Warning: This blog post contains spoilers for the Neon Genesis Evangelion TV series and films. It is also extremely long.
This weekend I find myself watching through Neon Genesis Evangelion, after craving a rewatch for a long while. It's only been 6 or 7 months since my last runthrough, which is very uncommon. I generally see several years pass in between viewings of such story-driven dramas as this. So with the nuances of Evangelion's story still so fresh, I find myself focusing less on the primary storyline and more on the individual characters.
A rather cynical person made a comment on a message board oh, some 14 years ago (a woman by the moniker of Reichu, I believe she's achieved a certain notoriety in the US evageek community), and it has always stuck with me because it seemed unfortunately very plausible. She claimed that Rei is popular because guys think they can essentially force themselves on her and she won't object, or that you can ask to have sex with her and she'll say "yes," as she so often does to whatever command given to her by Nerv's administrators.
I'd prefer to write-off this comment as insidiously unfair to the human male, but given that Rei has been widely and
directly credited (maddeningly) with the rise of "moe" (cute for the sake of cute), it seems clear that there must be a large quantity of people somewhere who have failed to comprehend even the most basic tenets of Rei's character as displayed in the canon; and, indeed, failed to understand her very role in the series itself. So, as a Rei fan myself, I thought I'd take this opportunity to deconstruct who Ayanami Rei truly is.
(1) Rei as Soldier
"If they asked me to die, I would say yes."
Ayanami Rei is a fearless soldier. This is how she is first introduced to us, as the battered and bandaged fighter pilot who will unflinchingly jump into battle at a moment's notice. As she develops, we see her reassert her faith in Gendo and the work of Nerv, and reiterate her dedication to the cause. When directly questioned, she unequivocally asserts that she would die if they asked her to.
As a child it was possible for me to see Rei's eager willingness to comply with orders as a sign of passivity. But after learning a lot more about storytelling, and being schooled in the nuances of moral variety by George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, it couldn't be any more plain what Ayanami Rei's moral position is. Nerv fights to save the world. Rei would gladly die for Nerv because Rei would gladly die for the world entire. Her personal interactions with Ikari Gendo have convinced her of his competence and trust-worthiness. And why shouldn't they have? Rei's seen him put himself in danger for her sake. So she believes that if he ordered her to die, obviously it would be for a necessary and worthy purpose. Her willingness to die isn't so much an issue of passivity, but an issue of conviction. She is, in fact, asserting her role as one of Earth's protectors, and her faith in Ikari Gendo.
Furthermore, if you take the time to pay attention to how Rei actually interacts with people, the idea of an assertive Rei is absurd, and staunchly lands against how she is depicted in the series. Rei may not display her emotions on her sleeve the way some people do, but Rei is decisively emotional and acts whenever she's confronted. Rei has become
physically violent with people for disagreeing with her. She slapped Shinji for badmouthing his father. Passive? She's downright aggressive.
We've seen her stand up for herself against Asuka's attempted control (episode 11, The Day Tokyo-3 Stood Still), and we've even seen her disobey direct orders on the battlefield, on more than one occasion, in order to follow her heart. So the idea that she's a mindless soldier is wholly unfounded. She is merely a strong supporter of the cause she's involved with, in contrast to her fellow pilots. Think she'll submit to your will? First you better make sure you're the only person who possesses the technology to save the world. And even then, you're still playing roulette on whether she'll choose to follow orders.
(2) Rei as Teenager
nude shenanigans and the infamous bedroom incident
If there's anything that may have whet the appetites of horny young boys and may (hopefully not, but...) have inspired the unthinkably disturbing concept of a Rei who might passively accept abuse, it has to be Shinji's misadventure in her bedroom. In a near sitcomian tempest of screwball circumstances, Shinji accidentally lands himself on top of Rei's naked body, and -- as a garnish, they're both covered in an assortment of her underwear. Contrary to traditional expectations, she doesn't scream or yell, or chew him out for being a complete dunce and invading her intimate space.
This could lead the unobservant to define her as a person with no physical boundaries. But there are a multitude of important angles to understand about this situation. First, you have to acknowledge that being raised in the basement of Nerv has not imbued Ayanami Rei with the social conventions typical of society, particularly concerning what to do or say to other people. But that she may not act on it, does not mean she is devoid of vanity. She is timid, and rare to act, but we know that she is also full of emotion.
Rei has been raised to be logical, and observant. She has been raised as a soldier. In this situation, that her vanity has been compromised may not necessarily be her primary takeaway. It's possible she sees how what Shinji did was clearly an accident and a chance of circumstance, and she doesn't fault him for it on those grounds. While she clearly acts when people make willful decisions she disapproves of (e.g. the slapping incidents), a logical mind might see it as unfair to attack someone over something they did purely by accident.
That being said, to say she was aloof and unaffected by the incident may be overstepping the evidence a bit. She does ask Shinji to get off of her, and promptly storms out of the room. She also makes the conscious move of turning
away from Shinji when she's putting on her clothes, which strongly implies at least
some level of traditional vanity, and is exactly what you expect from someone who is trying to hide their privates. Sure, to an outside observer, Rei may appear aloof. But we know that she's quite emotional within, so we can see the clues in this scene for what they truly are.
