Asuka Langley Souryuu (惣流・アスカ・ラングレー)

Relations:

Asuka is the Second Child ('Second Children' in the Japanese versions of NGE), who pilots Evangelion Unit 02. She is from Germany, but with an American father and a half-German, half-Japanese mother. In the Rebuild of Evangelion series of movies, her name is changed to Asuka Langley Shikinami.


Asuka's father later remarried a woman for whom Asuka feels no affection. Asuka feels the need to verbally and sometimes physically lash out at everyone around her, except to her unrequited crush, Kaji, who is Misato's ex-boyfriend and more than twice Asuka's age. On her better days, however, she can be quite cheerful and friendly.

Like Shinji, Asuka also has a difficulty being close to people, except unlike Shinji, who shells himself, Asuka's coping mechanism is over-aggressiveness and so she unintentionally hurts people she likes, pushing them away and thus sinking further into loneliness and self resentment. This issue is referred to as the "hedgehog's dilemma" and is a recurring motif in the story.