Mari Makinami

Appearance Mari has brunette hair tied into twin-tails with bangs parted to the sides. She wears an indigo headband with a white robotic design. Her eyes are teal, and she wears burgundy rimmed glasses. She wears a grey blazer, pink jacket, white button up, black skirt, black thigh highs Profile Mari playing in her Entry Plug (Rebuild) Mari drinking during the fight against Evangelion 13. Out of all the pilots, she is the only one who admits that she genuinely enjoys piloting. Her repeated comments suggest that she enjoys the smell of LCL. She's uninhibited, identifying Shinji as a pilot in their first encounter by crawling up to him on all fours and sniffing for the smell of LCL. It is implied that Mari works for an unknown third party. A pilot designation has not been provided, assuming Mari officially has one (in-universe).

Despite her apparent inexperience, she is shown to be an expert pilot on the level of Asuka, if not higher.

In Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon A Time, her quarters with Asuka on the Wunder are also a sort of isolation chamber, furthering Asuka's estrangement from humanity.[2]

Personality Mari has a rather energetic and enigmatic personality and is generally in a positive mood. She enjoys piloting her Evangelion, Evangelion Provisional Unit-05, and sometimes sings to herself in the entry plug. She is also very friendly, though in combat she is shown to be extremely aggressive.

In addition, Mari is very noble in her fight against the Third Angel, being willing to sacrifice her life to destroy it by self-destructing her Eva. In the end, however, the entry plugs ejected seconds before the explosion that would have killed her.

History Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance In Mari's first engagement with the Third Angel, she used no tactics whatsoever. The fight instead featured her attacking the Angel head-on, chasing it outside of the base and pinning it down before self-destructing. She also appears to be aware of the EVAS' sentient nature to some extent, going so far as to directly addressing them in a compassionate tone and even whispering goodbye to Unit-05 after its destruction. This makes it unlikely that she was the one who sabotaged it, although her being an acquaintance of Ryoji Kaji is suspicious.[3][4][5][6][1][7][8]

Mari's rage Mari inside Evangelion Unit-02 "Beast Mode". When the Tenth Angel attacked Tokyo-3 at the end of the film, Mari launched Evangelion Unit-02 with IPEA assistance to engage in battle, intercepting the Angel inside the Geofront while dual-wielding pallet rifles. Unlike Asuka's repeated attempts at damaging the Angel in the series however, Mari quickly gave up on ranged attacks and went into a screaming charge with a GB-012 Evangelion Custom Electrical Discharge Portable Ordinance "Thunder Spear"[9], leaping onto the Angel and firing Unit-02's needle guns in an unsuccessful attempt to penetrate the Angel's A.T. Field with a point-blank attack. In the Funimation English dub, she is quite foul-mouthed, constantly taunting her opponents while piloting.

She also demonstrated considerable knowledge about the inner workings of Evangelions by activating Unit-02's Beast Mode (which resembles a "controlled berserk"). During this, she demonstrated a bloodthirsty, animalistic behavior not unlike that of the EVA, and despite the heavy damage sustained, she never once attempted to retreat but pressed her attacks until her EVA was damaged beyond combat capability.

Mari uses two distinct plugsuits over the course of the film. The first is the unusual green and white suit that appears to be custom-built for Unit-05, with different material on the limbs (corresponding to the EVA's mechanical prostheses) and three green tubes attached to each wrist (probably involved in the "forced synch" with the prostheses). The second plugsuit, worn for Mari's sortie in Unit-02, is a pink one with white trim very similar to Kaworu's one. Despite her change in EVAS, her new plugsuit still bears a 05, suggesting it may have been intended for use with that unit once it would have been fully completed.

EVANGELION 3.0: (-46h) Not long after Near Third Impact, Mari is only shown piloting an EVA transport plane, flowing Asuka's Unit-02 in search of survivors, and they come across Midori Kitakami. As usual, Mari is singing while piloting, but in this instance, she is wearing aviator glasses. Although Mari already took on her "princess" nickname for Asuka, at this time Asuka is dismissive of her, and acts dismissive towards her, calling her "rookie".

