MisaRitsu

MisaRitsu is the femslash ship between Misato Katsuragi and Ritsuko Akagi from the Neon Genesis Evangelion fandom.

Canon
Misato and Ritsuko meet in college and become each other's first friends there. They have remained close friends for many years after their meeting. The two women sometimes argue as their interests clash, however they manage to come to agreement with each other.

Years later, both Misato and Ritsuko work at NERV. Misato is the operations director, while Ritsuko is the head scientist, they both are heavily involved in the work and utilization of Evangelions. They appear together when Misato brings Shinji to NERV. Ritsuko chides abashed Misato for being late. They discuss the potential performance of Evangelion Unit-01, Misato doubts it will operate properly, while Ritsuko assures her that there is still a small chance. They arrive at the station and take active participation in navigating Unit-01 and then — Unit-00.

Shortly after Shinji's first fight, Misato and Ritsuko discuss their chances in the great battle against angels, and Ritsuko marvels at Misato who expresses a positive outlook, believing that humanity will eventually prevail. After Shinji moves in with Misato, she and Ritsuko start having conversations discussing him, both as a pilot and as a kid. When Ritsuko visits them for dinner, Misato, serves her instant food, which amuses Ritsuko. She notes that it's always like that with her, and Misato says she doesn't get to choose since she is her guest. When Ritsuko tries her cooking she wonders how anyone can ruin something that is already pre-made. Misato says that teasing Shinji is fun since he gets wound up easily, and Ritsuko surprises her by noting that it's the same with her.

Some time later Misato and Ritsuko visit a private company's robot demonstration in Old Tokyo. Ritsuko asks the chief executive a question and he berates NERV in front of all journalists. This angers Ritsuko but seemingly doesn't hurt Misato. In private, however, Misato is furious, while Ritsuko seems calm and collected. When the launching of the robot goes wrong, Misato volunteers to catch the jet and delete its program to stop the destruction it's currently causing. Ritsuko believes it's a bad idea, but Misato is very enthusiastic. When Misato almost dies saving everyone, Ritsuko, visibly worried, calls her "an idiot".

Their friendship is put up to a challenge, when Misato learns about the Instrumentality Project. Misato grows increasingly distasteful of Ritsuko's nonchalance at the abuses committed by Nerv and they grow apart later in the series, particularly as Misato rekindles her relationship with Kaji, and is later obsessed with avenging his death.

Fanon
is a less popular ship, as most popular ships in the fandom mainly focus on the young generation, "the pilots". Many MisaRitsu fans believe that Ritsuko's disinterest in men, her aversion to romantic entanglements, and disappointment in Misato, when she disappeared from college for a week to spend it with Kaji could hint at Ritsuko being romantically fascinated with Misato. Ritsuko also has an alternative and somewhat more popular slash ship with Maya, RitsuMaya. In the Rebuild continuity the pairing is also suspected by some fans to be canon, sometimes during the timeskip, since Ritsuko broke off her relationship with Gendo go and Kaji died over a decade earlier, with both women remaining close and working together. Others point out this contradicts how they still feel about both men in the final film.

Detractors point out to both Misato and Ritsuko having canon relationships with men, Misato with Kaji and Ritsuko with Gendo. The former is very popular, while the latter is generally considered as toxic and negative, which drives some supporters to further argue for MisaRitsu. An OT3 with Kaji, himself a very popular character, is fairly popular also. Like RitsuMaya and other ships, it gets much fanservice and spin-offs and games and has some licenced artwork and merch.

Fandom
FAN FICTION
 * Akagi Ritsuko/Katsuragi Misato tag on FanFiction.net
 * Akagi Ritsuko/Katsuragi Misato tag on FanFiction.net

ART
 * Ritsuko/Misato tag on Pixiv