Angel

Biodata

Background / History

According to Huang Zhetian, the Angels arrived on Earth countless years before humanity. He attributes First Impact and the subsequent emergence of life to them, challenging Asuka’s assumption that they are simply foreign invaders. He also states that Second Impact began when humans discovered an Angel and removed the Spear of Longinus. This account contradicts the information NERV gave the pilots, and Huang asks them to keep it secret 41.

Huang identifies the Evas as copies of the First Angel and says the Dead Sea Scrolls record information about every Angel. The organization following those prophecies seeks to turn humanity into gods, making the Angel encounters part of a deliberately managed scenario rather than merely a sequence of attacks 41.

Angel cores also have technological value. Gendo obtains approval for the A-17 Directive to capture a living Angel for its S2 Core, which is needed to advance Mass Production Unit development. Separately, SEELE discusses arranging an early S² Engine merger with Unit-01, while Gendo intends to proceed with giving the unit an engine despite the committee’s objections 13 17 23.

Adam, Lilith, and Humanity

Kaji initially identifies the crucified being beneath NERV as Adam, the First Angel and the origin of events surrounding Second Impact. Later passages identify the being in Terminal Dogma as Lilith, making the earlier identification part of the information concealed or misrepresented within NERV 61 127.

Ritsuko subsequently explains that humanity attempted to restore Adam to an egg before the other Angels awakened, triggering Second Impact. Research readings indicated that human genes had been used in the restoration process. MAGI calculated that an Angel born during that event could therefore possess a human appearance and have fallen into the committee’s hands; Ritsuko identifies Kaworu Nagisa as the probable final Angel born there 126.

During the assault on NERV, Misato identifies humanity as the Eighteenth Angel, descended from Lilith rather than Adam. She describes the other Angels as alternate developmental possibilities that abandoned the human form, explaining their mutual rejection of humanity despite their underlying kinship. She also confirms that humans deliberately initiated Second Impact and that the Mass Production Evas, rather than an attacking Angel, are intended to trigger Third Impact 131.

Mental Contact and NERV’s Findings

Later Angels attack more than physical defenses. Night Angel invades Shinji’s and Huang’s mental worlds, the Bird Angel directs a mental-contamination attack at Asuka, and the Womb Angel probes its victims’ loneliness, attachments, and motives 65 108 113.

After the Night Angel incident, Misato tells SEELE that NERV cannot yet determine whether Angels possess minds in the human sense or understand human thought. She also states that previous encounter patterns have ruled out an organizational relationship between the Angels 67.

Rebuild Developments and Impact Rituals

The later Rebuild storyline presents a distinct account of the Adams. Four Angels called the Adams were discovered in Antarctica before Second Impact, and the subsequent ritual purified marine life worldwide. A later revelation identifies Mark.06 as the body of a sixth Adam discovered on the Moon, whose extracted soul was placed in a boy’s body to become Kaworu Nagisa, designated the First Angel in that storyline 168 182.

Huang explains that an Impact requires the sacrifice of an Angel or a sufficiently Angel-like catalyst. His account links the Power Angel to Near Third Impact, Kaworu’s reassignment as the Thirteenth Angel to Near Fourth Impact, and Asuka’s use of Angel blood to a later sacrifice associated with Fifth Impact 141.

Gendo intends the Rebuild Twelfth Angel to enter Central Dogma and merge with Mark.06, exploiting the principle that Adam’s descendants return to Adam. Later, Mark.09 decapitates Mark.06 and releases the Angel’s particles, which gather around Unit-13. Unit-13 devours the Twelfth Angel, deifies, opens the GUF Gate, and begins Fourth Impact as the Black Moon rises 182 217.

Artificial Angels also appear as military assets. A4B-Type units are described as capable of aerial and space combat, while Artificial Angel 4A serves as a guardian of the orbitally sealed Unit-01. Artificial Angels later participate alongside Mark.09 in an attack that damages WILLE’s Hope 193 194 203.

Huang Zhetian’s Angelization

Huang’s clone adopts the identity of an Angel inhabiting a human body when negotiating with Gendo, Fuyutsuki, and Kaworu. This is a cover story supported by his ability to manifest an A.T. Field and control electronic components; Kaworu notes that he cannot sense an Angel signature from the clone, despite its Angel-like field. Huang’s original body, unlike the clone, has actually undergone Angelization following Angel corrosion 181.

His developed Angelized form can remotely control an Eva, fly and cut with A.T. Fields, and suppress opponents with overlapping fields. Huang later switches freely between human and Angel states, although his Angelized personality becomes unusually cold and detached 197 199.

Huang intervenes against Mark.09 in Angelized form during Fourth Impact. In a later confrontation, he awakens the New Special Unit and transforms into an Angel to attack Unit-13 with a Forced Shutdown Signal Plug, but Unit-13 captures him and carries him into its Entry Plug 217 234.

