Of all theconflicts within theNeon Genesis Evangelion fandom, few get as heated as the eternal debate between who is better: Rei Ayanami or Asuka Langley Sohryu. Both characters are memorable in their own right, but who is the better pilot? Who is the more compelling character? And which one is better suited for Shinji?

Ultimately, the answers to these debates are a matter of personal preference. However, when weighing the objective pros and cons of each character, the evidence definitively points towards one girl above the other.

Rei & Asuka's Opposing Personalities

Asuka and Rei have opposite personalities. Rei has an aloof personality that Asuka compares to a doll. Many people assume that Rei lacks emotional range, but the reality is that she simply does not know how to express emotions. This results in a character who is strangely aloof, gradually developing an understanding of how to communicate with others. By Episode 23, Rei's emotional range is overt and palpable.

Asuka, by contrast, is hot-headed, loud and aggressive to those around her, all while proclaiming her own superiority to all those who come in earshot of her. Of course, Asuka's sense of superiority is undercut by her insecurity, which hides a smidge beneath the surface. She has crippling anxiety in the face of her own perceived inferiority. This conflict between arrogance and insecurity makes for a very complex and dynamic character who shifts from scene to scene. She's often seen uncomfortable expressing how she really feels, especially to Shinji.

For fans, this is the big question: do you prefer an over-abundance of personality or a distinct suppression of it? In this case, it's clear that Asuka is the far more compelling character in regards to how much personality she exudes, while Rei's appeal is based too heavily on her enigmatic nature. Once the questions about her are answered, there's not as much to Rei.

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Does Rei or Asuka Have the Better Character Design?

Rei and Asuka have some of the most memorable character designs in anime. Tons of artists have copied Rei's short blue hair and petite figure and Asuka's twin-tail and fierce scarlet hair when crafting similar characters in their own right. Yuki Nagato fromThe Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is essentially a direct imitation of Rei Ayanami. Part of this is due toEvangelion's popularity. It also doesn't help that Asuka and Rei's designs reflect their yin-yang opposite qualities. Rei has blue hair with red eyes, while Asuka has red hair with blue eyes. Rei has short hair, while Asuka has long hair. They are inverses of one another.

However, undeniably, Rei's iconic appearance is far more haunting and memorable than Asuka's more realistic appearance. Asuka looks like a normal person, but Rei is both strangely spectral and cute, which has led tons of collectors to obsessively buy every new figurine of hers to hit store shelves. Ultimately, Rei is better designed.

Rei & Asuka's Tragic Backstories

Every character inEvangelion has a dark and tragic past.Rei is the second of her kind, being one of the thousands of clones created from the genetic material of Yui Ikari and the Angel Lilith. Gendo created her to instigate Third Impact and Human Instrumentality. In essence, she is the key to the apocalypse, and thus the most important figure in his eyes, even over his own son.

By contrast, Asuka's mom went insane after part of her soul was grafted to Evangelion Unit-02. This resulted in her mom developing a singular delusion: that Asuka was a doll. While her mother went insane, her father had an affair with Asuka's mom's nurse, eventually leading to them being remarried. Asuka's mother killed herself the day Asuka became a pilot, hanging the doll she thought was her daughter next to her.Due to the sheer tragedy of her situation, Asuka has the edge.

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Rei Vs. Asuka: Pilot Skills

Asuka and Rei both demonstrate skill as pilots. Rei manages to kill two Angels -- three if you count the Dummy Plug based on her personality. However, Asuka manages to destroy four, with a fifth being killed based on her strategy. Both pilots have difficulty controlling their Evas, with Asuka's Synch Rate deteriorating as anxiety breaks her spirits, while Rei tends to go berserk while in her Evangelion.

However, when comparing the two, Asuka is undeniably the better pilot. Her synch rate is consistently higher than Rei's until the end, and, come the End of Evangelion, Asuka manages to demolish the Mass Production Evangelion, nine against one. Rei is talented, but Asuka simply is in a league of her own.

Does Rei or Asuka Have Better Character Development?

Ultimately, the question remains: which character is more compelling?  In the end, we need to see where these characters go emotionally. Asuka's arc leads to a pay-off of tons of prior set-up, with her insecurity ultimately crushing her, only to, at the last second, be inverted when Asuka realizes that her mother, due to her soul being inside Unit-02 this whole time, always did actually love her, which makes her turn a 180. During Instrumentality, she finally speaks her mind on Shinji to his face, brutally and succinctly. She's one of the only two characters to be seen alivepost-Third Impact.

Rei's arc comes to a natural conclusion in Episode 23 with her self-sacrifice, but this is automatically overshadowed by her replacement with Rei III. While Rei III is a similar character to Rei II, she's ultimately a different person with the same soul. Rei III is more apathetic toward Gendo, whereas Rei II loved Gendo. This indicates that Rei III is either partly or fully a different character.

All of Rei's character development up until this point informs nothing Rei III does inEnd of Evangelion -- beyond a general sense. She is, ultimately, a plot device, whose presence makes Rei's story more about her alienness rather than about any clear personal development.

What Asuka Langley Sohryu lacks in design, she makes up for with a brilliant character arc. Rei just simply cannot compare.

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