Rei "First Child" Ayanami

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Animeography

	Neon Genesis Evangelion add Main
	Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death & Rebirth add Main
	Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion add Main
	Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone add Main
	Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance add Main
	Evangelion: 3.0 Q Quickening add Main
	Evangelion: 4.0 add Main
	Petit Eva ~ Evangelion@School ~ add Main

Mangaography

	Neon Genesis Evangelion: Angelic Days add Main
	Shinseiki Evangelion: Ikari Shinji Ikusei Keikaku add Main
	Neon Genesis Evangelion: Gakuen Datenroku add Main
	Neon Genesis Evangelion add Main

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Rei Ayanami (綾波レイ)

Age: 14
Height: 5'2"
Sex: Female
Birthday: unknown
Relations:

Other cloned vessels of Rei ("spare parts")
Guardian: Gendo Ikari
Source of genetic material: Yui Ikari and Lilith, the Second Angel.

Rei Ayanami (綾波レイ Ayanami Rei) is the First Children, and the pilot of Evangelion Unit 00. She is shown to be socially withdrawn and hardly interacts with anyone. Rei's cool, silent and emotionally-stunted personality has garnered the scorn of her schoolmates; Asuka calls her a "doll" or "puppet." Clones of her, which lack souls, are kept hidden under the NERV building to be the supposed "cores" of the Dummy Plugs. Although she once only associated with Gendo, she and Shinji break the ice after the battle against Ramiel, and grow progressively closer for a while. In the manga version, Rei grows a lot closer to Shinji than in the anime.

Physically and genetically, her appearance has some importance in the series. It is readily apparent that Rei is the diametric opposite of Asuka, not only in terms of personality, but also physically. Asuka is outspoken, extremely emotional, and violent; Rei is the opposite of Asuka on all these major accounts. Asuka has red hair and blue eyes, while Rei has red eyes and blue hair. This color switch between the characters may also relate to the difference between how they are seen by others and what their true feelings are. However, the lead character designer has said that Rei's coloration was intended to make her look "more distinct," so this color inversion may simply be a coincidence. Another theory may also be hybridization; speculation is that Yui's remains were mixed with that of Lilith to create the rei clones.
Rei's mysterious background has led fans to develop multiple theories of just what exactly went into creating her. Gendo Ikari first introduced her to the NERV staff as an "acquaintance's child" whom he is temporarily taking care of. The Red Cross Book states that Rei was created from the "salvaged remains" of Yui after her death in 2004. There is evidence shown to support the Red Cross Book: Shinji Ikari tells her that he thinks she'd "make a good mother," and later compares Gendo's manipulation of her to his manipulation of Yui; they are also shown to have a physical resemblance. .In episode 24, Kaworu mentions that he and Rei are "the same." This statement was expanded in the "director's cut" of the episode, in which Kaworu goes on to say that he and Rei are human vessels for the souls of Adam and Lillith, respectively. Hybridization between Lilith's genetic material and Yui's might account for Rei's pale complexion and unnaturally red eyes, that, unlike that of genetic albinos, do not betray photosensitivity (Rei is never seen wearing any sunglasses to protect her eyes in daylight or bright interior light as those suffering from the condition of albinism often must). There's certainly some connection between them: both have red eyes, pale skin, and light hair, and while the NERV Dummy Plugs contain Rei clones, SEELE's Evas use Kaworu-powered Dummy Plugs. Kaworu is the seventeenth Angel, and Rei demonstrates Angelic powers later in the series. Further, in Lilith/Rei's ascension after Lilith had subsumed Rei, as the giant being raises her head to face Shinji in EVA 01, Lilith/Rei's eyes are initially seen as glowing red spheres deep in the back of empty, black eye sockets, to be quickly replaced by Rei's eyes after blinking.

It is hinted that Rei died twice; in the series, this stems from the fact that Rei herself says "I think I'm the third one," shortly after her death when Unit 00 self-destructed, an event that she could not remember. The first Rei is shown to have died as a small girl at the hands of Dr. Naoko Akagi for revealing carelessly (or perhaps in an intentional set-up by Gendo Ikari) to Naoko that Gendo called her a "useless old hag." The explanation is that her soul and most of her memories are transferred to one of the clones every time she dies, which then takes the preceding Rei's place as if she had not died at all.

(Source: http://afufu.net/freewill/)

Voice Actors