History Characters / NeonGenesisEvangelionAsukaLangleySoryu

* MauveShirt: Ironically, Asuka, who believes that she is ''the'' hero of the story, is actually much closer to this trope when it comes to her in-universe importance for the plans of the various masterminds. In both Gendo and SEELE's plans, her role is for all intents and purposes ''nominal'' at best, as she and Unit-02 are essentially CannonFodder meant to even the odds against the Angels (and more covertly, a way for Gendo to even his odds against SEELE), and in Yui's plan it appears that she is effectively a non-factor, easily making her the most expendable pilot in-universe. Of note, neither Gendo, SEELE, or Yui ever mentions her by name, and the first only ever (barely) acknowledges her existence in the capacity of her post as Unit-02's pilot. This is in contrast to Shinji and Rei who have both been chosen from the beginning to play central parts in the end-game and all parties therefore have some degrees of vested interests in keeping alive.

* EmptyShell: [[spoiler:After willing herself back to life from Instrumentality in ''End'', she's left in a broken, catatonic state due to the injuties she's sustained fom her fight with the Mass Production [=EVAs=].]]

* {{Foil}}: She serves as one to Shinji. Asuka is an outgoing, attention-seeking pilot with a higher-tech Eva and Shinji is an introverted, reluctant pilot of a lower-tech Eva, but they are both ChildSoldiers used to fight Angels and have complicated relationships with their guardians. While their initial childhood traumas are near identical (watching their mothers die and having their fathers outright abandon them), they are raised afterwards in the polar opposite manner, thus resulting in the two of them responding in polar opposite ways. Shinji is "raised" by people who do their best to pretend he didn't exist, while Asuka is forced into Eva-piloting at age 4. Shinji is raised in Japan where "the nail that sticks up gets hammered down", meaning that anybody who stands out gets brutalized until they stop standing out, so that Shinji keeps his head down in response to everything, does as he's told, and becomes an ExtremeDoormat until he's pushed far enough to become a conduit for an UnstoppableRage. Asuka is raised in that continuity of [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Germany]] where your self-worth is tied directly to how well you can excel in combat, or so she's raised to believe; she becomes a TykeBomb for Nerv Berlin, while her father's mistress - her step-mother - sees fit to have sex with him, loudly, in the room right next to her mother's hospital bed, while she's there.
** She is also a subtle foil to Rei as the two of them are tyke bombs for NERV since age 4, but while Rei becomes a DeathSeeker waiting for the day where she can finally die and embrace sweet, sweet oblivion to free her from her pain, Asuka seeks to live forever, having her fame and glory burn her name across the heavens for all time. '''BOTH''' of them get their wishes horribly denied.

* FreudianExcuse: Pretty much all of the unpleasant aspects in her personality can be traced to childhood traumas, from her mother being driven insane enough to be convinced that a lifeless doll is really "Asuka" and that the real Asuka is a complete stranger, to said mother committing "murder"-suicide with said doll and Asuka discovering the corpse on the day she was hoping to bring the happy news that she was selected as a candidate for piloting Eva-02. Then there is her father's handling of the incident; that is, completely abandoning his wife to her insanity and starting a very public affair with her doctor, only served to re-enforce the twisted lesson Asuka learned from all of this namely: "If I am not good enough, I will be discarded and replaced."

* GirlyGirlWithATomboyStreak: She's a vain AlphaBitch who in her off time, obsesses over boys (well, one older man to be precise; all other boys and men are just inadequate losers in her eyes), watches trashy romantic dramas, and her fashion sense (other than the mandatory plugsuit and school uniform) is rather cute and feminine, most notably with her iconic yellow sundress. But she's also a ferocious HotBlooded ActionGirl who revels in her job as an AcePilot fighting alien {{Eldritch Abomination}}s and has a rather aggressive fighting style, especially in ''End''.

* GorgeousGaijin: She has German, Japanese ''and'' American heritage, and has rather large breasts for someone her age. Her foreigness is a source of sex appeal, as she is aggressive and straightforward sexually and otherwise due to being non-Japanese. This is part of her appeal as a romantic archetype and to Shinji, though his feelings towards her are complicated.

