| NOTE: This page is only about the original anime series version of Kaworu Nagisa as the Manga and Rebuild versions are not TUG and thus only information on the original version of Kaworu Nagisa should be here. |
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"Mature Content!" |
| “ | Kaworu Nagisa: Because It's my destiny to continue to live, even if it may result in the destruction of humanity. But I can also die here. Life and death are of equal value to me. Dying of your own will. That is the one and only absolute freedom there is. Shinji Ikari: What? Kaworu-kun, I don't understand what you're saying! Kaworu-kun... Kaworu Nagisa: And, you are not a being who should die. Your people need the future. Thank you. I'm glad I met you. |
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| ~ Kaworu Nagisa most famous last words to Shinji Ikari, deciding to let Shinji kill him so he could sacrifice himself for the sake of humanity and all life on earth due to his love and respect for them and gratitude for Shinji's kindness. |
Kaworu Nagisa otherwise known as The Fifth Child or Tabris, is an anti-villainous antagonist turned major protagonist in the iconic Studio Gainax mecha psychological drama anime series, Neon Genesis Evangelion and a posthumous overarching protagonist in its renowned finale film End Of Evangelion.
He is first introduced in Episode 24, “The Beginning and the End, or ‘Knock in’ on Heaven’s Door”’, as a replacement pilot for Asuka Langley, after her unsuccessful suicide attempt, who shows incredible syncing capabilities with the EVA unit, and develops a deep and emotional relationship with the main protagonist, Shinji Ikari, being his implied lover. However, it's revealed that he is actually the Final Angel, Tabris, who has been created from the Seed of Life to be a sleeper agent to help achieve Third Impact under the pretense of it leaving Angels the dominant race. Upon finding out the truth about the entity beneath Dogma is actually Lillth instead of Adam, he lets Shinji kill him to let humanity live over his own children. Returning in End of Evangelion, he returns to let Shinji know about the true worth of life itself and also berated Gendo Ikari for his abusive treatment of his teenage son, which allows Shinji Ikari and Rei Ayanami to undergo their heel face turn and bring back the human race by rejecting Human Instrumentality, ending SEELE's secret agenda to obtain godhood. He had also gone down as one of the most iconic characters in the history of anime and probably all of Evangelion.
He is voiced by Akira Ishida in Japanese and Kyle Sturdivant in the ADV English version, Greg Ayres in the Directors Cut, and Clifford Chaplin in the newer Netflix dub.
Actions & Characteristics[]
- While he started off as an anti-villainous antagonist who caused many heinous actions such as being the catalyst for Second Impact by wiping out nearly all of humanity and tried to merge with Adam to cause Third Impact and emotionally damaged Shinji Ikari to the point where he initiated Third Impact, by the time he learned the truth about Lillth and Lab Dogma, he redeemed himself into a noble and selfless hero who would go as far as sacrificing himself to save humanity and turn his back on the conspirators who raised him to help Shinji Ikari bring back the thousands of lives lost during Human Instrumentality.
- He is the most admirable hero in Neon Genesis Evangelion, as he has surpassed Shinji Ikari by committing numerous kindhearted actions than him such as being responsible for the redemption of Rei Ayanami and Shinji Ikari by encouraging the former to seek out her own will as a human and the latter by providing him with his first genuine emotional attachment and kindness in his life. His most important action was sacrificing himself to save humanity by choosing them to inherit the Earth over his children and his own words to Shinji is what caused him to bring back humanity and as well fulfilling Yui’s plans of reversing Human Instrumentality and undermining SEELE’s secret agenda to obtain godhood. This is considered to be the most admirable action in the entire series which even surpasses the basic admirable standards of the anime.
- He is one of the most influential characters of Neon Genesis Evangelion, he being salved from the soul of Adam, he is responsible for causing Second Impact and kickstarting the events of the anime series, which led to the creation of NERV. Despite having made an appearance in one episode, he has left a massive impact on the storyline as he was the first person who show Shinji true emotional attachment and he also encouraged Rei Ayanami to be her own person by showing her Lillth, making him responsible for their heel face turn's in the series. Even after his death, he returns to Shinji to remind him of how much of an effect he had on him with his kindness and his words to Shinji cause him to reject Human Instrumentality and revert all life back to normal.
- He is the most noble hero in the series, as he is described by the series as a “perfect person”, since he is shown to be a empathetic and loving individual who even before his heel face turn showed a love and respect for human culture such as their music and cares about building relationships and friendships and is nothing like his species as he does the most kindness actions that even surpass Shinji Ikari in this regard. Despite being an Angel and having access to insidious powers, he is nothing like the rest of his race as he has proven himself to be the Angel of Free Will, who is one of the few most actively heroic characters of the work who is given the strongest willpower out of anyone in the series and unlike Shinji and Rei, has never fallen into corruption. In fact, the only migrating factor he has is that he forces Shinji to make him help in his suicide, which emotionally breaks him into causing Third Impact, but this helps him bring all of humanity back after remembering his words, so this is minor since it helps with his most admirable action yet.
- Despite his chaotic and nihilistic outlook has proven himself to ultimately be the real paragon of the anime, even more so than Yui Ikari herself, believing in the equal rights of humanity and brings out the best in everyone there is, like Reí and Shinji, by providing him with his first genuine emotional attachment and encouraging Reí to find her own will as an individual, leading to her to turn against Gendo. He also condemns Gendo during his death for his abusive actions towards Shinji and running away from his own pain and loneliness. He is also a scapegoat by nature, since every heinous action he committed was against his own will, and not to mention that would cease to do such as actions and would reform himself into a optimistic and remorseful philanthropist, who would appear to Shinji to demonstrate his love towards him and along with Reí, grants all life forms the ability to return to their physical forms.
- He's a decently powerful and formidable figure due to being able to have access to his other Angel powers, such as being able to excel in his synch rates with ease, and was able to activate his Eva Unit without having a soul and not to mention that he was able to hold off his own against Shinji Ikari while having the ability to fly thanks to being an Angel. After being fused into Adam with Lilith, he was able to appear to Shinji in visions to comfort him and was able to bring back all life to the life forms on the Earth who were wiped out by Third Impact.
- While it is true that there are other heroes like Yui and Shinji Ikari have far more influence and abmirability on the plot, such as the former being responsible for the creation of the Eva Units and had concocted a plan to subvert SEELE's Human Instrumentality, she was too much of a neutral extremist whose noble intentions are morally ambiguous, and the latter, which is her son Shinji, while being the main driving force of the series, was also far too inconsistent to be even considered TUG.
- He has a degree of symbolism to him as he represents most of the messiahs and hope-bringers in the Bible. As he is the messenger of the Angels, as with Moses and Jesus Christ, representing them with free will as like what most of them give. He also came from a troubled background as was raised by a villain or an important figure and manages to reject his own destiny like Moses and manages to represent a symbol of hope and free will in the Evangelion anime, like with most of them, representing himself as paragon in Evangelion, due to representing free will and hope like with most of the figures seen in Catholic religion.
- While it was true that he committed many arguably heinous actions had was very influential in his own right as his time as a villain, he was used and raised as a pawn by Keel Lorenz to help SEELE in their agenda from the start and he is far from being the most evil due to having numerous redeeming qualities, and not to mention he would cease to do such villainous deeds and redeem himself into becoming a full-on hero, who is far more morally righteous and positive than most of the characters in the show and directly seeks to atone for his crimes, as seen by him helping sacrifice himself to save humanity out of gratitude for Shinji's kindness and help remind him about the words he said to him before his demise to help him subvert Human Instrumentality and bring all of humanity and life on Earth back.