This page is for summarizing the characters in Strategic Cyborg Evangelion. Most of the original Eva characters were twisted and turned by the author beyond recognition, for better or worse. Spoilers are be present.
The main protagonist of the story, Kaworu is a fourteen year old orphan who grew up on the streets of Vienna. Not having had a family to depend on, nor memories about his early childhood, he was essentially forced to raise himself; the result is a friendly but independent boy with a particular hatred for abuse of power of any kind.
He became a pilot when Rei in Unit-00 was incapacitated by Sachiel; Kaworu commandeered the Eva and defeated the Angel. He was immediately detained by Section 2 and Yui basically blackmailed him into working for her.
- Action Survivor - Kaworu has no prior piloting experience like Rei or formal training like Asuka, nor is he miraculously competent. His Eva also gets seriously damaged in nearly every battle. Yet he still manages to get through those battles alive and victorious, even though he already came very close to dying in his first proper battle.
- Adaptational Badass - He's considerably more of a fighter than in canon, though still pales in comparison to the girls.
- Amnesiac Hero - Has no memories beyond the age of six-and-a-half. Based on the lack of detectable physical damage on his brain, Sanada diagnoses it as psychogenic amnesia caused by a traumatic experience.
- The Alcoholic - He uses alcohol instead of coffee in the morning. He gets away with it only because Yui warned him not to even try Drinking on Duty.
- A-Team Firing - His aptitude with firearms is... not good.
- Bilingual Bonus - He's fluent in German.
- Bully Hunter - As revealed in the very first chapter, he got himself expelled from his previous school by beating up the principal's son for bullying a younger kid. And on his very first day in his new school, Kaworu ends up confronting a trio of upperclassmen bullying a younger boy but Hikari manages to defuse the situation before they come to blows.
- Chaste Hero - He outright states a lack of interest in relationships, much to Toji's shock. Later on, he also tells Rei to Please Put Some Clothes On without any hint of embarrassment or arousal and his reaction to Asuka's allegations to the contrary are more annoyed than anything else.
- Combat Pragmatist - His hand-to-hand fighting style is rather brutal, ranging from full-powered kicks to the crotch that leave the victim in such excruciating pain as to need assistance to stand up, to bending his victim over and repeatedly kneeing them in the stomach until said victim throws up. Even against Angels, he does not hesitate to twist arms back and Kick Them While They Are Down.
- Do Not Taunt Cthulhu - Even after witnessing Sachiel administering a beatdown to Rei and having only sat in Unit-00 for a few minutes, he relentlessly calls the Angel out on all the pain and destruction it caused. Sachiel is not amused.
- Gadgeteer Genius - He has small-current electronics as a hobby and even built a tripwire-controlled nailgun once to keep intruders out of his quarters.
- Giving the Sword to a Noob - Unlike Rei, Kaworu has no piloting skill or experience at first but Yui still recruits him because He Knows Too Much and killing him to plug in a security leak would be a waste.
- Healing Factor - He completely recovers from life-threatening cranial bleeding in a week. Other instances of him healing abnormally fast are also mentioned.
- Locked Out of the Loop - Yui, Lilith, Adam and Sanada all know something about him but keep it a secret.
- Messy Hair - As in canon, aided by the fact that he used to be a street kid until shortly before the story begins.
- Mind Rape - The Spear of Longinus inflicts this on him when he first uses it, by way of sensory overload. The resulting cerebral hemorrhage comes very close to killing him.
- Minor Living Alone - Up until Asuka and her father move in, as he has no living relatives.
- Mysterious Past - Not only he doesn't have any family, he's suffering from amnesia and doesn't remember anything from his childhood.
- Never Gets Drunk - His alcohol resistance is simply insane, capable of matching Asuka, Mari and Hikari shot-for-shot with high-proof hard liquor at the same time until they're all unconscious while he's merely warmed over himself. In fact, he uses alcohol in place of coffee to wake himself up.
- Never Hurt an Innocent - His Berserk Button.
- No Nudity Taboo - Not unsettled by nudity at all, be it his own or someone else's. The only reason he tells Rei to Please Put Some Clothes On isn't even out of embarrassment, but out of concern that a third party might walk in on them and misunderstand the situation.
- Not Quite Human - His DNA doesn't quite match up with that of a baseline human. Nor do his alcohol resistance, infection resistance, rapid healing and extremely dense skeleton.
- Parental Abandonment - He used to be an orphaned street kid before coming to Tokyo-2 and according to Yui, there are no records of his parents whatsoever.
