Rei Ayanami

Rei Ayanami
綾波レイ
Age	14 (biologically)
Birthday	Unknown
Seiyū	Megumi Hayashibara

Rei Ayanami is the First Children, designated pilot of Evangelion Unit-00. Rei is a clone of Yui Ikari who possess the soul of Lilith.

Past

Officially Rei's past has been erased, and next to nothing is revealed in the show. Gendo was accompanying the child Rei on a tour of Nerv facilities, and may have been her guardian when she was young. A disheveled room in a place called the "Third Annex", located in the bowels of Central Dogma, is said to have been the place where Rei was "born", and has an overall resemblance to the apartment Rei later lives in.

Shortly before the story begins, Rei participated in Eva-00's first activation experiment. When synchronization reached the ego borderline, Eva-00 went berserk, and the entry plug was ejected. Rei was injured as a result of the plug hitting the floor from a great height without anything cushioning its fall.

Present

Rei's inability to pilot an Evangelion when Sachiel appears prompts Gendo Ikari to summon his long-abandoned son, Shinji Ikari, to Tokyo-3 to pilot Evangelion Unit-01. Rei is quiet and seems nearly unemotional; in fact she seems happy only when she is with Gendo, who saved her life during the training incident. She keeps and treasures a pair of his glasses that were damaged during the rescue. Rei is also a central part of the Dummy System.

Psychology

Rei seems to have some suicidal tendencies (although Shinji and Asuka do as well) as she has little regard for her own life during battle. This seems to be because, as she says in her own words, "Even if I die, I can be replaced". She may also realize that, as a Seed of Life trapped within a body that is not hers, she lives an inherently paradoxical existence, even though she lacks clear recollection of her true nature.

Incarnations

Rei 1

"Rei 1" is the first Rei Ayanami clone, who appears for the first and only time in Episode 21 as a child of four to five years, in flashbacks to the year 2010. She is brought to Gehirn HQ under Tokyo-3 by Gendo Ikari where she is introduced as the "daughter of a friend" who he is taking care of. Naoko Akagi notes the physical similarity between Rei and Yui Ikari.

The night before the base would become officially operational, Rei 1 became lost and encountered Naoko on the bridge of the Command Center. Rei called Naoko an "old hag", and told her that Gendo himself called her that in private; that Gendo's relationship with Naoko was a fraud and he was really just using her for her technical skill. In a fit of frustration and rage, Naoko strangled Rei 1 to death, and then committed suicide by throwing herself onto the Magi supercomputers below.

She also appears in Episode 25 for the conversation Rei 3 has with her previous two incarnations, as acts as a "harbinger of the unpleasant truth", in a similar manner as she did with Naoko. Here, the "floating head" version of the distorted Rei Shinji saw within Eva-00 Episode 14 is treated as a representation of Rei 1, which may be providing a "retroactive hint" as to the identity of Eva-00's resident soul. See: The Soul in Evangelion Unit-00.

Rei 1 is seen for the last time when all three Rei stand together at the site of Gendo's death, Episode 26'.

Rei 2

"Rei 2" is the second Rei Ayanami clone, actually the first encountered during the series, in Episode 01. Rei 2 is the personification of "Rei Ayanami" seen during almost all of the series, from Episode 01 through the middle of Episode 23 when she sacrifices herself and her Evangelion Unit-00 in order to destroy the Angel Armisael.

While Rei 1 may have been a potential Eva pilot had she lived, and Rei 3 was still considered a backup pilot after Eva Unit 00 was destroyed, Rei 2 was the only "Rei" clone to actually pilot an Eva. Also, Rei 2 seems aware that she is a clone (as Episode 23 implies), although she doesn't seem to know she's cloned from Yui and Lilith.

Rei 3

"Rei 3" is the third Rei Ayanami clone, which appears from the middle of Episode 23 through The End of Evangelion, where she merges with Adam and Lilith. This is the Rei that discovers she possess the soul of Lilith as evidenced by her actions in Episodes 24 and 25'. Rei 3 may have also realized her DNA was that of Yui Ikari, which would explain her loyalty to Shinji.

Rei and her emotions

It is very probable that part of the soul of "Rei Ayanami" (actually, the soul of the Angel Lilith) from Rei 1 was used as the soul inside of Eva Unit 00. This may explain the difference in personality between Rei 1 and Rei 2, as Rei 2 was "missing" parts of her soul/personality. A corollary of this theory is that after Eva Unit 00 was destroyed, the fraction of the soul of "Rei Ayanami"/Lilith taken for use in Eva 00 was reunited with the whole. This would explain why Rei 3 is more emotional than Rei 2 (crying when she returns to her room, when Rei 2 only cried for the first time right before her death), and is no longer totally obedient to Gendo Ikari (going so far as to break Gendo's glasses from Episode 05 which Rei 2 cherished), her loyalty leaning more towards Shinji.

Notes

• "Rei" in Japanese is (sometimes) a synonym for "zero", fitting as Rei is the pilot of Eva Unit 00. However, in the original Japanese dub of the series, characters refer to Unit 00 using the half-English "Zerogouki" ("-gouki" = "Unit"). "Reigouki" wouldn't be an entirely inaccurate alternate rendering of its name, though.
• "Rei" spelt with different Kanji is the word for "spirit". Rei's name becomes a double pun- she is the pilot of Unit 00, and the vessel for the soul of Lilith.
• Rei's surname Ayanami translates approximately as "twill wave". She was named for the Fubuki class destroyer Ayanami, which was lost at the Second Battle of Guadalcanal.
• Rei's first name comes from Rei Hino/Sailor Mars of the Anime and Manga series Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon. This was done in an effort to get one of the series directors, Kunihiko Ikuhara, to work on Evangelion. While this effort failed, some of the staff and voice actors of Sailor Moon did work on Eva as well, including another one of Sailor Moon's series directors' Jun'ichi Satoh (Under the pen-name Kiichi Jinme as a Storyboardist) and the voice actress' for Usagi Tsukino/Sailor Moon Kotono Mitsuishi and Haruka Tenoh/Sailor Uranus Megumi Ogata, respectively.
• In Episode 12, Rei reveals that she "doesn't like eating meat", thus making her a vegetarian. Director and Creator Hideaki Anno as well as the main character from Gainax's previous work Nadia are also known for being vegetarians.
• The Rei that's shown at the start of Episode 01 (as the Girl on the Street) and in the Final Scene of Episode 26' (Floating above the L.C.L Sea) appears to be Rei 3. See: Rei's Ghostly Appearances and Quantum Mechanics.
• When Ritsuko Akagi destroys the Dummy Plug "parts" factory which is really a cloning center for creating new Rei clones, her controller's display lists the inanimate future Rei-clones starting with "Rei 4". However, all of these prospective future clones were destroyed by Ritsuko, before Rei's (Lilith's) soul was ever transfered into them, and they were simply soul-less husks.

This article bears the unpleasant designation of "Stub." This is a Bad Thing. Provide a great service to NGE fan-geeks everywhere by making it awesomer!

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