Evangelion Ninth Angel Matriel
Matriel is a Child of Adam and is designated as the Ninth Angel named after the “Angel of Rain”. It appears in Episode 11 of the Evangelion anime series. This Angel attempts to infiltrate NERV Headquarters directly by using a powerful acid to melt through the ground. Matriel’s attack catches everyone at NERV by surprise, as all of the power to Tokyo-3 is cut for unknown reasons. Without power, the only way to discover the Angel is with sight. Since NERV HQ is located deep underground, all staff present are essentially blind and have to resort to outside information to begin launching and attack against the Angel.
Physical Appearance
Matriel appears as a black daddy-long-legs spider with only four legs. Each leg has two joints and towers over nearly all of the buildings in Tokyo-3. Its body is roughly bowl-shaped in appearance and has multiple triangles that are outlined in red with purple eyes in the center. At the very bottom, there is a much larger eye that is shown secreting acid. Matriel’s core is not clearly visible and is likely located inside of its body. Although it is assumed to have one because it is an Angel, it appears that Matriel’s A.T. field is incredibly weak, as an Evangelion’s rifle bullets pierce through its body very easily. Bullets and other physical projectile-based weapons are often ineffective against Angels, as seen with Sachiel and Shamshel, though it appears Matriel is an exception to this.
Notable Abilities
- Corrosive Acid: Matriel seems to have few abilities overall. It does not show any capability of using energy beams, a defensive A.T. field, or great physical strength that other Angels display. The one tool it does have, however, is an acid that is secreted by its bottommost eye. It has an orange color and is an incredibly powerful corrosive that can dissolve nearly any kind of material in a matter of seconds. Matriel uses this acid in an attempt to create a path leading down into NERV HQ. Earth, concrete, and metal are all liquified by Matriel’s acid. Eva units are not quite as susceptible, but the acid still poses a dangerous threat to them. Anything over a few minutes of exposure to it is likely more than enough to completely eat through a unit’s outer armor. Although the Angel has numerous eyes, it is not known if it can produce any acid using any eye other than its largest one located on its bottom side.
Battle and Defeat
Before the battle with Matriel, there is a wide-scale power outage that leaves all of Tokyo-3 without electricity, including NERV HQ. This makes the following Angel battle much more difficult for numerous reasons. Shinji, Rei, and Asuka are all outside of NERV at the time of the outage and, as the access terminals are all offline, they have issues getting to their respective Evangelion Units. Matriel’s approach also goes unnoticed for an incredibly long amount of time, as NERV is essentially stuck underground with no way to observe what is happening above ground. Fortunately, Makoto Hyuga happens to be above ground as well and hears an announcement from a plane overhead that says an unknown object is headed toward Tokyo-3. Although the access terminals are not usable, both Makoto and the Evangelion pilots make use of emergency routes to make their way toward NERV. Once the pilots arrive, they climb into their units and are manually released from the variety of safety locks holding them in place. Since NERV’s launching platforms also use electricity, the Evangelion units are forced to climb up the maze of tunnels leading up to the surface. The units are also fitted with an external battery to give the pilots more time to operate the units without the use of external power.
Once they nearly make it to the surface, Asuka notices droplets of something falling, which land on Evangelion Unit 00 and dissolve its part of its battery in an instant. More acid continues to rain down, forcing the three to retreat and come up with a plan. It is decided that Asuka will act as a shield to protect the other two from the acid, as she wants to pay Shinji back for saving her after the battle with Sandalphon. Rei will retrieve one of the rifles that were dropped as they fled from the acid and toss it to Shinji, who will take aim and fire. This plan ends up working well and results in the destruction of Matriel. Power is restored to NERV immediately after Matriel is defeated, although it is unknown whether this is simply a coincidence or not.
The battle with Matriel is one of the quicker fights for the Evangelion pilots, as it seems limited in attacking abilities and power. This battle was one of the very few in the anime series that Shinji, Asuka and Rei are all fighting together as a team.
Matriel in Other Media
The Ninth Angel, Matriel did not make an appearance in Evangelion Rebuild 2.0 or the official manga written by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto. However in the manga, it does state of the occurrence of the power outage event happening.