Summary
Neon Genesis Evangelionhas been both criticized and praised for its portrayal of female characters. While there are certainly aspects that could have been improved on,Hideaki Anno’s take on women feels much more nuanced than is often seen in anime.
WhileMisato Katsuragiis usually the focus of the topic on great women inEvangelion, there’s a character that doesn’t get enough recognition.Yui Ikarihas barely any screen time compared to all the major characters in the series. However, she may be the single most important character in the story. Yui Ikari is the mother ofShinji Ikari, wife ofGendo Ikari, creator of theEvangelion Units, and the soul ofEva Unit 01. Yui Ikari is one of the best examples of a female character done right, all while barely having any lines or screen time.
Yui Ikari, The Scientist
A Genius Like No Other
Yui Ikari was a college student at Kyoto University. She specialized in bioengineering. There, she metKouzo Fuyutsuki, a professor. The two became close friends. After some time, she meets aproblematic yet brilliant man named Gendou Rokubungi. These two would quickly become major players in her life, and the fate of humanity alongside her. Fuyutsuki would become a close colleague atGEHIRN, and Gendo would be Yui’s husband and right-hand man.
Alongside Gendo and Dr.Naoko Akagi. The three would lead GEHIRN and work on theAdam Revival Project, also called"Project E". In this endeavor, Yui invented theArtificial Human Decisive Weapon, the Evangelion. A gigantic biomechanical being that would become the basis for the Evangelion Units. GEHIRN later becameNERV, and Yui and the others began working on the fully realized Eva Units. Yui was always the head of the project and the main mind behind the Evangelion.
Yui knew the Eva like no one else, even her husband, Gendou. She knew them inside and out. Her specialty was bioengineering, and the Eva were clones of the original two Angels;Adam and Lilith. Before the Angel attacks began,Yui had already given humanity their salvation. It was rumored that Yui was the daughter of one of the members ofSEELE. They were the shadowy organization pulling the strings behind NERV. This could explain why Yui knew of their true plans and the future that awaited the world.
Yui was a firm believer in humanity. She was kind, optimistic, and motherly. She believed in humanity’s potential for greatness and that they deserved to be protected and remembered. With this belief, she carried her own plans, plans to save humanity from SEELE and the Angels, something she would do with the help of her son, Shinji.
In a contact experiment, she brought a four-year-old Shinji to NERV. And that day, she disappeared. Unbeknownst to most,she had willingly been absorbed by Eva Unit 01. And had become the soul of the Eva. Yui Ikari, as a human, had died.But she would live on as Eva-01, the most powerful being on Earth. She knew that in ten years, the Angels would begin their attack and SEELE would start their plan to enact theHuman Instrumentality Project. And she knew Shinji would be her pilot.
Yui Ikari, The Mother
Love Beyond Space and Time
Shinji doesn’t remember his mother, he was too young when she passed. But Yui loved him more than anything else. And she made sure to always protect him, even beyond the grave. As Eva-01’s soul, she repeatedly took control of the Eva and protected Shinji. While every Eva unit had a human soul within them,only Yui could control the Eva at will. This is because she not only created it, but she was the only soul to be assimilated through their own will. She became the Eva.
At times, Yui would commute with Shinji through the Eva. She would comfort him with her presence. She never abandoned him. During the Third Impact in the original series and the finale of Evangelion Thrice Upon A Time, she plays a major part in Shinji’s resolution. And the latter, she releases Shinji from Eva-01, sacrificing herself with Gendo and the Eva to fulfill his wish and reset the universe.
Yui’s motivation for her decade-long plans comes from both her belief in humanity and her endless love for her son. She gave away her life and human form to save humanity and Shinji.Yui’s character is that of selflessness and unbound heroism. Also, that of genius and bravery. She invented the Evangelion, she became the strongest one, and she guided her sontowards humanity’s salvation, all while sacrificing herself. Yui Ikari is responsible for most of the events of the series, loosely influencing events from years in the future.
In a medium where women are often objects of sexualization and shallow characterization, Yui Ikari stands out as someone who was not only by far the most important member of her field but also excelled at more commonly seen portrayals of women, motherhood. Yui was a mother like no other, protecting Shinji not through kind words but the most otherworldly actions.Her love for her son transcended the limits of death and humanity. She gave her all and more for the sake of Shinji and the world at large.
