Misato Katsuragi

Misato Katsuragi
Neon Genesis Evangelion character
First appearance	"Angel Attack"
Created by	Gainax Hideaki Anno Yoshiyuki Sadamoto
Voiced by	Japanese: Kotono Mitsuishi English: Allison Keith (ADV Films dub, Rebuild) Carrie Keranen (Netflix dub)
In-universe information
Gender	Female
Title	Captain Major Lieutenant colonel
Relatives	Pen Pen (pet) Shinji Ikari (ward) Asuka Langley Soryu (ward)
Height	5'4" (1.63 m)

Misato Katsuragi (葛城 ミサト, Katsuragi Misato) is a fictional character from the Neon Genesis Evangelion franchise created by Gainax. She is the operations director at NERV, initially with the rank of captain; she is later promoted to major. In Rebuild of Evangelion Misato's rank is lieutenant colonel. Her duties at NERV include acting as a field commander for the Eva pilots, issuing orders and relaying battle strategies as well as processing input from Ritsuko Akagi and the technicians monitoring the Evas. She also handles many bureaucratic aspects of NERV's operations.

At the beginning of the series, Misato first brings Shinji Ikari to NERV and is able to convince him to pilot the Eva Unit 01. She then chooses to have Shinji move in with her rather than live alone, and later takes in Asuka Langley Soryu. As the series progresses, through her former lover Ryoji Kaji she learns the truth behind the Human Instrumentality Project and the depths of deception that NERV and SEELE have gone to keep the Project secret, even from her.

Conception[]

Yoshiyuki Sadamoto found Misato's design the most difficult—conceiving her as an older "girl next door" who was in the military. He wished to have Misato be a fashionable character, changing her clothes constantly, but found that his own lack of fashion sense made him unable to show this. Furthermore, he envisaged Misato as a "loser girl" who would be promiscuous and not take things seriously.^[1]

Director Hideaki Anno described Misato as "a woman, twenty-nine, who lives life so lightly as to barely allow the possibility of human touch. She protects herself by keeping relationships on the surface, and by running away."^[2] He has described her as an adult Usagi Tsukino, with whom she shares a voice actress as well as hair design.^{[3][page needed]} The disparity between her professionalism on the job and her slovenliness at home, as well as her issues in her relationships with her father and Kaji and the ambiguous nature of her relationship with Shinji, ties into her psychological issues. (Incidentally, her psychological issues resemble Shinji's, so the two gradually begin to retain sympathy for each other as the story develops in spite of their clumsy relationship.) While grateful to her father for saving her life, she admits to hating him, as he devoted his life to his work and neglected her and her mother. Her reason for joining Nerv (and later, her drive to fight the Angels) is related to her issues with her father. Kaji implies in one discussion that Misato suffers from nightmares about her past, as he describes her as "sleeping uncomfortably." Misato admits "seeking her father in Kaji's embrace."^[4]

Like many characters in Evangelion, Misato was named for a ship: the Katsuragi, an Unryū class World War II Japanese aircraft carrier. Her given name is from a heroine in Minako Narita's manga Aitsu.^[5]

Misato drives a bright blue Renault Alpine A310. She is a devotee of this particular marque of car, as on her bedroom wall she has a poster of an earlier Alpine A110 shot from the back during a race. She carries a Heckler & Koch USP as a sidearm. It is only seen a few times, but she is revealed to be a crack shot with it.

Appearances[]

Neon Genesis Evangelion[]

At the beginning of the anime Misato is the Captain (一尉, Ichi'i) of Nerv's Tactical Operations Department. Under her command, most of the important decisions in the battles between the Evas against the angels are made, and she takes complete responsibility of the possible outcomes. She also assumes Shinji Ikari's guardianship when he arrives in Tokyo-3, and later Asuka's. Her civilian personality is seen to be quite loose and sloppy, but professionally she proves to have a great sense of leadership and duty. Her loyalty to Nerv appears to be unbreakable, although apart from the main objective of annihilating the angels, she is unaware of Nerv's underlying intentions. After the success of "Operation Yashima," a high-cost military operation masterminded by her which consisted of using the entire energy system of Japan to destroy the fifth Angel, Ramiel, she was promoted to Major (三佐, Sansa).

Misato's only friend throughout the series is Dr. Ritsuko Akagi, and she was Ryoji Kaji's girlfriend when the three of them were college students. As the story progresses, further detail of Misato's past are revealed, such as the fact that she was in Antarctica at the moment of the Second Impact, accompanying her father, Dr. Katsuragi, who masterminded the Katsuragi expedition related to the discovery of the first Angel, Adam.^[6] Prior to the unfolding of the Second impact, Dr. Katsuragi attempted to protect his daughter by placing her in a protective capsule (resembling an Entry Plug) seconds before the explosion.^[6] The capsule saved her life, but her injuries left a large scar on her chest.^[6][7][8] Two years later, Misato is seen aboard the ship which brought Kozo Fuyutsuki and Gendo Ikari to the ruins of Antarctica to inspect the aftermath of the Second Impact.^[9] Upon coming across her, Fuyutsuki is told that Misato has not spoken since the Second Impact.^[9] Her mutism went away when she began attending college, and since then she becomes more social and talkative; Ritsuko recalls that during college Misato was making up for the wasted time.^[9]

Misato's job experience prior to Nerv is not revealed; however, in the manga, it is mentioned that her previous job involved genetic experimentation on animals, with Pen Pen being the result of one such experiments. She chose to keep Pen Pen as a pet rather than let him be euthanized, and refurnished a refrigerator to become his bedroom. Misato's relationship with Kaji is shown to be rather complicated, involving love, lust, jealousy, and resemblances to her father, apart from a pseudo-love triangle with Kaji and Ritsuko. As the story progresses, Misato learns that Kaji is a double-agent, working for Nerv and simultaneously reporting to the Intelligence Department of Japan. Misato threatens to kill Kaji if he refuses to abandon his plans to sabotage Nerv. However, Kaji is the one who confides confidential information to her regarding Nerv and Seele's secret plans, particularly the Human Instrumentality Project.

