Mari Makinami Illustrious

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Mari Illustrious Makinami
Mari
真希波・マリ・イラストリアス
Age	Unknown
Birthday	Unknown
Seiyū	Maaya Sakamoto

Design for upcoming Mari figurine

Mari Illustrious Makinami (真希波・マリ・イラストリアス) is the new character to be introduced in Evangelion 2.0: You Can (Not) Advance. She is a brunette with glasses and long pigtails who seems to be in the same age group as the Eva pilots.

Profile

Essentially no information has been provided about Mari thus far beyond her name and images of her. She is shown for a mere two cuts in the preview for 2.0 at the end of the first Rebuild movie. The "keywords" poster for 2.0 includes an exchange of dialogue between her and Shinji.

Mari has been speculated to be the pilot for Eva-05, and the characters page of the official Evangelion 2.0 website gives evidence to this. An image of the helmeted Mari (wearing an 05 plugsuit) is shown next to her name, and she's placed under the category of "Pilots" among Shinji, Asuka, Rei, and Kaworu. . Earlier, circumstantial evidence was provided by 2.0's first theatrical trailer, which shows a girl in a "05" plugsuit whose head is almost completely covered by a helmet-like interface device (the same image on the Eva 2.0 website). An illustration of Mari in her plugsuit confirmed that the pilot seen was indeed Mari before her listing on the characters page.

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.

Her first name was originally unveiled in the Nintendo DS Petite Eva@School 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).

Notes

• Mari's glasses and long, dark hair has invited much comparison with the character Mayumi Yamagishi from the Sega Saturn game Neon Genesis Evangelion: Second Impression, although the two characters have distinctly different appearances.

References

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