Rei Ayanami

is a fictional character from the anime ''Neon Genesis Evangelion'', created by Gainax. She is the First Child and pilot of a giant mecha named Evangelion Unit 00. At the beginning of the series, Rei is an enigmatic figure whose unusual behavior astonishes her peers. As the series progresses, she becomes more involved with the people around her, particularly her classmate and fellow Eva pilot, Shinji Ikari. Rei appears in the franchise's animated feature films and related media, video games, the original net animation '' Petit Eva: Evangelion@School'', the ''Rebuild of Evangelion'' films, and the manga adaptation by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto.

Hideaki Anno, director of the animated series, conceived her as a representation of his unconscious. He was also influenced by his readings on psychology, in particular on Freudian psychoanalysis, taking inspiration from Freud's theories on the Oedipus complex. Other influences for its creation include earlier works by Gainax staff members, such as ''Aoki Uru'', and Paul Gallico's '' The Snow Goose''. Rei is voiced by Megumi Hayashibara in Japanese, and by Amanda Winn-Lee, Brina Palencia and Ryan Bartley in English.

Rei has been well received by critics and in reviews. She has maintained a high ranking in every popularity poll of the series and has also appeared in polls to decide the most popular anime characters in Japan. Reviewers have praised Rei's mysterious aura and her role in the story. Merchandising based on her has also been released, particularly action figures, which became popular. Critics linked her success to a series of moe traits that proved popular with anime fans, influencing the creation of subsequent female anime characters.

Conception

Design

According to the ''Neon Genesis Evangelion: The Unofficial Guide'' by writers Kazuhisa Fujie and Martin Foster, director Hideaki Anno instructed Yoshiyuki Sadamoto on Rei's character design saying, "Whatever else, she needs to be painted in as a bitterly unhappy young girl with little sense of presence." The band Kinniku Shōjo Tai's theme song ''Doko e demo ikeru kitte'' and its line "hotai de masshiro na shojo" (lit. "the white girl with bandages") inspired Sadamoto to draw Rei. The same band produced a song named , in which a female monologue is audible, and Sadamoto tried to portray a girl with a similar voice. Ukina, a character from Sadamoto's previous work ''Koto'', served as Rei's model, giving her "shaggy, bobbed, wolf-like hair". Another source of inspiration was '' The Snow Goose'', a novella written by Paul Gallico; the story describes a painting portraying the protagonist, a thin and pale girl in an empty room, and the artist tried to create a character similar to her.

Anno required a "gloomy", "cool character with short hair", so Sadamoto designed Rei originally as a brunette with dark eyes; however, it was necessary to distinguish her from the other female protagonist Asuka Langley Soryu, so he designed her with eye and hair colors opposite to Asuka's. He also published a drawing of a dark-haired character named Yui Ichijō among Rei's designs in one of his artbooks, without specifying whether it is an early conception of Yui Ikari or not. While Asuka was conceived as "an idol-like figure" in ''Neon Genesis Evangelion'' and a symbol of "heterosexual desire", Sadamoto designed Rei as a motherhood symbol, thinking of her as "the Yin opposed to Asuka". Anno also suggested that Rei's eye color be red, a feature he believed would give her more personality and distinguish her design from those of the other characters. Her hair color changed to blue, similarly to the main character from ''Aoki Uru'', the movie sequel to ''The Wings of Honneamise'' (1987) which was never made. Sadamoto also gave her black stockings, inspired by a women's handball team he saw playing when he was in middle school. Black allowed him to differentiate her from the characters of the series released in the same period and go against their trend.

Development

Like other ''Evangelion'' characters, Ayanami's surname comes from a Japanese World War II naval vessel, the . Her first name comes from the character Rei Hino of the anime and manga series ''Sailor Moon''. This was done to get one of ''Sailor Moon''s directors, Kunihiko Ikuhara, to work on ''Evangelion''. Written in kanji, can mean "zero", "null". The character also means "custom", "routine". According to writer Patrick Drazen, her name can be a pun on her Evangelion 00, while for critic Hiroki Azuma it may have been influenced by a character named Zero, the protagonist of the novel ''Ai to gensō no fascism'', written by Ryū Murakami. Anno also took inspiration from Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic concept of Oedipus complex for her role. He conceived the Evangelion and Rei as a palliative mother figures for Shinji; Rei was also conceived as emotionally close to Shinji's father, Gendo, creating a multi-layered Oedipus complex. In a discarded draft of the character background, she was thus a more sensual character than her final version; character designer Sadamoto, however, unlike the more frank and explicit Hideaki Anno, decided to give her a much more "enigmatic" and bland eros.

