Misato Katsuragi is one of the main characters from the Neon Genesis Evangelion franchise. 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 initial rank is lieutenant colonel. 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, Misato 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.
As revealed in a flashback, when Misato was 14, she accompanied Dr. Katsuragi to Antarctica and she was badly injured as the Second Impact was beginning, but her father placed her in a protective capsule 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 Kōzō 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 Ryoji Kaji at that time, thought that Misato seemed to be attempting to "make up for lost time."
Misato's job 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 cross pendant that she always wears was put around her neck by her father just before sealing the protective capsule. It is not revealed in the anime or manga if the pendant has significance to Misato beyond a link to her father, or was of any significance to her father.
According to Misato's ID card, she is 1.63 meters tall, and her blood type is AO. A copy of her ID card before vandalization appears in Episode 25, which lists her weight as 47 kg; the card also lists her bust-waist-hip measurements at 83-59-82 in the metric system.
Misato drives a blue Renault Alpine A310, a car which is at least fifteen years old. She is seen driving it in both Neon Genesis Evangelion and the Rebuild of Evangelion. Its design is remarkably accurate to the original A310, even going to far as to have the same number of bolts in the gearshift. In the Rebuild of Evangelion series, Misato also drives a white Mazda Cosmo Sport 110.
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 Force 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 (just like her father had given it to her), 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", and remembers Asuka and Pen-Pen. Misato then closed her eyes as JSSDF demolition crews blow up the area, tearing her apart. 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.
Yoshiyuki Sadamoto's manga essentially maintains Misato's character and story from the anime series, with very slight alterations along the way. The manga explains the advent of Pen Pen, whom Misato saved from euthanasia after the experiment he was the subject of was over. Also, her talk with Ryoji Kaji, in which she confesses to him that he reminded her of her father years ago, happens following not a wedding reception but her promotion party after she (along with everyone present, including Shinji, Toji, and Kensuke) got quite drunk; Kaji took her for a stroll outside (albeit on his back) to help her sober up. At this point, Asuka, who had been following Kaji, walks in on them and expresses her extreme displeasure of the situation. Additionally, instead of bleeding out as in The End of Evangelion, Misato detonates a grenade she had been carrying just as some JSSDF forces break down the barrier, winking at them before taking them out along with her in a murder-suicide. She is then reunited with Kaji, suggesting she did not make it to Instrumentality after all.
The final stage of the manga depicts Shinji's world after he rejected Instrumentality. In this world, he was never an Evangelion pilot, had a few friends who cheered him on, and meets Asuka and Kensuke for the first time on his way to a boarding school in Tokyo (in mid-winter, a season Japan hadn't had since Second Impact). It is unknown how much of the pre-Instrumentality world carries over into this one, although the déjà-vu Shinji experiences suggest that some trace of it has. The most striking aspect occurs in the very last panel, as Shinji leaves the train station to meet the future head on—with Misato's cross pendant tied to his suitcase, fulfilling the promise he made to her in her final moments.
In Neon Genesis Evangelion: Gakuen Datenroku, Misato works as a teacher during the day, but she is actually a NERV member as her real ocupation.
In the Super Robot Wars WP games featuring Evangelion and Mobile Suit Gundam (Universal Century), Misato gets a crush on ace pilot Amuro Ray, alluding to their seiyuu's other famous anime roles as Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask 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).
In the Petit Eva: Evangelion@School series, Misato is the homeroom teacher of Shinji Ikari, Rei Ayanami and Asuka Langley Sohryu at NERV Academy. Here, Misato is shown throwing chalk at anyone she catches falling asleep, including Shinji.
In the Legacy of Chris Thorndyke,
And she is reprised by Allison Keith in the English dub and Kotono Mitsuishi in the Japanese dub.
THEMES[]
- A Cruel Angel's Thesis (Neon Genesis Evangelion)