The End of Evangelion[]

In The End of Evangelion, Misato saves Shinji's life by killing three JSSDF soldiers. She drags him into her car and rushes Shinji towards the door of Unit 01's launch bay. However, Misato is mortally wounded in the process. She persuades Shinji to pilot Unit 01 one more time before giving an adult kiss. Shortly before dying, Misato wonders if Kaji believes she has done the right thing. Her body is destroyed by JSSDF demolition teams. Just moments before the explosion, an image of Rei is shown above her body.^[10]

Manga[]

In the manga Misato's story and character has minor tweaks. The manga shows she took Pen-Pen in after saving him from being euthanized. Her death scene is similar to End of Evangelion, but she kills herself and multiple JSDF soldiers with a grenade.

Rebuild of Evangelion[]

Misato Katsuragi in Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo

Misato returns as a central character in Rebuild of Evangelion. Her first appearance in this continuity is in Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone, where she appears to be almost identical to her anime counterpart apart from some minor differences, such as her hair being a darker shade of purple. In Rebuild, Misato appears to be more involved in what is going on at Nerv and her rank is Lieutenant-Colonel (二佐, Nisa). Because of that, she actually knows about their possession of Lilith.^[11]

In Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance, Misato encourages Shinji to get closer to his father and also brings Asuka into her household in hopes of establishing camaraderie between the two pilots. She plays more of a big sister role towards Asuka. In a flashback regarding Second Impact, Misato is shown to have been awake and seen her father die before her eyes in this continuity.^[12] After her Renault Alpine is damaged during Asuka's arrival, she drives a first-generation Mazda Cosmo.

In Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo, her character undergoes profound changes. She is now the head of the organization known as Wille, which aims to destroy Nerv and its Evangelions. She is given the rank of Captain and is seen to be much more indifferent than in any of the previous chapters of the series. Her appearance went through drastic changes as well, making Shinji unable to recognize her when he sees her for the first time. Misato is willing to kill Shinji by activating a choker Wille has put in his neck if he has contact with an Evangelion again. When Shinji escapes from Wille's craft, she hesitates to pull the trigger until he is out of range of the detonator, allowing his escape.

In Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time, Misato continues to lead Wille in their war against Nerv as they establish and secure zones that neutralize and revert the effects of the aborted Third Impact. It is revealed that she had conceived a child with Ryoji Kaji shortly before his death, naming the boy after his father. Upon Shinji's return to Wille, despite some reservations by her crew, she permits him to remain on board without a DDS choker while they set off for their final assault on Nerv. After Gendo attacks the Wunder and takes back Unit 01 from the ship's core, Shinji tells Misato that he plans to face his father and pilot Unit 01. Members of the Wunder crew threaten to shoot him as per their standing orders to do so if he expresses such an intent, but Misato protects Shinji, getting shot in the process. She defends his actions and states that despite everything that has happened, no one would have survived the angels or near Third Impact had he not piloted the Evangelion. Misato and Shinji reconcile before Mari escorts him to confront his father. As her final act, Misato has the crew convert the Wunder into the Spear of Gaius and, after evacuating all remaining personnel, sacrifices herself to deliver it to Shinji.

In other media[]

Misato appears in many media based on Neon Genesis Evangelion, including the manga adaptation of the anime by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto. She also appears in various video games based on the franchise, including the popular cross-over series Super Robot Wars. In the Super Robot Wars games featuring Evangelion and Gundam (UC timeline), Misato develops a crush on ace pilot Amuro Ray, alluding to their voice actors' other famous anime roles as Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask respectively. She also makes some Sailor Moon comments when admiring the Nobel Gundam from Mobile Fighter G Gundam on Super Robot Wars MX, and points out similarities in voice with Vega from Gear Fighter Dendoh and Murrue Ramius from Mobile Suit Gundam SEED (two other characters voiced by Kotono Mitsuishi).

In Transformers x Evangelion while heading NERV efforts against an Angel, Misato witnessed the arrival of the Autobots and was perplexed by their presence. Mode "Eva" chapter 1 When Starscream possessed the Angel, Misato called for Eva-01 to be activated. Mode "Eva" chapter 2 However, she was in for another surprise when Optimus Prime scanned Eva-01 and became like it in both color and size! Mode "Eva" chapter 3 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 NERV was relying on them, having no other Evas ready for deployment. When the Autobots worked to catch Starscream off balance, she helped out by having Tokyo-3 transform around the Decepticon, causing him to stumble and allowing Prime to defeat him. After the battle, the Autobots joined NERV in defending Earth against Angels and Decepticons alike, something Misato viewed with mixed anxiety and expectation.^[13][14]

Reception[]

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Writer Joe Milutis impersonally described Misato as being "in no way a mother figure", and as encouraging Shinji to view her as "vacillating between hip guardian and possible sexual object".^[15]

See also[]

•  Anime and manga portal

References[]