Sakura Suzuhara
|
"Making something... Nurturing something is really great. You can see and learn so many things from the process." |
| Sakura Suzuhara | |
| |
| 鈴原 サクラ | |
| Rank / Title | Second Lieutenant |
|---|---|
| Affiliation(s) | Wille |
| National Heritage | Japanese |
| Relations | Toji Suzuhara (brother) |
| Age | - |
| Birthday | - |
| Seiyū | Miyuki Sawashiro |
Sakura Suzuhara (鈴原 サクラ) is the younger sister of Toji Suzuhara in the Rebuild of Evangelion continuity. She lives with her brother, father and grandfather in Tokyo-3 and was injured during Evangelion Unit-01's battle against the Fourth Angel in Evangelion 1.0.
Sakura is not to be confused with Toji's sister from the original TV series and is to be treated as an entirely different character given the fact that she has a name and a prominent role of her own. Toji's sister in the original TV series was unseen and unnamed, and remained in the hospital after being injured in the Sachiel battle. She was later transferred to a Nerv hospital after Toji agreed to become the pilot of Evangelion Unit-03, with her ultimate fate unknown.
In the Rebuild of Evangelion set of movies, Sakura, like her nameless NGE counterpart, was similarly injured during the battle against the Fourth Angel but was released from the hospital by the second movie, Evangelion 2.0. Her release also marked the first time in the franchise as a whole that Toji's sister was seen as a character instead of just being mentioned. Sakura was given her name in Evangelion 3.0.
In 3.0
Following the second film, Sakura is named and her role is expanded significantly. During the events of Evangelion 3.0, she's one of the first people to greet Shinji Ikari after he was recovered from Eva-01. She holds the rank of Second Lieutenant with Wille and is a medical officer, on board the AAA Wunder, assigned to Shinji during his stay in the ship. The fact that Sakura, Toji's younger sister, is grown up, is the first sign to Shinji - and the audience - that a significant amount of time (14 years) has passed between the events of both movies.
Sakura treated Shinji with respect and seemed genuine appreciative of his past role fighting the Angels, in marked contrast to the other Wunder crew who were openly fearful, hateful or disdaining of Shinji. When Mark.09 arrived with Rei Q to take Shinji away, Sakura made no attempt to stop him from escaping but strongly warned him not to get into the Evangelion again.
|
SPOILER WARNING! This article or section contains spoiler information from Evangelion media that has been recently released and/or is of limited distribution. Do not read any further if you do not want to spoil your experience of said media. |
In Evangelion: 3.0 + 1.0 Sakura makes a reappearance, and following the events of Fourth Impact was willing to use a gun to intimidate Shinji or even injure him to keep him away from the AAA Wunder, although her attempts at preventing his return are futile. When Shinji decides to pilot Eva-01 again towards the end of the movie, she attempted to injure him to prevent him from doing so, but only succeeded in injuring Misato in the process. She evacuated with the rest of the Wunder's crew.
Name
While 'Sakura' (Cherry Blossom) is a perfectly legitimate female name in Japan, she may have been named after the Matsu-class destroyer Sakura of the old Imperial Navy (which in turn was named after the tree). It remains to be seen whether the choice of 'Sakura' as a given name was inspired by the warship as in case of so many of Evangelion's characters or whether the choice of name is purely coincidental.
| Characters |
| Main characters: Shinji Ikari | Rei Ayanami | Asuka Langley Soryu |
| Nerv staff: Misato Katsuragi | Gendo Ikari | Ritsuko Akagi | Kozo Fuyutsuki | Ryoji Kaji | Maya Ibuki | Makoto Hyuga | Shigeru Aoba |
| Classmates: Toji Suzuhara | Kensuke Aida | Hikari Horaki |
| Other characters: Kaworu Nagisa | Yui Ikari | Naoko Akagi | Kyoko Zeppelin Soryu | Dr. Katsuragi | Keel Lorenz | Pen Pen |
| Rebuild of Evangelion: Asuka Shikinami Langley | Mari Makinami Illustrious | Sakura Suzuhara | Ryoji Kaji (Jr) |
| Miscellaneous: Minor Characters | Minor Characters (Rebuild) | Extracanonical Characters |
| Theory and Analysis: Name Origins (Warships) | Designs | Relationships | Profiles |
| Resources: 2015: The Last Year of Ryohji Kaji |
