Asuka Shikinami Langley

In a flashback placed shortly after Near Third Impact, Asuka appears with cropped hair, her eyes and temples wrapped in a grey bandage; both the bandage and the eyepatch that replaces it display Angel-Sealing Hex Pillars, and a long craniotomy scar hides underneath. By Evangelion: 3.0 the patch sits over her left eye and glows at moments through the film, hinting the eye beneath survives in some mutated state. The Curse of Eva freezes her body at fourteen even as she reaches twenty-eight, with only her hair growing out. Cat imagery follows her through the later films: both her hat and her helmet carry ear-shaped points, and her Eva's Beast Mode takes on an unmistakably feline silhouette. Her plugsuits progress from the red Unit-02 suit and a separate test suit in 2.0 to patched, battle-worn variants in the final films.

The core reads as familiar: fierce pride in her piloting, hunger to be treated as an adult, a short fuse, and no patience for anyone who condescends to her. The differences from Asuka Langley Sohryu run deep, though. This Asuka joined the European Air Force and made captain by fourteen rather than finishing university, carries no fear of dolls and actually comforts herself with a hand puppet whose name she embroidered herself, never fixates on Ryoji Kaji, and shares no close friendship with Hikari Horaki. She admits her feelings far more openly, cooking to pull Shinji's attention away from Rei, helping Rei arrange a dinner party, and confiding in Misato before the Unit-03 test. The fourteen years of war that follow Near Third Impact harden her; her own actress compares the older Asuka to an embittered mercenary, though genuine worry for Shinji persists beneath the fury she aims at him over the devastation he unknowingly caused.

She enters Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance mid-victory, finishing off the Seventh Angel in the Production Model-02. After sparring with Rei in an elevator over their reasons for piloting, she volunteers to take Rei's place in the Unit-03 activation test, a quiet kindness meant to let Rei host her dinner. The test destroys her: the Ninth Angel contaminates the unit, and Asuka ends the film sealed in quarantine behind Angel-sealing pillars, her mind at risk of corruption. The prequel shorts to the third film show her flying for WILLE, rescuing a young Midori Kitakami from a Failure of Infinity, and reluctantly agreeing to lead the orbital recovery of Unit-01 after Mari convinces her Shinji may still be worth retrieving.

In Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo she greets the awakened Shinji with a punch against his cell's window, torn between concern and rage over Near Third Impact, and informs him of the Curse of Eva. When Shinji and Kaworu take Evangelion 13 down toward Lilith, she intercepts them in Unit-02, pleads with the misguided Shinji to stop, threatens his life, and is finally swatted aside when her power runs dry. With Fourth Impact underway she throws Beast Mode against the Mark.09 that has become the Adams' Vessel, discovers its entire body is a regenerating core, and destroys her own unit while ejecting. Afterward she locates the entry plug holding Shinji out in the wasteland and drags the unresponsive boy toward the surviving Lilin, Rei trailing behind.

In Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon A Time she shelters in Village-3 under the roof of Kensuke Aida, who watches over her like a father. She force-feeds the catatonic Shinji protein bars, snaps at his inertia, and brings him aboard the Wunder on her authority when the ship returns. Before the final operation she tells him plainly that she liked him long ago, but that she grew up first. During Operation Yamato she cuts through hordes of Mark.07s beside Mari, then tears off the eyepatch, releases the Ninth Angel sealed within her, and injects Angel blood into the New Unit-02α in a bid to stop Evangelion 13. The gambit fails; within the ejected plug she comes face to face with her original and learns she is one of the cloned Shikinami series, and Eva 13 devours her plug to set off another Impact. Within Instrumentality, Kensuke comforts her lonely childhood self, and Shinji thanks her and returns her confession, leaving her blushing and overwhelmed. Her plug lands safely beside Kensuke's house, and in the rebuilt world Shinji glimpses her one last time, seated on a train platform bench. Crossovers keep her busy elsewhere: she pilots Shin Getter-1 in Super Robot Wars DD and stars in her own bond stories in Goddess of Victory: Nikke.