Evangelion Unit-03 (Rebuild)

Evangelion Production Model-03 is the second unit built to the Production Model standard, and it shares nearly everything with Unit-02 apart from paint and profile. Black plating dominates the body, set off by white and dark red, with glowing accents running through the white sections and the diamond-shaped shoulder pieces. The head is where it breaks from its sibling: a dinosaur-like skull closer in spirit to Unit-01, topped by an oversized red forehead plate. Freeze-frames reveal grey eyes beneath covers that read as red from outside, and the blood it sheds runs blood red.

Because it never fights under NERV control, its capabilities go largely unproven. The Production Model designation implies Progressive Knives stowed in the shoulder pylons and compatibility with the standard weapon and equipment catalog, yet no knives ever appear, even when the possessed unit destroys its own pylons sprouting extra arms.

After Unit-04 is annihilated, the American government hurries the freshly finished Unit-03 to Tokyo-3. Rei is slated to run the activation trial, but Asuka volunteers in her place so Rei can host the dinner meant to bring Shinji and his father together. The swap proves catastrophic. The Ninth Angel already resides inside the machine, and as activation begins it brushes Asuka with wing-like growths that press her toward the core while blue spores flood the entry plug and a childlike figure giggles somewhere in its depths. The berserk unit then levels the Matsushiro test facility.

Unit-01 is dispatched to destroy the infected Eva. The Angel's hold deepens as the fight drags on: the entry plug, now functioning as its core, is sealed in place by blue ooze, one arm stretches impossibly far to strangle Unit-01 at a distance, and a second pair of arms sprouts to tighten the grip. When Shinji refuses to endanger the unknown pilot, the Dummy System takes command of Unit-01 and butchers Unit-03, seemingly killing the Ninth Angel. The wreck surfaces once more in Thrice Upon a Time, erased along with every other Evangelion by Gendo's Spear of Gaius.

Asuka Shikinami Langley is the only person ever seated in its plug, and the Ninth Angel the only will that ever drives it in battle. The unit originates at NERV's branch in North America. Its pre-release design, glimpsed in the preview capping the first film, wore a black forehead plate and red teeth armor closer to the anime version, and its roar in the films runs lower and quieter than its television counterpart's.