EVANGELION 3.0 (-120 min.) Before launching Operation US to rescue Unit-01 from space, Asuka is reciting a poem near the launchpad[10] before being surprised by Mari, wearing her school uniform and asking her if she agrees the Moon is beautiful.[11] Mari asks Asuka if she agrees that the moon is beautiful.[12] Mari explains she wants Shinji to be able to easily recognize them once he's recovered. Misato's plan is for Mari to lead the operation with Asuka in support, as her Evangelion Production Model Custom Type-08α is less damaged, but Mari suggests Asuka take the lead instead for Shinji's sake. Asuka however is reluctant and believes Shinji himself dead and unrecoverable. Looking back on memories of Shinji and Misato before Third Impact, Asuka changes her mind and puts on her repaired old plugsuit. Mari sings to Asuka as they launch.[13][14]

Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo In Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo, Mari pilots the Evangelion Production Model Custom Type-08α to aid Asuka during the mission to rescue Unit-01. Later, she tries to stop Evangelion Mark.09 but only manages to destroy its head. She's shown to have a habit of giving nicknames to characters, as she nicknames Asuka "Princess" and Shinji "Puppy Boy". Someone similar to Mari can be seen with Shinji's mother in the photo shown to him by Fuyutsuki, though the link between this person and Mari is currently unknown. It could suggest that Mari may be much older than she lets on, possibly suffering from the "Curse of Eva" for a longer period of time than Asuka. She also refers to Gendo Ikari as "Gendo-kun", suggesting she knows him. Before the Fourth Impact is initiated, she fights against Mark.09 one more time. She makes her last appearance when she uses Unit-08 to remove Shinji from inside the Evangelion 13, yelling at him to be a man and get to know the world a little before his entry plug is finally removed.[15]

Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time In Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time, Mari is part of Paris Assault Mission to restore part of Paris and recover a large supply cache. She is able to defeat the NERV attackers, at the cost of Unit-08's legs. Mari meets Asuka and Shinji when the AAA Wunder comes to pick them up. Upon greeting Asuka, she teases her about her unresolved feelings for Shinji, "I thought you didn't care about boys his age", to which Asuka responds that Shinji "needs a mother, not a girlfriend". Before their mission in Antarctica, Mari re-introduces herself to Shinji. When Shinji expresses, he understands why Asuka was angry at him, Asuka recognizes he has grown up, and Asuka confesses she did love him back then. Mari congratulates Shinji, and asks Asuka if she feels better, to which she affirms.

During the final battle against NERV, Mari pilots the repaired Unit-08γ supporting Asuka against a wave of NERV Evangelion Mark.07. She remains puzzled at Gendo's plans. When Asuka is absorbed by Evangelion 13 and Shinji is preparing to pilot Unit 01 again, Mari takes Unit-08γ in an "overlapping state" and merges it with Mark.09, Mark.10, Mark.11, and Mark.12, and uses it to fight a new horde of Mark.07. She tells Shinji to once again "save the Princess". Mari then meets Fuyutsuki, referring to him as "Fuyutsuki-sensei", further alluding to her familiarity, and he calls her "Maria Iscariot".

Attempting to stop Instrumentality, Mari sacrifices her combined Evangelion. During Gendo's Additional Impact, Mari is shown to have been a friend of Yui Ayanami and Gendo in college and helped get them together. When Shinji talks with Asuka and expresses his feelings, Mari bids farewell to Asuka. Shinji is sitting on the beach when Unit-08γ emerges from the ocean. Mari takes her glasses off and comments "Just barely on time". Shinji gets up and runs in her direction. Inside the ocean, she thanks Unit 8+9+10+11+12 while Unit-08 and Mari thanks the "Final Evangelion". She emerges from the ocean and puts her glasses back, saying "I have kept you waiting, Shinji".

In the final scene of the film, Asuka, Rei and Kaworu, as adults, are in the other platform of Ube-Shinkawa StationWP train station in the city of Ube, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan. An adult Shinji is sitting on a bench with his bag wearing a suit, when Mari covers his eyes and asks who it is. Shinji replies, referencing their earlier encounter on the Wunder. Mari, also adult, is wearing a pink blazer. Mari walks up Shinji and approaches his neck facing his front and smells his neck: "The smell of an adult". Shinji initially looks annoyed but replies confidently, to Mari's surprise, and she removes his DSS Choker.[16] She offers her hand and says, "Well then, let's go, Shinji-kun." and Shinji agrees, leaving the main gate and guiding him to the new world as they let go of each other's hands.[17][18][19][20]