- Scannable Man - Not a barcode but he has a serial number tattooed onto his arm.
- Screw Destiny - He's an atheist precisely because he hates the idea of not being in control of his own fate.
- Street Urchin - Used to be one.
- Super-Toughness - Chapter 18 reveals that his bones are considerably denser than normal, to the point they are as hard as quartz. For comparison, normal human bones have hardness equivalent to apatite, which is a full two grades below quartz on the Mohs scale of mineral hardness.
- Time Abyss - Chapter 15 confirms that Kaworu is still very much alive in 3071, albeit weak and confined to a medical pod.
- Unskilled, but Strong - Unlike Rei and Asuka, Kaworu's fighting skills lean more towards experience and improvisation than training.
Another of her traits unique to the fandom is the large amount of weaponry she carries on her person, even firearms; she's a scarily good marksman. She's been working for the AEL for an unspecified length of time.
- Ace Pilot - Mostly Bushwhacker, forced upon her by Unit-00's faulty construction making it too fragile for close combat.
- Action Girl
- Anti-Hero - Type 4: she has no moral qualms about killing and torturing people if the situation calls for it.
- Badass Biker - Her introduction in the first chapter has her almost running Kaworu down with her electric motorbike, getting an earful from Hikari as a result.
- Badass Bookworm - She has an IQ of 164, higher than the city's entire high-school-age population.
- Badass Longcoat - A black trenchcoat she wears at all times while not piloting. It is essentially the equivalent of her canon counterpart's school uniform. She wears it as a countermeasure to Dirty Mind-Reading, hiding her body so that boys won't think about it.
- Berserk Button - Kaworu getting hurt.
- Cold Sniper - Aside from her cold mannerisms, she's a crack-shot and prefers single-shot long-range weapons over automatic ones.
- Crazy-Prepared - Her Extended Disarming scene has her procuring an absurd amount of weaponry from her coat, including a grenade launcher.
- Creepy Child - According to some of her classmates.
- Deadpan Snarker
- Death Glare - She seemingly enjoys giving this.
- Fascinating Eyebrow - She takes this to almost Teal'c-levels.
- Friendless Background - Mostly due to her unusual appearance, Rei is a social outcast in her class - in fact, an omake reveals she had no friends as far back as elementary school. She initially appears to not care about it until it's revealed that she has cripplingly low self-esteem and doesn't approach anyone because she thinks they'd never understand her.
- Improbable Aiming Skills - Sniping human-sized targets from across the street with an anti-material rifle held one-handed. As well as headshotting someone standing behind her with a machine pistol fired at full-auto from across the room without looking, using the target's reflection in someone else's eye to aim.
- Innocent Fanservice Girl - Same as in canon.
- No Sense of Personal Space - Towards Kaworu later on, drawing a lot of attention. It is implied that it might have something to do with her telepathy.
- Not So Stoic - When Kaworu shows her his tattoo, the same one she has, Rei completely loses her composure, going from stumbling around in shock, to yelling at him to crying into his chest.
- Similarly, Rei completely loses her cool against Sarafiel when the latter damages Unit-01 hard enough for Kaworu to feel it, tackling the Angel off of him in a screaming rage and savagely beating/stabbing it.
- Parental Abandonment - The primary reason for her being emotionally withdrawn is Yui's attention being focused elsewhere. The complete lack of a father figure doesn't help either.
- The Power of Rock - Her relaxation music of choice during sync tests.
- The Quiet One - With the exception of her brief conversations with Kaworu, she rarely speaks unless spoken to.
- Religious Bruiser - As noted by Yui at one point.
- Shrinking Violet - Beneath the Mask of indifference, Rei very much wants to be left alone.
- Small Girl, Big Gun - And an anti-tank rifle at that.
- Spock Speak - Appears to be by choice, as she fully understands slang and everyday euphemisms when others use them. When she has her breakdown in front of Kaworu, her Japanese even slips into an impolite speech register.
- The Stoic - Appears to be at first, with her even priding herself on it. Later revealed to be very much Not So Stoic, with extensive internal conflicts that irritate her precisely because they disrupt her emotional self-control.
- Street Samurai
- Sugar-and-Ice Personality - Goes from holding Kaworu at gunpoint to crying into his chest in the space of a single scene.
- Super-Reflexes - Intercepts Israfel mid-flight with two knives to the torso and at one point narrowly dodges Zeruel's Combat Tentacles at nearly point-blank range.
- Super-Speed - Appears to have some sort of it, judging by how she can cross a room in barely a second without making a single sound.
