Kaworu Nagisa
| Kaworu Nagisa | |
| |
| 渚カヲル | |
| Age | 15 |
|---|---|
| Birthday | 09/13/2000 |
| Seiyū | Akira Ishida |
Kaworu Nagisa （渚カヲル Arabic: تبريس) is the Fifth Children and a replacement Eva pilot sent to Nerv HQ by Seele. At the same time, he is the 17th and (supposedly) final Angel, designated "Tabris", the only one to infiltrate Terminal Dogma.
Profile
Although classified as an Angel, Kaworu is similar to Rei Ayanami in being a Seed of Life inhabiting a human body. Unlike Rei, he appears more comfortable in his identity, and also warmer and more emotionally open, although he does show a distance from human protocols and the same tendency to speak in universal rather than personal terms. He often refers to humans as Lilin.
Like Rei and unlike the Angels who came before him, Kaworu has a Lilin body, with no visible physical difference from a regular human except for very pale skin, light grey hair and red irises. Although his body is presumably composed of the same "particle-wave matter", it is impossible to say if he possesses a core and S² Engine.
Though he seems to have been sent to destroy it, Kaworu shows a marked interest in human culture, as well as human issues of pain and loneliness. When Shinji first saw him, he was humming part of Beethoven’s "Ode to Joy", the fourth and final movement of the composer’s Ninth Symphony, and then stating that he considered it the finest achievement of the Lilin civilization.
Little is known of Kaworu’s motivations for representing an idealized friend to Shinji Ikari, although his interest in Shinji might have stemmed from his interest in human nature in general, Shinji representing a prime example of human pain and loneliness. Apart from very quickly understanding Shinji's personality, he understood Shinji as Shinji had been wanting someone to do for a long time and was interested in Shinji's welfare without asking anything in return. He does seem to consider meeting Shinji as extremely significant after listening to what Shinji has to say about himself and his relation to his father during his overnight stay in Kaworu's room, but it is not clearly understood what Kaworu truly meant.
During the battle while descending to Terminal Dogma, Kaworu is manipulating Eva-02, but the manipulated Eva doesn't seem to put up as much of a fight as it possibly could under his control. While Shinji aimed for Eva-02's head and neck to incapacitate it, both of Eva-02's knife strikes were in the pectoral region where damage was limited. Kaworu might simply have wanted to delay Eva-01 as far as possible, so that he could use the Eva to realize his own death if necessary.
Indeed, Kaworu decides to willingly let Shinji kill him to let Lilin live and Angels remain dead shows. As the human incarnate of Adam, a fact disclosed by the Seele monoliths, the sheer strangeness of the sacrifice is that Kaworu allowed Adam's (And by extension, his own) children to remain dead while letting the children of Lilith live on.
In End of Evangelion Kaworu makes several appearances. A multitude of his appearances involve him appearing simultaneously in two places at once, which Yui and most notably, Rei/Lilith demonstrate. Kaworu is present within the massive Rei/Lilith/Adam being and has control of the being for a brief period of time in order to bring down Shinji's A.T. Field, but otherwise remains passive. Whether or not Kaworu's identity survived at the very end remains unanswered.
As an Angel
As the seventeenth and final Angel, Kaworu is given the angelic name Tabris (タブリス), as revealed in Newtype publications such as ADAM and used by Keel Lorenz in the Manga. As an Angel, Kaworu is associated with free will, which is considered a gift of God.
Kaworu possesses the salvaged soul of Adam herself, and wields all of the power that comes with it. His A.T. Field is described by the Magi as the strongest yet encountered (until it is surpassed by Rei's). Kaworu is observed using it for levitation, to control Eva-02, as a massive barrier that prevents the Command Center from receiving wave transmissions, and, (evidently) to bypass the LCL Plant's locking mechanism.
Kaworu in Other Media
Notes
- The name "Nagisa" is a pun. The Kanji character "Nagisa" consists of the Katakana "shi" and the Kanji "sha", forming the word "Shisha", or "messenger". Kaworu, after all, is the final messenger, and the word used for "Angel" in the original Japanese dub is "Shito", or "Apostle" (messenger of God).
- Kaworu, being the vessel for Adam's soul, is in effect Adam reborn as a human. By being both the First Angel (Adam, whose body was separated from her soul in Second Impact) and the Seventeenth and final Angel, he is in effect both the first and the last of his kind.
- Kaworu is "born from Adam", and describes Adam as being the "Mother of us all". As Kaworu is the vessel for Adam's soul, that paradoxically makes him his own mother.
- Kaworu appears humming the fourth movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, the same music that plays during his descent into Terminal Dogma and so serves as a leitmotif for his character. The Ninth Symphony itself is set to an adaptation Friedrich Schiller's Ode to Joy (An dem Freude, to Joy), a poem dedicated to the unity of all men under God.
- The moment Kaworu opens the doors to Terminal Dogma is in synch with the line "Und der Cherub steht vor Gott"- "And the Cherub (Angel) stands before God".
- Kaworu's Plug Suit has an inverted, divided triangle symbol on its chest rather than a proper number, though he was sent to be the replacement pilot for Eva-02.
- Kaworu's origins are not revealed either in the TV series or in any official publications. The only known information about Kaworu's past is his birthday- September 13, 2000, the day of Second Impact, which has led many to speculate on how his creation might be linked to Second Impact.See also: Theory & Analysis: Kaworu's Origins.
- In the Manga, Kaworu's original design was that of a boy with a pet cat, who could switch from "Human form" to "Angel form" at will. As in the manga, he was to appear earlier in the series (Although unlike the manga, he was to attack far earlier as well). Sadamoto seems to have made an ironic reference to Kaworu's initial concept with the kitten-killing scene.
| Angels |
| Angels (general) |
| First and Second Angels (Seeds of Life): Adam | Lilith |
| Third to Seventeenth Angels (Adam's Children): |
| Sachiel | Shamshel | Ramiel | Gaghiel | Israfel | Sandalphon | Matarael | Sahaquiel |
| Ireul | Leliel | Bardiel | Zeruel | Arael | Armisael | Tabris |
| Eighteenth Angel: Lilin |
| Rebuild of Evangelion: ?Adams? | Lilith | 3rd Angel | 4th Angel | 5th Angel | 6th Angel | 7th Angel | 8th Angel | 9th Angel | 10th Angel | 11th Angel | 12th Angel | 1st/13th Angel |
| Other: Extracanonical Angels |
| 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 |
