Cruel Angels
The first Angel is Adam. It appears as a “giant of light” with four wings (shown separately). Adam was planted, along with the White Moon, by an unknown “First Ancestral Race” as the intended progenitor of life on Earth. All of the other Angels are descended from this Angel, although it is not known whether this is in a biological sense or a metaphysical sense. Adam’s descendants possess the “Fruit of Life”, the source of the Angels’ power and immortality (also known as the S2 Engine). The Evas, with the exception of Unit-01, are artificially derived from Adam. The properties of the first Angel are unknown, although given that it was cause of Second Impact, it can be surmised to be one of the most potent Angels.
Adam was discovered in the White Moon, buried under Antarctica. During the Katsuragi expedition, SEELE set off Second Impact during a “contact experiment” with the Angel using the Lance of Longinus. On the same day as Second Impact, the Angel’s soul was resurrected into Kaworu Nagisa (aka Tabris), similar to Lilith’s soul being placed in Rei Ayanami. Adam’s body, which had reverted to an embryonic form, was retrieved separately at some point, and used as the basis for the Evangelions.
Later, Ryoji Kaji delivered the embryonic Adam, encased in dura-bakelite, to Commander Gendo Ikari. Commander Ikari planted the Angel in his right hand, underneath his glove. In the series, it was never revealed as to what purpose this served. In End of Evangelion, Rei absorbed Gendo’s right hand, containing Adam, then fused with Lilith. The Lilith/Adam being initiated Third Impact, then died once Shinji rejected Instrumentality.
Adam is named for the first human created by God in the Book of Genesis of the Hebrew Bible.
Notes:
In the manga, Gendo Ikari eats the embryonic Adam rather than planting it in his right hand.
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The second Angel is Lilith. Lilith initially appears as a white, legless giant, with a face/mask displaying the Seven Eyes of God. Numerous human-like legs protrude from its legless stumps. The Angel is kept crucified on a giant cross in Terminal Dogma. Lilith, together with the Black Moon, was created to be a “Seed of Life” by an unknown “First Ancestral Race”. Lilith’s descendent’s possess the “Fruit of Wisdom”, the source of human science and technology. The properties of the second Angel are never specified, but it is capable of generating an anti-AT-Field potent enough to render all life on Earth back into the “primordial soup” state.
Lilith leaks LCL from a wound that apparently never heals, forming a lake of LCL around it that is used as the source of LCL for the Evas.
In First Impact, Lilith usurped Adam as the progenator of life on Earth. All life on Earth is supposedly descended from this Angel, although it is never specified if this is in a biological sense or a metaphysical sense. Eva Unit-01 is also artificially derived from Lilith.
Lilith was discovered in the Black Moon, underneath Japan. The site of its body became Terminal Dogma when NERV Headquarters was built, while the Black Moon became GeoFront. (It is never stated whether Lilith was already crucified when it was found, or whether it was later crucified—perhaps as a method to contain it.) At some point, Lilith’s soul was placed into Rei. Later, once it was retrieved, the Lance of Longinus was inserted into the Angel. When Kaji revealed the Angel to Misato, both assumed it was Adam. Tabris later properly identified it as Lilith.
In the series, Lilith’s exact role in the war between humans and Angels is never explicitly stated.
Rei and Lilith merge.In End of Evangelion, Gendo Ikari initiated Instrumentality when he attempted to merge with Rei, using the Angel Adam planted in his hand. Rei rejected him and forcibly took Adam from him, absorbing Adam into herself and then merging with Lilith. The resulting fusion appeared as a giant, winged version of Rei (although it did assume the form of Kaworu for Shinji Ikari, implying that Tabris/Kaworu was also a part of the fusion). The being generated a powerful anti-AT-Field, eliminating individual existence and reverting all life back into the primordial soup. The being died when Shinji rejected Instrumentality.
Lilith is named for the first woman God created in Jewish myth, who left Eden after she refused to be subservient to Adam.
Notes:
In the North American dub of End of Evangelion, a line by Misato is mistranslated as saying that Lilith was born from Adam. The correct translation reads that mankind was born from Lilith in the same way the Angels were born from Adam.