* HardWorkHardlyWorks: Asuka is sent over the edge when Shinji's sync ratio exceeded hers even when she trained as a pilot for years. Then we found out why: it's revealed that Asuka figuratively "walling off" her heart from everyone (to avoid being hurt again) also caused her to shut out Unit-02 in all her attempts to synchronize with its resident soul, which just so happens to be that of her dead mother. While her managing to even get the highest sync ratio for any period of time is impressive, and has more practical skills compared to Shinji, the fact remains that Asuke was essentially piloting an Eva all wrong and her choice to wall off her heart made thing worse.

* HerOwnWorstEnemy: Asuka's InferioritySuperiorityComplex is the main thing that works against her. Her insecurities, temper, pride and choice to wall off her heart ends up directly leads to her sync ratio dropping, suffering a mental breakdown at the hands of Arael, losing almost everyone close to her along with the will to live.

** Episode 22 starts with Asuka going into a mental breakdown that sends her sync ratio plummeting, then she gets {{Mind Rape}}d. After that, she spends most of her time full of anger and grief, thinking that nobody loved her or would care for her now that she had been humiliated, and after losing her connection to Eva (which meant that she was now worthless to Nerv and would be replaced and discarded), she runs away and tries to commit suicide; she is found in time to save her life, but she falls into a coma.
** Also, she pulls one the moment before her EVA receives a replica Spear of Longinus through the head in ''End of Evangelion''.
* HeyYou: Not once does Rei refer to her by name, only by "Pilot of Unit-02" (talking about her) or "You" (talking to her).

* HumiliationConga: Her whole character arc is about someone who's convinced that they're the best-skilled pilot, only to suffer a string of humiliating defeats, one worse than the last, and they progressively demolish their ego. The conga culminates in her getting [[MindRape mind raped]] at by Arael.

** She blames Shinji for their botched first kiss, claiming that he is rejecting her. While he did freeze up, her signals were convoluted and mixed; she didn't help things by pinching his nose shut so his breath wouldn't tickle her, which just suffocated him.

* HypocriteHasAPoint: She isn't wrong when she confronts Shinji in ''The End of Evangelion'' -- he ''is'' interested in her as a vehicle for his own validation, and is only using her as a last resort because he is too scared of everyone else, even if her own hero complex and need for the affection of other people makes her a similar person to him and her abrasiveness is at least partially responsible for keeping him at a distance from her.

* IconicSequelCharacter: Asuka debuts in Episode 8, long after most of the other main cast, but she's one of the most iconic characters in the show.

* IJustWantToBeSpecial: Due to Asuka's deep-seated insecurities, merely being "good enough" is simply not an option to her. She ''has'' to be outstanding and the best in her field. As a result, her self-worth comes from her Eva piloting skills, which she trained in for years. But when Shinji or Rei outclass her, combined with a series of humiiating defeats, it sends her into a mental downward spiral and causes her self-image to suffer.

* KarmaHoudiniWarranty: She often avoids a slap on the wrist for her treatment of Shinji, but in ''The End'', she receives a harsh strangling by Shinji himself when the latter reaches his RageBreakingPoint.

* KiddieKid: She's 14 years old, but at the end of it all, she's more like a spoiled child younger than her, perhaps as a result of being severely emotionally upset by what happened earlier.
* KillTheCutie: How the fight against the MP Evas ends.

* LaserGuidedKarma: In ''End'', her belittling, insulting, and mistreating Shinji at every opportunity culminates [[spoiler:in him snapping and strangling the shit out of her in the dream world]].

As the series goes on, she becomes more sympathetic when [[FreudianExcuse her own painful past is revealed]]. Her personality and attitude are revealed to be [[InferioritySuperiorityComplex psychological defense mechanisms for a massive inferiority complex]], leading her to abuse others partly out of a fear of intimacy and partly out of sheer anger at the world.

* AllMenArePerverts: A firm believer of this, especially when it comes to boys, though she treats Kaji well, Asuka's views boys of is quite uncharitable to say the least. "Idiot" and "pervert" is her go-to insult for Shinji and any other boys. Of course, her locker being stuffed with love letters she got from the schoolboys early in the series doesn't paint a good picture.