During ''Evangelion''s production and first broadcast, Anno encountered difficulties writing the character, not feeling "particularly interested" or relating to her, but he thought of her as a representation of his unconscious mind, conceiving Rei as "the unconscious Shinji". In the fifth episode ("Rei I"), explicitly dedicated to her character, Rei speaks seven lines and fifty-two words, while in the sixth she has twenty-five lines. Not feeling particularly close to her, the director for a long time forgot to explore Rei's personality, ignoring it or giving it marginal space. In the eighth episode ("Asuka Strikes!"), for example, she does not appear in any scene, while in the seventh (" A Human Work") he remembered her adding a scene with Rei. As with other ''Evangelion'' characters, he transposed aspects of his life into her character, including the choice to not eat meat and maintain a vegetarian diet. At the beginning of the production he also stated that he did not know what would happen to Rei or to the other characters, "because I don't know where life is taking the staff".

Her history has eventually undergone changes. According to Sadamoto and assistant director Kazuya Tsurumaki, she was originally conceived as an alien entity, but staff later went on to make her at least genetically human. They described Rei as a girl who has both the human genes of Yui Ikari and ; Tsurumaki also associated her condition to a Devilman, a hybrid presented in the manga ''Devilman'' by Go Nagai. Moreover, in the twenty-first episode, the first Rei clone, killed by Naoko Akagi in the final version of the script, would eventually survive after being strangled and having lost consciousness momentarily, awakening in an empty command room without Dr. Akagi, while the death of her second clone was planned by Anno since the beginning. During the production of the fourteenth episode, the director decided to focus on her and "explore her emotion", adding a monologue of Rei. When he was working on the monologue, he wanted to develop her in a "schizophrenic" direction and wondered how to portray a kind of madness. He was loaned a magazine-like book entitled on mental illness that contained a poem by someone who suffered from a mental disorder, and that triggered his imagination. Moreover, during the production, Ikuhara, annoyed by the idealized image and the fetishism that some fans built around the character, proposed to Anno to "betray" fans and show her as a real girl who gets married and "gets pregnant in the last episode", but Anno rejected the suggestion. Furthermore, in the original finale wanted by Anno, the giant Rei added in the film ''The End of Evangelion'' (1997) was not foreseen, since it was conceived at a later time. Anno himself declared he considered her character "already finished" in the episode six smile scene, since "she and Shinji completely 'communicated' there".

Voice

Megumi Hayashibara voiced Rei in all her appearances in the original series, as well as the later films, spin-offs, video games and the new ''Rebuild of Evangelion''. In 1995, Hayashibara said she was somewhat "surprised" by her role and her laconic character saying, "I have to challenge something new." Hayashibara also attended auditions for Asuka and Misato Katsuragi, but after hearing her performance in an OVA named Anno felt her voice more suited to Rei. She noticed that before ''Neon Genesis Evangelion'' there were few taciturn and cold characters to deal with, so, in the absence of examples to imitate, she tried to characterize her "as best I could". During the dub sessions, Hideaki Anno instructed and guided her, advising her to read her lines in the flattest tone possible: "When the director explained her character to me, he said, 'It's not that Rei doesn't have any feelings, it's just that she doesn't understand'." According to Hayashibara, since Rei "doesn't know emotion, there's no difference between what she says and feels". At first glance, her "great beauty" comes from "this surface, not without depth, but with the absence of its necessity". She added, "Rei's beauty comes from the truth that she has feelings", and "when I found the warmth below the coldness in her words, I synchronized with Rei for the first time".

Voicing the mahjong game , she stated that she understood the difference between "lack of intonation" and "absence of emotion" in words. She linked the lack of intonation as a sign of "self-confidence"; an insecure or bad faith person, in her opinion, would tend to emphasize words, while Rei is completely honest and only tells the truth. The voice actress also reprised the role for the ''Rebuild''. While filming for the third film in the saga, '' Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo'' (2012), she worked on parts that weren't fully animated, so she had to ask the director what was happening in the scenes. Hayashibara stated she had to do "countless takes" for Rei's short lines and find the right nuance the staff wanted. She had to dub her as she was indifferent and be careful in conveying her character's feelings of happiness "without overdoing it".

