Angel (Neon Genesis Evangelion)
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In the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion, Angels are the beings which attack Tokyo-3 over the course of the story. They take no common form (ranging from enormous monsters to an octahedron to a young boy), and seem to have no common point of origin; very little about their nature is explained over the course of the series. Their AT field pattern is "blue".
The Japanese word used to refer to the Angels is shito (使徒), which literally means "messenger" or "apostle". The usual Japanese word for "angel" is tenshi (天使). This translation was specified by Gainax. It should be noted that the English angel is derived from the Greek for "messenger" (angelos), from which also comes the word "evangelion".
Most of this list is universally accepted, but there is a lack of consensus on some elements. Some reverse the first two angels. Some start the list with a 0th Angel or otherwise disagree with this list. The inclusion of Mankind as the "18th Angel" is particularly controversial, but is done for completeness.
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Adam
The first Angel is Adam. Adam was said to have the appearance of a giant being made from light. The act of containing Adam turned him into an embryonic form and caused Second Impact, killing half of humanity. Later, the embryonic Adam is implanted into NERV Commander Gendo Ikari's hand.
Adam is popularly believed to have been born with the rest of humanity from the second Angel, Lilith. However, this resulted from a translation error after the Japanese seiyuu incorrectly added a pause in a line of dialogue that changed Adam from being "like Lilith" to "like humans, coming from Lilith". The origins of Adam are never stated in the series, but it is entirely likely that it predates Lilith by some considerable margin, or at least is it's contemporary.
Lilith
The second Angel is Lilith. Lilith is the mother of mankind (who are referred to as the "Lilim" by Kaworu/Tabris). She is secured to a giant cross in Terminal Dogma by nails and by the Lance of Longinus. It is likely that the Rei clones were created from Lilith's legs, and her blood is generally reckoned to be the LCL fluid used to sychronize the pilots with their Evas. The mask she wears is the mask of God, with the seven eyes of God (Interestingly enough, Unit 00 has one eye, Unit 01 has two eyes, and Unit 02 has four eyes, so the total number of eyes of these three Evas is seven). This mask is also the logo of SEELE.
It has been argued that a statement by Misato in the End of Evangelion where she mentions Adam as being born from Lilith would mean that she, not Adam, is the first Angel. However, this resulted from a translation error in the U.S. release of the film that confused Adam's origins, and as such Lilith is correctly listed as the second Angel.
Sachiel
Sachiel is the third Angel, and the first Angel to attack Tokyo 3. It was heavily damaged by Berserker Eva Unit 01, then self-destructed. Sachiel is equipped with a powerful long range energy attack, and is successful in penetrating the Geofront using this attack. It is also equipped with two energy-nails protruding through each of its hands which have a medium to short range and can be turned on and off at will.
Shamshel
Shamshel is the fourth Angel, and the second Angel to attack Tokyo 3. Its appearance is similar to that of a squid, particularly in flight, although when deploying itself for combat it raises itself upright by 90 degrees while the "head" remains perpendicular to the body. It possesses a pair of energy whips, which can be used for attack. Shamshel was defeated by a fatal wound to its core, inflicted by Shinji, using the progressive knife. During the battle, Eva-01's umbilical cable is severed by Shamshel's energy whip, and Shinji defeats the Angel with only seconds of active time to spare.
Ramiel
The fifth Angel, Ramiel, is octahedron-shaped. It attempted to drill through the armour surrounding the geofront, and was the first Angel to make a creditable attempt to reach Terminal Dogma. Ramiel was a formidable angel capable of defending itself with an energy beam which would automatically target any object within a certain radius, and having an AT Field so powerful that it visibly warped light passing through the area around it. The fifth Angel was eventually defeated by Shinji in Eva-01, using a Positron cannon borrowed from the JSSDF, charged with the electricity from Japan's entire National Grid. Rei was responsible for protecting Shinji and Eva-01, using a heat-shield constructed from parts of a space shuttle. After the battle Eva-00 was extensively damaged, and when repaired, its new armor plating was blue, rather than the previous orange, and shoulder "blades" used as weapon storage (e.g., for the progressive knife) identical to those on Eva-01 and Eva-02 were added.
Gaghiel
The sixth Angel, Gaghiel, is the only Angel to be fought at sea. It was defeated by Asuka and Shinji in Eva-02, with the aid of two scuttled battleships, after damaging or destroying almost 1/3 of the UN combined fleet. Gaghiel itself has the appearance of a fishlike creature, and does not possess any armament other than a set of razor sharp teeth.
Israfel
When the seventh Angel, Israfel, was attacked, it split into 2 identical and highly coordinated "twins". It was defeated by a coordinated attack by Shinji and Asuka in Eva Units 01 and 02 (respectively).The attack was concerted via a musical score and memorization of moves.
Sandalphon
The eighth Angel, Sandalphon, was found as in an embryonic state, deep inside a volcano. Asuka was sent to capture it with a special "cage," using Eva-02, which was equipped with the D-Type Equipment, but it awoke, and rapidly developed into a mature form. It was defeated by Asuka using coolant and Eva-01's Progressive Knife. (Asuka dropped Eva-02's knife when Sandalphon awoke and Shinji dropped his knife down to her.)
