Mari Makinami Illustrious

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Mari Makinami Illustrious
真希波・マリ・イラストリアス
Affiliation(s)	Unknown third party(2.0), Wille (3.0)
National Heritage	British
Birthday	Unknown
Seiyū	Maaya Sakamoto
Voice Actor	English: Trina Nishimura (1st voice); Deneen Melody (Amazon) German: Jennifer Weiß (1st voice); Lea Kalbhenn (Amazon) French: Kaycie Chase (Amazon) Italian:Monica Ward (Amazon) European-Spanish:Marta Barabarà (Amazon) Latin-Amrican Spanish: Mireya Mendoza (Amazon) Brazilian-Portuguese: Melissa Lucena (1st voice); Maitê Cunha (Amazon)

Mari Makinami Illustrious (真希波・マリ・イラストリアス) is an Eva pilot and third party operative introduced in Evangelion 2.0: You Can (Not) Advance, as a completely new character who has no counterpart in the original continuity.

Profile

Mari is a spunky young British brunette with glasses, and her hair is generally worn in twin-tails. She is shown to have a casual and energetic demeanour, but it hides a thoughtful, clever, and enigmatic personality. Out of all the pilots, she is the only one who admits that she genuinely enjoys piloting. Her repeated comments suggest that she has a liking to the smell of LCL. She also appears to have reduced inhibitions and even identifies Shinji as a pilot in their first encounter by crawling up to him on all fours and sniffing for the smell of LCL. It is implied that Mari works for an unknown third party. A pilot designation has not been provided, assuming Mari officially has one (in-universe).

In combat, she is extremely aggressive and despite her inexperience, she is shown to be an expert pilot on the level of Asuka, if not higher. Her first engagement with the Third Angel used no tactics whatsoever but saw her attacking the Angel head-on, chasing it outside of the base and pinning it down before self-destructing. She also appears to be aware of the Evas' sentient nature to some extent, going so far as to directly addressing them in a compassionate tone and even whispering goodbye to Eva-05 after its destruction. This makes it unlikely that she was the one who sabotaged it, although her being an acquaintance of Ryoji Kaji is suspicious.

Name

Mari is named after two World War II warships, the Japanese postwar destroyer JDS Makinami (巻波, "overflowing waves")) and the British aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious (detailed Wikipedia entry). The two names may be intended to, as in Asuka's case, represent a mixed heritage: here, British and Japanese (at minimum). Strictly speaking, neither "Illustrious" or "Makinami" (written as 真希波, "noble true wave") are real surnames, although this may be nothing more than a creative liberty.

Originally, Anno considered naming her Mariko, borrowing from one of his wife Moyoco Anno's manga, but instead opted for using the name of Mari Sakurano, from Brave Raideen. Mid-way through production, Anno also considered changing Mari's name yet again to Chizuru, as a homage to Chizura Nambara from Combattler V, and as a gesture to please "Shō-chan", refering to his friend and colleague Shōji Kawamori, creator of the Macross mecha franchise. The choice of Mari was also done as a nod to another friend of Anno, Yutaka Izubuchi, creator of RahXephon. Izubuchi speculated that another character from Raideen served as inspiration for Rei and Asuka. This characer's name was Rei Asuka. By finally making a reference to Raideen, Anno felt, Izubuchi could "save Buc-chan[Izubuchi]'s face."

Mari's name revealed

Her first name was originally unveiled in the Nintendo DS Petit Eva: Evangelion @ Game game. Later, one of the official movie posters included a "teaser" for her full name: showing the "Mari" part, and substituting the remaining characters with asterisks ("*** Mari *******"). Mari's entire name was at last revealed in a revised version of the poster included with the first issue of Eva Extra. Before her actual name surfaced, Mari was known exclusively among fans as "Glasses Girl" (among Japanese fans, めがねのこ, megane no ko, meaning the same thing). She caused a furor among fans after months of teasing and her ultimate reveal.

