Rei Ayanami (Neon Genesis Evangelion)
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This was a really hard work, it took me forever since I wanted to fill it with many references to the anime but what really kept me stuck was her enigmatic and emotionless expression. I had to redraw it over and over before getting closer to its true meaning.
Rei Ayanami is one of the main characters from the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion created by Hideaki Anno in 1995. She is an introverted girl and the pilot of the Evangelion Unit 00. Her personality is thought to have played a major role in the popularization of the kuudere characters archetypes, a Japanese term for a character who appears to not have emotions. They are often stoic and expressionless, and they remain calm in stressful situations. Critics regarded Rei and her success as the beginning of the moe phenomenon too.
Rei Ayanami had a significant influence on Japanese animation and subsequent fictional characters. Following the fame gained by Evangelion, other characters with its aesthetic and character traits were created, like Yuzuriha Inori in Guilty Crown, Eureka from Eureka Seven and probably Serial Experiments Lain’s Lain Iwakura.