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Sachiel, the third Angel, is the first Angel to attack Tokyo-3. It has the appearance of a massive, vaguely humanoid creature with large bony structures on its shoulders and torso and a distinctive beaked face/mask (a second mask, behind and slightly to the side of the first one, is revealed after an N² mine is dropped on the Angel). It has a powerful long-range energy blast, which distinctly forms a Christian cross on impact, and two energy nails in its arms, which may be extended to short to medium range at will through holes in its hands (when retracted, the nails stick out from the Angel’s elbows). This armament, in addition to its relatively powerful AT-Field, makes Sachiel one of the more well-rounded Angels in combat.
Its core is located prominently on its chest.
After easily defeating the UN military forces sent to attack it, Sachiel was briefly stopped by an N² mine, which it quickly regenerated from. It then fought Unit 01, in Shinji’s first battle against an Angel. Initially, Sachiel defeated Unit 01. However, the Eva went “berserk,” re-engaged Sachiel, and inflicted massive damage to the Angel’s core. The Angel then attached itself to Unit 01 and self-destructed in a final, unsuccessful, attempt to kill its assailant.
Sachiel demonstrates impressive regenerative abilities, quickly recovering from an N² mine. The Angel also seems to have a limited ability to alter its own body structure, as demonstrated when it bulges its arm muscles to stop a missile, when it snaps Unit 01’s arm, and when it partly envelops Unit 01 and self-destructs.
Sachiel literally means Covering of God or Price of God. It is named for the angel of water.
Trivia
Sachiel’s bird-like face/mask is frequently used as a symbol in Evangelion-related imagery and has even been placed on T-shirts. It can also be seen at the beginning of the series’ intro as the “face” of a drawing of a winged figure.
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The fourth Angel, Shamshel, is a massive, vaguely arthropodic creature, with a long cylindrical body, a roughly shovel-shaped head with two eyespot-like markings, and eight retractable segmented limbs. It also has two short “arms” that project energy whips, which are able to easily slice through objects and may also be used to manipulate objects. Shamshel remains horizontal during flight; during combat it raises itself upright by 90 degrees, with the “head” remaining parallel to the ground. Its core is located under its “throat.”
Shamshel was engaged by Shinji in Unit 01. During the battle, Unit 01’s umbilical cable was severed by Shamshel’s energy whips, and Shinji had to fight the Angel on battery power. Ignoring orders to retreat, Shinji inflicted a fatal wound to the Angel’s core using Unit 01’s progressive knife, killing it seconds before Unit 01’s power ran out.
The minimal damage to Shamshel allowed NERV to obtain a near-complete Angel specimen, although no report was ever submitted or published. NERV was able to recover the Angel’s S² engine, which the Third Branch would later attempt to install in Eva Unit-04.
Shamshel literally means Lonely Conqueror of God. It is named for the Angel of the morning, charged with guarding the entrance to the Garden of Eden.
Trivia
Shamshel’s character designer, Yoshitoh Asari, depicts the Angel as female in a short non-canonical panel comic called “Angel Kiss”, in the back of the official manga.
Shamshel’s name is misspelled on the screen during SEELE’s recollection of the Angel attacks up to Armisael, when it is written as “Shamsel”.
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The fifth Angel, Ramiel, is a translucent (and apparently hollow) octahedron. Ramiel is a formidable Angel, capable of defending itself with a positron beam that automatically targets any object within a certain radius. It also bears an AT Field so powerful that it visibly warps light passing through it. It attempts to drill through the armor above the GeoFront, in the first credible attempt to reach Terminal Dogma.
Ramiel was defeated by Rei and Shinji (while it was boring into the Geofront’s armor). It was the two pilots’ first operation together. Shinji used a positron cannon appropriated from the JSSDF and powered with the entire Japanese power grid, and Rei protected Shinji using a special shield constructed from the heat shield of an SSTO spacecraft. Ramiel reacted and fired at the same time as Shinji. The path of each shot met the other, warping the beams and causing both to miss. Ramiel fired a second shot before the positron cannon could recharge; Rei blocked the beam, but Ramiel did not let up, melting through the shield. After the cannon finally recharges, Shinji fired a second time, killing Ramiel. (Heavy repairs are made to Unit 00 after this encounter; its armor color is changed from orange to blue and shoulder pylons are added to the Eva’s armor.)
Its core (if it has one) is not shown, but it appears to be inside the Angel somewhere, since the positron beam killed it by passing through its center.
Like Shamshel, Ramiel’s body remained after death and was shown over the next several episodes being gradually deconstructed.
Ramiel literally means Thunder of God. It is named for the angel of thunder and divine visions, who guides the souls of the faithful to Heaven.