- Super-Strength - At the age of nine, she was already able to kick down a door with enough force to send it flying, even knocking down someone who happened to be behind the door. The exact limit of her strength is unknown.
- Unkempt Beauty - She doesn't care about her own appearance all that much, even though she's apparently attractive enough to have been asked out by several boys before.
- Walking Armory - A sword, a Barret M82A1
, two Micro Uzis, two custom-modified Matebas, an AG36 grenade launcher, a collapsible Fuuma Shuriken and a shitload of knives.
The newest member of Kaworu's class, Asuka instantly develops animosity towards Kaworu, seeing him as a Wide-Eyed Idealist who needs to have his eyes opened before he falls flat on his face. She never spent much time in any of her previous schools due to following her commissioned officer single father from posting to posting. Unknown to everyone in the class, Asuka is a highly proficient battleframe pilot and hand-to-hand fighter with ambitions of following her father's footsteps and enlisting as she comes of age; her expertise is what got her recruited by Yui. Asuka is also the youngest of the pilots.
Her backstory was revealed shortly after her introduction: two year-old Asuka and her mother was on a business trip in Europe when they found themselves in the middle of a terrorist attack. In the confusion, Kyoko was shot right in front of Asuka and bled to death while clutching her daughter. This scarred Asuka's mind to the point that even after she stopped having nightmares, she's now hell-bent on tracking down the ones responsible and getting revenge no matter what.
- Ace Pilot - A mixture of Steamroller and Plugger. Her exact role in the team is to execute repeated flanking attacks from range.
- Badass Normal - So far she's the only pilot who appears completely ordinary, yet kicks ass just as much as the others.
- Bayonet Ya - She knows how to use one.
- Child Soldier - Kinda. She started her combat training before she even began puberty but hasn't seen live combat until the story begins.
- Cluster F-Bomb - Normally watches her tongue, but has a tendency to swear like a sailor under the stress of ongoing combat.
- Counterattack - Her favorite tactic if forced into close combat: invoke The Law of Diminishing Defensive Effort to cause the enemy to tire themselves out and make a mistake she can exploit, then hit back hard.
- Covert Pervert - When Rei and Kaworu go into the latter's room, Asuka thinks they're about to have sex and tries to listen in. Unfortunately for her, Rei can sense her presence.
- Enraged by Idiocy - Frequently flies off at Kaworu for this. At one point, she even states that she's "allergic to stupidity".
- Good Bad Girl - She dated several guys before but never went all the way. On the other hand, she's bisexual and is a Covert Pervert.
- I'll Be in My Bunk - Asuka is confirmed to be consciously invoking this on girls with breasts larger than hers.
- Lethal Chef - Outright stated by her father.
- Military Brat - Her dad is ex-USMC and currently a soldier. Asuka herself intends to enlist as well, once she comes of age.
- Missing Mom - Killed in front of Asuka.
- Tomboyish Ponytail
- Tragic Keepsake - The ring she wears as a pendant is implied to be Kyoko's.
- Tsundere - More of a snarky and sarcastic kind than overly emotional. That being said, she does have her louder moments.
A mysterious blond-haired youth who shows up in a white Eva during Zeruel's surprise appearance in the Israfel battle and draws the Angel's attention to let the others retreat.
- Designer Babies - Implied.
- Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu? - Taunts Zeruel after scoring the first visible bit of damage on him in the entire battle. The Angel's reaction is respect while Asuka's is a Jaw Drop.
- Freudian Excuse - Revealed in chapter 41 to have issues in his family, with the only ones he has a positive opinion of being a younger sister and a cousin.
- Mysterious Protector
- Original Character
- Red Eyes, Take Warning
- Sir Swears-a-Lot - Has the most swear-heavy vocabulary in the cast.
- Pick on Someone Your Own Size - Declares this to Zeruel. The Angel is mildly amused.
- Super-Reflexes - To an extent that unsettles even Rei.
- The Berserker - Extremely aggressive during combat, both physically and verbally.
- Unknown Rival - Really dislikes Kaworu for some reason. To such extent that he considers doing a Double Tap on a downed Unit-01 but ultimately doesn't go through with it.
- Worthy Opponent - To Zeruel.
The current chairman of the Artificial Evolution Laboratory and mother of one child. Due to differences in Evangelion technology, she didn't have to undergo a contact experiment to get the Evas operational. However, she got into a major disagreement with Gendo ten years before the story begins and they divorced, with Gendo leaving the AEL and taking most of the robotics experts with him to found Gehirn. Despite this setback, Yui took control of the AEL with an iron hand and built it up into the highly successful biotech firm some people call "the modern Black Mesa".
