So what did Asuka see in Kaji?

[Lavinius]

Misato who Asuka models herself on

What.
And that is the only thing in your post of any interest.

[Shinoyami65]

I get the feeling that Asuka hasn't been around many men, or at least has not gotten a positive impression of them (particularly her father, who cheated on her mother with her mother's doctor). Kaji is cool and not "ordinary" like the schoolboys she's confronted with in Tokyo-3. He possibly fills the emotional void left by her father. Eventually Asuka's childish affection became something bigger and it all spiralled from there.

[ObsessiveMathsFreak]

Asuka is desperate for adult recognition and status. After her piloting selection and university degree, having Kaji on her arm would be the next step in this direction. Ultimately, her fruitless pursuit of Kaji is a search of a means to resolve her own insecurities.

Also, what exactly did Asuka see in Shinji anyway? Was it just that he was a competitor who must kneel before her? Or did she actually, for some reason, like him?

There are probably innumerable threads on this already, some of which haven't even deteriorated into pointless shipping arguments. In brief, it can be said that Shinji's status as the (male) Third Child makes him both a rival and singular peer for Asuka. The duality of this conflict is something which never goes away. This is all before Shinji's thoroughly disappointing sense of romance is brought into play.

[Lelouch34]

Asuka plays off it as a childhood crush. Kaji realizes though she has to grow up. The best way how Kaji knows is for Asuka to have a relationship with someone her age which would be Shinji. Kaji knows that by getting Asuka to help Shinji to confront himself and grow to deal with his insecurities. The same will happen with Asuka ending Asuka's childhood crush as a result that way Asuka's insecurities will be addressed helping to open her heart to Shinji. Completing both their growth to love each other and find their self-worth as individuals to live life for what is good.

[Chuckman]

What.
And that is the only thing in your post of any interest.

Misato is Asuka's model for adult womanhood. She emulates Misato in a bunch of subtle ways, like the around-the-house outfit she wears and her interest in wearing Misatos' perfume.

[Lavinius]

It seems that my rambling post wasn't clear... my main questions are "why did Asuka think that she could get Kaji?" and "how did Asuka fall for Kaji?" Neither of them are "why did she want Kaji?"

[Chuckman]

She thought she could get him because she thought she was an adult and acquiring him, so to speak, would seal her adult status.

[Dovah]

I've always thought that she saw chased after Kaji in order to establish her "superiority". She wants to be all mature and grown up, so being with Kaji would only help her achieve that goal. She places herself above others and disregards other guys her age. With the exception of Shinji.

[NemZ]

"why did Asuka think that she could get Kaji?"

Because she doesn't understand that whatever her accomplishments she's still very much a child emotionally and (in the land of anime, at least) physically.

"how did Asuka fall for Kaji?"

What makes you think she did?

[Lavinius]

You just don't seem to get it.
I'm asking for more in-depth answers than the obvious...
*Waits for Bagheera*

[Chuckman]

Asuka's sort of an isolated character. Her family is entirely off screen, so I can't find an explanation like "Kaji reminds Asuka of her father" or "Asuka wants to have sex with an adult man to get back at her father for betraying her mother" even though those would provide nice synergy with Misato.

Her relationship with him is important but it's also one of the few relatively straightforward elements of the series.

[Bagheera]

You just don't seem to get it.
I'm asking for more in-depth answers than the obvious...
*Waits for Bagheera*

Hmmm. Others are right in that she seeks Kaji as a means of securing her identity as an adult in her mind, but of course that in itself is a means to an end rather than an end in and of itself. What she really wants is security. She was discarded by her mother before she died, and betrayed by her father at an early age; that triggered in her a quest for independence and a relentless desire to become recognized as an adult -- if she's an adult she'll be accepted and valued, and she will no longer have to worry about being victimized and abandoned.

Kaji is "safe". She knows he'll never take her up on her offers, but she also knows (or thinks) he takes her seriously. She talks about being ready for kissing and "other stuff" but of course she's not -- what she really wants from him is for him to help her project an image of maturity and sophistication, so that others will see the person she wants to be and help her become that person. "If one does as God does enough times, one becomes as God is." Same idea here. This is also why she rejects her peers -- in her mind they're children, and thus useless to her. She needs an adult because he'll be able to protect her and give her the stability she craves. Never mind the fact that the adults around her are just as lost and broken as she is, of course . . .

Her Eva piloting plays into this as well, and it's easy to see why Shinji's success is so terribly threatening to her during the descent arc -- if she's not the best she's afraid she'll be cast aside the same way she was as a child, and of course that's exactly what happens. Kaji's death affected her so strongly not because he was a lost love interest, but rather because he was the last one who could protect her against the adults who had no use for her. But that was never a role he agreed to play, and he never knew how to make her understand this without betraying her trust. So he just put her out of his mind and focused on playing spy, opting for abandonment over betrayal.

That's the short answer, at least as I see it. There's a lot to unpack there regarding matters of independence, what she wanted from Shinji, why she was looking to these two men for answers in this arena, how it relates to the show's central themes, and so on, but that's all ranging a bit beyond the scope of the thread.