Power Progression

The Angels are separate entities rather than one individual advancing through a shared ranking system. The following table records newly demonstrated capabilities, transformations, and related developments in chapter order.

Abilities & Skills

A.T. Field

• Defensive barrier: Shamshel blocks a Particle Knife until Huang activates his own A.T. Field; the Music Angel similarly stops machine-gun fire 1 14.
• Resistance to military weapons: Naval attacks fail to penetrate the Fish Angel’s field, while N² Air Missiles leave the Space Angel unscathed 7 46.
• Offensive use: The Space Angel crushes monitoring satellites with its field and combines it with falling impacts to cause massive destruction 46.
• Countermeasures: Eva fields can neutralize an Angel’s barrier, allowing knives or other weapons to reach its vulnerable interior. Multiple Eva fields do not guarantee protection: the split Music Angel shatters the three pilots’ combined defense 14 25 47.
• Layered barriers: The Power Angel produces successive defensive fields. Huang’s Ten Thousand Swords Become One tears through these layers, but the Angel survives because its core remains protected 78.
• Field folding and projection: The Rebuild Power Angel folds its fields to accelerate its descent, blasts opponents away with compressed layers, and rotates folded fields around itself to intercept attacks 177.
• Optical distortion: The Rebuild Eighth Angel’s absolute territory bends light, resists N² Aerial Depth Charges, and concentrates at one end of its descending body to enhance its impact 168.
• Human-form manifestation: Kaworu generates an A.T. Field without an Eva. Huang’s Angelized body likewise uses fields for defense, cutting, flight, partitioning, and multilayered suppression 126 197 199.
• Mental protection: Huang’s Wall of the Heart withstands the Bird Angel’s mental-contamination attack, allowing him to retrieve Unit-02 108.

Core / S² Engine

• The core is a decisive attack target: repeated Particle Knife strikes defeat simulated Shamshel, and a combined kick breaks the Music Angel’s core 2 17.
• The Fish Angel’s core lies inside its body, requiring an attack through its mouth rather than a straightforward external strike 8.
• The Space Angel collapses after Asuka drives a Progressive Knife into its S² Engine 47.
• The Power Angel protects its S² Core beneath a thin layer of skin even after suffering catastrophic bodily damage. Its ability to repair the surrounding body makes failure to destroy the core especially consequential 78.
• Unit-01 devours the Power Angel’s core under Dummy System control. Its synchronization rate reaches 400%, Shinji dissolves into the LCL, and the Eva awakens and breaks its restraints 79.
• The Rebuild Rain Angel possesses an upper decoy core and a much larger lower core. Destroying the decoy initiates a structural transformation rather than killing it 165.
• Mari destroys the Rebuild Third Angel’s core with Unit-05’s mechanical hands, then ejects before the unit’s self-destruction eliminates both bodies 164.

Individual Offensive Abilities

• Cross-shaped energy attacks: Shamshel, the Music Angel, and the fully hatched volcanic Angel fire destructive beams. The Music Angel’s beam pierces Unit-01’s waist and severely burns Shinji 1 14 25.
• Corrosive liquid: The Rain Angel releases highly corrosive fluid from its enormous eye, damaging Evas and severing their power connections 41 42.
• Physical restraint: Shamshel grabs and throws an Eva; the Fish Angel attacks with crushing jaws; the volcanic Angel uses tentacles to seize the Special Unit’s foot 1 8 25.
• Orbital bombardment and interference: The Space Angel drops duplicates toward Earth and disrupts radio tracking during its descent 46 47.
• Ribbon and bandage weapons: The Power Angel’s long strips restrain weapons, sever Eva limbs, and assist bodily repair. In Rebuild, its bandages can form a heavy fist, seize Eva ankles, and slice through a mountain peak 78 79 177 178.
• Sustained laser attacks: The Power Angel fires powerful lasers from its eyes and mouth, including a beam capable of contesting the Special Unit’s concentrated energy attack 177 178 180.
• Exceptional speed: The original Unit-03-possessing Angel covers approximately two thousand meters in less than three seconds before disabling Unit-02 71.
• Weapon appropriation: The Womb Angel contaminates the Greatsword and a double-bladed saw, gives their surfaces biological veins, and hurls them at the Evas. The saw severs Unit-02’s right arm, while the Greatsword pins Unit-00 112.
• Angelized laser emission: Huang’s Angel form uses multiform laser pillars and later fires a red laser at Mark.09 199 217.

