It is incredibly hard to put into words what I feel for and about Asuka as a character. I think for many fans, this feeling resonates. She is so incredibly layered and often misunderstood by the characters around her in Evangelion. The complex nature of her dynamics with parents, authority figures and her fellow pilots stuck with me from my first viewing of the series. I see a lot of my own personality in her characterization. Even though the creator of Evangelion, Hideaki Anno, was pushed to create a male protagonist in Shinji, I feel strongly that Asuka is a more obvious and compelling lead, as he originally intended in early conceptualizations of the series.

In many ways I believe that Asuka and Shinji are the foil of each other -- Asuka deeply grasps the core of many of her problems and hang ups, but stuffs them down and projects a highly competent and competitive nature. In Shinji we see the opposite, a character who understands something is deeply troubling him, but cannot pinpoint what it truly is because there are so many stressors in his daily existence, and he over expresses his emotions outwardly while dissociating from the deeper rooted issues within himself. Asuka desires more than anything to be held above others and praised for all her pushing, Shinji desperately desires to be left alone and absolved of any true responsibilities in his life. Both are mourning a denied childhood in vastly different ways, and these opposite existences are further complicated by both characters' interest in one another romantically to varying degrees.

When analyzing Asuka, it feels impossible to not discuss Rei. One thing that has always stuck out for me is among the ways both are represented as opposites, a striking technique is in how their bodies are displayed through the lens of sexualization. Where Rei is represented as pure white, the safety of motherhood, her nudity is for the viewer represented as something sterile and closer to holiness than humanity. Asuka, in contrast, is represented by blood red, a color associated with both raw sexuality and rage. Her nudity is represented as something to peer on, to feel a right to. This is further emphasized by the camera angles and poses chosen for both characters when presenting their bodies, and also by the way Shinji interacts with them physically throughout the different series of Evangelion. Engaging with Rei’s body leaves Shinji embarrassed and apologetic, but he projects both his sexual desire and violence onto Asuka physically. I feel that part of this difference in their dynamic is something Asuka is very aware of, and mixed with the ease with which superior male figures praise Rei for her piloting, it is no surprise that Asuka deeply resents Rei and finds much rage pointed toward her.