Evangelion 2.0: You Can (Not) Advance

Mari is introduced for the first time in the plug of Evangelion Unit-05 just as she is about to sortie to take down the rogue Third Angel, which is attempting to escape from Bethany Base. Activating Unit-05's A.T. Field, she attempts to ram her jousting lance into the Angel, but it dodges her and escapes, using a halo to punch a hole to the exterior of the base. Mari follows it out in short order (switching to battery power in the process), pinning the Angel to one of the pillars surrounding the base with her lance, and begins to the crush the core with her left hand. However, she is unable to exert enough pressure on the core as the cybernetic limbs were forcefully synchronized with the Eva. Running short on time and options, Mari decides to yield control of the right arm to the Eva itself, causing Unit-05 to enter a semi-berserk state, tearing open its jaws and bellowing, and clamps down on the core with the right arm. The gambit works, and the Angel's core is crushed. Mari immediately ejects, and escapes Unit-05's subsequent self-destruction, which takes Bethany Base with it. She muses about not being so sure about involving an adult to achieve her own goals, and bids farewell to Unit-05, saying that it did well.

Some time later, Mari attempts to enter Japan covertly via parachute, but she goes off-target and violently lands on Shinji, who is relaxing on the school roof. The impact knocks her glasses off, and she gets a call from someone just as she finds them. She informs the person on the phone that she landed off-target, and asks if the "Euro people" (Presumably EURO-Nerv or the IPEA) couldn't work this out. She then informs them to just be ready to extract her later and hangs up. Turning her attention to Shinji, she sniffs him and says that he smells of LCL, remarking that he's "interesting". She then hands him his SDAT, and asks him not to tell anyone about the encounter, calling him "Nerv's Puppy", and leaves.

When Zeruel attacked Tokyo-3 at the end of the movie, Mari launched Eva-02 with IPEA assistance to engage in battle, intercepting the Angel inside the Geofront while dual-wielding pallet rifles. Unlike Asuka's repeated attempts at damaging the Angel in the series however, Mari quickly gave up on ranged attacks and went into a screaming charge with a Thunder Spear, leaping onto the Angel and firing Eva-02's needle guns in an unsuccessful attempt to penetrate the Angel's AT-field with a point-blank attack. In the English dub, she is quite foul-mouthed, constantly taunting her opponents while piloting.

She also demonstrated considerable knowledge about the inner workings of Evangelions by activating Eva-02's Beast Mode (which resembles a "controlled berserk"). During this, she demonstrated a bloodthirsty, animalistic behavior not unlike that of the Eva, and despite the heavy damage sustained, she never once attempted to retreat but pressed her attacks until her Eva was damaged beyond combat capability.

Mari uses two distinct plugsuits over the course of the film. The first is the unusual green and white suit that appears to be custom-built for Eva-05, with different material on the limbs (corresponding to the Eva's mechanical prostheses) and three green tubes attached to each wrist (probably involved in the "forced synch" with the prostheses). The second plugsuit, worn for Mari's sortie in Eva-02, is a pink one with white trim very similar to Kaworu's. Despite her change in Evas, her new plugsuit still bears a 05, suggesting it may have been intended for use with that unit.

Evangelion 3.0: You Can (Not) Redo

14 years later, Mari is the pilot of Evangelion Unit-08 and a member of Wille. She is shown to have a playfully belligerent relationship with Asuka; Asuka frequently refers to her as "Four-Eyes," while Mari refers to Asuka as "Princess". Mari is first seen providing sniper backup for Asuka during the battle with the Evangelion Mark.04 units during Operation US. Later, when Asuka cannot reach Unit-02 in time, Misato sorties Mari in Unit-08 against Evangelion Mark.09. She manages to shoot off Mark.09's head, but this does not stop Rei Ayanami from escaping with Shinji.

