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Rei Ayanami is a fictional character from the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion and The End of Evangelion movie.

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Rei Ayanami (綾波レイ Ayanami Rei) is the First Children and pilot of Eva Unit 00. She is socially withdrawn and hardly interacts with anyone, except for Commander Ikari, whom she (Rei II) cherishes. Rei's cool and apparently emotionless personality -- if it can be called that -- garnered the scorn of her schoolmates; indeed, Asuka regards her a "doll." Although she once only communed with Gendou, she and Shinji break the ice after the battle against Ramiel, and as they grow progressively closer, Rei realizes she loves Shinji as much as she does the Commander; but it takes a mortal twist of fate before Rei's admiration for Gendou begins to erode. Technically speaking, Rei is not Gendou's biological daughter, although if Shinji had been a girl Gendou would have named her Rei. Despite this, fans typically regard her as Shinji's twin sister in essence, if not in literality.

Rei is in fact an artificial creation, one among dozens of genetically identical Rei bodies, which are considered "spare parts"; if one Rei dies, her soul can be transferred to one of her "spare" bodies. Her relationships with people are not forgotten, but it seems that every time she "dies," she loses some of her memories. Only three Rei bodies have actually been used. Rei I, the very first, was apparently created in 2005 and kept hidden in the artificial Evolution Laboratory's Third Annex until 2010, when she was murdered by Naoko Akagi at the age of four or five. Rei II did not seem to appear until sometime in 2014, when she is transferred to Tokyo-3's Class 2-A of Tokyo-3; she later sacrifices herself and EVA-00 to destroy Armisael, the 16th Angel. Rei III, upon encountering Kaworu Nagisa, quickly realizes the truth about herself, which leads to her rejection and betrayal of Gendou and her ascension into Lilith, at which point Rei's existence becomes one with the Source of Life.

An important point about Rei is that she is not strictly human in the traditional sense. Profuse evidence implies that her soul is that of Lilith, the source of non-Angelic Terran life. It is possible that she was created purposely by Gendou after the attempts to recover Yui failed, and he had resorted to planning his own scenario for Instrumentality as the sole means to be with her again. Putting the soul of Lilith into a more easily controlled and influenced vessel -- a human child -- was apparently his planned means of controlling the Instrumentality process and so achieve his own ends. Rei is said to be a clone of Yui, although the pigmentation differences are another source of debate, leading some to suggest that she is "part Lilith." Regardless of whether or not Rei is some kind of hybrid creation, her body seems to be made of the same matter as Lilith's own.

As a pilot, Rei's synchronization ratios are generally average, and not nearly as high as Asuka's or Shinji's. While both Shinji and Asuka synchronize with the souls of their mothers, Rei has no mother, thus the best that can be done is to have her synchronize with herself. Rei I, or some facsimile thereof, appears to be inside the core of EVA-00². During Rei's first synchronization test with the Eva, mental dissonance appeared to result from the contact between Rei and the previous incarnation of herself; the Eva went out of control, and Rei became "more mentally disturbed than expected." This problem, however, seemed to sort itself out. Some fans, however, have speculated that the soul within Rei's Eva is actually that of Naoko Akagi, Rei's would-be "step-mother," as would have been the case had Naoko not strangled Rei I. Evidence comes from EVA-00's attempts to attack Gendou Ikari when placed in berserk mode (see Naoko Akagi for information on her relationship with Gendou) and from the Unit's apparent dislike of its pilot, the girl it once killed.

Rei was named after Rei Hino from Sailor Moon in an unsuccessful attempt by Hideaki Anno to get Kunihiko Ikuhara, director of Sailor Moon, to join the project. It is also a pun, in that "rei" can mean "zero," and Rei is, of course, the pilot of EVA-00 (or Zerogouki). Before the name "Rei Ayanami" was decided upon, she was called Yui Ichijō, after Hikaru Ichijyo from Macross, which Anno worked on. In fanfiction, Rei is often paired with Shinji as a romantic couple, although not nearly as often as with Asuka.

(1) The timing of Rei's creation indicates that subsequent Rei cannot be fourteen years of age; they were apparently aged artificially.

(2) One critical hint is that Shinji encounters a distorted version of Rei within the Eva during the mutual compatibility experiment, later identified as Rei I during the TV ending's "The Case of Rei Ayanami." Another is during Armisael's attack, when Rei is contacted psychically and considers that it might be "the me within the Eva."

See Also Characters in Neon Genesis Evangelion

• Neon Genesis Evangelion
• Manga and anime characters