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The sixth Angel, Gaghiel, has the appearance of a prehistoric fish-like creature. Gaghiel appears to possess no armament beyond its incredible strength and razor sharp teeth; its AT-Field never physically manifests. It also has a small “face” similar to Sachiel’s on its forehead, and its core is located in its mouth.
Gaghiel attacked the UN Pacific fleet as it was delivering Unit 02 and (secretly) the preserved embryonic Adam to Japan (the latter carried personally by Ryoji Kaji). Gaghiel was searching for the Adam embryo, but because the presence of the embryo was secret (apparently even from SEELE), NERV officially reported that Gaghiel was drawn by Unit 02. It managed to damage or destroy almost one third of the UN’s combined fleet.
Gaghiel fought with Unit 02, piloted jointly by Asuka and Shinji in their first battle together. Asuka brashly challenges Gaghiel in Unit 02 wearing only B-type equipment (unsuited for marine combat). Gaghiel knocks Unit 02 into the ocean, where Asuka and Shinji find themselves immobilized by the water. The Angel bites down on them, trapping them in its jaws. Misato hatches a plan, and Unit 02 forces the Angel’s mouth open, allowing a pair of scuttled Iowa-class battleships (the Illinois and Kentucky) to lodge in its mouth and fire (via remote) at the Angel’s core, then self-destruct inside the Angel.
Illinois and Kentucky were the only two ships of the Iowa class not completed (cancelled in 1945 and 1947, respectively), yet when shown in the series they appear as they would have had they been modernized in the 1980s under the 600-ship Navy program.
In Yoshiyuki Sadamoto’s manga adaptation of Evangelion, Gaghiel’s appearance is limited to a video shown to Misato, Rei, and Shinji by Ritsuko, showing Unit 02 engaging the Angel and inflicting massive damage with its prog knife. Ritsuko states that Gaghiel was killed by a point-blank assault from ships accompanying Unit 02, a similar tactic to that used in the anime.
Gaghiel literally means Roaring Beast of God. It is named after the angel of the fish.
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The seventh Angel, Israfel, has the appearance of a massive, vaguely humanoid creature, similar to Sachiel. Israfel has a face/mask, reminiscent of Sachiel’s, which resembles a yin-yang symbol. Israfel has a pair of razor sharp claws and a weak energy beam. Its AT-Field appears to be relatively weak, and it was heavily damaged by an N² Mine. It has two cores located in its chest.
Israfel’s most notable weapon is its ability to split itself into separate, twin Angels. The two halves are otherwise identical in appearance and properties to the original (except in color scheme). Both have faces/masks with three eye holes and possess their own cores. They (apparently) use synchronized tactics to fight enemies. Both cores must be destroyed at the same time, or they will heal each other.
After emerging from the ocean, Israfel was engaged by Asuka and Shinji. Defying orders to attack in synch with Shinji, Asuka assaulted the Angel alone, cleaving it in two. Shocking everyone, Israfel (apparently not being seriously damaged) split into its twins, and decisively defeated Asuka and Shinji. Much to NERV’s embarrassment, the UN Secondary Command was allowed to take over the battle, who ordered a N² bomb dropped on the Angel, destroying 28% of it and stunning it long enough for NERV to regroup. Israfel was defeated through a synchronized attack by Shinji and Asuka, concerted via a musical score and with the memorization of numerous dance moves.
Israfel is named for the twin angels of poetry and music.
Notes:
It is stated in the anime that the dance music was sixty-two seconds long, but the actual music piece is not the same length. The countdown on screen is different from real time. The milli-second timer starts at approximately 60, and ends at approximately 10 to 00.
In the manga, Israfel remains split into its “twins” after it initially divides, while in the anime it recombines at least once.
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The eighth Angel, Sandalphon, is a gigantic version of the aquatic Cambrian predator Anomalocaris. The Angel appears to have no abilities beyond its extraordinary resistance to heat and pressure, up to the point of being able to open its mouth in magma. Its own AT-Field was never strong enough to physically manifest.
Sandalphon was discovered in an embryonic state deep inside the Mount Asama volcano. NERV was determined to take advantage of this unprecedented opportunity to strike first against an Angel. Asuka in Unit 02 was sent to capture the Angel using a special electromagnetic cage. The Eva’s normal B-type equipment was not designed for extreme environments, so Unit 02 was equipped with the D-type Equipment specifically designed for extreme conditions like magma. During the operation the Angel awoke and rapidly developed into its adult form. Sandalphon was defeated by Asuka using her own coolant (inspired by an earlier conversation with Shinji regarding thermal expansion) and a Progressive Knife.
