Israfel

The merged Israfel stands as a huge, loosely humanoid giant along the lines of Sachiel, wearing a facial mask whose markings suggest a yin-yang emblem. Four bone-like growths fan across its chest like external ribs, bracketing the two cores set within. Sharpened claws tip each hand.

Division produces a matched pair of near-copies, told apart mainly by their coloring. The English localization names them Alpha and Beta; Japanese viewers hear Kou and Otsu instead. Each twin keeps a core of its own and wears a mask pierced by three eye holes, though the skeletal chest structures disappear in this state.

Splitting is the Angel's defining power, triggered the moment a would-be fatal wound lands. The two halves appear to fight with synchronized coordination, and so long as either core survives it mends the other, which forces enemies into landing simultaneous killing strikes. Beyond that, Israfel brings razor claws, an energy beam weaker than most Angels can manage, and an A.T. Field that likewise ranks toward the bottom of the scale.

Israfel rises out of the ocean and meets Units 01 and 02. Asuka ignores the order to coordinate with Shinji, charges in alone, and slices the Angel down the middle, only to watch it become two Angels that thrash both pilots in short order. NERV then suffers the humiliation of ceding the operation to UN Secondary Command, whose N² depth charge burns away 28 percent of the creature's mass and buys roughly six days while it regenerates. In that window the pilots rehearse a synchronized routine set to a musical score, complete with memorized choreography. The performance forces Israfel apart, then back into a single body with both cores laid bare, and twin simultaneous blows finish it. Gaghiel comes before it in the Angel sequence; Sandalphon follows. Mahiro Maeda handled its design, its name references the paired Angels presiding over Poetry, Music and Dance, and the Quran casts Israfel as the trumpeter of the Last Judgment.

The manga Gakuen Datenroku reinvents Israfel as a pair of mixed-race human twins, Cecilia and Makoto de Nuovo, children of celebrated opera singers, one Italian and one Japanese. Makoto commands his Angel nature freely, while Cecilia changes only under a full moon and keeps no memory of it. Cecilia falls for Shinji after he saves her from Ramiel; her protective brother distrusts him. The pair defend students during Iruel's assault on the NERV Academy and pull Toji and Hikari away from Leliel, insisting they mean ordinary people no harm, though they scorn Kaworu Nagisa as a traitor to their kind. Makoto ultimately moves the family back to Italy, assuring his saddened sister that she and Shinji will meet again someday.