* AlphaBitch: In the anime, she quickly gets popular with her classmates because of her seemingly confident and sociable personality. She likes to pretend being nice around her classmates, but she mostly reserves her wrath for the boys, mostly Shinji, Kensuke, Toji and her school love letters' authors.
* AlwaysSecondBest: It is implied that Asuka has a bit of an issue with having been designated the "Second Child", and a part of her chip on her shoulder against Rei stems from her being the "First". In a more obvious sense, there is the fact that she starts out as the leading pilot in sync score (something which she is quick to remind everyone of at the slightest provocation), but she is eventually surpassed by Shinji, something which deals so severe a blow to her already very fragile self-confidence that her sync score remains on a downward trajectory for the rest of the series.

** She suffers several humiliating defeats at the hands of the last few Angels: [[TheJuggernaut Zeruel]] basically slaughtered her the same way he did with almost everything else, Arael [[MindRape raped her mind]] and she couldn't do anything; and against Armisael, she wasn't even able to '''move''' her Eva (let alone fight). Each time, it's either Shinji (vs. Zeruel) or Rei (vs. Arael and Armisael) that gets the kill. To rub salt in the wound, she has to be rescued from Arael by '''Rei''' of all people, whom she utterly despises for being essentially the antithesis of everything that Asuka had worked hard to be.
** Gendo refused to allow Shinji to take to the field and pull Asuka out of Arael's MindRape range (due to it risking Unit-01 getting caught as well), only for him to send the boy out to save Rei when Armisael began to [[BodyHorror physically invade]] Unit-00 (even though it risked Unit-01 getting infected as well). This basically gives Asuka the impression that her life and well-being are worth less than those of a mechanical and doll-like person like Rei, despite the fact that Asuka is the better-skilled and generally better-performing pilot between the two.
** And finally, in ''End of Evangelion'', Asuka makes her [[HesBack long-overdue comeback]] by going up against the eight Mass-Produced Evas and doing quite well... only to get slaughtered and EatenAlive anyway when the true power of their signature weapons is unveiled, the supposedly disabled ones rise up in spite of being in varying states of heavy damage, and all eight gang up on her. In the very end, it's Shinji (in whom the decision is left) and Rei (who more or less holds the key to the required power to do so) who are instrumental in averting [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt Instrumentality]].
* AmbiguousSituation: During Instrumentality, there is a vision where Asuka climbs on top of Shinji. It's not clear if she made an advance on Shinji, the vision is an illusion, or if the memory came from someone else's head.
* AndIMustScream: ''-ANIMA-'' has her get fused with Unit 02, resulting in Crimson A1, and her consciousness is trapped in it while Crimson does whatever she wants.

* AntiVillain: Similar to how she is an Anti-Hero.
* ArentYouGoingToRavishMe: Deconstructed; Asuka's general attention-seeking behavior extends to trying to obtain sexual desire from at least some men. She feels that she would be validated as a desirable adult by Kaji expressing physical interest in her, and is upset by his persistent refusal to even consider it. She's also consistently disappointed that Shinji never even ''tries'' to do any of the things that she tells him not to attempt. But she's also shown to be extremely young and inexperienced, with only a vague idea of what any of this would actually entail, and when Shinji actually does [[DudeShesLikeInAComa take advantage of her]], she reacts with horror and disgust.

* BathSuicide: She's implied to have attempted this post MindRape. The scene is somewhat ambiguous as to whether this is what actually happened, but the fact that the character is found in a destroyed house, naked in a bathtub with water that appears stained red, with her clothes neatly folded beside the tub (including, of course, [[BarefootSuicide her shoes]]), and is too weak to resist being taken into custody by agents certainly suggests it.

* BeneathTheMask: Her arrogance and bravado is her mask. Beneath it is an extremely lonely person with abandonment issues who is cripplingly afraid of being replaced and discarded if she isn't "good" enough.
* BettyAndVeronica: Rei and Asuka have this dynamic going between them, though it goes two ways. In Japan, [[ShyBlueHairedGirl Rei]] is seen as the Betty because of her [[NiceGirl gentle disposition]], [[ShrinkingViolet reserved nature]], and tendency to get horribly injured, whereas the FieryRedhead [[GorgeousGaijin foreigner]] Asuka is the cultural Veronica because her forceful and aggressive personality is just so strange to the [[JapanesePoliteness generally reserved]] Japanese public. However, in the more demonstrative West, the more outgoing, [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman more human]], more {{badass|Adorable}}, and more [[CannotSpitItOut overtly in love]] Asuka is the familiar Betty, and the [[CreepyChild bizarre]], [[EmotionlessGirl cold]], and strangely unsettling Rei is the exotic Veronica.
* BigEgoHiddenDepths: She has a [[HairTriggerTemper volatile temper]] and projects a massive superiority complex in order to compensate for the ParentalNeglect she suffered at the hands of her mother, who spent her last days [[TheOphelia driven to such insanity that she did not recognize Asuka]], and instead became convinced that one of Asuka's dolls was her daughter. A whole new level of trauma is heaped on her when she found her mother had hanged both herself and the "Asuka" doll on the very day that she became an Eva pilot.
* BitchInSheepsClothing: Asuka puts up a "perfect good girl" act in front of the adults, but when they aren't around, she's a complete pain in the ass to kids of her same age. Asuka soon drops it when Misato encourages her to relax now that she isn't living with her foster family. This is a huge mistake, as it only results in Asuka going full-blown Jerk and Bitch towards others.

