Evangelion Mark.04A

Evangelion Mark.04A is a pilotless unit of the Nemesis Series that opens Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo. NERV stations it in orbit as a guardian of the Tesseract, the container imprisoning Evangelion Unit-01, where it intercepts the WILLE recovery force during Operation US.

Its body defies Evangelion convention. A circular core block housing two cores forms the center, and what resembles the lower half of an Evangelion grows out of it, the legs tapering into blade-like spikes that serve as its main weapons. Small turret banks beneath the legs deliver a scatter-shot barrage, and four shoulder pylons ring the core block; twin EVA-04 logos mark the underside. Like its Mark.04 siblings it wears the purple, yellow, and black palette associated with Evangelion 13.

The Mark.04A rides its own A.T. Field to reach high velocities, even across the vacuum of space. Its signature ability is an Anti-A.T. Field that lets it bore straight through an opposing unit's barrier at close range; once inside, it stabs with its spiked legs and unloads its cannon banks, projectiles powerful enough to wreck a re-entry shield. In the film's opening battle a single drone shreds Unit-02'β's defensive field and destroys Asuka's equipment pod before Mari's Unit-08α snipes it, and her covering fire wipes out the rest of the attacking swarm, clearing Asuka's path to the Tesseract. The type's final appearance comes in Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon A Time, erased along with every other Evangelion when Gendo drives the Spear of Gaius through Unit-01 and 13.

No pilot ever occupies a Mark.04A; the units operate autonomously in NERV's service. Operator displays read their wavelength as "approximately blue" rather than the plain blue of a true Angel. Early concept art by Hideaki Anno labeled the design an Angel outright and explored modular groups in which the lower limbs and upper torso fought as separate machines.