Mari once again provides sniper fire cover for Asuka during the battle against Evangelion 13 in Terminal Dogma, as well as providing her with spare batteries and a container for the 12th Angel within Evangelion Mark.06, as Asuka tries to stop Shinji from pulling the Spears. She also interacts with Rei, advising her to escape from Mark.09 before it turns into a Vessel of the Adams. When Rei is unresponsive, Mari expresses her opinion that Rei's "original" was nicer. Mari recognizes immediately that the awakened Evangelion 13 is really a surviving Adams as Fourth Impact begins. She is assigned by Asuka to attack Evangelion 13, but fails to reach it before Kaworu Nagisa dies in a failed attempt to stop the Impact. In order to stop Fourth Impact entirely, Mari forcibly ejects Shinji, telling him to help Asuka and get to know the world. Unit-08 is later picked up by the AAA Wunder along with the wreckage of Unit-02.

Mari's new plugsuit in 3.0 is similar in coloration to her second plugsuit from the previous film, though it now bears a 08 to reflect her new status as Unit-08's pilot. She also has new glasses that have rectangular frames instead of her previous pair of rounded glasses.

Her quarters with Asuka on the Wunder are also a sort of isolation chamber. This is referenced as such in concept art for the 10th Khara anniversary exposition." Asuka and Mari are referred to as "dangerous persons" that must kept apart from the crew, further estranging the former from humanity.

Evangelion 3.0: (-46h)

Not long after Near Third Impact, Mari is only shown piloting an EVA transport plane, flowing Asuka's Unit-02 in search of survivors, and they come across Midori Kitakami. As usual, Mari is singing while piloting, but in this instance she is wearing aviator glasses. Although Mari already took on her "princess" nickname for Asuka, at this time Asuka is dismissive of her, and acts dismissive towards her, calling her "rookie".

Evangelion 3.0 (-120min)

Before launch, Asuka is by Mari, who is wearing her school uniform. Looking at the moon, Asuka recites a poem from the Manyoshu, about wanting to see someone again. Mari explains she wants Shinji to be able to easily recognize them once he's recovered. Misato's plan is for Mari to lead the operation with Asuka in support, as her Unit-08 is less damaged, but Mari suggests Asuka take the lead instead. Asuka however is reluctant, and believes Shinji himself dead and unrecoverable. Looking at an old picture of Shinji, Asuka changes her mind, and puts on her old plugsuit from the previous film and improvises a repair.

Evangelion 3.0 + 1.0: Thrice Upon a Time

In Evangelion: 3.0 + 1.0 Thrice Upon a Time, Mari is part of Operation 0706 to restore part of Paris and recover a large Euro-Nerv supply cache. She is sortied against NERV's multiple Evangelion Mark.44A, Evangelion Mark.44B and a single Evangelion Mark.4444C to protect the Euro-Nerv restoration team. Mari is able to annihilate the first waves of Mark.44A with Eva-08β's machine guns, but they eventually overheat and she is forced to discard them. She continues to fight off the remaining waves of Mark.44A barehanded, and is eventually able to make them stab each other en masse, allowing her to toss them into the coreified ground, and they explode. Immediately, a Mark.4444C and some Mark.44Bs reveal themselves from a camouflage cocoon, prompting Mari to call the Mark.44A decoys "cheeky". The Mark.44Bs immediately begin charging the latter's positron cannon. Helmsman Nagara succeeds in blocking the first strike using all the support destroyers fitted with Enchanted Shields of Virtue, but the Mark.44Bs recharges the positron cannon once again. With no way to block the second shot, Mari grabs the remains of The Eiffel Tower and charges the Mark.4444C, while prompting Nagara to cause a distraction. However, her attempt fails as Mark.4444C grabs Eva-08β's legs with one of its tentacles just before impact, twisting them out of shape. Unfettered, Mari activates the booster's on Eva-08β's arms, driving the Tower down the cannon barrel and destroying the Mark.4444C. As the Mark.4444C is defeated, it swirls its tentacles among the multiple Mark.44Bs and they all explode, with Mari hastily retreating to escape.

