AsuRei

AsuRei is the femslash between Asuka Langley Sohryu and Rei Ayanami from the Neon Genesis Evangelion fandom.

Canon
When she's introduced in Episode 8, Asuka attempts to befriend Rei, however Rei declines her invitation to be friends because she “will only do what she’s ordered to”. During the Action Arc Asuka seems quite curious about Rei and thinks they are natural friends as both are elite Eva pilots. Asuka repeatedly attempts to get closer to Rei, as part of her earlier attempt to "lead" the pilots, but she rebuffs her. This leads to growing apathy, which evolves into resentment and rivalry. Asuka finds Rei insufferable and servile, calling her "Doll" or "Wonder Girl’", which Rei attempts to correct. Rei, in turn, acts dismissive of Asuka and simply refers to her as "Second Child". Rei's easier rapport with Shinji also causes much envy in Asuka, as does her good relationship with their superiors.

In the second half of the series, Asuka gradually gets worse and her distaste for Rei intensifies. Rei is not obvlious to this however, in Episode 22, she shows sympathy for Asuka's worsening state and synchronization scores, attempt to give her advice, but Asuka is strongly offended and yells that she hates her. She is outraged that Commander Ikari uses her as a distraction and has Rei save her.

Their relationship is initially similar in the Rebuild of Evangelion continuity, but takes on more positive tones. In the second movie, they fight more openly for Shinji's affections and Asuka confront her on her feelings for him, but Asuka resigns herself and Rei attempts to make a gesture of goodwill by inviting her to a dinner and cooking for her and others, while Asuka herself chooses to pilot Unit 03 to let her and Shinji enjoy a dinner with Commander Ikari. In the third and fourth film, Asuka is largely indifferent to the new Rei clones.

Fanon
AsuRei ship is the most popular femslash ship in the fandom. One reason is because there aren’t many female characters to ship with either of them Aside from Hikari and Mari but since Mari’s age has never been confirmed some fans prefer to ship Asuka with someone who they know is the same age as her. Another reason could be because of the ‘Enemies To Lovers’ or ‘Rivals To Lovers’ tropes that’s popular in anime along with the ‘Opposites Attract Trope’. Some fans may also ship this as a way to pair them off because they ship KawoShin, rivaling with the main het ships AsuShin and ReiShin. Contrariwise, KawoRei can be used to pair off both. The AsuReiShin OT3 is also very popular. With the Rebuild movies however, AsuMari has supplanted much of femslash shipping with Asuka for the 2010s onwards as many fans believe they have a more positive relationship.

Due to Asuka and Rei being both extremely popular characters, some of the most legendary in all of anime, and the obvious commercial appeal of pairing them, they have menstruous quantities of merchandise, licensed art and are greatly expanded in spin-offs and manga. Sometimes their material is reused or adapted for KawoShin merch. During his short appearance in the Shinji Ikari Rasing Project spin-off manga they both notice that Kaworu and Shinji are getting too close and put their differences aside and push him away from Kaworu. They get increasingly frustrated and simply start complaining about men. Later on, after Kaworu disappears from the story, they also fight over Shinji only to grow together again when Mana Kirishma, an original character from one of the games, appears in a provocative role very similar towards Shinji, though longer lived than Kaworu. The ending for SIRP seems to hint at an OT3 with Shinji as he does not fully commit to either of them. Though their rival dynamic persists as in Angelic Days, they develop a much closer relationship in almost all spin-offs and games, such as in the Campus Apocalypse and Evangelion ANIMA spin-offs.

Fandom

 * FAN FICTION
 * Rei/Asuka tag on FFN
 * Rei/Asuka tag on FFN

PIXIV

Trivia

 * Asuka and Rei are shown to be intimate in a lot of official arts and even in a figurine.

Variations

 * AsuReiShin refers to the ship between the two and Shinji Ikari

Navigation
AsuRei