Inspiration for Kaworu Nagisa's Character

[ApolloIVtv]

Did Anno or any of the staff members ever reference the inspiration behind Kaworu Nagisa's character in any interview or such. I think I heard one possible thing from Anno but I'm not entirely sure if it's true.

[Guy Nacks]

I think that Kaworu, or at least some of his dialog was partly inspired by Anno's friendship with then-Sailor Moon director Kunihiko Ikuhara, particularly the line about Shinji deserving to be loved. I read somewhere that Ikuhara once apparently said something along those lines once to Anno.

[ChaddyManPrime]

Kaworu is based off of Satan from the story The Mysterious Stranger, there is a interview where Sadamoto mentions it.

[AuraTwilight]

Kaworu was also designed to be a sort of Anti-Shinji; the person Shinji wants to be and how he'd idealize himself.

[ApolloIVtv]

Well I know he what Kaworu was supposed to be in the show, but I just meant what was the inspiration for him for Anno or anyone else to put him in there or give him that idea, and the statement from AuraTwilight is what I heard from before.

[robersora]

I've read somewhere (can't find the source), that Kaworu was heavily inspired by Kunihiko Ikuhara. There are interviews with him and Anno, I believe. But where the idea that the last angel should look human came up, i don't know either.

[ath]

A few useful links:
http://forum.evageeks.org/thread/12975/Ikuhara-on-Kaworu/

I have been asked directly by a few people before now if I was the model for Kaworu. Where did that information come from? I was completely uninvolved [in Kaworu's creation] as one of the principals. Kaworu is very good-looking, so if I said I was his model I imagine I would recieve complaints from his fans. However, it's not the case that I have no idea at all [what the speculation might refer to]. During the period when Evangelion was still in its preparatory stages, I was in very close contact with Anno-san. At that time, the staff of Sailor Moon went on a company trip to an onsen, and Anno-san was also among our members. [1] The two of us ended up talking the whole night. Even after everyone else had collapsed we went on and on, drinking sake and talking, sitting side by side in an open air bath and talking.
...
So, I think the conversation we had that night had perhaps the same flavor as the exchange between Kaworu and Shinji. I also felt this way when I saw episode 24 for myself. Well, the situation with the bath was the same; that's easy enough to understand. But, it seems there are rumors - I'm not really sure - that the line of dialogue, "You are worthy of love," was something I said to Anno-san, and so on (laughs). I don't think it was a case where I was Kaworu and Anno-san was Shinji. Only, if I had to say which [is which], Anno-san seems to say more Kaworu-esque cynical things, right? So, I remember telling [Anno] a story about the time of my adolescence. When I was 14 or 15 years old, I was truly in despair, thinking my life prospects were very bleak. With tests and such things, I had the feeling that I was not permitted even a slight failure. Today it seems like even failures receive attention, or that there is freedom to be "dame," but at that time it seemed that you would have no future after failing even once. Up until the 70s there was the anpo toso, but when that ended, an atmosphere - "ah, as we suspected, you can't revolutionize the world" - began to spread. So, I thought that I would be dead before I was twenty years old, and any life I lived beyond that would be a kind of omake - that was the story I told [to Anno]. Probably, just the fact that I was able to tell that story was of value to both of us.

Kaworu was also designed to be a sort of Anti-Shinji; the person Shinji wants to be and how he'd idealize himself.

That sure ties in with the whole Ikuhara/Kaworu and Anno/Shinji theory, doesn't it?

http://forum.evageeks.org/thread/15342/Kunihiko-Ikuharas-World-Anno-and-Ikuhara-discussion/

Anno: I want to be with you forever like this.
...
Ikuhara: But there's no way that can be true. I have a dream to create something together with Anno one day.