Mari later meets Asuka and Shinji after the Wunder picks them up. Upon greeting Asuka, she teases her about her unresolved feelings for Shinji, "I thought you didn't care about boys his age", to which Asuka responds that Shinji "needs a mother, not a girlfriend". When Asuka complains about her hair growing being the only change in her body, Mari (while cutting her hair) tells her that is proof of Asuka's humanity. Before their mission in Antarctica, Mari re-introduces herself to Shinji by reminding him of their encounter on the school roof 14 years prior. When Shinji expresses he understands why Asuka was angry at him, Asuka recognizes he has grown up, and Asuka confesses she did like him in the past. Mari congratulates Shinji, and asks Asuka if she feels better, to which she affirms.

During the final battle against Nerv, Mari pilots the repaired and upgraded Eva-08γ supporting Asuka against waves of Eva Series.7 as they descend and then Eva Jacks at New Nerv HQ, but she remains puzzled at Gendo's plans. When Asuka is absorbed by Eva-13 and Shinji is preparing to pilot Unit 01 again, Mari takes Eva-08 in an "overlapping state" and merges it with Eva-09, 10, 11, and 12, and uses it to scuttle the other Nerv Erlösung battleships. Just before finishing off the Nerv battleships, she meets Fuyutsuki, referring to him as "Fuyutsuki-sensei", further alluding to her familiarity, and he calls her "Maria of Iscariot". Inside the Anti-Universe, she asks Shinji to once again "save the Princess" and wait for Mari to come for him, calling him by name.

When Shinji and Gendo see Gendo's memories in Instrumentality, "Mari?" is shown to have been a friend of Yui Ikari and Gendo in college and helped get them together, revealing that she may also be a victim of the Curse of Eva. When Shinji talks with Asuka and expresses his feelings, Mari bids farewell to Asuka. After Instrumentality ends, Shinji is sitting on the beach when Eva-08γ emerges from the ocean. Mari takes her glasses off and comments "Just barely on time". Shinji gets up and runs in her direction. Dropping into the ocean, she thanks Unit 8+0+10+11+12, calling it the "last Evangelion", before it disappears. She emerges from the ocean and puts her glasses back, telling Shinji that she's kept him waiting.

In the final scene of the movie, an adult Shinji is shown sitting on the bench of a train station with his bag and wearing a suit, when Mari covers his eyes and asks who is it. Shinji replies, referencing their earlier encounter on the Wunder. Mari, also an adult, is shown wearing a pink blazer. She walks up to Shinji and approaches his neck facing his front and smells it, remarking that he now smells like an adult. Shinji initially looks annoyed but replies with a compliment confidently, to Mari's surprise, and she removes his DSS Choker. She offers her hand to leave the station with her and Shinji agrees, both of them leaving the main gate and guiding him to the new world.

Appearance in the Manga

In the extra chapter of the manga, it is revealed that Yui Ikari and Mari were classmates, and the two became close friends as students under Fuyutsuki. Yoshiyuki Sadamoto has, however, clarified in an interview that the extra chapter and Mari's inclusion in it should not be seen as a part of neither the manga nor the Rebuild series' storyline, stating that it was something he purely did for "fun", comparing the chapter to "fanservice".

Mari in the Manga
Yui is shown giving Mari a new look.	Yui addresses the girl as Makinami Mari.

Development

Name

Mari is named after two World War II warships, the Japanese destroyer Makinami] (巻波, "overflowing waves") and the British aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious. The two names may be intended to, as in Asuka's case, represent a mixed heritage: here, British and Japanese (at minimum). Strictly speaking, neither "Illustrious" or "Makinami" (written as 真希波, "noble true wave") are real surnames, although this may be nothing more than a creative liberty. Originally, Anno considered naming her Mariko, borrowing from one of his wife Moyoco Anno's manga, but instead opted for using the name of Mari Sakurano, from Brave Raideen. Mid-way through productionh Anno also considered changing Mari's name yet again to Chizuru, as a homage to Chizura Nambara from Combattler V, and as a gesture to please "Shō-chan", referring to his friend and colleague Shōji Kawamori, creator of the Macross mecha franchise. The choice of Mari was also done as a nod to another friend of Anno, Yutaka Izubuchi, creator of RahXephon. Izubuchi speculated that another character from Brave Raideen served as inspiration for Rei and Asuka. This character's name was Rei Asuka. By finally making a reference to Brave Raideen, Anno felt, Izubuchi could "save Buc-chan[Izubuchi]'s face."

