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Rei Ayanami (綾波レイ Ayanami Rei) is a fictional character from the anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion and the film The End of Evangelion.

Rei Ayanami is the First Children and pilot of EVA-00. She is socially withdrawn and hardly interacts with anyone, except for Commander Ikari, who she initially displays some loyalty to but has a much more distant relationship with than commonly believed (she says in Episode 15 that she "doesn't know what kind of person he is", and seems confused by Shinji's belief that the two are close). She lives by herself in a nearly barren apartment in Tokyo-3. Toward the end of the series, Shinji comments that her apartment is very similar to the place where Akagi Ritsuko says she was born.

Throughout the series, Rei's cool and emotionally stunted personality added to her intrigue, and later resulted in arousing the scorn of Asuka, who referred to her as a "doll" or "puppet". Rei is the diametric opposite of Asuka, not only in terms of personality, but also physically. Asuka is outspoken, emotionally extreme, and violent; Rei is the opposite of Asuka on all these major accounts. Asuka has red hair and blue eyes, while Rei has red eyes, but blue hair. This color shift between the characters may also relate to the difference between how they are seen by others and what their true feelings are: Rei is frequently mistaken for being unemotional, while Asuka feigns arrogance to hide her insecurities. Rei also shares the traits of light hair, pale skin, and red eyes with Kaworu Nagisa, leading some fans to suggest that these traits are angelic in nature, and leading other fans to believe that these characters have albinism. The show's character designer, Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, later said that these features exist solely to make Rei look more "distinguished" from the rest of the cast, though he did not specifically mention any of these theories. Rei describes blue as "agreeable" and red as the color that she "hates". She says that she dislikes meat, but does not call herself a vegetarian. Her color and food preferences might be due to an association with blood, which LCL is known to smell like, or due to some aspect of her origins, though these possibilities are pure speculation.

Origins

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An important fact about Rei is that her origin and heritage are left deliberately unspecified, so she might not even be entirely human. Ritsuko Akagi says that Rei was born in a certain room deep in the lower levels of NERV headquarters, but this is all that is known for certain about her creation. Her mysterious background has led fans to find multiple theories of just what exactly went into creating her.

Kaworu cryptically mentioned in their only conversation that she is "the same" as him. This statement was expanded in the "Director's cut" of the episode, in which Kaworu goes on to say that he and Rei are human vessels for the souls of Adam and Lilith, respectively; but since he was misinformed by SEELE about the location of Adam's body, there's no way to know how much of his information is accurate. He is definitely a counterpart or parallel to Rei in many ways, suggesting that the two have similar origins.

Gendou Ikari introduces Rei to the NERV staff in 2010 as an "acquaintance's child" whom he is temporarily taking care of. However, from pieces of evidence that may be found in the show, he probably created her and almost certainly named her, because he said when Yui was pregnant with Shinji that he would have named the child "Rei" if it had been a girl. The Red Cross Book states that Rei was created from the "salvaged remains" of Yui Ikari after Yui's absorption into Unit 01. Others, however, believe Rei to be an accidental by-product of the contact experiment that caused this absorption, or of the attempts to "retrieve" Yui afterward. Considering she is reported to be 14 years old by 2015, this would make her about four years old during the contact experiment and nine years old in 2010. The character model used in the 2010 scenes is based on development materials in which her age is only 4, thus causing confusion among fans as to her real birth year and date. Many are led to believe that she was only four years old in 2010, making her nine years old where she is stated to be 14, and so on. However, it is more likely that the actual process of creating Rei also has parameters for apparent physical age that can be changed, explaining the lack of official birthdate.

Regardless of age, if Rei was created deliberately, the reasons for her creation are also debatable. There exists many hypotheses for this; for example, that Rei and Kaworu (and the many clones of them) were created solely to be the cores of the dummy plugs, and that giving them souls was merely an afterthought, or possibly even an accident; that she may have been created to reunite Gendou with Yui because putting the soul of Lilith into a more easily controlled and influenced vessel - a human child - would have allowed Gendou to control the Instrumentality process to accomplish his own personal agenda in defiance of SEELE. Regardless of whether or not Rei is some kind of hybrid creation, she does display uniquely angelic abilities in latter episodes and the movie. How this came to be so is not explained, and fans are left to speculate on it. Some of the possibilities that are discussed include the abilities being given to her by having the soul of Lilith, through her partial fusion with Armisael in Episode 23, after her meeting with Kaworu, etc.