[user-02]

Freud himself may be a little shopworn, but many of his theories -- particularly the more practical and less hypothetical ones -- still hold a lot of currency these days.

Asuka's a classic case of projection. She is a big pot of insecurities, heated to a slow boil by teenage hormonal overload. As Bagheera points out, what Asuka really likes is the idea of Kaji, in so far as that idea represents adulthood, sanity, levelheadedness, progress, respect, the admiration of peers and society, security, and self esteem. Asuka projects onto Kaji the fulfillment of all of her insecurities w/r/t these qualities.

Of course, it also helps that Kaji is a cool, attractive ladies' man. That he flirts with Misato, Ritsuko, and presumably others in their age range, only intensifies Asuka's burning desire to have him, i.e., to grow up (or to be seen as a grown up).

To me, the more interesting question isn't "Why does Asuka want Kaji?" It's "Has Kaji handled the situation appropriately?" As Asuka's putative guardian, he doesn't seem to do all that much to stop Asuka's flirtations. He cracks down on her every now and then, but by and large, he just seems to let it ride. Maybe he's resigned himself to it, realizing there's nothing he can do. But still... If I, as a 30-year-old man, were caring for a 13-year-old girl who constantly threw herself at me, I'd be sufficiently creeped out as to seek remedy ASAP. I mean, can you imagine being in public with a 13-year-old who was hanging all over you and offering herself to you? It wouldn't exactly come off well.

[Mr. Tines]

It's "Has Kaji handled the situation appropriately?"

Well, pretty much his first action ashore was to get Asuka billeted with Shinji to provide an alternative target, which was pretty good going in the land of enjo kousai.

[Rei IV]

I always kind of the like the idea of Asuka seeing Shinji as "competition" for Kaji's affections. If episode 22 was anything to go by, Kaji seems to have taken quite the interest in the Third Child's and his "prestige" (lol at Shinji and prestige) that Asuka doesn't seem to register his concern once they meet Puppy boy and probably not as impressed by her as by a boy who piloted an Eva without any training. Kaji seems to have more interaction with Shinji probably because he's more genuinely interested in the kid more so than Asuka, hence quickly giving Misato they responsibility to watch over her. It puts a whole new spin to the Hell Train sequence in episode 22 where we see Shinji hiding behind Kaji and Asuka raging. Sure, she wanted affection and attention from Shinji but probably deep in her conscious, IMHO, didn't like how much attention he was giving to Shinji.

Yeah, I'm desperately reaching but I kind of like my pet theory.

[ObsessiveMathsFreak]

It seems that my rambling post wasn't clear... my main questions are "why did Asuka think that she could get Kaji?" and "how did Asuka fall for Kaji?" Neither of them are "why did she want Kaji?"

"why did Asuka think that she could get Kaji?"
Asuka has an enormously inflated opinion of herself, even when her proven abilities are taken into account. I imagine Asuka views herself as the most clearly superior woman in Tokyo-3, in every respect. Naturally then, should she set her eye on any man, his eventually surrender to her charms would be inevitable. In reality she has all the charm of a red grapefruit, but like all characters in Evangelion, it typically take a near death or close-encounter for reality to break though.

"how did Asuka fall for Kaji?"
This is actually an unknown. Asuka hints in episode #22' that Kaji is now her designated Nerv guardian or "aide de camp", and that Misato held this position beforehand. I suspect Kaji was only assigned to her for the duration of the Pacific fleet trip from Germany to Japan, but even so he'd have to be in contact with her for at least a good two week period. Perhaps she fell for him during this trip?

Further investigation of this would have to focus on their night time "picnic" flashback in #22'. They appear to have been listening to the radio and drinking. Kaji looks so interminably bored that I suspect this was Asuka's idea.

[Bagheera]

"why did Asuka think that she could get Kaji?"

"how did Asuka fall for Kaji?"

Wait, these are the questions? Oh wow, I misread. Um, yeah, nothing really deep here; she thinks she can get him because she has no sense of her own limits (and why would she? Everyone in Germany's been telling her she's awesome, so she has no reason to think she isn't), and she fell for him because Kaji's a smooth operator spending a lot of time around an impressionable teenager. I'd be astonished if she didn't fall for him, in all honesty.

[Lavinius]

So basically the answer is "Asuka's crazy." I thought there might be more to it than that but it seems if I want deeper answers I'll have to find them myself.

[Bagheera]

So basically the answer is "Asuka's crazy." I thought there might be more to it than that but it seems if I want deeper answers I'll have to find them myself.

No, the answer is "Asuka's an entitled teenager." Really, I don't know why you're asking those questions since they aren't interesting. The interesting one is "why did she want Kaji?" That's what I was addressing earlier.

[Jayfive]

Whats he say to her in 22'? 'Oh Asuka, you're still a child' is it? And the disinterested expression on his vissog?

Way to go Kaji, way to mentor a emotionally unstable and insecure teenage girl. I know he then qualifies it with 'All those things can wait' or whatever but even so...