Asuka Langley Sohryu
From OtakuWiki
Asuka Langley Sohryu is a character in the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion, as well as Evangelion 2.0: You Can (Not) Advance. Her Japanese seiyou (voice actor) is Yoko Miyamura and her English voice actor is Tiffany Grant.
The pilot of the first production Evangelion, Unit 02, Asuka Langley Sohryu, a.k.a. "The Second Child", could be described as an overachiever. A graduate of college at age 14, she emigrated to Japan as part of the contingent of EVA pilots of NERV, which included Shinji Ikari and Rei Ayanami. The trip from her native Germany, though, was interesting. During the transit, which included transporting Unit 02, the United Nations fleet came under attack from the 6th Angel, Gaghiel (who was searching for the 1st Angel Adam, which was at the time under the possession of Ryoiji Kaji). It had taken both Asuka – and Shinji, who co-piloted Unit 02, to destroy the Angel.
Although Asuka is a German citizen, she is, in fact ¾ German and ¼ Japanese, with a dual citizenship in the United States from her father's side. Although she is a college graduate, because of her age she is forced to attend middle school in Japan. Her personal character can be described as exuberant, almost to the point of arrogance. Her relationship with Shinji is somewhat abrasive, showing great contempt for Shinji's passive personality. Her relationship with Rei is even worse, chafing at her emotionless character, even refering to Rei as "Wondergirl" (or 'Wunderkinde' in her native German). She also had an unhealthy romantic attraction to Kaji.
But her ability to command Unit 02 cannot be questioned, and during her first days with NERV, Asuka showed great flexibility in different situations. For one, during a power blackout that affected Neo-Tokyo 3 and NERV, she had to come up with a battle plan when the 9th Angel, Matariel, attacked, using her EVA as a shield while Shinji used Unit 01 to destroy the Angel. But in time, Asuka suffered several setbacks after the incident involving the 14th Angel Zuruel, which showed her own, fragile personality.
Asuka's mother, Kyoko Zeppelin Sohryu, was a scientist on the Gehiern Project, the predecessor to NERV, and it is her personality that is imprinted into Unit 02. However, the process has mentally unhinged Kyoko, causing her to slip into a childlike state. Asuka, who was 7 at the time, resented the fact that her mother had showed little attention to her, instead finding comfort in dolls (she had accused Rei of being a doll herself). Later, when she found that she was to pilot Unit 02, she had discovered that Kyoko had committed suicide, the young girl seeing her mother hanging from a rope. As a result, Asuka had pushed herself to becoming the best that she could be. But being one of the best wasn't enough for her... she wanted to be THE BEST. So when she failed to stop the 15th Angel Arael, that was the topper. It didn't help matters much when she found that Kaji was killed. When the 16th Angel Armisael attacked, she was mentally unable to activate her EVA, and suffered an emotional breakdown. Upon the insistance of SEELE, she was then replaced by "The Fifth Child", Kaworu Nagisa - who turned out to be the 17th and final Angel Tabris, who tried use Unit 02 to bring about Third Impact.
In the movie The End of Evangelion, Asuka had finally snapped out of her fugue, just in time to stop an attack on NERV by the Japanese Self-Defence Force. However, she proved unable to defeat a group of Evangelions constructed by SEELE, who was bent on implementing the Human Instrumentality Project, the project which would bring mankind back to innocence. The end of the movie showed that she and Shinji became the last humans on Earth.
