Preamble

Talking about relationships, not necessarily romantic ones, is not easy in Evangelion. All the characters, considering their low interpersonal skills, have difficulties in expressing what they feel. When it comes to love relationships, everything is even more confused because of sex. Sex is commonly perceived not as an act of love, but rather as a mechanical or “dirty” thing.

Back to our duo…their relationship is definitely one of the hardest to analyse. It is never explicit, even Asuka and Shinji are hardly aware of what they feel for each other. And, as it usually happens in the Evangelion universe, their words cannot be trusted at all. What a character says doesn’t always match what they really think so it is compulsory to take into consideration not only dialogues, but also monologues, comparisons with other characters and visuals. All these elements will help to give a clearer picture of their complicated interactions.

Still, despite the difficulties, Asuka’s and Shinji’s relationship is at the core of the anime (this is especially noticeable in the End of Evangelion movie) and many fans were captured by it. As with love relationships in general there are people who support this relationship and others that think Asuka or Shinji will be better paired to someone else. Obviously people are entitled to have their own opinion, however, it is not possible to deny that Asuka and Shinji are indeed a couple, as much as un-traditional it may be.

With all this in mind, what follows is an analysis of (relevant) Asuka and Shinji moments. Needless to say, this analysis cannot be considered a comprehensive guide to the whole anime. All the episodes preceding Asuka’s arrival (from 1 to 7) and all those that, for a reason or another, do not present consistent interaction between Asuka and Shinji were left out. Keep in mind that this part of the shrine is still under construction so only the anime series was covered (all the Evangelion films haven’t been included yet).

Since the focus is on the duo, I won’t expose episodes’ storylines in this section except for a minimal background in order to understand what is going on. I did provide an episode guide, though. It can be useful if you do not to remember very well what occurs in a certain episode. Events are listed in chronological order and, usually, each page is dedicated to one episode.

One last caveat: it should go without saying that these are my personal opinions. The facts I present can be interpreted differently; some may agree, others can ship, or anti-ship, Asuka and Shinji for reasons different than the one I use.