Her first name was originally unveiled in the Nintendo DS Petit Eva: Evangelion@School game. Later, one of the official film posters included a "teaser" for her full name: showing the "Mari" part, and substituting the remaining characters with asterisks ("*** Mari *******"). Mari's entire name was at last revealed in a revised version of the poster included with the first issue of Eva Extra. Before her actual name surfaced, Mari was known exclusively among fans as "Glasses Girl" (among Japanese fans, めがねのこ, megane no ko, meaning the same thing). She caused a furor among fans after months of teasing and her ultimate reveal.

Creation Process

Mari's character has a tumultuous development history, with Chief Director Anno knowing little more of his intent for her than that he wanted her to "destroy", "break apart", "deconstruct Eva". Unlike the others, her character was not Anno's idea, but rather the result of an explicit request by the producer, Otsuki, for a new main female character. Anno accepted it as a way of differentiating the Rebuilds from the anime series, but Tsurumaki believes it was for commercial reasons. Tsurumaki ended up taking inspiration from his previous work in FLCL and Diebuster. Anno initially intended to make Mari a rather isolated character, devoid of relationships, but could not refrain from making her to much like the series' original characters, so he decided to hand her development to others. Assistant director Kazuya Tsurumaki ended up shouldering much of the responsibility for Mari, and Yoji Enokido was also recruited during a writer's retreat to provide an outsider's opinion - Enokido is considered an outsider, and Mari's characterization ended up being mostly his and Tsurumaki's brainchild. This is in contrast to the existent NGE characters, which were all based on Anno himself to varying degrees. Much of the disagreement revolved around how (and how much) to integrate Mari into the preexisting Eva framework, and the nature of her personality. In the very first drafts, Mari was to do little more than appear in the pre-title Third Angel sequence and to later observe the Tenth Angel's destructive power (the latter idea shown in the first film's trailer for 2.0), and Anno kept Asuka's role relatively intact relative to her NGE self, and she'd remain the focus of the film much like the corresponding Action Arc of the series. Various ideas were tested in early script drafts and storyboards wherein Mari took over part of another character's role from NGE, which was eventually abandoned due to the desire to give Mari her own identity. At first, Anno kept Asuka's role relatively intact relative to her NGE self. Her personality changed from various different themes, like being a mysterious and quiet girl, or the dojikko archetype of a clumsy and careless girl, all in an attempt to differentiate her from Rei and Asuka. Anno decided to impinge some relationships from other characters into hers in order to give her more space, for instance, Kaji and Asuka's relationship was entirely removed from the film and replaced with Mari's "subordinate" role to Kaji. Other suggestions slowly began to surface as Anno could only give vague directions to his writers - one of his first was that the character should be an "Onee-san" or be an animal lover. The ideas were so generic and vague that Tsurumaki considered Mari to have had "multiple personalities"; "a different character in each scene she appeared in", making it difficult to give her a consistent characterization and psychology. Tsurumaki in particular felt she'd simply end up simply repeating Shinji's relationships with other characters and consuming their personalities. In the storyboard of the preparatory manuscript drawn by director Masayuki, there is a scenario introducing her to Shinji and others as the "Fourth Girl" at the 8th Apostle War Prewar Strategy Conference. In another storyboard, Mari would have pushed up her glasses in the same manner as Gendo. Anno decided to postpone discussion at the time. It was during this "script retreat" that Enokido was brought in as an outsider.

In response to mounting pressure from fans after her first teased appearance during the preview at the end of Evangelion 1.0, Anno progressively increased her role and space in the story. Tsurumaki noted she'd be a character of "minor importance" originally. Most of the new ideas ended up discarded and rejected by the rest of staff, who couldn't come to a consensus. In draft number 7, for instance, Mari would pilot Unit-02 together with Asuka in the same entry plug, in draft #11, Mari was depicted as an European classmate of Asuka's. Other ideas included playing up to stereotypes of her British nationality, like her first meeting Shinji in a train station, or having tea time on the roof of the school in draft #13. Tsurumaki felt particularly unsatisfied, and felt that Mari could never be distinct enough from Asuka, Rei or Misato. Tsurumaki eventually came up with the idea of her falling from the sky by way of parachute, as a way of having her do something bizarre and different.

