Character · Neon Genesis Evangelion
Asuka Langley Soryu
The red plugsuit arrives with a carrier fleet, a superiority complex, and an opinion about everyone on the bridge.
In Otakana the clue reads: Red-suited pilot who demands your attention
- Type
- Character
- Series
- Neon Genesis Evangelion
- Letters
- 5 · Easy
Asuka Langley Soryu pilots Unit-02, holds a university degree already, and considers piloting the one thing that makes her worth looking at. She was raised in Germany, sent to Japan with the unit, and introduced by landing on a battleship deck in a gust of wind that the show plays for laughs and then never lets her live down.
Her competence is real. In her first battles she is the best pilot NERV has, faster and more aggressive than Shinji and far more willing to enjoy it. What Hideaki Anno does across twenty-six episodes is remove that one source of worth piece by piece and film whatever is underneath. Very little of it is comfortable to watch.
The design has outlived the show it belongs to. Red suit, interface headset, two hair clips. It is one of the most recognisable silhouettes in the medium and it turns up in fan art by people who have never watched an episode. The Rebuild films from 2007 renamed her Shikinami and rearranged her circumstances considerably.
Spelling ASUKA
ASUKA is the given name and the answer, not the surname. That surname is worth a look anyway: Soryu is 惣流, properly Souryuu, with two long vowels English releases quietly flatten. The given name has no such problem. Five letters, three vowels, a-su-ka in three even beats, and the U here is a real vowel you can hear.