Israfel
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"When Aoba called B Wing's construction sloppy he hadn't seen anything like THIS!" |
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"The story presented to the public was just a cover-up." |
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"IT WASU WIDIN TI LEALM OF POSSIBIRITY" |
| Israfel | |
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| イスラフェル | |
| Number | 7th |
|---|---|
| Symbol | Music |
| Appearance(s) | Episode 09 |
| Defeated by | Eva-01 and Eva-02 |
Israfel (Arabic: إسرافيل) is the Seventh Angel, capable of splitting itself into two identical copies for simultaneous attacks.
Contents
Biology
Israfel is a vaguely humanoid Angel with the capacity to split into two "twins", which are morphologically nearly identical to the single-body form apart from size and coloration: the twin designated Alpha (甲, Kou) is gold, and Beta (乙, Otsu) is silver. The twins are roughly the same size as an Evangelion, while the single body is noticeably larger. Even when completely independent of each other, both twins act in synchronization.
The face on Israfel's single-body form is shaped like a blue and red Yin-Yang symbol, with two eyes that are capable of blinking. Both twins have a gray plate with three eyes in a triangular configuration, which are capable of firing energy blasts. The single-body form has only one core, while each of the twins has its own core. Both the bodies can rejoin spontaneously, although the two cores take longer to fuse.
When Asuka cleaves Israfel completely in half it does not bleed at all, or appear to possess internal organs of any kind other than the core. Its insides are composed of a uniform pink fleshy material.
Israfel's Relative Strength
Of all Angels to use energy attacks, Israfel's attack is the weakest, setting off somewhat small explosions and leaving nothing more than a large crater in an ordinary armor plate. In comparison, Sachiel and Zeruel can breach the Geofront with their cruciform explosions, Ramiel can melt down an Eva's frontal armor in mere seconds and sustain the beam indefinitely, and Zeruel's beam attack blasted off Eva-01's chest armor in one shot.
Israfel is similarly weak on the defensive side as well, taking severe damage from an N2 depth charge and taking days to regenerate, when Sachiel regenerated within a few hours and grew a second face almost immediately after being hit. Also, Zeruel took no damage at all from an N2 weapon explosion in direct contact, and over a dozen N2 weapons were used against Sahaquiel to no effect.
Israfel's Path to Tokyo 3
Israfel first appeared off the Kii peninsula of Japan, which is fairly far away from Tokyo-3, being located a bit south of Osaka. However, after Israfel's first battle in which it defeats Eva 01 and Eva 02, Eva 01 is described as being sunk two kilometers from Suruga Bay, which is thus where the battle must have taken place. Suruga Bay is south of Tokyo-3, thus instead of approaching Tokyo-3 from the east like Sachiel, Shamshel, and Ramiel did, Israfel advanced from the coast to the south. However, on its final approach to the city, Israfel is said to pass through the Gora defense line.
Battle
Israfel at first did not seem particularly imposing, as it simply stared and blinked while Eva-02 charged towards it and cleaved it in half with a swing from a Sonic Glaive, with Eva-01 providing covering fire. However, it soon revealed it's primary feature: it is capable of splitting itself into two slightly smaller twin versions of itself, for synchronized attacks. Eva-01 and Eva-02 were defeated and Nerv retreated. Israfel's AT Field was not particularly powerful, however, and an N2 weapon dropped by the JSSDF was able to seriously damage it, forcing the Angel to pause for several days to regenerate itself. It was determined that the only viable plan for destroying it would be to destroy the cores of both copies simultaneously.
In the intervening time period, Asuka and Shinji trained heavily to carry out a synchronized attack using their Evas, set to a classical music track. When Israfel finally recovered and reached Tokyo-3, Eva-01 and Eva-02 engaged it in a synchronized, almost dance-like attack which forced Israfel to recombine, and then destroyed the Angel's Core, resulting in a large explosion on the outskirts of the city.
During Israfel's second attack, it showed the ability, previously displayed by Sachiel, to upgrade and evolve its abilities in response to external threats. It had by then developed a weak energy blast attack fired from the faces of its two copies, and defended itself from the weapons thrown at it.
Israfel in the Manga
In the manga version, the singular Israfel possesses two cores, arranged vertically. Also, after it initially splits into Alpha and Beta, it never appears again as a merged entity.
| 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 |
