Evangelion Unit-03
| Unit-03 | |
| |
| {{{japanese}}} | |
| Model Type | Production |
|---|---|
| Pilot(s) | Toji Suzuhara |
| Soul(s) | Unspecified (see article) |
| First Sortie | Episode 18 |
Creation
Unit-03 is the fourth Evangelion completed, the first "Production Model" Evangelion. Eva 03 and its sister unit, Eva 04, were constructed in the United States of America. Eva 03 was constructed at NERV's first branch base (NERV-1) in Massachusetts. After NERV's second branch in Nevada (NERV-2) and Eva 04 suddenly disappeared, the US government panicked and demanded that Eva 03 be transported off of its soil, to Japan.
Toji Suzuhara was selected as the pilot of Eva 03, and sent to NERV's secondary testing facility at Matsushiro to conduct Eva 03's first activation test, supervised by Ritsuko Akagi and Misato Katsuragi. However, while suspended from a cargo plane during its flight to Japan, Eva Unit 03 passed through a bizarre cloud which was in fact the next Angel. The Angel infected and mutated Eva 03, and seconds after activation at the Matsushiro facility it went berserk and destroyed the base. Upon discovering what had happened, NERV HQ redesignated Eva 03 as the 13th Angel: Bardiel.
Purpose
Ostensibly, like all the Evangelions, Unit-03's stated purpose is to defend Tokyo-3 and the whole world from the Angel threat.
Abilities
Eva 03 is described as a "Production Model" Evangelion, just like Unit 02, but it's head design is clearly different, with two eyes instead of four. Apparently there were some minor tweaks to the design made between Eva 02 and Unit 03 and Unit 04, but all are considered "Production model" Evangelions. As Eva 03 was infected and taken over by an Angel almost immediately after activation, any new features it may have been designed with remain unknown.
Soul
It is never stated whose soul resides in Unit 03. The soul of Shinji Ikari's mother, Yui Ikari, resides in Eva Unit 01, and the soul of Asuka Langley Soryu's mother, Kyoko, resides in Eva Unit 02. It is stated that Shinji's school class is actually a secret pool of potential Eva pilots, all grouped into one place. Also, it is gradually revealed or implied over the course of the series the mothers of all of Shinji's classmates are dead (Kensuke Aida directly states this, and Hikari Horaki and Toji also heavily imply this). Thus it seems to be implied that there is some connection between all of the potential pilots having "dead" mothers. Following this chain of evidence, it is probable that Evangelion Unit 03 contains the soul of Toji's mother, which was extracted some years before in another "contact experiment" that happened off-screen.
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