Regarding the final instalment, '' Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time'' (2021), a difficult part for her was showing another Rei clone who is slowly growing up; when she tried to be pure she was criticized, and when she tried to be less emotional she was criticized anyway. Anno tried to make the characters younger and with fuller emotions, so it was difficult for the voice actress to get the nuances the director wanted. With Rei's role, Hayashibara's popularity as a voice actor grew, and she became an icon of anime fandom. Shunsuke Nozawa, assistant professor at Hokkaido University, noted how in the 1990s there was an explosion of interest in Japanese voice actors, believing the figure of Hayashibara to be at the center of this change, thanks to the "enormous, societal-level fascination" exerted by Ayanami. Hayashibara thus began to be interviewed about the series and to be regularly invited on television as a celebrity.

Amanda Winn-Lee voices Rei in English in the original series and in the Amazon dubs of the ''Rebuild of Evangelion'' films. According to Winn-Lee, despite the cold and detached appearance, there is still "a small spark of humanity" in Rei, "clouded by this huge sense of negative self-worth and the realization that she is expendable". She also stated: "She knows she's expendable, but the thing is, she's still human." In the Funimation dub of the ''Rebuild of Evangelion'' films, her role is entrusted to Brina Palencia, while in the Netflix dub she is voiced by Ryan Bartley.

Appearances

''Neon Genesis Evangelion''

Rei Ayanami's birth date is never specified in the original series. All data about Rei's past are unknown or erased; her age (14 in 2015) is the only known fact. Officially, Rei is chosen by an organization called the Marduk Institute as the First Child and pilot of Eva Unit-00 to defeat creatures named Angels for the special agency Nerv, under the command of Gendo Ikari. She moves to the first municipal middle school of the new city of Tokyo-3, and Gendo becomes her legal guardian. Through the course of the series, Rei, who is originally completely submissive to the will of Gendo, becomes friends with fellow Eva pilot and classmate Shinji Ikari, changing attitude. She also begins to become more aware of her own identity and desires.

In the battle with the Angel Armisael, Rei decides to sacrifice herself alongside Eva Unit-00 to save Shinji and destroy the enemy. After her apparent death, Dr. Ritsuko Akagi reveals she was born in Laboratory for Artificial Evolution's third branch, a place located under the lake Ashino and Hakone city. Her body with albino-like traits was created in absolute secrecy from the salvaged remains of Yui Ikari, a brilliant researcher who lost her life in a testing experiment by Evangelion Unit 01. Ritsuko also reveals that in the deepest level of Nerv's headquarters many Rei clones are kept, so that when one Rei dies, she can be replaced. When a clone is activated from a level named Terminal Dogma, although she remains characteristically distinct from all former incarnations, she is endowed with the soul of Lilith, the second Angel. Her memory is eventually saved in an object similar to a spinal column placed in the Central Dogma of the Nerv, the Dummy Plug Plant. In 2010, Gendo brought her first clone (Rei I) to the Gehirn base, the predecessor of Nerv and responsible for the development and construction of the first Evangelion units, introducing her as the daughter an acquaintance had entrusted to him. This first Rei was killed by Dr. Naoko Akagi, colleague and secret lover of Gendō. During her visit to Gehirn, Rei I got lost in the laboratory control room and met Naoko, calling her an "old hag", as if to provoke her. She then revealed that it was Gendo who called Naoko that. Naoko suddenly recognized Yui's facial features in the little girl's face and, in an outburst of violence, she strangled and killed her, after which she committed suicide.

After her sacrifice, Rei II is replaced by a third and final clone. All the other bodies in Terminal Dogma are later destroyed by Ritsuko. Thanks to her close relationship with Shinji, the last Rei decides to rebel against Gendo's will. Rei III thus acts as the main catalyst behind an apocalyptic event named Third Impact. She merges with Lilith, letting Shinji freely decide the course of Instrumentality, during which all of mankind unites into one collective consciousness. A giant white and naked Rei emerges into open space during the process, holding Shinji's Eva-01, and, when Shinji rejects Instrumentality, this figure decomposes. After Shinji rematerializes, he briefly sees a version of Rei watching over him from a distance before vanishing.