Division, Learning, and Evolution

• Division and recombination: The Music Angel becomes two coordinated bodies after Asuka cuts it in half. Those bodies can merge again and deploy an A.T. Field 14 17.
• Aim correction: The Space Angel adjusts its bombardment after its first falling duplicate misses, leading NERV to recognize that it is learning 46.
• Rapid adaptation: The unnamed facility intruder initially appears vulnerable to ozone, then absorbs it, generates heat, and resumes spreading 50.
• Computer infiltration: That intruder attacks MAGI with processing speed beyond the operators’ ability to respond. Huang proposes accelerating its evolution toward extinction, but the supplied account does not confirm its destruction 50.
• Regeneration: The Power Angel visibly grows new tissue across deep wounds. Its strips can dissolve into damaged areas to repair them, allowing it to recover even after its body has been diagonally severed 78.
• Absorptive transformation: The Rebuild Power Angel fuses with Unit-00 and absorbs Rei, subsequently developing a female humanoid body and exhibiting altered thinking 178 179.

Possession and Corrosion

• Eva infection: The Angel inside Unit-03 takes control during activation, prevents emergency Entry Plug ejection with web-like material, and moves the Eva after its external power supply is severed 70.
• Pilot contamination: In Rebuild, the Ninth Angel attacks Huang directly inside Unit-03’s Entry Plug while also infecting the Eva. Huang uses a personal A.T. Field to resist its advance and later weakens its control from within 173.
• Biological and mechanical spread: The Womb Angel’s contamination affects weapons, Eva bodies, and their pilots. Pulsing veins spread across the Special Unit and Huang while the Angel restrains the Eva 112 113.
• Remote Eva control: Kaworu activates and controls Unit-02 without entering its Entry Plug. Huang’s developed Angelized body later gains external control over his own Eva 126 197.
• System-derived imitation: Huang receives Corrode and Control Electronic Components after killing the Rebuild Ninth Angel. The skill lets him control infiltrated electronics or Evas in a manner compared to Angel corrosion, but its use by his clone does not make that clone biologically Angelized 181.

Spatial and Mental Intrusion

• Shadow engulfment: Night Angel suddenly appears over Tokyo-3 and draws Unit-01 and the Special Unit into a vast spreading shadow. NERV initially detects an orange pattern with no A.T. Field response 63.
• Constructed mental worlds: Night Angel invades its captives’ minds, presenting Shinji with a train-carriage environment and another version of himself. Huang experiences a separate illusion drawn from his own memories 65.
• Mental-contaminating light: The Bird Angel attacks from satellite orbit with brilliant light that overwhelms Asuka before she can evade it 108.
• Psychological probing: The Womb Angel exposes Rei’s loneliness and attachment to Shinji, while questioning Huang’s motives for saving Asuka and accusing him of hypocrisy 113.
• Assumed forms: During its mental contact, the Womb Angel appears as Huang; during the physical battle, it also takes Rei’s form and embraces Unit-01 113.
• Kaworu’s perception: Huang regards Kaworu as capable of reading hearts and suspects him of influencing emotions, but the emotional-influence mechanism is not confirmed in the supplied account 106.

Documented Angels and Encounters

Rebuild Storyline Encounters

These encounters belong to the later Rebuild storyline and are recorded separately where names, numbers, origins, or circumstances differ from the earlier account 111 141.

System Rewards

Huang’s system assigns different rewards to individual Angels and explicitly warns that richer rewards indicate greater danger 8 13.

The system confirms the volcanic Angel mission’s 7,000-point reward after the Angel and volcano are destroyed 25.

Notes

• Numbering inconsistency: The volcanic embryo is introduced under the chapter title “Discovery of the Eighth Angel,” but the Rain Angel is also explicitly called the Eighth Angel later 22 41.
• Reward discrepancy: An early passage calls the Ninth Angel the weakest and values it at 800 points. The later Rain Angel mission is worth 1,000 points, with Huang remarking that it “used to be 800 points”; the supplied material does not reconcile these references 8 40.
• Storyline-dependent designations: Kaworu is introduced as the Seventeenth Angel, the Freedom Angel, in the original storyline, but the later Rebuild account identifies him as the First Angel and connects his soul to the lunar Adam. The Rebuild Ninth Angel and Twelfth Angel also have circumstances distinct from the earlier Unit-03 and Night Angel encounters 63 70 106 173 182.
• Adam/Lilith identification: Kaji’s early presentation of the crucified being as Adam should not be treated as an independently verified identification; later scenes identify it as Lilith 61 127.
• Signature limitations: An orange pattern does not by itself exclude an Angel. Night Angel initially registers orange with no A.T. Field response, and infected Unit-03 also initially produces an uncertain orange reading 63 71.
• Angel impersonation versus Angelization: Huang’s clone claims Angel status as a cover, whereas his original body has actually undergone Angelization. Kaworu observes that the clone lacks a detectable Angel signature despite manifesting an A.T. Field 181.
• Unconfirmed outcomes: The facility intruder’s defeat is not established by Chapter 50. Likewise, the supplied later passages do not explicitly resolve the final outcomes of the Bird Angel, Rebuild Ramiel, or Rebuild Eighth Angel encounters 50 108 109 161 168.