Its core was never depicted, and it is possible the Angel never even had one, given that it was destroyed by a randomly placed stab with a progressive knife.
Sandalphon is named for the angel of tears and the master of heavenly song, whose duty is to deliver prayers to God, and is also the angel of embryos.
Notes:
Sandalphon did not appear in the manga adaptation of Evangelion.
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The ninth Angel, Matariel, has the appearance of a massive opilionid-like creature with numerous eyes. The central eye on the underbelly secretes a strong solvent which can easily melt through both concrete and steel. The Angel attempts to burn a tunnel directly into the Geofront using the solvent. The Angel appears to possess no armament beyond this solvent, and its AT-Field never physically manifests – though the battle plan against it made mention of using Unit 02 to nullify its AT field before it would be fired upon.
Matariel emerged from the ocean during a near-total power failure in Tokyo-3 (caused by an unnamed individual or party). It was defeated through the coordinated efforts of Units 00, 01, and 02, in the first simultaneous deployment of all three. (Due to the power outage, the Evas ran on battery power, and had to be launched manually.) The Angel was killed using standard-issue Eva firearms, the only successful attempt at doing so.
Matariel’s core is either concealed or nonexistent.
Matariel literally means Premonition of God. It is named for the angel of rain.
Notes:
Matariel did not appear in the manga adaption of Evangelion.
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The tenth Angel, Sahaquiel, is a massive and bizarrely shaped creature. It has an elongated body, with three eye-like markings on it (one in the center and one on either end of the body), and three stem-like growths projecting radially at both ends. Sahaquiel’s AT-Field is comparatively powerful, able to shield the Angel from several dozen N² Mines. It also seems to have an ability to jam satellite communications. The Angel’s most devastating weapon is itself: utilizing both kinetic energy and its powerful AT-Field, Sahaquiel drops pieces of itself onto Earth as bombs.
Sahaquiel first appeared in low-earth orbit. The Angel’s jamming ability prevented NERV HQ from contacting Commander Ikari or Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki in Antarctica. When NERV attempted to analyze the Angel, it crushed the scanning satellites with its AT-Field. Attempts to take out the Angel using N² Mines utterly failed. The Angel began dropping pieces of itself onto Earth. Its first hit landed in the middle of the Pacific Ocean (far from Central Dogma) but successive hits grew continuously closer. For the final blow, the attack that would land on NERV proper, Sahaquiel intended to drop its entire body onto Tokyo-3. The resulting blast would have been so powerful that Tokyo-3 would have been transformed into an extension of the Pacific Ocean.
Sahaquiel was intercepted and killed through the combined efforts of all three Evas. They first stopped the Angel’s physical descent and canceled out its AT-Field, negating both of its main means of attack (kinetic and AT-Field), then slew the Angel.
Its core appears as the pupil of the central eye.
Sahaquiel literally means Ingenuity of God. It is named for the angel of the skies.
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The eleventh Angel, Iruel, is a nano-scale entity, similar to a virus. In addition to its AT-Field, it demonstrates an ability to adapt to almost anything. Rather than “moving” in the conventional sense, the Angel seems to simply spread by rapidly reproducing at the cellular level.
It appears in the Pribnow box deep in the GeoFront, where it is initially mistaken for corrosion before spreading to where the pilots are taking part in tests. Ritsuko and Misato discover that the Angel is vulnerable to ozone and so pump large amounts of it into the area of infection. The tactic temporarily stops the Angel’s spread, but after only a few seconds, it adapts to the oxygen, and even absorbs it to increase its strength. In a short period of time, it evolves into a figure resembling electronic circuitry and penetrates the MAGI’s defense systems. While inside, it reads many critical files and initiates a self-destruct sequence before being slowed down long enough by Ritsuko to allow her to initiate the Angel’s own destruction.
It is not known whether or not Iruel has a core.
Iruel literally means Fear of God. It is named for the angel of terror.
Notes:
Iruel did not appear in the Evangelion manga, the plot of opening MAGI to directly program it to stop the infection still exists, yet it is replaced by an attempt to hack into MAGI by SEELE with the two or maybe even three MAGI systems in other branches of Seele in America, German and/or China.
Iruel infects Rei’s simulation body and causes it to move, in what might be the first attempt of an Angel to merge with Rei. However, all the pilots are ejected, unharmed.
