Misato Katsuragi

Misato Katsuragi (葛城 ミサト) is a fictional character from the Neon Genesis Evangelion franchise created by Hideaki Anno. 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 in Eva: 1.0, later promoted to colonel in Eva: 2.0. 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.

History
A flashback reveals when Misato was 14, she accompanied her father, Dr. Katsuragi (the leader of the Katsuragi Expedition) to Antarctica. She was seriously injured as the Second Impact was beginning, but her father placed her in a protective capsule (resembling an Entry Plug) just before he was killed. The capsule saved her life, but her injuries left a large scar on her chest. Another flashback reveals that she was aboard the ship which brought Kozo Fuyutsuki and Gendo Ikari to the ruins of Antarctica two years after Second Impact. After seeing her in her room, Fuyutsuki was told that she had not spoken since the incident. Her mutism went away when she began to attend college, and she became more social and talkative, so much so that Ritsuko, while reminiscing about her friendship with Misato and Kaji, says in college Misato was making up for lost time. Misato's job(s) before being employed at Nerv are not specified, but in the manga, her last job involved genetic experimentation on animals, as Pen Pen was a result of one such experiment. She chose to keep Pen Pen as a pet rather than let him be euthanized, and converted a refrigerator into a heated sleeping area for him.

The End of Evangelion
In the events of The End of Evangelion, Misato saves Shinji's life by killing three soldiers under the command of the Japanese Strategic Self Defense Forces with her gun. She drags him into her car and drives toward Unit 01's launch bay and is eventually shot in the back while rushing Shinji through the launch bay's door. She shrugs off the wound, then has an intense and emotional conversation with Shinji to get him out of the suicidally defeatist emotional state he is in. She gives Shinji her now bloodstained pendant, as well as a French kiss, with a promise to "do the rest" when he gets back. She then shoves Shinji into the elevator to the launch bay, and collapses once the doors close. She asks (the now dead) Kaji if she did "the right thing", remembers Asuka and Pen-Pen, and then dies as the entire area is decimated by the JSSDF, tearing apart her body in the process. Just moments before the explosion, an image of Rei is shown above her body. Her remains are then transformed into LCL, which presents the possibility that Misato was complemented and could return to physical form if she had the will to.

Rebuild of Evangelion
From what can be gleamed from the series first entry, Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone Misato appears to be almost identical to her TV series counterpart except for a few differences. In Rebuild, Misato appears to be more involved in what is going on at Nerv and her rank is Lieutenant-Colonel. Because of that, she actually knows about their possession of Lilith. 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 and also does not restart her romantic relationship with Kaji. In a flashback regarding 2nd Impact Misato is shown to have been awake and seen her father die before her eyes in this continuity.

Personality and psychological health
While on the job, Misato is very professional and capable, in contrast to her life at home. Until Shinji's arrival, her living space was a complete mess. She cannot cook for herself and relies solely on instant food (she is often considered gross by Shinji and Ritsuko for combining food like ramen and curry). She also drinks copious quantities of beer, and drinks one first thing in the morning to get her day started (later in the series she apparently switches to canned coffee as a supplement). She also smokes, though only occasionally and only during chaotic events.

For most of the series, Misato has no apparent issues with displaying and emphasizing her femininity, and enjoys the attention this gains her. In the picture, she is wearing a skimpy outfit with an arrow pointing to her breasts and a caption which is translated in English as "Pay attention" in the Platinum Edition subtitles and "note the cleavage" in the manga. Shinji's friends Kensuke Aida and Toji Suzuhara develop crushes on Misato, attention she appears to enjoy.

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." 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. While grateful to her father for saving her life, she also 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." Also, Misato admits "seeking her father in Kaji's embrace."

Character notes
Like many characters in Evangelion, Misato was named for a ship: the Katsuragi, an Unryū class WWII Japanese aircraft carrier. Her given name is from a heroine in Minako Narita's manga Aitsu.

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 also carries an Heckler & Koch USP as a sidearm. It is only seen a few times throughout the series, but she is revealed to be a crack shot with it.

In the Super Robot Wars games featuring Evangelion and Gundam (UC timeline), Misato gets a crush on ace pilot Amuro Ray, alluding to their seiyuus' other famous anime roles as Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Kamen 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).

Reception
Misato has been described as being "in no way a mother figure", and as encouraging Shinji to view her as "vacillating between hip guardian and possible sexual object".