Sohryu Asuka Langley, the pilot of Unit-02, was the second individual ("The Second Child") chosen to operate an Eva. Her mother's severe mental illness, and father's ensuing abandonment of them caused her to develop an extremely independent and driven personality - one that resulted in her graduation from college at the gae of fourteen as well as her agressive, competitive relationship with Shinji and Rei. She has never fully come to terms with her mother's suicide.
Gendo is Shinji's father and the Commander of the government agency known as NERV. Prior to his appointmeny he was the Chief of Research at the U.N. Artifical Evolution Laboratories. Upon the death of his wife Yui, Gendo devoted himself completely to the Human Instrumentality Project - a plan to force the next step in human evolution using knowledge gained from the Angels. Though the project has the support of the secret international organization known as SEELE, Gendo's motives for pursuing it are different from SEELE's. His relationship with Shinji is extremely strained and formal, and the two have shared only a handful of words since their reunion.
A member of the same school class as Shinji, Rei, and Asuka, Kensuke is enamored with all manner of military hardware. He has overjoyed by the chance to join Shinji on the deck of a U.N. aircraft carrier while the fleet was transporting Eva Unit-02 to Neo Tokyo-3. Though he is one of Shinji's closest friends, Kensuke cannot understand Shinji's reluctance to pilot an advanced weapon like Eva Unit-01.
Fuyutsuki is currently the Deputy Commander of Special Agency NERV, and Ikari Gendo's right hand man. He is one of the only NERV members who has full knowledge of the organizations' ultimate objectives and methods. Prior to his appointment, he served as professor of Meta-biology at the University of Kyoto, where he first met both Gendo and Yui Ikari. His affection for Yui was deep, though the two were never romantically involved.
Though he harbors feelings for his direct supervisor, Misato, this Second Lieutenant assigned to NERV's First Operations Bureau has never let his emotions interfere with his duties. He is responsible for aiding Misato in the analysis of combat situations and strategic development.
This honest and sincere NERV technician is assigned to the First Technical Bureau and is responsible for gathering and analyzing data about the Eva Units. including constant monitoring of the synchronization rates of the pilots
Responsible for the strategic command of the Evas, NERV's Operations Chief Misato Katsuragi is a vibrant soul. As a child she accompanied her father's Antarctic research expedition. When that team's discovery resulted in the cataclysm known as Second Impact, Misato was saved by her father and was the expedition's sole survivor. Fueled by information given to her by her lover, Ryohji Kaji, Misato has become increasingly suspicious about NERV's objectives. She shares an apartment with Shinji and Asuka and acts as their guardian.
Ritsuko Akagi's mother and the creator of the MAGI super-computer, Dr. Naoko Akagi endowed the tri-partite operating system of the computer with aspects of her own personality - herself as a mother, a scientist, and a woman respectively. After Yui Ikari's death, Naoko became romantically involved with Gendo. Perhaps because of the similarity between Rei and Yui, Naoko murdered the first Rei in a jealous rage and took her own life immediately thereafter.
Pen-Pen is an unusual new breed of "Hot Water Spring" Penguin who lives in Misato's apartment in a specially made cooler unit. Pen-Pen was part of an experiment at Misato's last place of employment, but when the experiment was concluded, Misato decided to take him home with her. He rivals Misato not only in his capacity to eat curry and drink beer, but possibly also in intelligence!
A stoic young girl of fourteen, Rei was the first individual ("The First Child") chosen for participation in the Evangelion project and is the pilot of the prototype Eva Unit-00. Her resemblance to Shinji's mother and Gendo's wife, Yui Ikari, is due to the fact that her body was partially created from the salvaged remains of Yui after her death during an early Eva project experiment. She has died twice, only to have her spirit re-instantiated each time in a clone body created for this purpose.
The 30-year-old Ritsuko is the daughter of Dr. Naoko Akagi - the creator of the MAGI super-computer that serves as the brain of Special Agency NERV and bears her transplanted personality within its Operating System. Ritsuko is the Head of the Evangelion Project for NERV, and is an accomplished scientist. Like her now-deceased mother, she has been romantically invloved with NERV's Commander, Gendo Ikari. She has also been friends with Misato Katsuragi since the two met in college.
Although employed in the Special Inspections Division of NERV, Kaji was secretly spying on NERV's operations for the SEELE organization at the same time - A position that resulted in his murder. The results of hi investigations were entrusted to his lover Misato Katsuragi, with whom he shares a complex and somewhat turbulent history. He was also responsible for transporting the Adam Embryo from Germany to Japan.
This Lieutenant assigned to the Central Operations Room of NERV Headquarters is responsible for communications and data analysis.
While still an infant, Shinji witnessed the death of his mother during an experiment for the Evangelion project. After her death, Shinji was abandoned gy his father, Gendo Ikari, and found himself in the care of one of his teachers. At the age of fourteen, Shinji was summoned by his estranged father to become the third Evangelion pilot ("The Third Child"). Introverted, and often awkward when expressing himself or communicating with others, Shinji is reluctant to fulfill his role as pilot of Eva Unit-01.
Asuka's mother, Sohryu, suffered a complete mental collapse after an accident during an experiment. Her hold on reality lost, she mistakenly believed the rag doll she clutched to her breast to be Asuka - often calling it by name. Her descent into the insanity and subsequent suicide left deep emotional scars on Asuka. Sohryu's soul resides within the core of Eva Unit-02.
At times a bit of a hot head, Touji is one of Shinji's classmates and is frequently seen in the company of Kensuke. Though Touji initially blamed Shinji for the critical injury which befell his younger sister during the Third Angel's attack, the two have since become close friends. Perhaps in order to ensure top quality medical attention for his sister, Touji became the pilot of Eva Unit-03. Unfortunately, the 13th Angel invaded and took over Touji's Eva, which then had to be destroyed with Unit-01. Touji survived the destruction of Unit-03, though he was severely wounded in the attack.
An original member of the secret international organization SEELE, Yui first met Gendo (then Gendo Rokubungi) while attending Kyoto University. the two were subsequently married and had one child together, Shinji. She continued to work at Gehirn on the E Project until an accident during testing took her life in 2004. Her soul remains within Eva Unit-01, and there's some indication that she voluntarily sacrificed herself during testing to help realize the goal of the Eva Project.