Asuka Langley Souryuu

Asuka is the Second Child ('Second Children' in the Japanese versions of NGE), who pilots Evangelion Unit 02. She is from Germany, but with an American father and a half-German, half-Japanese mother. Like Shinji, Asuka also has a difficulty being close to people, except unlike Shinji, who shells himself, Asuka's coping mechanism is over-aggressiveness and so she unintentionally hurts people she likes, pushing them away and thus sinking further into loneliness and self resentment. This issue is referred to as the "hedgehog's dilemma" and is a recurring motif in the story.