Neon Genesis Evangelion Episode 5 Discussion

If Sgt.Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was the Big Bang of music in the 1960s, then Neon Genesis Evangelion was the equivalent of anime in 1990s. Eighteen years since its release and we are still trying to analyze every single aspect of the series (and Gainax is still making huge amount of money out of it with its Rebuild of Evangelion project). Even academic scholars have written articles about it, something unimaginable to non-anime viewers. Here, I want to focus on the popularity of one character and her influence in the anime industry: Rei Ayanami.

Rei is an anti-heroine, much like all the other characters in the series. She is a beautiful, mysterious fourteen-year-old who shows no emotions and acts more like a robot than a human being most of the time. She is very quiet makes only pithy remarks, if she speaks at all. The female characters in Evangelion are adorable in their own ways but it is Rei that changes the rules and revolutionizes the anime industry.

Enigmatic character

When referring to a ‘mysterious character’ in the pre-Evangelion era, it was usually about someone with a twisted and often tragic past that would be slowly revealed as the plot progressed. What is mysterious about Rei is that she has no past. We learn in episode five that all records of her past have been erased from the database of NERV, the organization that develops the giant mecha known as evangelions. This generates the sense of mysteriousness surrounding the character, and has become a major talking point as the series goes on.

Personality-wise, she is socially detached, talks to nobody, and carries a dull expression all the time. Unlike traditional female protagonists who are usually strong, caring and charismatic (like those we see in productions of Studio Ghibli), Rei is the complete opposite. It is a different kind of charisma that makes her popular. She gives fans plenty rooms of imagination on what she really thinks and feels. It also makes fans sit on the edge of their seats whenever she makes an appearance, since it is hard to predict what she will do. After all, who knows what she is thinking?

Then there is the famous “Ayanami Rei’s smile” scene at the end of episode six. We learn that it is not the case that she cannot feel emotions, but she just does not know how to express them. Facing a crying Shinji who is glad that she is alive after a big fight, she says, ‘I don’t know what to feel at times like this.’ Shinji replies, ‘with a smile’, and smile she does, after a minute of hesitation. The scene is so powerful and iconic because that is the first time she has deliberately shown an emotion, and one of the handful of times she has done so throughout the whole series.

She doesn't care if a boy is lying on top of her when she's naked.

Rei can be considered as the prototypical ‘mukuchi’ character, meaning ‘mouth-less’. It is a term used by anime fans to describe characters who do not speak unless necessary and show no emotions when speaking, and is considered to be a moe element. They have a monotone voice and speak to-the-point, avoiding unnecessary conversations. Rei has popularized this moe element, and we later see characters like Yuki Nagato from The Melancholy of Haruhi Sumuziya, Lain from Serial Experiments Lain, Eve from Black Cat, and Ai Emma from Hell Girl all fitting into this ‘mukuchi’ category. Mukuchi characters sell, and they are immensely popular among anime fans.