''Rebuild of Evangelion''

Rei returns as a primary character in ''Rebuild of Evangelion'' and appears in the first installment of the saga, '' Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone'' (2007). Her character remains virtually identical to the anime, acting as a pilot of Evangelion Unit-00 and helping Shinji defeat Angel Ramiel. Writer Thomas LaMarre noted that the ''Rebuild'' make the relationship between Shinji and Rei a more central element to the story, increasing and improving the scenes depicting them. In the second movie, '' Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance'' (2009), her character develops and her relationship with Shinji is shown much more openly than in the original series. In a departure from her original traits, she attempts to host a dinner party for her fellow pilots. Anno first thought to use this idea for the fourth episode of the original anime, but the proposal was shelved during the production of the series. During the climax, Angel Zeruel devours Rei and Unit-00. When Unit-01 goes out of control, Shinji forces his way into the Angel pulling her out, and the two embrace each other; at the end of the fight, they are both trapped within Unit-01 as the action triggers the Third Impact. During the feature film, it is also suggested that Gendō and Fuyutsuki plan to bring Shinji and Rei together. Assistant director Tsurumaki was asked about this after the release of the feature film; according to him, the impression of a strategy to bring Shinji and Rei together was a result of the complex script writing, and "Anno probably hasn’t thought about that very deeply".

In the third installment '' Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo'' (2012) set fourteen years later, the same Rei does not appear; a different clone is introduced instead, who acts differently than the other Rei, maintaining a cold and silent demeanor. In '' Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time'' (2021), the last film of the saga, Rei's new clone, named Ayanami (Tentative Name), heads together with Shinji and Asuka Shikinami to a small town called Village 3, inhabited by survivors of the various Impacts that occurred and isolated from the outside world, almost uninhabitable. Here Rei interacts with the adult Toji Suzuhara and Hikari Horaki, old schoolmates of the previous clone, with the children and women of Village 3, helping them to work in the fields; with time the new Ayanami begins to develop her individuality, gradually discovering the world around her and learning to socialize with the inhabitants. After some time, however, Rei (Tentative Name), whose real name turns out to be Ayanami-Type No.006, is unable to maintain her form without the continuous contact with the Evangelion's LCL liquid and dies in front of Shinji. During the Instrumentality, Shinji meets again the Rei of fourteen years before, who remained inside the Eva-01. The old Rei, with visibly long hair, argues with her companion, who decides to live in a world without Evangelions and give the world a new birth, Neon Genesis. Rei and Shinji then say goodbye to each other for the last time, shaking hands and smiling.

In other media

In the official ''Neon Genesis Evangelion'' manga, by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, further differences are evident in the characterization of Rei. In the manga, she is generally more empathetic and open to human contact compared to her animated counterpart. In the comic, moreover, the character has more space than Asuka, who in the anime, under the influence of Hideaki Anno, has a predominant role. Compared to the classic series, Sadamoto tried to tread his hand on her relationship with Shinji, particularly insisting on the symbology of the touch of the hands and the theme of motherhood, inspired by Kazuo Umezu's ''The Drifting Classroom''. As in the series, she at first considers herself empty and useless, created solely for piloting the Evangelion under Ikari's orders; Shinji's touch changes his attitude. In a scene from the fifth volume of the manga where they are both at Rei's house, Rei gets burned while preparing tea with Shinji and their hands touch for a moment. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Rei invites Shinji to speak to his father and open up to him; in another chapter, thinking back to that moment, she wonders if her hands will one day be able to touch Shinji again. During the clash with the Angel Armisael, Rei becomes increasingly aware of her feelings of sadness and affection towards Shinji, towards whom she demonstrates a certain romantic interest. Sadamoto himself described Shinji and Rei's feelings as mutual love.

