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Misato Katsuragi

Misato is the operations director at NERV as well as the guardian of Shinji and Asuka.

Throughout the series, we learn that even though when at work she is very professional, her life at home is a stark contrast.

For example, when Shinji first arrives at Misato's apartment, it is a complete mess with beer and leftover food everywhere.

Much like Shinji, Misato's father also had a great impact on her life. He was incredibly distant like Gendo, but also saved her life during the second impact.

Relationships

Her relationship with Shinji is the most questionable in my opinion, as Shinji's problems with others is almost identical to her own problems with people.

There is also some unfortunate sexual tension between her and Shinji, and although it is only hinted at, it is still weird as Shinji is 14. She is 29.

A certain scene in End of Evangelion adds further confusion to the two's relationship

In this scene, Shinji and Misato kiss, Misato calls this an "adult kiss" and states that they will "do the rest later" before dying.

This scene has many interpretations, such as her not knowing how to approach other outside of being sexual,

or also trying to be both a friend and maternal figure to Shinji.

But, no matter how much you try to defend her, we can agree some of Misato's actions are questionable and a bit predatory.


Misato also has a questionable relationship with her ex, Kaji.

I say that her relationship with him is questionable because despite being established as exes, there are still scenes where they are being romantic and sexual to eachother.

Kaji is Misato's ex because she claimed that she felt like she was being taken advantage of

however this wasn't her actual reasoning, as she said later on that Kaji reminded her too much of her father.

Personally, I think that the possible reason why Misato still has these relations with Kaji could be because she struggles with moving on

And because of how we know she mirrors Shinji's issues, this could be the case.

But that's just me theorising, as I don't think the creator has actually said anything about this specific thing.

(There are also scenes of these two having s3x a few times in both EoE and the series, but it isn't relevant)


Gendo Ikari

Remember when I said Shinji's father abandoned him? well, this is his father!!

Gendo works as the commander at NERV, meaning he plays a major role in the production of EVAS and the human instrumentality project.

In End of Evangelion, we learn that Gendo tried to utilize the Third Impact to bring his wife, Yui Ikari back to life.

However, this does not work as he had ignored Yui's real wishes.

Relationships

It goes without saying that Gendo essentially hates Shinji, but why?

Well, due to Yui dying, Gendo believed that nobody could love him and caused him to fear getting hurt like that again.

This caused him to push most people away, which is why he is very distand and cold to Shinji in the series.

However, even though he does like Shinji deep down, he was still jealous of Shinji for the amount of attention that Yui gave him.


I also feel like Gendo's attachment to his wife is really shown when we compare how he treats Rei to how he treats Shinji.

For example, Gendo is extremely distant to Shinji and will barely speak to him outisde of when he needs him to pilot the Eva,

but he treats Rei as if she was his own child.

We can see this in episode 5, where Gendo burns his hand pretty badly to break Rei out of the entry plug of the Evangelion.

And, as Rei is basically Yui, this shows his devotion to his wife.


Yui Ikari

Yui is probably one of the most important characters in this series, as she is tied to both Rei and EVA unit-01.

Before death, she worked as a bioengineer at Gerhin (A company that predecesses NERV and was responsible for the Magi and EVAS) with Gendo.

In 2004, Yui participated in a 'contact experiment' with EVA Unit-01

(a procedure where a human and Adam will seperate, fuse, or conjoin the body and soul).

Upon contact, her body dissolved into LCL and was absorbed into the EVA unit's core.

Although they tried to salvage her soul, Yui desired to remain inside the EVA.

Lilith's soul was then cloned from Unit 1 (aka Yui) and was then put into all Rei clones, which is why Rei and Unit-01 are considered Shinji's mother by the fans.

Relationships

Not much is known about Yui's relationships with others, but it's not a stretch to say that she loved Shinji very much, even after death.

This is basically proven by the fact that Rei rejects Instrumentality because of her bond with Shinji

Another way that this is proved is when EVA-01 has gone beserk and killed angels by itself, tearing them apart to protect Shinji, who is piloting inside.

(Fun fact! While Yui was pregnant with Shinji, she decided that if the baby was a girl, it'd be called Rei.)


Ritsuko Akagi

Ritsuko is the the head scientist at NERV, meaning she is incredibly involved in the maintenance of Tokyo-3's defenses against the angels (e.g. the EVAs).

She also lives in the shadow of her mother in many ways, as her mother also worked on the Evangelions before her death.

She now continues her mother's work ontop of developing the Magi supercomputer system.

Relationships

Like her mother, Ristuko was romantically involved with Gendo at some point, and it is implied that her dedication to her work stems for her love for him.

She also has a love-hate relationship with her mother, and while she does look up to her (e.g. her mother's notes helping her in many crucial moments) she also hates her for favouring her duties as a scientist over herself.

In End of Evangelion, her mother's programming in Caspar (an analogue in the Magi) prevents her from destroying the Magi system. She attributes this prevention to her mother choosing Gendo (and her work) over her one last time.


Kyoko Zeppelin Sohryu

This is Asuka's mother! she was also a very important scientist in Gerhin's german division.

Kyoko was also the subject of the contact experiment with Unit-02, where her soul bonded with the EVA. this caused her severe damage to her mental health.

After this, she began believing that one of Asuka's dolls was Asuka herself.

She was then admitted to a mental hospital, where her husband would have an affair with her own doctor.

In 2005, she hung herself alongside one of Asuka's dolls. The affair was one of the factors contributing to this.

However, a part of her still survived in Unit-02, and some evidence even suggests that the rest of her was salvaged into the unit after her suicide.

Kyoko also pleads to Asuka to die with her multiple times throughout the series via EVA 02.

This plead eventually comes to fruition when the EVA and Asuka are both ravaged by the Mass Production EVAs.


Ryoji Kaji

Kaji doesn't actually 'work' for NERV, but instead is a triple agent, wokring for the Japanese government, NERV, and SEELE.

Before his death by disobeying SEELE (rescuing deputy commander Fuyutsuki after kidnapping them for interrogation),

he gives Misato a capsule containing information about the Human Instrumentality Project,

then also leaving her a farewell phone message as he knew he would be dead when she heard it.

There is also some speculation around who the assasin who killed Kaji is, but the Film-Book does tell us that this person either worked for NERV or SEELE,

this implies that he was killed due to how much he knew about instrumentality.

Kaji also farms watermelons and seems to highly prioritise them, as he enjoys how much he learns from taking care of the watermelons.

Relationships

Kaji is essentially a womanizer, as multiple times throughout the series he has been seen flirting with others (mostly Ristuko and Misato, but also Shinji once??)

However, it seems that Kaji had only truly had eyes for Misato, as he'd only flirt with Ristuko once, and also told Misato before his death that:

"If I ever get to see you again, I'll say the words I wasn't able to say eight years ago."

And despite what I said earlier about Kaji breifly flirting with Shinji, Shinji strictly only sees him as a mentor.

The two seem to also be very comfortable with eachother (or atleast Kaji is), as Kaji had asked Shinji about Misato's sleeping habits,

implying that Shinji was in a intimate relationship with her, to which Shinji just laughs it off

(It's important to note that if anyone else asked this question, Shinji's response would be much more flustered and embarrased).