Misato Katsuragi/Rebuild (2024)

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Misato Katsuragi(葛城 ミサト, Katsuragi Misato^?) is a character from the Rebuild of Evangelion film series. She is the operations director at NERV; her duties at NERV include acting as a field commander for the Evangelion pilots. She issues orders and relays battle strategies as well as processes the input from Ritsuko Akagi and the technicians who monitor the Evangelions. She also handles many of the bureaucratic aspects of NERV's operations.

Appearance[]

Misato is a young woman with long black hair that is wavy with bangs parted to the sides and dark brown eyes. She wears a multitude of different clothes, sometimes it is a sleeveless vest with a black skirt with a cross necklace, a fancy red jacket with stylized accents and black boots. When at home, she wears very laid back clothes.

In the events of Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo, she is older and wears a red commander's uniform. She wears a pair of special glasses and her hair is tied into a bun. Her overall appearance does not seem to have changed.

Profile[]

After the events of Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance, her personality is different from before being colder, mature and mostly seen as emotionless to both her crew members and especially Shinji (similar to Gendo's attitude to his son, Shinji Ikari).

In Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon A Time, it is revealed that she distances herself from Shinji and her own son, in order to do what she sees as the best for themselves, but still holding care for them.

History[]

In the first two films, Misato has a similar role to the one in the original series. However, Misato carries the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and has a greater knowledge of NERV's operations and secrets.

Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone[]

In Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone, Misato's role is much the same as it is in the original series: she picks Shinji Ikari up in her Renault Alpine A310SP(アルビーヌルノーA310SP^?) and takes him to NERV in order for him to pilot Unit-01, and later on takes him in as a roommate. In this film, prior to "Operation Yashima", she takes Shinji to Lilith's chamber, correctly identifying Lilith as the second Angel and explaining to Shinji that NERV's goal is to prevent Third Impact happening by preventing the Angels from coming into contact with Lilith.

Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance[]

In Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance, Misato is promoted off-screen to the rank of Colonel. She takes in Asuka Shikinami Langley and shows the same level of animosity towards Ryoji Kaji that she displayed in the original series, for instance getting angry when Kaji flirts with Ritsuko Akagi and Misato later softens up to Kaji. She spurs Shinji on to pilot Unit-01 for himself, not others, and is a witness to Near Third Impact.

Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo[]

In Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo, Misato, aged 43, has become the leader of WILLE, an organization that is devoted to destroy NERV, its Evangelion Units and prevent Fourth Impact. Here, she exhibits a personality similar to Gendo's as she is more unsympathetic and bitter unlike previous chapters in the series. She acts coldly towards Shinji after she has him reawakened, ordering the placement of the DSS Choker on him as a sign that she no longer trusts him. Misato's displayed behavior at this point implies that she may either perceive him as her enemy or has a terrible grudge against him for the Third Impact that he unintentionally caused. However, she seems to fail to acknowledge that she herself bears a good amount of the blame due to her egging Shinji on as he tried to save Rei Ayanami, and appears to be using him as a scapegoat to avoid her own responsibility. Despite her misguided disdain towards Shinji, Misato seemingly still has some of her old feelings and care for him as she hesitates to activate the DSS Choker when Evangelion Mark.09 takes Shinji to NERV Headquarters.

Reasons for Misato's change into such a bitter character was because she, along with most of NERV’s other staff have learned that Gendo Ikari's ambitions were never to prevent Third Impact, but rather to provoke it. This of course, drove Misato and the others to rebel against him. Gathering the rest of the survivors of humanity, they formed the WILLE organization with her and Dr. Akagi as its leaders that dedicated exclusively to destroy NERV and SEELE to prevent future Impacts and ensure the future of the dying human race. Although Misato's motives and goals are just, the 14 years of constant war and struggle have hardened and deteriorated Misato's better qualities as a person and has resulted in her becoming ironically similar to Gendo. Even with shades of her former self, it's likely the Misato that Shinji knew is gone forever.

Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon A Time[]

In Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon A Time, Shinji discovers that Misato is Ryoji Kaji's mother (son of her lover of the same name), whom she never approached for the sake of her mission and his well being, and that she also uses the Wunder to salvage seeds of various vegetal form in the Earth, as it was the objective of her deceased lover. She commands WILLE to the last attack to NERV in the Antarctic, where the Second Impact happened. There, they engage in battle against the NERV ships commanded by Fuyutski, as Gendo Ikari expected. Once defeated and with Unit-01 stolen by Gendo, she reunites with Shinji and apologizes to him for her cold treatment, recognizing her responsibility concerning his actions in the Near Third Impact as his legal guardian, allowing him to pilot Unit-01 again and defending him from her own crew, even taking a bullet to him shot by Sakura. She orders the crew to evacuate and singlehandedly pilot the Wunder against the Evangelion Imaginary to allow the Wunder's vertebral spine to cross to the Minus Space and become the Spear of Gaius for Shinji, sacrificing herself in the process. It is implied that after that, she comes back to life, and goes to Kaji's farm, alongside him, their son, and Kaworu.

In Other Media[]

Transformers Mode "EVA"[]

While heading NERV efforts against an Angel, Misato witnessed the arrival of the Autobots and was perplexed by their presence.^[1]. When Starscream possessed the Angel, Misato called for Unit-01 to be activated. However, she was in for another surprise when Optimus Prime scanned Unit-01 and became like it in both color and size. Misato watched the ensuing battle between Optimus and Starscream, noting that the Decepticon had access to the Angels' A.T. Field ability and radioing the Autobot Wheeljack to let him know that NERV was relying on them, having no other Evangelions ready for deployment after Unit-01 was disabled by Starscream's Null Rays. When the Autobots worked to catch Starscream off balance, she helped out by having Tokyo-3 transform around the Decepticon while he was chasing Bumblebee, causing him to stumble and allowing Optimus to defeat him. After the battle, the Autobots joined NERV in defending Earth against Angels and Decepticons alike. Misato would arrive in Bumblebee's car mode and when she opened his door to step out, she viewed with mixed anxiety and expectation as she saw Optimus Prime covered in illuminated lights in the darkness.^[2]

Voice Actors[]

• Japanese: Kotono Mitsuishi
• English: Allison Keith
• French: Marie Diot, Laurence Bréheret
• Italian: Stella Musy, Rachele Paolelli
• Portuguese (Brazil): Lene Bastos, Priscila Franco (Amazon)
• Russian: Olga Matskevich (Reanimedia)
• Spanish (Spain): Carmen Calvell
• Spanish (Latin America): Nallely Solís, Vivian Magos, Yanelly Sandoval (ZIMA), Luciana Falcón (Amazon)
• Catalan:
• German: Gundi Eberhard
• Hindi:
• Korean:
• Chinese (Taiwan):

Trivia[]

• Misato was named for a ship: the Katsuragi^WP, an Unryū class World War II Japanese aircraft carrier.
• Her given name is from a heroine in Minako Narita's manga Aitsu.^[3]
• The name Misato means "beauty" (mi) and "village" (sato).
  • However, various parents may choose to write it as "Optical village" or "Truth village". In addition, instead of the more common kanji for "village", a version meaning "home village" with the same pronunciation can be used, making the name Misato mean "beautiful home village".
• The handwriting in her letter to Shinji and his room door's were written by Moyoco Anno.^[4]
• Misato's surname Katsuragi means "victory" (katsu) and "to flow" (ragi).
• Her hair has been darkened so as to appear black rather than purple as seen in Neon Genesis Evangelion.
• Misato drives a white Mazda Cosmo Sport 110^WP, with the license plate East 2 33-10.
• A book by Han Fei^WP and The Prince^WP by Niccolò Machiavelli^WP can be seen in her room in Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone.^[5]

References[]