Neon Genesis Evangelion (SPECIFICALLY THE 90's ANIME) is my favorite anime off all time. I love the religious theming, the 90's cell animation asthetic, the characters, and the allegory for mental illness. I can't say I hate a single character in this anime or a character I adore the most since I LOVE ALL THE MAJOR CHARACTERS but I do have some words I would like to share about some particular characters.
Asuka Langley Soryu. Asuka Langley Soryu....... Asuka is a phenomenal female character, and as I'm thinking about it I'd say she's my favorite character in the show. She's 13 when you first meet her in ep 8 and she's very mean towards the other members of the cast. During my first watch I hated her as a character for this, until I got to the later episodes, specifically episode 24 ish, where you learn her mother committed suicide when she was six years old. She's also an UNCOMFORTABLE CHARACTER, with large amounts fanservice of her despite the fact she's a middle schooler. However, after watching the Rebuild movies and rewatching the show, I began to ADORE her.
When I was watching the series with my ex at his house, he mentioned something I hadn't thought about, how there's subtext she could have been a victim of S/A. I think the original reasoning was that she's just a heavily traumatized character, but looking at her as a victim of assault makes sense as well. In the many video game spin offs of Eva, there was one called 'Girlfriend of Steele' in which you were a Seele agent who was a caretaker for Rei, and you could even be able to date her depending on route. Anyway, the reason I'm meantioning this in this Asuka section is The Same Thing Probably Happened To Her. At 6 years old, she began training to be an eva pilot, leaving her to be in the hands of a large organization that only cared about the evas rather than the mental wellbeing of the children piloting them. You can also look at her relationship with Kaji and her hypersexuality as evidence enough. She treats Kaji like he's the only light in her world. Asuka wants to romantically be with him and delusionally thinks that he'll accepted her interest. However in reality, he doesn't, and this is directed stated in ep. 22. Asuka comes on to Kaji, and he turns her down, mentioning that Shinji is there and she is 14. Hearing his comment, Asuka says she doesn't WANT anyone else and that she's adult enough, flashing her bra and clevage to Kaji. See why I said she's a uncomfortable character? Anyway, other than this scene there's PLENTY of evidence of her hypersexuality, but I don't need to comb through all the evidence to prove my personal headcannon. NEXT PART!
Asuka has an interesting relationship with the cast. I COULD SAY SOOOO MUCH but for now lets talk about her interactions with the other eva pilots, Rei and Shinji. AS soon as she shows up, she's hostile towards Shinji, because she's jealous he's the eva pilot that's getting all the praise. She's trained her whole life, and some random Japanese teenager outranked HER easily, without any experience? Impossible! Asuka only sees her value as a person being in her eva skills, and this reallllyyy knocks her down a peg when she's unable to ever defeat an angel on her own.