Ritsuko Akagi

Dr. Ritsuko Akagi (赤木 リツコ, Akagi Ritsuko?) is a fictional character from Neon Genesis Evangelion franchise. She is NERV's head scientist and is heavily involved in the repairs and maintenance of Tokyo-3's defenses against the Angels, particularly the Evangelions.

She is the daughter of Naoko Akagi, the developer of the Magi supercomputer system which controls NERV. In many ways, Ritsuko is living in the shadow of her mother, whom she both admires and despises. Naoko was the head scientist working on the Evangelion project before her death, and Ritsuko is continuing the work her mother began with the Evas, as well as continuing the development of the Magi supercomputer system. Flashbacks to a teenaged Ritsuko reveal that she is a natural brunette, just like her mother.

Ritsuko is extremely intelligent, with a strong dedication to her work and a stoic, detached attitude which is frequently contrasted against Misato Katsuragi's hotheadedness, especially during combat situation. Her occasional jibes at Misato are a source of comic relief in the series. She has a great affinity for cats, and Misato chides her at one point for substituting her cats for human affection. She also is a heavy smoker, as evidenced by an ashtray on her desk filled with cigarette butts stained by her lipstick.

Gendo Ikari

Like her mother Naoko before her, Ritsuko was romantically involved with Gendo at one point.[2] It is unclear to what extent her dedication to her work stems from her love for Gendo. After he offers her up to SEELE in order to protect Rei, she responds by destroying the Dummy Plug system.

Naoko Akagi

Ritsuko has a seemingly love-hate relationship with her mother, living in her shadow throughout her own life. Naoko was certainly someone Ritsuko looked up to and admired for her skill as a scientist; it is through her notes that Ritsuko is able to defeat Ireul and, in The End of Evangelion, to set up the firewall that stalled SEELE's hacking of Magi. In the end, though, Naoko placed her scientific duties at Gehirn over the raising of her daughter; Ritsuko states that she hated her as a mother. Flashbacks show Ritsuko as a natural brunette, like Naoko; perhaps her most obvious move in distancing herself from her mother is the bleaching of her hair blonde. One of her greatest frustrations is falling in the same traps of life her mother did—namely, falling for Gendo Ikari and being a "total workaholic", as Kaji calls her. After SEELE interrogates her, she stares at a picture on her computer of her mother and Gendo standing close to each other, with Ritsuko off to the side. In The End of Evangelion, it is Naoko's programming in Caspar (her "woman" analogue in Magi) that prevented Ritsuko from destroying the Magi system; she attributed this to her mother choosing Gendo over her daughter one final time.

Misato Katsuragi

Ritsuko met Misato, along with Kaji, in college. Misato had been mute for two years following Second Impact, but was now a chatterbox, described by Ritsuko as making up for the years of her muteness. In a letter to her mother, Ritsuko describes Misato as someone interested in getting to know her for who she was, not otherwise: "Here's someone who is honest, even with me."

(This implies that even Ritsuko's younger years were darkened by her famous mother's shadow.) The more formal Ritsuko often disapproves of Misato's slovenly lifestyle and sometimes childish behaviour, but she clearly values the friendship; the jibes back and forth between the very Zen Ritsuko and the hyperactive Misato are often a source of comic relief. However, as Misato matures over the course of the series and realizes how many secrets NERV (including Ritsuko) kept from her, her anger coupled with Ritsuko's inability to confide her feelings in others cause their friendship to unravel, revealing the difference in ethics and morals between the two women. Toward the end of the series, in moments of anger, Misato refers to Ritsuko as "Dr. Akagi", while the latter, maintaining her calm, always calls Misato by her first name.

Ryoji Kaji

After Misato met Kaji, he became a part of the small group of friends that included Ritsuko. Though disapproving of his lackadaisical, "frivolous" nature—and, by extension, his and Misato's inability to commit—she appears to like Kaji very much, and when he comes back into their lives years later, she is warm and receptive of him—and even his flirting. She attends Kensuke and Toji's promotion party for Misato with Kaji—much to Asuka's disdain. Despite this, Kaji appears to represent competition for Misato's affections; this comes to a head in episode 20 when Misato passes up a chance for a drink with Ritsuko for meeting Kaji, leaving Ritsuko feeling alone. By then, the cracks in her friendship with Misato are evident. While Kaji never showed any open hostility toward her, he was aware of the extent of Ritsuko's involvement in the Human Instrumentality Project and Project E, and of the secrets she kept from him and Misato.

Shinji Ikari

While always strictly professional, Ritsuko took a more motherly, kindly, less intense approach with Shinji (as opposed to the more high-strung Misato)

Always firm but encouraging him to try his hardest time and again. She appears to like him to a certain very limited extent, and she trusts him to do as he's told. She colludes with Shinji in chiding Misato on her disastrous approach to instant food, asking to be invited over to dinner instead "when Shinji's cooking". Nevertheless, when it comes to Project E, Ritsuko is not above sacrificing the pilots' lives—including Shinji's—in order to achieve the project's ends. Upon Misato's urging, Ritsuko begins the procedure which brings Shinji back from absorption by Unit 01, though she herself states in the end that it wasn't her actions that led to the procedure's success. Shinji's cynicism allows him to excel at reading people, and he compares Misato's calm, collected, take-control attitude on board the UN Pacific Fleet to Ritsuko's. In retaliation for her interrogation by SEELE, Ritsuko takes Shinji (and Misato) down to Terminal Dogma and reveals to them the true nature of the Evangelions before destroying the Dummy Plugs before their eyes.

Rei Ayanami

Ritsuko's relationship with Rei varies between the anime series, manga, and film tetralogy. In essence, she views Rei as a replacement for Yui (which, technically, she was) and thus competition for Gendo's affections. In the series, Ritsuko compares Rei to Gendo, describing her to Shinji as "a good girl, though like your father, she isn't good at...living." While Ritsuko and Rei's connection is fleetingly mentioned in the series, it is much more developed in Sadamoto's manga, where Ritsuko witnessed Rei I's murder at the hands of Naoko and her mother's subsequent suicide. As such, Ritsuko harbours much resentment toward Rei as the source of much of her unhappiness, exacerbated by Gendo's distinct interest in Rei and by her knowledge of Rei's true nature.As Rei's emotional landscape begins to flesh out through constant contact with Shinji, she realizes the nature of Ritsuko's feelings for Gendo, causing Ritsuko to snap.