Characters
| “ | It's strange that 'Evangelion' has become such a hit—all the characters are so sick! | ” |
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—Hideaki Anno, series director and writer |
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For the series, Anno attempted to create characters that represent different things to different viewers. To some, the characters are historical, religious, or philosophical symbols, while others see themselves in the characters. All of the characters reflect different parts of Anno's own personality.
In the story, the characters of Evangelion struggle with their interpersonal relationships, their personal problems, and traumatic events in their pasts. Anno has described the hero, Shinji Ikari, as a boy who "shrinks from human contact" and has "convinced himself that he is a completely unnecessary person". He has also described both Shinji and Misato Katsuragi as "afraid of being hurt" and "unsuitable—lacking the positive attitude—for what people call heroes of an adventure." Rei Ayanami and Asuka Langley Soryu, the other major protagonists, are presented with their own flaws and difficulty relating to other people.
The characters' visual designs were done by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto. His designs of the three main female leads, Asuka, Rei and Misato, contributed to high sales of merchandise, especially the design of Rei. She became so popular that she earned the name "Premium Girl" from the media, referring to the high sales of books with her on the cover.
Read more about this topic: Neon Genesis Evangelion (anime)
Famous quotes containing the word characters:
“Of all the characters I have known, perhaps Walden wears best, and best preserves its purity. Many men have been likened to it, but few deserve that honor. Though the woodchoppers have laid bare first this shore and then that, and the Irish have built their sties by it, and the railroad has infringed on its border, and the ice-men have skimmed it once, it is itself unchanged, the same water which my youthful eyes fell on; all the change is in me.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I make it a kind of pious rule to go to every funeral to which I am invited, both as I wish to pay a proper respect to the dead, unless their characters have been bad, and as I would wish to have the funeral of my own near relations or of myself well attended.”
—James Boswell (1740–1795)
“Hemingway was a prisoner of his style. No one can talk like the characters in Hemingway except the characters in Hemingway. His style in the wildest sense finally killed him.”
—William Burroughs (b. 1914)