Enokido was asked for his input, and he suggested Mari to be a "neutral and lighthearted" character inspired by harem and shounen manga. Enokido's suggestion was that Mari should serve as a rival for Asuka who ultimately usurps her. Enokido wanted to go so far as to have Mari become the main pilot for Unit 02, to replace Asuka's role as an "idol" at school, say anta baka to Shinji and even kiss him, though this was eventually rejected by Anno and other writers. Tsurumaki, in particular, protested one of the proposed alterations as “I’m an Asuka fan, and I won’t be happy if this scene gets cut”. Enokido also suggested for Mari to be full of tattoos symbolizing her dead pets. Anno created a scenario where Mari would be hospitalized after fighting the Eight Angel, but staff realized this once again meant she'd disappear during most of the film and not have any chance to interact with Shinji. Tsurumaki at one point misinterpreted one concept and drew a storyboard of Asuka and Mari piloting in a shared cockpit. Anno's assistant, Ikki Todoroki, suggested scenarios like her being a guest at Hikari's house, and a rival with Asuka for Kaji's affections and control of Unit-00, beating her in a synch test. One inspiration for her demeanor were the miko women of Shinto temples. These indecisions led to about forty revisions of the script in total, and the writers were mostly forced to come to an agreement when repeatedly reaching deadlines. Overall, much of Mari's character ended up as Enokido's brainchild, borrowing or cannibalizing other characters' traits and scenes. Tsurumaki at one point felt that she was becoming irrelevant and unnecessary, and this led to Mari's scenes being again cut more and more, with the writers willing to give up on trying to make her work. Tsurumaki realized that Enokido's radical proposals, not limited to Mari, ultimately allowed staff to move on from being a state of being stuck while trying to figure out how to make Mari fit in the story.

Design

Mari's earliest available designs. Note the resemblance with the other female characters.

Similary to his other attempts to distance himself from Mari's conceptualization, Anno gave initially vague settei to Sadamoto and Tsurumaki. In one of her old character designs, her plugsuit is numbered 04 instead of 05 like she appears initially in the movie. Anno requested her design be based on a "Christian Missionary-style". Other early designs included a Victorian version of Mari, playing on English stereotypes, and her checkered skirt was in reference to Scottish stereotypes. Her early association with green and use of tights was in reference to pictures of British schoolgirls Anno brought to Sadamoto when he asked for references. Initially, he also considered giving her a long-sleeved blazer. Sadamoto concluded that her glasses were a simple but effective way to differentiate her from the other main female characters. Mari was intended to attract a new kind of fan, and a character that could be "broken". Additionally, Anno thought Mari's glasses were a good way to showcase their animators' talent, as it was much harder to animate them in the original series. Hearkening back to his experiences with FLCL, Tsurumaki had also attempted at the time to differentiate female character Haruko from Evangelion characters, particularly Misato, and avoid comparisons, further solidifying his leading role in conceptualizing Mari.

These designs feature an umbrella, another example of British stereotypes influencing Sadamoto.

At first, Sadamoto simply merged Asuka's and Rei's characters; however, he himself was dissatisfied with the result, thinking the character was too derivative. To visually distinguish her from the two protagonists of the series, he gave her straight, dark hair and a taller head and body than her colleagues. The eyes instead were designed to be long and well defined, so as to give her a more kawaii look. He opted for a hairstyle with two braids, but since Asuka also has hair with two braids, Anno suggested moving the springs of the braids down, adding a band. For the posture and hairstyle, inspiration was taken in particular from those of actress Yui Aragaki, who played Umemura Hikari in the dorama My Boss, My Hero. Anno decided to make the character wear two different combat suits, one old and one new generation, as a further element of detachment from the other pilots.

