Asuka Langley Soryu
Asuka Langley Soryu is a main character of Neon Genesis Evangelion, the Second Child who pilots Unit-02. She is voiced by Yuko Miyamura in Japanese and, in the current Netflix English dub, by Stephanie McKeon.
About Asuka Langley Soryu
Asuka Langley Soryu is a main character of Neon Genesis Evangelion, the Second Child and pilot of Unit-02. Half Japanese and half German, raised and trained in Germany, she arrives in Tokyo-3 as a self declared ace and the best pilot alive. Loud, funny and ferociously proud, Asuka has built her whole identity on being needed as a pilot, because her childhood taught her what happens to children who are not chosen. Her rise and her collapse are the series' most painful arc.
Appearance
Asuka is a fourteen year old with long, fiery red hair worn with two distinctive hair clips that are actually her Eva interface headset, bright blue eyes and a permanent expression of challenge. She wears her red plugsuit like a uniform of rank, dresses fashionably off duty, and fills rooms before she speaks. In the television series her family name is Soryu. In the Rebuild films the same character, with a somewhat different history, is named Asuka Langley Shikinami and wears an eyepatch in the later films. Either way, she is drawn to be noticed, because being noticed is her survival strategy.
Personality
Asuka is brilliant, theatrical and exhausting, and she knows it and cannot stop. She flirts, boasts and picks fights to control how people see her, because the alternative, being seen as she is, terrifies her. She is genuinely brave and genuinely skilled, the best combat pilot of the three children at her peak. She is also a fourteen year old who found her mother's body, and her contempt for Shinji's weakness is mostly fury at her own. When her competence is taken away, she has nothing underneath it, and the series follows her all the way down.
Background & Story
Asuka was raised in Germany as a prodigy: a university graduate at fourteen, fluent in several languages, and the designated Second Child from early childhood. Her mother, Kyoko, lost her mind after a contact experiment with Unit-02 and treated a doll as her daughter, then killed herself in front of Asuka on the day Asuka was chosen as a pilot. Asuka built herself a rule from that wreckage: be the best, be needed, and no one can discard you. Sent to Japan, she dominates early battles, then unravels as Shinji's sync rates climb and the Angels reach her mind. Her story is the series' clearest study of pride as armour over a wound.
Powers & Abilities
- Piloting Unit-02: At her peak Asuka is the most technically skilled of the Children, fighting Unit-02 with aggression and precision, using progressive knives, ranged weapons and improvised tactics in combinations the other pilots cannot match.
- Languages and Education: A university graduate at fourteen, fluent in Japanese, German and English, and trained in NERV's German branch since early childhood. Asuka's intelligence is real, which is why her collapse is not about ability.
- Combat Instinct: Asuka reads a battlefield faster than the operations staff feeding her data and often ignores their instructions to do the correct thing a second earlier. When she is well, she is usually right.
Key Relationships
- Shinji Ikari: Her rival and housemate. She wants his admiration, resents his growing sync rate, and cannot forgive him for not seeing her clearly. He cannot forgive himself either. It is the series' central almost.
- Misato Katsuragi: Her guardian, who understands Asuka's act because it is a louder version of her own. Misato's failure to reach her in time is one of Misato's stated regrets.
- Ryoji Kaji: The adult Asuka has a crush on, and performs adulthood for. Kaji gently keeps the boundary and treats her as the child she is, which she experiences as rejection.
- Hikari Horaki: Her class representative and best friend at school, the one normal relationship Asuka has. Hikari's home cooked lunches and patience give Asuka a glimpse of ordinary girlhood.
Quick Answers
Who voices Asuka?
Asuka is voiced by Yuko Miyamura in Japanese. In the Netflix English dub she is voiced by Stephanie McKeon. In the classic ADV dub she was voiced by Tiffany Grant, who famously championed the character for decades.
Is Asuka called Soryu or Shikinami?
Soryu is her name in the 1995 television series and The End of Evangelion. Shikinami is her surname in the Rebuild films, where she is a related but different version of the character. The change signals that Rebuild is a new telling, not a sequel.
What are Asuka's hair clips?
They are her A10 nerve clips, the interface headset every pilot wears to sync with an Evangelion, styled to look like hair accessories. Asuka wears hers constantly, even in a swimsuit, because being a pilot is her identity.
Why is Asuka called Shikinami in the Rebuild films?
The Rebuild of Evangelion films rename her Asuka Langley Shikinami, one of several deliberate changes, along with a different eye colour in one scene and a different past, marking the films as their own continuity rather than a remake. In the 1995 television series she is Asuka Langley Soryu.