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The twelfth Angel, Leliel, has a misleading initial appearance and possesses bizarre properties. The Angel initially appears as a large, floating, black-and-white patterned sphere, and, when attacked, it re-manifests as a large black shadow. The Angel’s true body is the shadow itself, and the “shadow” of the Angel is the floating sphere. Leliel is explained as possessing an inverted AT field, which allows the Angel to take into itself anything in range of its shadow-like body. Within the inverted AT field is a Dirac sea, which “could lead to another universe.” At its fullest extension, the Angel’s body is 600 meters in diameter and 3 nanometers thick.
Leliel appeared (literally out of thin air) over Tokyo-3, and all three Evas were sortied against it. Shinji, in Unit 01, impulsively fired upon the Angel’s spherical “body”, which vanished before his shots hit it. Immediately after the “body” disappeared, a shadow appeared under Unit 01’s feet, absorbing both the Eva and a substantial portion of Tokyo-3. Unit 01 was cut off from all power and communication. Once NERV realized the properties of the Angel, in order to kill it they planned to drop the 992 remaining N2 mines into the Angel while Units 00 and 02 negated its AT field, in spite of the possibility of losing Shinji in process. Within the Angel, Shinji experienced a bizarre sort of self-psychoanalysis (SEELE itself speculated that this was an attempt by the Angel to establish contact with a human, but it is unknown whether this is true).
Moments before dropping the N2 mines into Leliel, Unit 01, supposedly out of battery power at this point, tore its way out of the spherical shadow, shattering its 2-dimensional body. The spherical shadow released torrents of blood as Unit 01 emerged.
It is unknown whether Leliel had a core.
Leliel literally means Jaws of God. It is named for the angel of the night.
Notes:
Unit 01 is trapped inside Leliel for almost 16 hours, the absolute limit of an Eva’s battery power at minimal use. The LCL inside the Entry Plug is shown to be murky and polluted-looking near the end of this time.
This incident marks the first appearance of Yui Ikari’s soul inside Unit 01.
Leliel did not appear in the manga.
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The thirteenth Angel, Bardiel, inhabits Eva Unit 03. It apparently possesses all the properties and strengths of Unit 03, and it can also stretch the Eva’s arms to a distance roughly equal to the Eva’s height . The Angel’s core is never shown, but, given that it has taken over Unit 03, and the Evangelions all have cores, it can be assumed to possess Unit-03’s core.
Bardiel initially appeared in a cloud, infecting Unit 03 as it passed through in the process of being transported from the USA to Japan. The Angel revealed itself during the activation test at the Matsushiro facility, taking over the Eva and destroying the base. Responding to the Angel, NERV sortied all three Evas against it. Seeing that the Angel was an Eva, the pilots hesitated. Bardiel defeated Asuka in Unit 02 almost immediatly. Rei, not responding to orders to attack fast enough, was attacked and disabled by the Angel, which attempted to “fuse” with Unit 00. Commander Ikari ordered the infected portion of her Eva cut off. Shinji confronted Bardiel in Unit 01, and Bardiel, using its extendable arms for the first time, then attacked Shinji, who refused to fight back because he did not want to kill the other Eva’s pilot. Commander Ikari ordered Shinji cut off from Unit 01 and the Dummy Plug system to be activated. Under the Dummy Plug’s control, Unit 01 broke Bardiel’s neck and literally tore the Eva to shreds, only stopping once Unit 03’s entry plug–with Toji inside it–was crushed.
The thirteenth Angel seems to have a pivotal significance in the war against the Angels. SEELE specifically mentions the thirteenth Angel during their interrogation of Misato regarding the twelfth Angel. Why it is important is never specified.
Bardiel literally means Humiliated Son of God. It is named for the angel of haze.
Notes:
In the manga, Shinji is aware of that Toji is inside Unit 03, unlike in the anime where he knew there is a pilot inside but does not discover Toji was the pilot until after the battle, seeing him being carried out of the cockpit. Additionally, Toji is actually killed when Unit 01 crushes Unit 03’s entry plug, while in the anime he is severely injured.
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The fourteenth Angel, Zeruel, appears as a vaguely humanoid floating creature, as large as the Evas but lacking humanoid limbs, with a malformed “skull” as a face. Zeruel possesses a very powerful beam attack (which, like Sachiel’s, detonates into the shape of a Christian cross) and folding foil-like “arms” that it uses as cutting weapons in close-range combat. The Angel has a relatively powerful AT field, and its armor-like “skin” is strong enough to endure the point-blank detonation of an N2 mine completely undamaged. Its core is located on its chest.