Mari's early design uniforms. Note the strong British influence also.

In the very early stages of production, staff considered a plugsuit in green, indigo or yellow, and then moved to pink, a color popular in anime, giving her a touch of femininity. Sadamoto later noticed that, compared to the white and red models of Rei and Asuka, pink has less visual impact, which is why he then gave her a more "scandalous" color, so for her reveal in the green plugsuit, he opted for green, which he also associated with England, from British racing green. The proposal was made by the colorist Kikuchi Kazuko, and was immediately welcomed with fervor by Sadamoto. Its design was inspired by the green uniforms of the Gamilas from Space Battleship Yamato, as well as by some spacesuits from the TV series UFO, and the space suits of Soviet cosmonauts. Sadamoto attempted to give her a sleekier, more modern design that'd feel updated, but still similar to the existing pilots' suits. Anno decided to give it a helmet as well, in order to cover the face until the end of the battle and create a dramatic effect for her reveal; for the design of the helmet Sadamoto took inspiration from those of track cyclists, much like Misato's motorcyclist-inspired jacket. The design of the lower part of the suit, however, traced that of fencing suits, feeding the idea of a girl belonging to European aristocracy, and more mature than the other pilots. There are several nods to her age being in fact much older than the other pilots.>

Mari's early plugsuit designs, with changing colors.

Sadamoto had considerable impact in her earlier characterization as well. Due to his experience in the Evangelion manga, staff valued his input in how to handle the reduced space for characterization the movie format gave them. Producer Ohtsuki also complained to Anno that they had not yet decided on a voice actress even by the time the recording stage of production was imminent. Ohtsuki asked other staff for suggestions, and using Maaya Sakamoto, a famous voice actress that Sadamoto, Enokido and Tsurumaki worked with before on Diebuster, but had no familiarity with Eva, was Sadamoto's idea. Maaya Sakamoto was called and selected without an audition or explanations, and would only then receive some information on the character. Sakamoto, after trying hard to interpret the character, concluded from explanations by Anno and Tsurumaki that she'd play the character as an "alien" element to Evangelion. Sakamoto says she herself still has difficulty understanding Mari's character an that she's full of mysteries, an opinion shared by Ogata, Shinji's voice actress. She says Anno shared several important details with her, but she says she won't reveal them: "I'll take it to my grave". Moyoco Anno has commented on associating herself with Mari, on her paid fan newsletter, from April 2nd: Don't compare me with Mari. It's great that people are talking about "Shin Evangelion" and their thoughts on it, but... But please don't compare me to the work any more than you have to. Please don't make me feel uncomfortable about it., as well as Khara staff's denial and Anno himself. Instead, they link her to Tsurumaki's decisions. A year later, Anno emphatically denied this rumor yet again, and complained at the insistence some fans had and the harassment he was getting over it.

Gallery

Mari Makinami Illustrious
Mari's first closeup in the 1.0 preview.	In first plugsuit	Mari prepares for her first outing in an Eva.
Bidding Eva-05 farewell.	Mari formally introduces herself to Shinji Ikari.	Under Beast Mode influence.
Holding conference in Evangelion 3.0 preview.	New glasses in 3.0.

See also

Theory and Analysis:Mari's age

Notes & References

• As she approaches the Angel in Bethany Base, Mari sings part of the song "The 356-Step March" by Kiyoko Suizenji:

マリ「しあわっせはーあるいってこないだーからあるいってゆっくんだねーん　
いっちにっちいっぽみーかでさんぽ
　さーんぽすすんでにっほさっがるー　
じーんせいはっわんつー！ぱんち・・・

Shiawase wa aruite konai, dakara aruite yuku 'n da ne
Ichinichi, ippo. Mikka de sanpo.
Sanpo susunde, niho sagaru
Jinsei wa, one-two-panchi...

Mari (singing): ♪　Happiness doesn't walk to me, because I'm walking to it
One day, one step. Three steps in three days
Three steps forward, two steps back
Life's a one-two punch... ♪

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 | Mr. Langley | 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