Matarael
The ninth Angel, Matarael, was a massive, yet highly stealthy spider-like Angel with multiple "eyes" that attempted to burn a tunnel directly into the Geo Front by secreting a powerful acid. It appeared during a total power blackout in Tokyo-3 (caused by an unnamed terrorist/terrorists). It was defeated by the combined efforts of Eva-00, Eva-01, and Eva-02, all of which were running on battery power. This was the first combat operation involving all three units simultaneously.
Sahaquiel
The tenth Angel, Sahaquiel, made its appearance in low-earth orbit. It dropped pieces of itself down to earth, continuously refining its aim, and finally attempted a kamikaze run utilizing its entire mass as a massive falling bomb on Tokyo 3. Just before impacting the ground, it was intercepted and destroyed by all three Evas.
Ireul
The eleventh angel, Ireul, was something like a virus, or a nano-scale entity. It initially appeared in the Prinbow Box deep in the Geofront, then spread to where the pilots were taking part in tests on incomplete Eva models. It demonstrated an ability to rapidly adapt to new conditions, and before long it had figured out electronic circuitry and used this knowledge to penetrate into the Magi's defense systems. It read many critical files and initiated a self-destruct sequence, before being slowed down long enough to allow the computer technicians (including Ritsuko and Maya) to order a successful self-destruct of the Angel.
Leliel
The twelfth Angel, Leliel, manifested itself as a floating black & white striped sphere (Leliel's shadow) and a thin black circle on the ground (Leliel's body). It moved its body underneath Eva-01 after Shinji tried to attack its shadow, causing Eva-01 to sink into Leliel. Leliel's body was speculated to be a Sea of Dirac. It was thought by scientists at NERV that there would have been no way Eva-01 and Shinji could ever escape. They decided that the only valid strategy for defeating Leliel would be to drop all N2 mines currently in existence on it, a plan which they believed would destroy the angel along with Eva-01 and Shinji. Fortunately, before Shinji's oxygen ran out, Eva-01 went berserk and destroyed the Angel from the inside.
Bardiel
The 13th angel, Bardiel, was a cloud creature that infected Eva Unit 03 while in aerial transport from the United States to Japan. The infection prevented the Entry Plug from being ejected, caused its arms to elongate and allowed it to operate for an extended period without an umbilical cable. Infection first manifested itself during inital activation test at Matsushiro Secondary Test Facility, injuring Misato who was at the site. Bardiel disabled Eva-02, and severely damaged Eva-00 after unsuccessfully trying to infect it. Shinji, piloting Eva-01, was reluctant to destroy it himself because of the fact that it contained a human pilot, even though this pilot's identity was still unknown to Shinji. Gendo Ikari cared more for the destruction of the angel than the life of the pilot, and switched Eva-01's control to the Dummy Plug system, which not only destroyed the angel, but also nearly killed the pilot of Eva-03 by crushing his entry plug. This incident prompted Shinji to resign from NERV for the second time.
Zeruel
The 14th Angel, Zeruel, caused considerable damage to Eva Units 00, 01 and 02. It appeared as a floating creature, as large as the Eva units but lacking humanoid limbs. It used a very powerful beam attack and folding foil-like 'arms' as extendable cutting weapons. This angel penetrated into NERV headquarters after defeating Eva-00 and Eva-02, and was only stopped by Eva-01, which then consumed the Angel's S2 (Super Solenoid) engine, giving it an independent power source.
Arael
The 15th Angel Arael attacked from space, outside the range of conventional / military weapons. It attacked Asuka's mind with a beam of light before she could shoot it down. It appeared to have wings that were very large compared to the body and glowed intensely white. It was destroyed by Rei who threw the Lance of Longinus at it from the ground. The Lance was lost to the gravitational pull of the Moon, and was abandoned as irretrievable.
Armisael
The 16th Angel, Armisael, initially appeared as a glowing floating torus. It revealed a double-helix structure before combat, but then returned to the single glowing thread and detached from itself to form a snake-like line. It has no visible external features, but appeared to look at Eva-00 with the tail end when it was deployed. When the Angel attempted to physically merge with Eva-00, the pilot, Rei, was similiarly affected as she was synchronised with the Eva. Rei self-destructed her Eva to prevent the Angel from merging with Eva-00. The angel appeared to communicate with Rei during the period of contact.
Tabris
Tabris, the 17th Angel and the Fifth Child, was sent by SEELE as a replacement pilot for Unit 02 when Asuka's synch ratio dropped under functional levels. It has the form of a 15-year-old boy, and is known to NERV as Kaworu Nagisa; see that page for more information. Tabris was able to fly and operate Unit 02 with a form of telepathic remote control (and apparently allow the Eva to function without an external power source.)
Lilim (Mankind)
Mankind is referred to as Lilim by Kaworu. Since the Angels are humans which rejected the human form, or alternate incarnations of humanity, the human form can be considered the 18th Angel. This may conflict with the theory that the Angels were those that ate from the Tree of Life (thus their impressive physical abilities, such as rapid regeneration and incredible fortitude) while the original human(s) ate from the Tree of Knowledge (thus their technological superiority).ja:使徒 (新世紀エヴァンゲリオン)