Rei Ayanami
The quiet First Child who pilots Evangelion Unit-00 and hides a secret tied to Yui Ikari and Lilith.
Rei Ayanami is the reserved pilot of Evangelion Unit-00 and holds the designation First Child in the Gainax anime Neon Genesis Evangelion. Early on her odd, withdrawn behaviour leaves her classmates baffled, but over the course of the series she opens up to the people around her, above all to fellow pilot Shinji Ikari. The story eventually reveals that she is a clone made from Shinji's mother, Yui Ikari, and from Lilith, a being classed as an Angel. She also appears in the feature films, the Rebuild of Evangelion films, video games, Petit Eva: Evangelion@School and the manga by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto.
Quick Facts
- Series
- Neon Genesis Evangelion
- First
- Neon Genesis Evangelion chapter 2: "Reunion" (1995)
- Creator
- Gainax
- Species
- Human clone
- Gender
- Female
Facts from the source article.
Background
Director Hideaki Anno treated Rei as a picture of his own unconscious mind and first thought of her as an unconscious version of Shinji. He drew on Freud's idea of the Oedipus complex, casting both the Evangelion and Rei as stand-in mothers for Shinji, with her bond to Gendo adding another layer. Her surname follows a naval naming pattern, while her given name was borrowed from Rei Hino of Sailor Moon; written in kanji, Rei can mean zero. Sadamoto first drew her with dark hair and eyes, then switched to blue hair to contrast with Asuka Langley Soryu, and Anno proposed red eyes.
The Snow Goose by Paul Gallico also fed into her look. Episode 21 reveals that in 2010 Gendo brought the first clone, Rei I, to Gehirn, NERV's predecessor, where Naoko Akagi, recognising Yui's features in the girl's face, strangled her and then took her own life. In episode 23 Rei sacrifices herself with Unit-00 to destroy the Angel Armisael, and a third clone takes her place.
Did You Know?
- Anno took her first name from Rei Hino partly in the hope of recruiting Sailor Moon director Kunihiko Ikuhara.
- Sadamoto gave her black stockings after seeing a women's handball team play when he was in middle school.
- Scholar Hiroki Azuma used Rei to illustrate his database theory of recurring character traits.
More in Characters
Elsewhere in Neon Genesis Evangelion
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