Angel

Biodata

Power Progression

The documented enhancement sequence concerns the Eighth Angel, the Embryo Angel, rather than a shared ranking system.

Background / History

According to Yui Ikari, Adam arrived on Earth inside the White Moon and created fifteen Angels. Adam possessed the Fruit of Life. Later, the Black Moon, carrying Lilith and the Fruit of Knowledge, struck Earth and sent Adam and the Angels into a deep sleep 22.

Humanity discovered the Black Moon and Lilith in 2000, brought Lilith under its control, and built NERV’s base and Tokyo-3 within the Black Moon. Yui links this incident to the Angels beginning to awaken. Adam was reduced to an embryo during Second Impact 22.

The attacking Angels seek the being beneath NERV because they believe it is Adam. Their goal is to evolve by merging with him, although their intended destination actually houses Lilith 22.

SEELE’s Human Instrumentality Project requires every Angel to be eliminated before Lilith is sacrificed with the Lance of Longinus. The plan would reduce Earth’s life to LCL and merge it with the substance composing the Angels, uniting the Fruit of Life and Fruit of Knowledge into a single life-form 22.

Known Angels

Names and numbering below follow their identification in the novel.

Biology & Identification

• Wave-particle composition: Ritsuko establishes that Angels consist of matter with wave-particle duality, comparing it to light 14.
• Similarity to humanity: The recovered Day Angel’s waveform has a signal arrangement and coordinates 99.89 percent similar to human genes, despite differing constituent elements 14.
• Blue identification pattern: NERV distinguishes Zero from an Angel because his identification pattern is not blue. The Embryo Angel’s revival introduces an additional non-blue energy reaction associated with the Belial Splinter 18 49.
• Intelligence assessment: Zero concludes that Angels are not intelligent life. Father of Ultra likewise determines that they do not constitute a civilization, permitting Space Garrison intervention when they attack humanity 14 23.
• Pain assessment: Zero maintains that Angels cannot feel pain, even when their injuries provoke roars and reactions described as agony 49 50.

Abilities & Skills

AT Field

Angels protect themselves with an AT Field, a barrier that makes conventional human weapons ineffective 2 9.

• Blocks missiles, artillery, gunfire, and torpedoes; even the immobilized Fish Angel remains unharmed by the fleet’s barrage 2 29 30.
• Can be neutralized by an EVA’s own AT Field, allowing the EVA to attack 9.
• Can also be breached without field neutralization: Zero breaks Angel barriers with physical strikes, head blades, and beam attacks 9 18 30.
• Varies substantially in strength. The enhanced Embryo Angel’s field deflects Zero’s head blades, which had readily cut through the Fish Angel’s barrier 30 50.

Cores

An Angel’s core is a critical combat target, but its location and destruction requirements vary.

• Piercing the Day Angel’s chest core ends its life signs 9.
• The Fish Angel’s core lies inside its mouth 30.
• Ramiel exposes its core while attacking and cannot attack and defend simultaneously 17.
• The Music Angel must lose both cores at the same time; stabbing only one fails to kill it 45.
• The Embryo Angel revives after an attack successfully strikes its core, with a Belial Splinter identified inside it 49.

Ranged and Close-Quarters Attacks

Individual Angels possess different offensive structures.

• Energy beams: Shamshel fires from its hand; Ramiel fires from its core; the Music Angel’s divided bodies and the enhanced Embryo Angel fire from their eyes 2 15 45 50.
• Cutting appendages: The Day Angel’s light whip severs Unit-01’s power cable and slices surrounding buildings 9.
• Biting and swallowing: The Fish Angel drags Unit-02 underwater, swallows it, and damages it between its teeth 30.
• Clawed tentacles: The enhanced Embryo Angel’s tentacles pierce Unit-01 after it survives the combined EVA beam attack 50.

Transformation and Regeneration

These abilities are documented in specific Angels, not established as universal traits.

• Ramiel: Reconfigures its geometric body for offense and defense, and converts its lower structure into a drill aimed at NERV’s Underground City 15 17.
• Music Angel: Regenerates each severed half into a complete body while dividing its original core into two 45.
• Enhanced Embryo Angel: Rapidly heals wounds inflicted by Emerium Slash, Luna Miracle attacks, and Strong Corona’s spear and Garnet Buster 50.

Countermeasures

• NERV: Exists to fight Angels using Evangelions 5.
• Tokyo-3: Retracts civilian buildings underground and raises combat facilities during Angel attacks 6.
• Operation Yashima: Uses Japan’s electrical supply to power an experimental Positron Cannon against Ramiel from beyond its firing range 17.
• Ultra intervention: Zero’s destruction of Angels bypasses NERV’s expected reliance on EVA AT Fields and disrupts Gendo’s planned sequence of events 3 19.
• Detection limits: Zero learns to recognize Angel energy signatures within a certain range, but cannot locate dormant Angels even after circling Earth 29 48.
• Live capture: NERV attempts to secure the volcanic embryo as a live specimen, abandoning capture when it hatches and escapes 49.