Zeruel initially appeared and proceeded to the GeoFront, and, in a demonstration of power, blasted through 18 layers of the GeoFront’s armor with a single shot of its beam attack. Inside the GeoFront, the Angel was confronted first by Asuka in Unit 02. Unit 02’s artillery attacks were completely ineffective, and, using its foil-like “arms”, Zeruel cut off the Eva’s arms and decapitated it. Rei in Unit 00 (which was still damaged from the battle with Bardiel) attempted to stop Zeruel in a kamikaze attack with an N2 Mine, but after Unit 00 successfully pushed through the Angel’s AT field, Zeruel covered its core with a protective membrane which the mine failed to penetrate. Zeruel disabled Unit 00 and proceeded to enter Central Dogma proper (the first Angel to do so from outside the GeoFront). Seconds before wiping out the bridge (and everyone in it), the Angel was confronted by Shinji in Unit 01.
During the fight, Zeruel blew off Unit 01’s left arm, but Shinji still managed to force the Angel onto an Eva launch platform and launch both of them outside of Central Dogma. In the middle of the fight, Unit 01’s battery power ran out before Shinji could defeat the Angel, and, Zeruel, now unhindered, destroyed the Eva’s chest armor, revealing Unit 01’s core, which the Angel tried to break with its razor-like arms. Before it could land the final blow, however, Unit 01 reactivated. The Eva tore Zeruel’s right arm off and converted it into a new left arm for itself. The Angel then attacked Unit 01 with its left arm, which the Eva ripped off and hurled back at the Angel. Unit 01 finished off the crippled Angel and devoured it, ingesting the Angel’s S2 engine.
After the battle, it was the discovered that Shinji, having achieved a synchronization ratio of over 400%, was absorbed by Unit 01.
Zeruel literally means Arm of God. It is named for the angel of strength.
Notes:
Zeruel’s energy beam attacks are demonstrably the most powerful of all the Angels. The Angel pierces through 18 of the 22 layers of armor over the GeoFront with a single shot (something that Ramiel, with its drill, needed several hours to do), blew off Unit 01’s left arm in one shot and destroyed the Eva’s chest armor in a single shot (feats which Sachiel, also working at point-blank range, failed to do with its own beam attack, and which took Ramiel several seconds to almost accomplish).
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The fifteenth Angel, Arael, has the form of a massive, glowing winged creature. In addition to a conventional AT-Field, Arael’s main weapon appears as a beam of yellow-white light, which penetrates the target’s mind to directly attack their psyche (the beam itself is stated to have properties similar to an AT-Field). The Angel’s core is held outside of its body by the appendages on its underbelly.
Arael initially appeared in low-earth orbit, outside of the range of both conventional weapons and the Evangelions. The Angel waited until Asuka in Unit 02 (who had insisted on being at the head of the assault) targeted it, at which point the Angel used its psychic attack on her. Asuka was so devastated by this psychic attack, which deconstructed her own social and emotional facade, that her Eva was incapacitated. After a particle beam weapon proved unable to penetrate Arael’s AT-Field, Commander Ikari ordered Rei, in Unit 00, to use the Lance of Longinus against it (an order that both Misato and Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki took issue with). Rei descended to Terminal Dogma, removed the lance from Lilith’s chest, and, once back at the surface, hurled the Lance at the Angel. The Lance of Longinus broke through the Arael’s AT-Field and destroyed the Angel, but it drifted out to orbit (eventually landing on the moon) and NERV was unable to retrieve it.
Arael literally means Light of God or Vision of God. It is named for the angel of the birds.
Notes
The particle beam cannon used against Arael was not the same beam weapon used on Ramiel. It was the prototype cannon, designed specifically for the Evas, that Misato rejected for use on Ramiel.
It is never explained how Unit 00 was able to produce the massive amount of force necessary to get an object the size of the Lance of Longinus to achieve escape velocity. However, in End of Evangelion the Lance returns to Unit 01 by itself, indicating a degree of self-propulsion.
In the anime Asuka suffered no apparent physical aftereffects from the psychic attack, but in the manga she is reduced to a vegetative state due to mental shock.
