that Kaworu was, in the very short time they knew each other, an extremely important person to Shinji. He will be reexamined in this light within Shinji's analysis.
It is worth noting that in Evangelion, which is full of the theme of misunderstanding and distance between persons, Kaworu is the only character who ever vocalizes his feelings; he is the only one who ever says three important little words "I love you."
Kaworu's role has many possibilities of interpretation. The end of his life is one that embodies what he represents: free will. He states that death will come to him no matter what he does, and he wants to die as he desires. It is to this that he asks Shinji to kill him.
But at the same time, Kaworu is Adam. Adam and Lilith are both Seeds of Life, with their own creations that are in direct competition with each other. Adam's children are the Angels, and Lilith's are humanity. Because of this, Kaworu and other characters always refer to humanity as Lilin, the name for Lilith's offspring of myth. If Kaworu/Adam were to destroy Lilith, he could take back the earth from the Lilin and give it to new angels. But he did not, and chose for Shinji to kill him.
Arguably, there are some strange moral issues with Kaworu's choice of, more or less, assisted suicide. But still, considering that he simply had Adam's soul within him, and was clearly still present in The End of Evangelion, it's unknown if he completely died or not. Death to a Seed of Life is evidently different than human death.
One strange thing about Kaworu is that people seem to have a penchant for pairing him with Rei. When the scene before the body of Lilith takes place between Kaworu and Shinji before the former is killed, it is made clear that Rei is there, watching them. Rei is partially Lilith herself, and clearly the possible destruction of the body of Lilith would concern her. Oddly, one of the last things Kaworu does is to look up at Rei, showing he clearly knew she was there.

Could it be probable that, in a sense, Kaworu was letting himself die for Rei/Lilith as well as the Lilin? Possibly.
The potentials of the love that people seem to desire from the Rei/Kaworu interaction is one that deserves a lot of analysis. Also, the concept of Shinji being the collective of humanity//the Lilin to Kaworu, Kaworu loving humanity, and the death connected with free will being for humanity also needs more than what I can offer it now. I'll probably do another part on that, probably after I've finished with the analysis on the principle characters.

As it stands now, I'll analyze Misato next. This will focus on her representation of adults, the Hedgehog's Dilemma, her involvement in seeking truth and how this is connected with her relationship with Kaji (yet goes beyond that) and ultimately her role in Instrumentality within the series.
After that will be Asuka, Rei and then Shinji, then End of Evangelion. I might include the Rebuild Movies, but I am unsure.
If I do an essay-analysis on my musings on Kaworu as mentioned above, another thing that must be included is my idea (that will be fleshed out in Shinji's analysis) is the idea of Shinji's journey showing the journey of a human soul during a stage of life. And if Shinji is the representation of the human soul, that means even more for his relationship with Kaworu and what that could symbolize. Rei could also be included as a comparison for this...we'll see.