Likely evidence is shown in the anime to support a Rei/Yui connection: Shinji tells Rei that he thinks she'd "make a good mother", and later compares Gendou's manipulation of her to his manipulation of Yui. Naoko Akagi finds that Rei physically resembles Yui, suggesting a genetic link between the two; Rei is even believed by some fans to be a partial or complete clone of Yui, although the pigmentation differences are again a source of debate. Though a genetic link between Gendou and Rei is not evident, some fans figuratively or even literally regard Rei as Shinji's twin sister because of the Yui connection.

Relationships

Shortly before Shinji's arrival at NERV, Rei was involved in a Unit 00 activation test that ended in disaster. She was severely injured during this test, and Gendou burned his hands on the entry plug while opening it to "rescue" her. Afterward, she kept a pair of his glasses (which had been warped and cracked by heat from the entry plug) as a souvenir and developed something of a loyalty toward him. She even slapped Shinji for his negative remarks about Gendou as a father. However, her loyalty to Gendou erodes over the series as she witnesses his interactions with Shinji. She disobeys Gendou's orders on a few occasions, yet still says near the end of the series that she'd obey an order from him to kill herself; she probably said this only because she knew that Gendou values her life more than she does, and more than he values detroying the Angels, so he'd never give such an order without a reason that she'd agree with. In fact, the only way in which she disobeys combat orders is by endangering her life. By the time she comes to as the "third one" of her clones after her demise with the 16th angel, she ultimately sabotages Gendou's plan for Instrumentality, symbolized in her crushing the melted pair of glasses.

Although Rei at first treats Shinji as coldly as she does any other stranger, she and Shinji break the ice after the battle against Ramiel. Rei slowly grows closer to Shinji as the series progresses, though their classmates seem to think that their feelings are obvious to everyone except themselves; Rei doesn't realize that she cares about Shinji until Toji Suzuhara tells her. She later notes that Shinji is the only person to whom she has ever said "thank you". These feelings between Rei and Shinji are suspected to be maternal rather than romantic, due to the suspected genetic link with Yui. Their association lasts until Armisael partially fuses with Rei and Shinji at the same time. At this point, Rei realizes that she loves (or more specifically "wants to become one with") Shinji, but afterward, she cannot remember this revelation and Shinji begins to fear what she might be.

When Asuka arrives in Tokyo-3 and speaks to Rei for the first time, she suggested becoming friends "because it would be convenient", to which Rei replied that she would only become Asuka's friend if ordered to. Asuka repeatedly jokes about and pries into the relationship between Rei and Shinji, and may view Rei as competition for Shinji's attention. Toward the end of the series, Asuka views Rei as an obedient, emotionless doll, and hates Rei as such because of a traumatic childhood event involving a doll. However, Rei still attempts to help Asuka by advising her about her Eva and later rescuing her from Arael, which only damaged Asuka's ego and made her hate Rei even more.

Ritsuko also does not view Rei as a person, and feels that Gendou somehow rejected her to choose Rei, in a sense; her jealousy over "losing" to a "thing" becomes a hatred of Rei, and she takes her anger out on the Rei clones by destroying them. Rei does not express any animosity toward her, just as with Asuka.

Rei has only one conversation with Kaworu, during which he seemed quite friendly but she regarded him with confusion and suspicion more than anything else.

Clones and Dummy Plugs

Dozens of soulless clones of Rei are kept in a tank in the lower levels of NERV headquarters, and are said by Ritsuko to be the cores of the dummy plugs. Rei is seen spending long periods of time in an LCL-filled tube underneath a structure resembling a giant brain in the dummy-system room, and it is suggested that information regarding piloting an Evangelion and fighting the enemy from Rei's mind is copied onto the clones.