As the chairman of a huge company, Yui never had the time to take care of Rei who, as a result, grew up as an independent and withdrawn girl. Instead, Yui poured all of her time and attention into creating the Evangelions and doing it so good that no one outside the AEL had any idea about their or the Geofront's existence.
- Arbitrary Skepticism - She works with Evas on a daily basis yet she has a hard time believing the Dead Sea Scrolls.
- Badass Bureaucrat
- Brainy Brunette
- Iron Lady - Doesn't even hesitate to backtalk high-ranking military officers if that's what she needs to have her way.
- Married to the Job - Pretty much. Not pulling an all-nighter is the exception for her.
- My Greatest Failure - Something happened in the past that makes Yui want to atone to Kaworu.
- Omnidisciplinary Scientist - Averted. She's explicitly stated to be a geneticist and defers to Sanada in medical matters.
- Reasonable Authority Figure - Despite having basically threatened Kaworu into working for her, that was the only time she actually acted antagonistically towards him.
- Self-Made Woman - She was one of the founders of the AEL and was only a member of the executive board ten years ago. Now she's the head of the company with connections in the government.
- Woman Scorned - She had Gendo fired from the AEL when they divorced.
- On the other hand, she's not above Working with the Ex to get results with the Evangelion project.
Being snatched from the G-Man by Vortigaunts shortly after the Uprising, Shephard joined the Confederate army to make sure something like Black Mesa never happens again. In a few years, he managed to climb to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel while carefully hiding his involvement with HECU. After Kyoko's death, he left Earth with the intention of not returning; the Sachiel incident however prompted the army to dispatch someone to snoop around and shed some light on what the AEL is up to. Due to Shephard being considered by his superiors as somewhat of a loose cannon, he was assigned to the task with Asuka accompanying him.
He's a pretty fun guy despite the fact that he's technically in his sixties due to the G-Man's stasis putting him out of commission for 20 years.
- Colonel Badass - Lieutenant colonel.
- Cool Old Guy
- Expy - Of Jack O'Neill.
- The McCoy - He heatedly gives a piece of his mind to Yui when the latter scolds him for publicly humiliating her and usurping command to save Kaworu.
- Military Maverick - He ignores the rules whenever it's advantageous, which has gotten him in trouble before.
- O.C. Stand-in - There is absolutely no canon information available about him so the author took some liberties.
- Older Than They Look - He's 65.
- Passing the Torch - He allows Asuka to pursue her militaristic ambitions because he can't be her guardian forever; he even gave her Marine-grade CQC training.
- Reassigned to Antarctica - Has been on the receiving end of this numerous times, leaving him bitter and mistrustful of his superiors.
- Semper Fi - He's ex-USMC.
- Team Dad - Explicitly says that while Kaworu isn't his child, that doesn't mean Shephard doesn't care about him.
An original character, Sanada is the AEL's chief medical doctor and an old colleague of Yui's. He also has something to do with Kaworu's past.
- My Greatest Failure - The same one as Yui's.
- Open Heart Dentistry - It's not stated what his exact field is, but we know it's not neurosurgery. He still performs a successful craniectomy on Kaworu.
- Original Character
- Super Doc - Performs emergency life-saving cranial surgery on Kaworu despite it explicitly not being related to his field. He dismisses it has having steady hands and access to extensive medical records and manuals.
- Think Nothing of It - His attitude about performing life-saving emergency surgery on Kaworu.
The AI of Unit-00. Over time, Lilith bonded with Rei as a big sister and is the only person Rei ever considered to be her friend.
- Sliding Scale of Robot Intelligence - Level 4.
- Yamato Nadeshiko - Lilith shows some traits: wise, mature, humble, loyal to Rei but obedient to Yui.
Adam is a more newer creation and barely interacted with humans before being put into cryofreeze. After his assignment to be Kaworu's partner, he rapidly starts forming his own personality which is quite similar to Lilith's.
- Evangelion Popsicle - At the beginning of the story, getting thawed out for Kaworu's use.
- Machine Monotone - At first.
- Robo Speak - Ditto.
- Sliding Scale of Robot Intelligence - Over the course of the story, upgrades himself from level 3 to level 4 by reading human literature.
Sekhmet is Unit-02's AI. Unlike her fellow Evangelions, Sekhmet is completely, totally insane and not in a good way: she herself says that since she's a weapon made to kill and destroy, she might as well have fun while fulfilling her purpose. It certainly doesn't help that she's praising Khorne while working.
