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Shinji Ikari is 14 years old, the "3rd Child", and designated pilot of Evangelion Unit01. Shinji is the main character of the story and this allows the audience to learn more about him than any other character. He seems to be very quiet and withdrawn, but this is only a protective shell he forms about himself to keep other people away from him. When he begins to develop friendships with his classmates and Misato, one learns that he tries to keep people at a distance because he fears being hurt by them. This fear is caused by two things: the fact that his father deserted him when he was four years old and that his mother disappeared early in his life. Shinji lacks self-motivation and passes through life by doing whatever other people tell him to do. He has a knack for piloting the Evas but doesn't enjoy doing it. In fact, he actually quits twice and comes back because other characters encourage him to. Since Shinji can be manipulated so easily, many of the characters use this to walk all over him. (Asuka's attitude towards Shinji is a prime example of this.) Though Shinji is normally very docile, traumatic experiences in Unit01 cause him to lose control and lash out at those around him, which sometimes even causes his Eva to go berserk. These flaws make Shinji and the whole story line very interesting for the viewer to watch and wonder what's going to happen next.
Rei Ayanami is 14 years old, the "1st Child", and designated pilot of Evangelion Unit00. Rei is quite possibly the most mysterious character in the story. She is very quiet and extremely withdrawn from everybody, though she does seem to have a father-daughter relationship with Commander Ikari and later develops some feelings for Shinji. I doubt, however, that these feelings are love. Rei seems to be very doubtful of her own self worth, and this causes her to not care whether or not she returns from a battle. Rei, like Shinji, also does whatever is asked of her and very little else. On a mysterious note, Rei seems to be a clone, which explains the dummy plugs and the fact that she dies twice, only to return again. Her realization of this fact is probably the reason she doesn't care about herself.
Asuka is 14 years old, the "2nd Child", and the designated pilot of Evangelion Unit02. Asuka is, along with Misato, a nice change of pace to the rest of the quiet, more withdrawn characters. Asuka is the highest rated pilot on the syncro tests and uses this fact to boost her ego and become the self-proclaimed leader of the Eva pilots. She is a glory hog and wants all of the credit for herself, and when she screws up she is quick to place the blame on someone else. Asuka has a crush on Kaji and competes with Misato for him, though she eventually loses. Although neither of the two admit it, Asuka and Shinji seem to like each other. Also, Asuka has more problems than she would care to admit; her mother went insane and thought a doll was her daughter. She eventually killed herself. Asuka tries to bury her past with a facade of self-worth and overconfidence, but an Angel attack brings back her terrible memories, leaving her in a severe state of depression near the end of the series.
Misato is 29 years old and is the Operations Manager at Nerv. Misato is loud, arrogant and beautiful. She is also Shinji's and Asuka's guardian. Much to Shinji's dismay, Misato is a drunk and a slob at home, often leaving him with the cooking and cleaning duties since Asuka never helps out. Misato's father was killed during the second impact while saving her life; because of this she holds a grudge against the Angels and that is what leads her to join Nerv in the first place. This grudge also causes her to make rash decisions while fighting the Angels that prove to be very dangerous situations for the three pilots. She is also a childhood friend of Ritsuko and Kaji, the latter of which she previously dated during college. Her love interest in Kaji surfaces again during the show as she "competes" with Asuka for him. She appears to be the most caring of the adults, since she tries to help and protect the children when they are having problems.
Although it is clear that Kaji is a spy for the Japanese Government, we are never quite sure what his job is at Nerv, other than that it is important. He helped to train Asuka at the Nerv 3rd Branch in Germany and later transferred over to Japan along with Asuka, Unit02, and Adam. Kaji is the Casanova of the cast; he is always hitting on the female characters, especially Misato. Kaji spends a lot of his time sneaking around trying to find out what exactly Nerv is doing and trying to accomplish. The rest is spent hitting on girls and tending to his garden. (don't tell Misato^_^)
Gendo is 48 years old and is the Commander of Nerv. He also seems to be in charge of the Human Instrumentality Project. Gendo is, in the nicest possible way to put it, a complete jackass. He doesn't care about anything but himself and his goals. In fact, the only time I saw him get emotional is when he went to help Rei (episode 5), but there were probably conceited reasons behind that as well. Gendo is a heartless father who abandoned his child when he was only 4 or 5 years old, because he was "of no use to him." If there is a villain in this story I think he comes out over the Angels.Gendo's original name was Gendo Rokubungi, but he changed it to Ikari when he married Yui. Although Gendo is a very conceited man, he does still care about his missing wife.
Ritsuko is 30 years old and is the head scientist at Nerv, like her mother was before her. It is rumored that Ritsuko had an affair with Gendo some time after her mother died. Ritsuko went to school with both Misato and Kaji, and has some strange affection for cats. Since she is the head scientist she often puts the Evas before the children. This, in turn, causes problems between her and Misato.