* BreakoutCharacter: While not as central to the story as Shinji, Rei or even Misato, Asuka is easily the most popular and iconic character in the series, even topping the aforementioned three, and is often cited as the archetypical FieryRedhead {{Tsundere}} in anime. It's up to the point, where she and Rei are the most-marketed human characters in the ''Evangelion'' franchise, and possibly for Gainax as a whole. She's even usurped Rei as the most popular Evangelion character in recent years, coming in first place in a huge NHK poll published in 2020 while Rei came in third (After Kaworu).

* BrokenBird: She copes with her major childhood trauma and repressed emotional baggage by putting on an act of bravado so others don't realize how emotionally broken she really is.

* ButNotTooForeign: She is occasionally drawn in promotional materials as a blonde instead of a redhead. The North American and Mexican dubs pad this out with dialogue that occasionally includes [[ForeignCussWord German expletives and exclamations]]. A handy conceit of the show is that Asuka is "part-Japanese", explaining her given name and family name being Japanese, but she's really only quarter Japanese because her mother was half Japanese and half German. Asuka was born and raised in Germany, speaks German as her native language, so she considers herself German and everyone else does too, though her nationality is actually American, like her father. Her actual ethnic makeup is 25% Japanese, 25% German, 50% "American"[[note]]The only thing we know for sure about her father that could pertain to his ethnic ancestry is that 1) he's from the USA, and 2) he has white skin; while that makes "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Americans White American]]" as the most likely ethnicity for him, he could very well be of some other American ethnic group (or even [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiracial_Americans Multiracial American]]!) who simply happens to '''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passing_(racial_identity) pass]]''' for a White American.[[/note]]. Her mother's name was Kyoko Zeppelin Soryu, while Langley is her father's last name.

* CorruptedCharacterCopy: If Shinji Ikari is the Amuro Ray, then Asuka Langley Souryuu would be the [[Anime/MobileSuitGundam Char Aznable]] (and she clearly takes cues from him), but whereas Char remained a consistent and tangible threat to the heroes even in spite of his the power gap with Amuro, Asuka is ultimately shown to be a jobber when compared to Shinji and even Rei. She's also shown to be a deeply fucked-up and emotionally-vulnerable girl beneath all her bravado and caustic attitude. Asuka acts as a cruel deconstruction of a Char-like character, having the AcePilot status but showing her [[TheRival rival]] dynamic to be toxic and debilitating for her, and also showing her to ultimately come up short.

* AdaptationalNiceGirl: A subtle case, but her interactions with Shinji and her treatment of him in the manga are a lot less mean-spirited than the anime. This is also partly because Shinji is more willing to talk back to her there, making it look less like one-sided bullying from Asuka's part and more like [[VitriolicBestBuds equal bickering]].

* CharClone: She wears red, pilots a red EVA unit, is TheRival to Shinji Ikari, and serves as the show's resident AcePilot.

* CorruptedCharacterCopy: If Shinji Ikari is the Amuro Ray, then Asuka Langley Souryuu would be the [[Anime/MobileSuitGundam Char Aznable]] (and [[CharClone she clearly takes cues from him]]), but whereas Char remained a consistent and tangible threat to the heroes even in spite of his the power gap with Amuro, Asuka is ultimately shown to be a jobber when compared to Shinji and even Rei. She's also shown to be a deeply fucked-up and emotionally-vulnerable girl beneath all her bravado and caustic attitude. Asuka acts as a cruel deconstruction of the CharClone, having the AcePilot status but showing her [[TheRival rival]] dynamic to be toxic and debilitating for her, and also showing her to ultimately come up short.

