Summary
Rei Ayanami clones don’t just exist in theNeon Genesis Evangelionuniverse. Since its release in 1995,Evangelionhas become one of the most influential anime ever, both in Japan and internationally. Therefore, it’s no surprise that one of the series' most popular characters, Rei Ayanami, would inspire a legion of “expies,” i.e. exported characters, to the point it spawned awhole new trope.
The expy is not just limited to anime either; plenty of Hollywood movies and video games have their own versions of the Evangelion Unit-00 pilot. The following characters exhibit many of Rei’s characteristics, including short blue/white/gray hair, a stoic personality, and nonhuman origins.
Studio
Xebec
Ruri Hoshino is perhaps the earliest example of a Rei clone sinceMartian Successor Nadesicodebuted only a year after the release ofNeon Genesis Evangelion. As the series' Science Officer, Ruri is the smartest of the Nadesico crew, with a cold demeanor to boot. While she’s a lot sassier than Rei, her gray hair, quiet disposition, and the fact that she’s an artificial human make it obvious who she’s based on.
While there’s no official confirmation from the creators, Japanese cultural critic Hiromi Azuka, taking notice of the Rei clone phenomenon, believes that Ruri Hoshino is directly based on Rei Ayanami.
Publisher
Nitroplus
Ayase Kishimoto is almost too perfect of an example of a Rei Ayanami expy, down to her appearance and strange behavior. She’s a high school student and frontsthe goth-punk band Phantasmwith the stage name FES, and she has the uncanny ability to predict the New Gen murder cases through the band’s lyrics, hinting at her possibly having supernatural powers.
Like Rei, she’s icy and distant at first but soon warms up to the main character. Other similarities include a dark past, mysterious origins, and eventual hospitalization.
A-1 Pictures
15-year-old Noel Kannagi is one of the members of the 1121st Platoon, serving as their main pilot and mechanic. She’s a quiet introvert who spends most of her time by herself, repairing the platoon’s tank (called the Takemikazuchi). She speaks in a monotone similar to Rei and has aseriously depressing past.
As a child prodigy, she was sent to a special academy where she became the top student. Still, unfortunately for her, the military used her for their own benefit, creating bioweapons that destroyed thousands of lives. As a result, Noel was traumatized, and for a while, refused to speak at all.
Creator
Ark Performance
Arpeggio of Blue Steelis all about warships, and those warships have anthropomorphic representations known as Mental Models. The warship I-401’s Mental Model is named Iona, and she is another character based on Rei Ayanami. As the oldest Mental Model in existence, Iona developed emotions by hanging around human beings. She comes off as quiet and stoic at first, but she soon develops affection for the ship’s captain, Gunzou.
Fun fact: Rei Ayanami and Iona were both named after real warships. One can say Iona literallyisa warship, as she is the anthropomorphic representation of the very real Imperial Japanese submarine, the I-401.
Nagaru Tanigawa
Meta humor is baked into theHaruhi Suzumiyaseries, including parodyingvarious character archetypesprevalent in anime, including the average everyman Kyon, the shy moeblob Mikuru Asahina, and, of course, the stoic, Rei Ayanami-type, Yuki Nagato.
Yuki is an alien with various superpowers, including super strength, a photographic memory, and psychic abilities. She and Rei Ayanami even have similar names, with both ‘Yuki’ and ‘Rei’ meaning snow and ice respectively, and ‘Nagato’ and ‘Ayanami’ being names of warships.
Director
Guillermo del Toro
Pacific Rimisa big-screen tribute to mecha and kaiju anime, so theNeon Genesis Evangelioninfluence is pretty obvious. One of the film’s main protagonists, Mako Mori, bears a striking resemblance toEvangelion’s resident blue-haired girl.
Mako Mori is more pleasant and sane than Rei, but she pilots a mecha, is Japanese, mostly keeps to herself, and is loyal to her adoptive father and leader of the story’s military organization, the Pan Pacific Defense Corps, not unlike Rei with Gendo Ikari and NERV.
As a healer and a member of a race of vampiric fighters known as the Revenants, Io is a mysterious, white-haired girl who accompanies the protagonist on their journey, and like him, has a case of amnesia. As expected, she’s meek and aloof at first, but forms a special bond with the player character, pouring out her frustrations and worries to them.
Her origin story is also similar to Rei Ayanami’s, having been created artificially.The endings of the gameheavily referenceThe End of Evangelionand, as a bonus, Io’s English voice actress, Brina Palencia, also voices Rei fromRebuild of Evangelion.
Developer
Hoyoverse (previously Mihoyo)
Honkai Impact 3rdhas its own shout-out toEvangelionin the form of one of the three main characters, Bronya Zaychik. Raised to be a cold-blooded killer, she was sent to assassinate a woman named Cocolia, but she failed. Cocolia, taking pity on her, took her in and raised Bronya in her orphanage. Due to brain damage, Bronya rarely, if ever, shows any emotion, speaks in a flat monotone, and speaks in the third person.
Interestingly, when the game collaborated withNeon Genesis Evangelionfor its 4.5 update, Bronya played the part of Rei Ayanami in the limited-time story event. In contrast to herHonkai Impact 3rdself,her alternate version(named Bronya Rand) inHonkai: Star Railis much more emotional and headstrong.
P.A. Works
Short and petite with white hair and superpowers, Kanade Tachibana is so emotionless that the main characters in the anime’s afterlife wonder if she is human at all. She was, for a good part of the show, suspected to be an evil angel working for a cruel God, which was a horrible misunderstanding, to say the least. However, by the end of the series,viewers may consider her to be an angel regardless.
Kanade’s similarities to Rei Ayanami are numerous: little is known about her past, she gets injured frequently, has clones, and by the end of the series, she opens up and becomes more emotional with the protagonist, Otonashi.
