Asuka Langley Soryu/Shikinami Evangelion Unit-02 Pilot (Eva Unit-02)
Asuka Langley Soryu (Asuka Langley Shikinami in the Rebuild movies), is the pilot of Evangelion Unit 02 and is known as the Second Child. She is part German, Japanese, and American. Her mother’s name is Kyoko Zeppelin Soryu, while her father is left unnamed.
She lives with Shinji in Misato’s apartment after moving to Tokyo-3 to fight with her Eva-02. Asuka’s characteristic red hair and haughty personality make her stand out, even among the other Evangelion pilots. In the original Japanese dub, she is voiced by Yuko Miyamura. The ADV Films English dub cast Tiffany Grant to voice Asuka, while the Netflix re-dub replaced her with Stephanie McKeon.
Character and Personality
When compared to the other Evangelion pilots, Asuka is extremely hot-headed. She often tries to put herself above her peers when she can and is not afraid to brag about her successes. Asuka also revels in the attention that being an Eva pilot gives her and she loves trying to steal the spotlight from the others. She also gets easily frustrated when her peers outshine her, such as when Shinji outperforms her in a test that gauged their synchronicity rate.
Although she is considered a child prodigy that can speak fluent Japanese and has a college-level education at the age of 14, she begrudgingly admits that she continues to attend school with the rest of the Eva pilots because she has difficulty with kanji. Working as a team is something that Asuka has incredible difficulty with, as doing is the same thing as bringing herself down to another’s level. This difficulty is highlighted in the battle with the Angel Israfel, which required Shinji and Asuka to be in perfect sync when attacking.
Background
Asuka’s overconfident personality stems from her unfortunate relationship with her late mother. After Kyoko’s contact experiment with Eva-02, she becomes incredibly mentally unstable and unable to recognize her own daughter. Kyoko began talking to a doll as if it were Asuka, which eventually led to Asuka having a strong distaste for dolls. In a flashback initiated by the Angel Arael, Asuka remembers begging for her mother to come to her senses as a young child, although Kyoko only replies with a request for two of them to die together.
After realizing the gravity of her mother’s request, the young Asuka becomes determined to be someone who is independent and only thinks for themself. This mental attack from Arael came at a time where Asuka was especially vulnerable. Asuka’s synchronicity rate with her Eva Unit began to decline and, along with her forcefully recalled memories, quickly spiraled into a depression that eventually resulted in her being completely unable to pilot Eva-02, leaving her at a loss of what to do with her life.
Notable Relationships with Other Characters
Shinji Ikari: a fellow Eva pilot in charge of Eva-01. Asuka lives with Shinji in Misato’s apartment, leading to many interactions between the two. Shinji’s accepting and apologetic nature often frustrates Asuka, leading to many arguments between the two. Despite their arguments, Asuka is, at the very least, somewhat attracted to Shinji, though she struggles with this internally. She is seen asking Shinji he wanted to kiss her because she is “bored”. When Shinji complies, she quickly dashes into the bathroom to rinse her mouth out.
Rei Ayanami: a fellow Eva pilot in charge of Eva-00. The personalities between these two are vastly different. While Asuka is outspoken and proud, Rei is quiet and distant. Asuka often interprets Rei’s advice as arrogance or an attempt to belittle her, something that she absolutely despises. Rei’s compliant nature also irritates Asuka to no end, calling her a doll for the Commander of NERV, Gendo Ikari.
Misato Katsuragi: While Asuka lives in Misato’s apartment, she often criticizes her lax behavior and poor housekeeping skills. On the other hand, Asuka is quite jealous of Misato, as she is in a relationship with Ryoji Kaji. Asuka is shown to be very interested in Kaji when they met in the NERV branch in Germany, despite Kaji being significantly older than her.
Asuka Langley Shikinami
Asuka also appears in the Evangelion Rebuild movies, first appearing in Rebuild of Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance. Although her appearance and personality are largely the same, there are some differences in her character. Unlike Asuka Soryu, Asuka Shikinami does not mind dolls, and actually uses hand puppets on occasion. Furthermore, she does not share the same admiration for Ryoji Kaji as Asuka Soryu had in the original series. After the events of the 2.0, an eyepatch is added to her design.
The reason behind the change in name is not publicly explained. However, there are hints that the name change was due to Hideaki Anno’s desire to show that the Evangelion movies are different and diverging from the original anime series. Another rumored reason is that other characters such as Rei Ayanami and Mari Makinami have surnames that reference Japanese battleships from World War II.