"Whatever else, she needs to be painted in as a bitterly unhappy young girl with little sense of presence." Hideaki Anno, to Yoshiyuki Sadamoto on Rei's character design[3]
At the start of the series, Rei is socially withdrawn, seemingly emotionless, and rarely interacts with anyone, except for Gendo, to whom she initially displays loyalty but with whom she has a generally distant relationship (she says in episode 15 that she "doesn't know what kind of person he is"). She lives によって herself in a drab, dingy, sparsely-furnished apartment in Tokyo-3, a clutter of 本 being her only apparent luxury...
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