Ritsuko also refers to Rei's clones as "spare parts"; this probably means that Rei's body parts can be replaced if they become too badly damaged in combat. Rei, herself, in heavy bandages to conceal her lack of wounds after the battle against Armisael, and posessing neither memories of nor injuries from the battle, says "I think I must be the third one", thus spawning the theory that she can be replaced entirely, with her soul being transferred to a clone body every time she dies (and her memories having been transferred ahead of time), confirmed in the Red Cross Book. Other supporting evidence in the anime include her earlier line "If I die, I can be replaced". The implications of this theory suggests that Rei I, the very first, was murdered by Naoko Akagi in 2010, who is then replaced by Rei II, who may not have appeared until as late as 2014, when she is transferred to Tokyo-3's Class 2-A. She dies when she sacrifices herself and Unit 00 to destroy Armisael. Rei III is the version seen from the second half of Episode 23 through to End of Evangelion.

There exists a minority of viewers who reject the information contained in the Red Cross Book (for various reasons), and so believe that Rei has never died and has never been fully replaced as described above. They have also noted evidence to disprove the above. For example, the entry plugs for Units 00 and 01 are known to contain Dummy systems, and one was ordered to be put into Unit 02 as well. If the core of every dummy plug is a clone of Rei, no less than five Rei bodies must be located outside of the clone tanks for the above theory to be correct, most likely six. In Episode 23, the controller that Ritsuko uses to destroy the clones in the dummy-system clearly indicates that "Rei 004" and onwards are still inside the tanks, meaning that only three have been removed, not five or more. The argument, therefore, suggests that the three corresponds to only the two in the dummy plugs and the original Rei, so Rei could not have been entirely replaced twice. The major flaw in this logic is that it is assumed that all created instances of Rei were stored and recorded in the dummy plug plant responsible for manufacturing the cores. It is, in fact, very likely that such a plant did not exist back in the times when the first Rei was created, or later, as the production of dummy plugs did not commence until some time in 2015, mid-series in the anime. The implications of this include that Rei is able to be created to appear a specified age. This notion also supports and is supported by other evidence in the anime such as the relatively inconsistant age of Rei in 2010, her absence from 2001 (her birth year if she was otherwise created only once to be 14 years of age by 2015) till her appearance in 2010, and the possibly long period until her next appearance as described earlier. The Red Cross Book is largely consistant with the series.

Unit 00

As a pilot, Rei's synchronization ratios are unspecified, but are normally not as high as Asuka's or Shinji's. While both Shinji and Asuka synchronize with the souls of their mothers, which were absorbed into the Evas during contact experiments, Rei has no known mother and Unit 00 is not known to have been part of any contact experiments, thus raising questions about whose soul is in Unit 00. A simple possibility is that Rei did have a mother and Unit 00 was involved in a contact experiment with her, but this is unlikely and doesn't account for certain phenomena unique to Unit 00, as explained below.

During Rei's first synchronization test with the Eva, mental dissonance appeared to result from the contact between Rei and the Eva; the Eva went out of control and seemed to attack Gendou. This problem, however, seemed to sort itself out. Later, when Unit 00 was activated with Shinji inside, the same thing happened, this time with Rei seeming to be the target. From this, some fans have speculated that the soul within Rei's Eva is that of Naoko Akagi, who has reason to hate Gendou (see Naoko Akagi for information on her relationship with Gendou) and already tried to kill Rei once. This theory is believed by other fans to be inaccurate for the reason that Ritsuko believed herself to be the target of Unit 00's attacks, thus raising doubt that Ritsuko's mother would harbor such a grudge against her daughter.

Some use the multiple-Rei theory to suggest that the soul of Rei I is present, instead, and is seeking revenge against the daughter of its killer, though this would require at least Rei I and Rei II to each have a separate soul, which seems to contradict Ritsuko's statement that the clones are soulless vessels. The incident where Shinji encounters a distorted image of Rei within Unit 00 during the mutual compatibility experiment is sometimes believed to be Rei I, which is what often gives rise to the hypothesis.