In a scene from the last episode of the animated series, an alternate reality is presented with a different story than the previous episodes; Rei is presented as a girl who has just moved into the class of Asuka and Shinji, with a radically different personality: cheerful, distracted and irascible. An outgoing Rei is featured in some ''Neon Genesis Evangelion'' spin-offs, such as '' Neon Genesis Evangelion: Angelic Days'', set in the alternate reality of the last episode. In the original web anime series '' Petit Eva: Evangelion@School'', a parody of the original animated series, three Ayanami sisters are presented, one is diligent and introverted; another sport oriented and extroverted; and another is a four-year-old girl with a passion for soft toys. In '' Neon Genesis Evangelion: Anima'', set three years after ''End of Evangelion'' in an alternate scenario, several Rei appears; Rei Troi, pilot of an Eva named Evangelion Unit-02 Type II Allegorica, Rei Quatre, Rei Cinq and the seven-year-old version Rei Six, all of them pilots of Evangelion-0.0 units. In '' Neon Genesis Evangelion: Campus Apocalypse'', Rei shares a mysterious connection with Kaworu that triggers Shinji's attention. She is also present in ''Neon Genesis Evangelion: Legend of the Piko Piko Middle School Students''. In a simulation game entitled '' Neon Genesis Evangelion: Ayanami Raising Project'', the player takes on the task of looking after Rei. She is also available as a romantic option in '' Neon Genesis Evangelion: Girlfriend of Steel 2nd'', ''Neon Genesis Evangelion 2'', '' Neon Genesis Evangelion: Shinji Ikari Raising Project'' and its manga adaptation, wherein she is a distant cousin of Shinji. In addition to games based on the original series, Rei has appeared in media not related to the '' Evangelion'' franchise, such as ''Monster Strike'', ''Super Robot Wars'', ''Tales of Zestiria'', ''Puzzle & Dragons'', ''Keri hime sweets'', ''Summons Board'', ''Puyopuyo!! Quest'', ''Line Rangers'', ''Unison'', ''MapleStory'', ''Valkyrie Connect'', ''Ragnarok Online'', ''The Battle Cats'' and in an official '' Shinkansen Henkei Robo Shinkalion'' crossover episode.

Characterization and themes

Rei Ayanami is a taciturn girl who limits relations as much as possible and mechanically executes any order given to her, even if particularly cruel. She is introverted, socially detached and laconic. Sociologist Satomi Ishikawa noticed that in a scene from the sixth episode of the series ("Rei II") her companion Shinji asks her the reason that pushes her to want to pilot Evangelion 00; Rei replies saying she finds her only "bond" with other people in this, thus demonstrating that she is committed to the struggle against the Angels "as if it were the only reason why she exists". Throughout the series she proves to be indifferent to life and engages herself in drastic acts that could cost her life. Writer Justin Wu ( ''The Artifice'') noticed that, unlike other characters from the series, she does not care if she dies, and embraces death "as if death is the only way to prove that she has lived". For the critic Gerald Alva Miller, despite her cold attitude, Rei experiences feelings of alienation and existential angst. Gualtiero Cannarsi, who cured the Italian adaptation for the series, similarly described Rei as a girl "unaware of the most basic rules of life and hygiene", as she has had no one to teach them to her, resulting in her being disinterested in them. Her attitude is reflected in her apartment, where hygiene is neglected. In one episode Ritsuko Akagi says, like Commander Ikari, she "is not very adept at living". Scattered on the floor of her apartment are scientific texts on biological interactions and genetics written in Latin alphabet in the original series, and ''The Happy Prince and Other Tales'' in the ''Rebuild of Evangelion'' series. Critic Susan J. Napier also noticed that, in the last two episodes, she confesses to wanting to die and "go back to nothing". According to ''Evangelion'' character designer Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, she is "translucent", like a shadow or "the air": "The kind of girl you can't touch. The girl you long for, but there is nothing about her that you can grab a hold onto." He also interpreted Asuka and Rei as "strong characters, in their own separate ways". Furthermore, Hayashibara described her as an "ethereal character", since: "Her emotions are like waves, so if I was off by even one millimeter it would affect her character, and I'd have to redo it".

During a show a little girl asked Hideaki Anno what Rei likes, and he replied that he never thought about it. According to him, she does not appreciate her own life, hurts herself and feels she does not need friends, being aware of the fact that "there'll be another to replace her": "Her presence, her existence—ostensible existence—is ephemeral. She's a very sad girl. She only has the barest minimum of what she needs to have." Anno also understands the Japanese national attraction to characters like Rei as the product of a stunted imaginative landscape born of Japan's defeat in the Second World War, because "since that time, the education we received is not one that creates adults". The architect Kaichiro Morikawa compared the face of the first Rei, usually presented in a distorted and deformed way, to the installations of Tony Oursler, also comparing her bedroom to Gottfried Helnwein's photographs. Writer Claudio Cordella associated her personality to that of the female characters portrayed by the painter Edward Burne-Jones, and her gaze to the "fixed and lifeless eyes" of the Olympia from ''The Tales of Hoffmann''. Takekuma Kentaro

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