Shinji never had comfort outside of Yui's care (amirite?), so he subconsciously seeks symbols and other things that are related with her.

Reichu wrote:In the subsequent scenes, Asuka shoves her boobies into Shinji's face as she taunts him, and, during the reprise of the "kiss scene", Shinji is staring at them rather desperately.

And in the 'same bed' scene.

Asuka's breasts are juxtaposed in a way with Yui's. Yui's is a symbol of Shinji's infancy and still lingering need for motherly security and comfort. With Asuka it's a symbol for his developing independence and sexuality. Shinji's trouble is that he is still imature in respect to woman, and has to differentiate between the to, lest he see women in terms of a mother figure (see also Rei, and the radio show on the Oral Stage at the end of 20). Asuka knows this and constantly taunts him about it, most notably is when he's doing the synch test with unit 0.

Is Shinji missing mama's breast? Is it like being in her womb,
or what?

And most notably in ep 15, where she was all 'get over your mom and gimmie a smooch'. Since man leaves his woman-mother for the woman-lover.

good catch on the anniversary of her death too.

To go along with what Partyhard said, this is an old but good ANF archived post on the subject, specifically the last paragraph or so:

http://www.evageeks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=118668#118668

EDIT: That ANF archive needs a search function on it's own; eg with the actual threads. Some of those things are really hard to look up because of how long the threads are. (It took me more than a half hour just to find the post I was looking for! @_@ )

And just for the lulz, here: http://www.evageeks.org/ANF-Archive/images/09_asuka,shinji_glancedown.jpg

Pretend that post was written by Anonymous and not me.

I'll remember that... Anyways, I don't see any motherly connection. He is scared of Yui, Rei, and Misato and wants nothing to do with them at this point.

Anonymous_Evafan wrote:He is scared of Yui, Rei, and Misato and wants nothing to do with them at this point.

Yeah but deep down he wants the love/care of all three.

Doesn't seem that way during P3II. Asuka was the one his thoughts revolved around going as far as to declare he wants to be with her forever.

You can feel so angry at someone that, in the moment, you want them (all) to die, and still honestly want their love and affection. Such is the contradictions and paradoxes of the human animal.

Not at the same time. If your mind is clouded by anger it is just that. I think you're reaching a bit here. One needs only to listen to P3II to figure out who that image is meant to represent. He was focused on Asuka and only Asuka.

If I do recall correctly, Shinji wasn't just thinking about Asuka

Asuka wrote:But if I can't have you all to myself, I don't want anything to deal with you

If all he was thinking about was Asuka I'm sure he wouldn't have rejected that statement.

Anonymous_Evafan wrote:One needs only to listen to P3II to figure out who that image is meant to represent. He was focused on Asuka and only Asuka.

Who it represents and what it represents aren't necessarily synonymous. I disagree he was focused on only Asuka, despite their P3II tiff. Again, I think to assume it all came down to just those two is to ignore everything that's been built up through the series between Shinji and his womens.

IrkenEvangelion wrote:

Asuka wrote:But if I can't have you all to myself, I don't want anything to deal with you

If all he was thinking about was Asuka I'm sure he wouldn't have rejected that statement.

He didn't reject it, he tried to add his terms to it.

Eva Yojimbo wrote:Again, I think to assume it all came down to just those two is to ignore everything that's been built up through the series between Shinji and his womens.

So what, it's impossible for him to change his mind? He made it clear as day he wasn't comfortable around Rei and Misato in 24 which is completely understandable after what happened. In 25 we see he views Yui as a blood thirsty monster. I ask you how he'd find comfort being near any of them at that point? I'm not saying he never wished for it, just not at that particular moment.

Well his terms obviously included other people and not just Asuka.

Misato also saved Shinji and gave her life, that'd have to do something for him.

IrkenEvangelion wrote:Well his terms obviously included other people and not just Asuka.

His terms were that she be nice to him.

Misato also saved Shinji and gave her life, that'd have to do something for him.

And came onto him again and them made him sit through he sex life. Good to see she learned something the first time she did it...

Anonymous_Evafan wrote:I ask you how he'd find comfort being near any of them at that point? I'm not saying he never wished for it, just not at that particular moment.

How he feels at that particular moment, and how he's felt over the course of a few days and events doesn't change what he's really wanted all along, which was my initial point. Your mistaking the transient for the permanent,

Shocking events often change ones outlook on things permanently.

Anonymous_Evafan wrote:Doesn't seem that way during P3II. Asuka was the one his thoughts revolved around going as far as to declare he wants to be with her forever.

Sandbox Sequence, which follows right after the "What do you wish for"->Tanged cut. Here, we see a lot of things going on, losing his friends, losing his purpose, trying and failing, a mother that is too distant, etc.

His focus of affection (if you could call it that) was definitely for Asuka, but there's a lot more than "I just want to be with Asuka forever".