Innumerable other possibilites exist, such as, Unit 00 might have the soul of Lilith (if Rei doesn't already have it), or the soul of a random unnamed NERV employee who volunteered to be a guinea pig, or that Eva has its own unique soul that didn't come from anyone else (which contradicts Ritsuko's original statement that Evas are made without a soul), or simply no soul exists at all; Rei might have once had her own soul, but was absorbed into Unit 00, and the soul of Lilith was put into Rei's body to keep her usable; the show's creator might not even have had any particular soul in mind for Unit 00. No direct, official statement has been made regarding Unit 00's soul.

Rei's Poem

Rei's Poem is a phrase used by some fans to describe a monologue given by Ayanami in the 14th episode of the TV series. It is notable that the contents of the speech in the English dubbed version differ somewhat from those of the original monologue. For comparison purposes, both the English version's speech and a translation of the original Japanese are listed here.

From the English dubbed version:

Mountains. Heavy are the mountains, but that changes with the passage of time.
Sky, blue sky. What your eyes can't see. What your eyes can see.
The Sun. One, only one.
Water. It is agreeable. Commander Ikari...
Flowers. So many the same. So many without purpose.
Sky. Sky of red. Red the color, the color I hate.
The liquid flows, it drips, ripples and pours. 
Blood. Scent of blood. A woman who does not bleed.
From the red soil the humans come.
Humans made by man and woman.
City, a human creation.
Eva, a human creation as well.
What are humans? Are they creations of God?
Humans, that which is created by humans.
This is that which is mine, my life, my heart. I am a vessel for my thoughts.
The Entry Plug, a throne for the soul.
Who is this? This is me.
Who am I? What am I? What am I? What am I?
I am I. This object that is, is myself. That which forms, is me.
This is the self that can be seen, and yet this is not like that which is myself.
A strange feeling. My body feels as if it is melting.
I can no longer see myself. My form, my shape fades from view.
Awareness dawns of someone who is not me.
Who is here, there, beyond me here?
Shinji?
This person I know, Major Katsuragi.
Doctor Akagi.
People, my classmates.
The pilot of Unit Two.
Commander Ikari?
Who are you?
Who are you?
Who are you?

English translation of Japanese speech:

Mountains. Heavy are the mountains, but that changes over time.
Sky... Blue sky. What your eyes can't see. What your eyes can see.
Sun...There is only one.
Water... Comforting. Commander Ikari?
Flowers... So many alike. So many useless.
Sky... Red, red sky. Red is the color. Red is the color I hate.
Water flowing.
Blood... The smell of blood. A woman who never bleeds.
From the red earth comes man, from the soil.
Born of man and woman is Man.
Town... A human creation.
Eva... A human creation as well.
What is a human? A creation of God?
Is it a human creation?
The things I possess are my life and soul. I am a vessel for my heart.
Entry Plug, the throne for a soul.
Who is this? This is me.
Who am I? What am I? What am I? What am I? What am I?
I am myself. This, that which is, is myself. That which is formed is me.
This is the me that can be seen, yet feels as if this is not myself.
A strange feeling. I feel as if my body is melting. 
I can no longer see myself. My shape is fading.
I feel the presence of someone who is not me.
Who is there, beyond me here?
Ikari?
I know this person. She is Captain Katsuragi.
Doctor Akagi...
Others... Classmates...
The pilot of Unit 02.
Commander Ikari?
Who are you?
Who are you?
Who are you?

Miscellaneous

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. Also, the name of "Yui" — whose character apparently has an uncanny connection with Rei — means "only one".

In fanfiction, Rei is often paired with Shinji as a romantic couple, although not quite as often as with Asuka, who he twice tried to kill.

Notes

1. In the anime, her bithdate is explicitly said to be unknown; the birthday misconceived to be official by some fans (March 30, 2001) is actually the birthday of, and suggested by, her Japanese voice actress, who released her album "Birthday of Rei Ayanami" on that exact date.

See Also Characters in Neon Genesis Evangelion

• Neon Genesis Evangelion
• Manga and anime characters
• Fictional vegetarians
• Fictional characters with albinism