Touji Suzuhara is 14 years old and one of Shinji's best friends. His little sister was severely injured and hospitalized during the First Battle of Tokyo 3. When Touji discovers that Shinji is the Pilot of the robot involved in the battle, he beats him up. However, when he sees the pain Shinji goes through to pilot the Eva, he sympathizes with him and becomes his friend. Touji is eventually chosen as the fourth child and is the designated pilot of Evangelion Unit03. This assignment is short-lived; his Eva was taken over by an Angel and then utterly destroyed by Unit01 under the dummy plug system. Though Touji survived the battle, he was left missing both his left leg and left arm.
Kensuke Aida is 14 years old and Shinji's other best friend. Kensuke relates well to Shinji since they both have lost their mothers. Kensuke is a war freak; he knows virtually everything there is to know and is always searching for more information. This desire almost gets both Touji and himself killed in the 2nd Battle of Tokyo 3. Kensuke's father apparently works for Nerv, so he gets a lot of information from him and often knows more about what is happening than Shinji does. Kensuke wishes nothing more than to also pilot one of the Evas, and even formally asks Misato to be the pilot of Unit03.
Kaoru Nagisa is 15 years old, the 5th Child and the re-designated pilot of Unit02. He was born on the same day as the Second Impact, and is also the 17th Angel. Kaoru looks a lot like Rei and seems to be part of Seele's own cloning project. Seele uses Kaoru dummy plugs to pilot the mass production model Evas during the movie. Kaoru is the first person ever to tell Shinji that he loves him as a human being, which gives Shinji his first true feelings of self-worth. In the final battle, Kaoru uses Unit02 to attack and quickly descend down to the bottom of Nerv. Though Shinji tries to stop him, Unit02 holds him off. When Kaoru reaches the chamber that holds what remains of "Adam," he correctly identifies it as Lilith. Shinji then realizes that if Kaoru makes contact with Lilith, they will destroy humanity. But Kaoru believes that Shinji, and therefore humanity, deserves to live more than he does, so he lets a reluctant Shinji kill him.
Hikari Horaki is 14 years old. She is the Class Rep. in the children's Jr. High class. She is the eldest of 3 sisters and is apparently the one taking care of them. She thinks Touji is kind and has a crush on him. However, by the time she starts to express her feelings for him, he is severely injured in the Eva. She is also Asuka's best friend, and lets her stay at her home when Asuka begins to lose all signs of mental stability.
Kouzou Fuyuzuki is the second commander, behind Ikari, at Nerv. Though both he and Ikari are very cooperative, they have completely different opinions of what is happening in and what is wrong with the world. Commander Fuyuzuki was originally Yui Ikari's teacher, and didn't like the fact that she was seeing Gendo and eventually wanted to marry him. Fuyuzuki discovered what really happened during the Second Impact and joined Gehirn, which eventually turns into Nerv.
Maya Ibuki works at Nerv. She is the understudy of Ritsuko and also works in battle operations under Misato. She idolizes Ritsuko and wants to be as good a scientist as her. She doesn't have a stomach for battle and has been known to turn away in terror and to vomit at the horrible battle scenes. She doesn't seem like she is cut out to work in her current job.
Makoto Hyuga is one of the Magi operators at Nerv. He often is sent out with Misato on the operations that take place outside of Tokyo-3. Makoto also has a crush on Misato, and even does her laundry for her. He eventually realizes that she will never show any affection towards him and gives up.
Shigeru, along with Makoto and Maya, is another Magi operations manager at Nerv. During the series he remains a pretty flat character; in fact, all you really know about him is that he likes rock n' roll.
Yui is Gendo's wife and Shinji's mother. She also appears to be the basis from which Gendo cloned Rei. Yui was a very intelligent scientist, and studied under Fuyuzuki when she was in college. That is where she met Gendo, and they married shortly after the Second Impact. After the Second Impact she became one of the developers of Project Eva at Gehirn. She mysteriously disappeared in an activation experiment in Unit01. Her body was never found.
Naoko was one of the top scientists at Gehirn and the developer of the Magi Supercomputers. Naoko fell in love with Gendo and had relations with him after Yui disappeared. Naoko often neglected her daughter Ritsuko while working on the Magi; Ritsuko eventually began to hate her for it. When Naoko eventually finished the Magi, Rei called her a hag. Rei further went on to say that Naoko was useless and was going to be discarded now that she had finished the project that Gendo only needed her for. However, these words were not from Rei alone; they were originally spoken by Gendo. This caused Naoko to lose control and strangle Rei. Afterwards she shot herself in the head.