I recently watched through all of Evangelion and it made me think, “what was wrong with Anno? (the guy who created this masterpiece) also what did the characters’ lives have to do with him?” because it’s not uncommon for projection to appear in someone’s work, often called a “Mary Sue.”
These are my conclusions to what the different characters were, please feel free to put your own input in comments or messages.
Shinji: The question, the confusion, the curiosity and everything that anno believed to be wrong with himself.
Rei: The answer, the unknown, the finishing and end as well as everything that anno believed to be perfect or unattainable about or to himself.
Asuka: The known answer, the unwanted or textbook response, the psychologist in anno’s life, the life that he wished to never have to deal with
Kaworu: The epitome, the existential crisis, the realization of meaning that anno neither understood or even cared to understand
Kensuke: The intellect, the only grasp on the outside world that anno had contact with, the only learning capability that anno conciously held on to and the only way that anno decided was what he had to know to survive.
Toji: The true friend, the trials, the tribulations, the porcupine’s dilema as stated in anno’s earlier ramblings, the one he will end up hurting the most from being close to them.
Ritsuko: The mother, the woman, that which anno doesn’t understand but assumes that he’s not to understand as it is something for him to understand the male.
Misato: The lust, the desire, the pride, the sloth, the theif, the murderer, the glutton, the 7 cardinal sins, everything that anno wants out of the world that he sees as being too human or too primal for him to continue on with doing so.
Kaji: The male, the libido, what anno finds as the meaning behind what is manly and what men should do, what he should understand because he is male.
Gendo: The father, the hope for recognition, the abandonment root that probably fucked up anno the most.
and that’s pretty much it, for my work is done.