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The sixteenth Angel, Armisael, appears as large glowing floating torus. In its initial dormant phase, the Angel’s body has a double-helix structure. During battle, the double helix deconstructs into a single thread, which then lashes out at enemies, utilizing its entire body as a weapon. Its powers are potent enough to pierce the Evas’ AT-Fields.
Armisael appeared, seemingly out of thin air, over the outskirts of Tokyo-3, and Rei in Unit 00 and Asuka in Unit 02 were sortied against it. Once the Evas approached it, Armisael assumed its “combat form.” It pierced Unit 00’s AT-Field and core and began to fuse with the Eva. While it was in contact with Unit 00, the Angel also psychically contacted Rei (it questioned her about “loneliness.”) When ordered to assist Rei, Asuka proved unable to even move her Eva, and was consequently pulled out of the battle. Commander Ikari, apparently desperate to save Rei, ordered Unit 01 out of quarantine (which it had been kept in since the battle with Zeruel) to battle the Angel (an order he had declined to give while Asuka was attacked by Arael). When Shinji, in Unit 01, approached the Angel, it tried to fend him off, and, when that proved only a mixed success, it began to fuse with Unit 01 as well. To keep the Angel from fusing with Shinji, Rei reversed her Eva’s AT-Field, pulling the Angel into Unit 00’s core. She then self-destructed her Eva, destroying herself, Unit 00, the Angel, and a sizable portion of the Tokyo-3 area.
Armisael literally means Mountain of Judgement of God. It is named for the angel of the womb.
Notes:
In the manga, Kaworu, not Asuka, piloted Unit 02 alongside the others. The weapon he used in the battle was a double-bladed chainsaw. Armisael partially merged with Unit 02 while it was still fusing with Unit 00 and Rei, and consequently Kaworu experienced Rei’s emotions. He considered using his powers as an Angel to defeat Armisael, but opted not to in order to continue concealing his true nature. He also referred to the Angel as an “encroachment type” after seeing it begin to fuse with the saw, though he never elaborated on this.
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Tabris, the seventeenth and final Angel, holds the form of a human, Kaworu Nagisa. Like the other Angels, he is “born of Adam”, although he seems to be of artificial origins, since it is implied that he was created by SEELE. He contains the soul of Adam, similar to how Rei contains the soul of Lilith. Tabris’ AT-Field is the most powerful ever detected, strong enough to block out “light, magnetism, sub-atomic particles, everything”. He may control any Evangelion unit he wishes, even from outside the entry plug, so long as the soul inhabiting the Eva is dormant. Within the entry plug, he can set his synch-ratio at any level he wishes. The nature or even the very existence of his core is unknown.
Tabris, as Kaworu, infilitrated NERV under the pretense of being sent to replace Asuka as Unit 02’s pilot. During his stay in Tokyo-3, he befriended and formed an extremely close relationship with Shinji. Kaworu later revealed himself as an Angel, seizing control of Unit 02 and descending with it towards Terminal Dogma. Shinji, in Unit 01, was sent to stop him, but was forced to battle Unit 02 while Tabris proceeded to Terminal Dogma. Tabris’ AT-Field manifested during the battle, effectively cutting both of them off from all contact with anyone outside. After he reached Terminal Dogma, Tabris was surprised to discover that the Angel held there was not Adam, but Lilith. Shinji incapacitated Unit 02 and proceeded to try and stop the Angel. Tabris, gripped in Unit 01’s hand, stated his unwillingness to destroy mankind by causing Third Impact, and asked Shinji to kill him. Shinji, after a long period of hesitation, crushed the Angel in his Eva’s hand.
“Tabris” is a corruption of Tabrias, which loosely means Good of God in Hebrew (‘Tov’ means ‘good’, and ‘Yah’ is a short for Jehova). He is named for the angel of free will and alternatives. (This naming convention breaks from most of the other Angels in that it uses a Yah theophory, rather than an El theophory.)
Notes
The back of the DVD containing episodes 24–26 spells his name as “Kaoru”. This is not a typo. The character in the Japanese spelling of his name can be interpreted as either “wo” or “o”. However, in End of Evangelion, his name is written as “Kaworu” on the dummy plugs for the mass-production Evas.
Trivia
The scene where Shinji hesitates after Tabris asks him to kill him is the longest still shot in the entire series, lasting 62 seconds.
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Credits: Angel (Neon Genesis Evangelion)
March 21 2008 01:48 am | Evangelion
link the image to: http://afufu.net/freewill