ASUKA (OFF):“I've developed into a woman in other places as well.”
He pulls hard at it, but he can't remove it.
TOJI (OFF):“(Adlib)”
Line: *Sigh*....Give him his hat back already, Asuka!
Kendrix: I must strongly content the notion that assertiveness is in any way masculine - indeed the pointy ladies' shoes, sundress and fancy long hair strike me very much as performed 'classical' femininity, just the spunky hot vixen version of it - as she lampshades here herself by mentioning her recently acquired curves.
Additional Commentary
Kendrix: If you saw this the first time it's just an ordinary pretty outfit and not that far beyond typical teen antics (at least not as immediately alarming as the flashback in the start of ep 22 would have been) but in hindsight both the outfit and her line here fit into this pattern that she has of asserting her maturity, independence and "adulthood" from a place of deeply juvenile counterdependence... and it's very much an external idea of "mature", one that starts with the surface & the appearance of it because it's there to be recognized. (In that sense Asuka & Misato are basically two sides of the same coin)
Which isn't meant as a gotcha by any means, but something we should have the deepest empathy for, as such a thing is always a desperate attempt to assert & prove one's very existence separate from whatever your parents thought you would turn out like, an attempt at gaining the internal locus of control that is so vital to human sanity but so hard to attain in our global, capitalistic society especially for young people (but especially in Asuka's particular case, given her specific backstory - I'm struck again by what a good & juicy metaphor it is for that exact feeling)
At this stage between 10 and 14 you're in a place where you've only just awakened to full sentience/ independent thought, your brain just rewired itself, and the first thing your newly formed ego does is scream. Hopefully eventually you become more secure in your identity so that you don't need to shout it from the rooftops all the time because you know you won't vanish if you blink, or if there's no one there to watch.