If you yet doubt me, notice how Rei jibes Shinji in the hospital before the mission to defeat Ramiel, making fun of his nudity and
his lack of appreciation for traditional vanity. Shinji inadvertently reveals much of his naked body and Rei jokes that he shouldn't show up to the mission naked. This is an astounding bit of incontrovertible proof that Rei fully appreciates the nature of traditional vanity and physical boundaries. It's also a rare (but not unheard of) joke from her, demonstrating beyond a doubt that beneath her stoic surface lies the myriad emotions to be expected of a human. And if you try to tell me it's not a joke... um, like she actually thought he'd show up naked? She's seen him wearing plugsuits before, she knows that he knows the drill. She's socially unaware, but far from unobservant.
As a final potential puzzle piece, Rei may have declined to react harshly to Shinji's mishap because she wants Shinji to like her, she wants to have a pleasant work relationship with Shinji. So she plays off the incident as nothing, so they can have an amicable first meeting. You best keep in mind, Shinji and Rei haven't really even formally met at this point. All that Rei knows, is that Shinji is Gendo's son. She doesn't yet know of his disdain for his father. And as Gendo is her only friend, she's going to obviously make an effort to be on good terms with Shinji, out of love for Gendo. It's also possible that Rei simply liked Shinji on a romantic level, and didn't much mind the contact given that Shinji committed an honest mistake with no nefarious intentions. After all, this is the only person she's ever met with whom she can share the trial of Eva pilotry, her then-defining life aspect. Perhaps Rei only wanted to be generous in giving Shinji a fresh start, and it was a show of solitude & strength rather than timidness or submission.
(3) Rei as Human & God
What is Ayanami's role in the story of Neon Genesis Evangelion?
The strangest thing about the myth of a submissive Rei, is that to believe it is to ignore not just the nuances of her depiction -- which could understandably be missed -- but to also ignore the arc of Evangelion's story itself, and her role in it.
The premise of the Ayanami Rei character is that she's stoic on the outside and yet feels typical human emotions on the inside. This fact is demonstrated for us the very first time Rei's character is delved into, in the fifth episode when Shinji glimpses her talking animatedly and smiling happily as she chats with Gendo. That her outward actions rarely reveal the nature her true emotions is the entire point.
As we delve deeper into her character, we find that her stoic demeanor is essentially a defense mechanism, against a world in which she has been ill-equipped to function socially. She uses the Evangelion as a way to connect with humanity, but as the story progresses she develops bonds with people outside of piloting the Eva.
In the article I linked to way above, the moe trend that Rei purportedly inspired, is described as the move towards vulnerable characters the viewer would want to protect. What an astronomically peculiar trend to arise from Rei, when her role in the series is the exact inverse of that situation.
In the end of the story, Gendo, who had treated Rei fairly up to that point, moves to use her not for the good of humanity, but finally for his own personal aspiration. At that moment, she senses the turmoil of Shinji, and instead goes to him, to protect him. The idea that Rei would be in need of protecting, when she is in fact God and holds ultimate power, is preposterous.
When Rei is presented with the option of giving ultimate power to Gendo, who had been her only friend but had only been using her, or to Shinji, who needed her protection and had never asked her for anything, she chooses Shinji. How this would fit into moe, I cannot imagine, as this is a narrative of female supremacy. And how this series could inspire anyone to see Rei as a submissive sex object, I struggle to fathom, as the arc of the story itself is the narrative of Rei rejecting abuse and asserting her autonomy. Her empowerment is in fact the
central plotline of the series, when you consider that it is the sole mitigating factor in how the story ends.
You couldn't have a more literal metaphor for the assertion of autonomy, nor a more obvious metaphor for the refusal to allow sexual abuse. When Gendo comes to Rei in The End of Evangelion, she is naked and her body is falling apart. Gendo is there to literally rob her of her body, absorb her into Lilith. Rei chooses to reject Gendo's attempt to take her body, and then she asserts her sense of self, and reconstitutes Lilith to take Rei's human shape. The moral of the story? Rei's body is her own, and she will entertain no trespass. This is the "submissive" girl that launched the moe craze?
(Conclusion)
You see, as a child I may have admired her most for her beauty and her bravery. But I've always seen a whole lot of myself in Ayanami. I may have been more flamboyantly social than Rei tends to be, but our dichotomy was of the same impetus. For most of my life, I hid my depression behind the guise of sociability, while Rei hid her maladjustment under the guise of stoicism. We may have had different inflictions, but we share the act of hiding. When I see Rei hiding what bubbles beneath her surface, I tend to see myself. So you could say I take the concept of a passive Rei more personal than most.
All in all, people can and will continue to enjoy Rei in any way they choose. Nobody can stop them. But that doesn't make their version of Rei accurate to the source. Rei is awesome because she's assertive and smart, fearless and powerful, and because of how she lets her emotions become her source of strength. Her and Misato are the only true heroes in Neon Genesis Evangelion.
