Asuka stands imposingly upon the entry plug hatch.
ASUKA:“It's obvious! I'm going to beat that thing with Unit-02!”
She pushes a small switch on the hatch and, with an extremely quick movement, the hatch opens and the entry plug emerges.
SE <<Ka-sha>>
SE <<Vashuuu>>
Kendrix: So far we’ve only seen Evas activated in a complex procedure requiring many machines & several operators but in another example of Nerv’s NASA-level preparedness, it seems they made sure that they can be activated manually in an emergency, and such emergencies did indeed come. It was kind of a desperate move to make the tech for this seeing as the Evas have such short battery times of. But it’s common nowadays to build tech upwards compatible or to expect certain innovations to happen within a foreseeable timeframe maybe they hoped they might figure out better batteries, or replicate the S2-Engine.
UrsusArctos: SEELE-01 brings attention to the same question in Cut 136. It occurs to me that Asuka is also capable of independently using the Eva catapult to launch (Episode 22) and is the first up to confront Zeruel in Episode 19, so the ability to launch quickly and independently in an emergency may be a special feature of the production-model Evangelion. It certainly justifies a change in designation and makes Asuka's claims that it is superior in combat seem at least partly genuine, instead of being empty talk.