[[Characters/NeonGenesisEvangelionTheChildren The Children]] ([[Characters/NeonGenesisEvangelionShinjiIkari Shinji Ikari]], '''Asuka Langley Soryu''', [[Characters/NeonGenesisEvangelionKaworuNagisa Kaworu Nagisa]]) | [[Characters/NeonGenesisEvangelionNERVStaff NERV Staff]] ([[Characters/NeonGenesisEvangelionGendoIkari Gendō Ikari]]) | [[Characters/NeonGenesisEvangelionGEHIRNStaff GEHIRN Staff]] | [[Characters/NeonGenesisEvangelionOtherCharacters Other Characters]] | [[Characters/NeonGenesisEvangelionExtracanonicalCharacters Extracanonical Characters]]]]-]]]

* TeensAreMonsters: She is 14 years old and is quite nasty and violent for the most part.
* TokenEvilTeammate: While the Eva pilots all have their faults, Asuka is the most aggressive and has a rather callous disposition towards those around her.

* {{Narcissist}}: Played straight in the original anime where she is consistently portrayed as [[{{Pride}} vain]], [[ItsAllAboutMe self-absorbed]], and [[LoveHungry obsessed with being the center of everyone's attention and admiration]]. Her immense pride in her beauty and piloting skills are all-encompassing to the point that she treats everyone around her with undisguised contempt and feels entitled to adulation and praise from everyone she meets. Despite demanding unconditional devotion and praise from others, Asuka conversely feels no obligation to treat others with respect unless doing so will keep them under her thrall or otherwise advance her interests in some way. Towards the end of the series, it is revealed that her megalomania is a coping mechanism for her deep-rooted fear that no one will ever love her despite all she has achieved.

** The final straw that broke what little remained of Asuka's sanity is when she's finally told of Kaji's death by Shinji. As Evangelion Chronicle establishes, during Arael's attack she is crushed when the angel makes her face the fact that Shinji shares the same space in her heart as Kaji. That makes it even harder to listen from Shinji's lips about Kaji's fate.

** {{Deconstructed|Trope}} and later {{Subverted|Trope}} in the anime. She mostly pretends to be gentle around most people, but her anger, haughtiness, and combative attitude come out full force around Shinji. She does have some feelings for him, but neither of them are open people and are ''very'' bad at communicating their true feelings. Due to her refusal to form a real emotional bond with Shinji, as well her continuing to blame him and others for her own bad behavior and inability to control her own actions, her harsh treatment of Shinji only get ''worse'' the more time they spend together.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: In the manga, while Asuka is just as much of an angry and temperamental {{Tsundere}}, there are occasionaly moments that show her trying to be compassionate to Shinji, following her initial appearance in volume 4. Unfortunately, he's just too [[ShrinkingViolet secluded]] to open up to her, leading to many angry confrontations between the two over his cowardice and her arrogance. Her attempts to befriend Rei are also more genuine, but Asuka's abrasive nature and Rei's stoicism rub each other exactly the wrong way.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: In the manga, while Asuka just as much of an angry and temperamental {{Tsundere}}, there are occasionaly moments that show her trying to be compassionate to Shinji, following her initial appearance in volume 4. Unfortunately, he's just too [[ShrinkingViolet secluded]] to open up to her, leading to many angry confrontations between the two over his cowardice and her arrogance. Her attempts to befriend Rei are also more genuine, but Asuka's abrasive nature and Rei's stoicism rub each other exactly the wrong way.

** {{Deconstructed|Trope}} and later {{Subverted|Trope}} in the Anime. She mostly pretends to be gentle around most people, but her anger, haughtiness, and combative attitude come out full force around Shinji. She does have some feelings for him, but neither of them are open people and are ''very'' bad at communicating their true feelings. Due to her refusal to form a real emotional bond with Shinji, as well her continuing to blame him and others for her own bad behavior and inability to control her own actions, her harsh treatment of Shinji only get ''worse'' the more time they spend together.
** It's more played straight in the Manga, where Asuka is shown to be capable of being genuinely nice to Shinji, albeit very brief and in rare moments.

** She always criticizes Shinji for being useless, but her own stubbornness, pride, and need to be the best so she can feel validated cause her to increasingly mess up missions as the series progresses.