Yuko Miyamura, who voiced Asuka Langley Soryu in Neon Genesis Evangelion, has revealed a surprising new detail about how she landed her role in the iconic anime.
Miyamura has immortalized Asuka’s role in Evangelion through her performance over the decades. While fans across the globe associate her with the fiery pilot of Unit-02, a recent video posted on her official YouTube channel, which commemorates her 30+ years in the industry, revealed that Miyamura had originally auditioned for a different character in anime.
The voice actor explained that the auditions for Evangelion took place around autumn 1994, when she was still a total rookie with barely any professional credits to her name. At that time, her original demo reel, sent by her agency, pitched her as a traditional heroine and submitted her for the role of the quiet Rei Ayanami.
Yuko Miyamura Didn’t Originally Audition for Asuka in Evangelion
During the audition, Miyamura delivered the assigned lines calmly and reservedly to suit Rei’s subdued personality. However, series director Hideaki Anno unexpectedly stopped her and asked if she would like to try reading Asuka’s lines instead. The director simply told Miyamura to read the new lines energetically, just as she was at that exact moment. Although she recalled feeling confused because she didn’t think she was acting particularly energetic, she followed the instructions and ultimately won the role.
In the anime, Asuka started out as an arrogant and highly confident pilot, acting as a direct foil to protagonist Shinji Ikari, who was riddled with insecurities, which led to her garnering some hate from the fanbase. However, as the show progressed, viewers saw various shades of Asuka’s personality, culminating in her eventual psychological breakdown. This transformation was perfectly captured by Miyamura in the anime.
However, when she was auditioning for the role, Miyamura didn’t even know what kind of project Evangelion would turn out to be. In fact, the anime was not approved as a television series at the time and was slated to air as an OVA series. In addition to talking about the Evangelion audition, Miyamura talked about her overall voice acting career in the video. Following the success of her role in Evangelion, she went on to voice Kazuha Toyama in Detective Conan and also Casca in Berserk.
Asuka was Originally Created as Evangelion’s Protagonist
Anno originally conceived Asuka as the main character of Neon Genesis Evangelion, but character designer Yoshiyuki Sadamoto suggested thata male lead would be a much better fit for the story. While this did sideline her role in the story to that of a co-protagonist, Asuka has since then evolved into one of the most recognizable characters in anime history. While many fans tend to label her as merely a tsundere, she has proven to be much more than a simple character archetype.
Asuka, however, did eventually feature as a main character in the most recent Evangelion release. Titled Evangelion Broadcast 30th Anniversary Special Screening, this new release was a 13-minute anime special that officially debuted in theaters earlier this year, in February, to celebrate the franchise’s landmark anniversary. The anime special was handled by Anno and Naoyuki Asano and takes place within the newer Rebuild of Evangelion timeline.
Meanwhile, a brand new Evangelion series has been announced and is currently in production.
- Release Date
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1995 – 1996
- Network
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TV Tokyo
- Directors
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Keiichi Sugiyama, Masahiko Otsuka, Tensai Okamura, Shoichi Masuo, Minoru Ohara, Seiji Mizushima, Tetsuya Watanabe, Ken Ando
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Megumi Ogata
Shinji Ikari (voice)
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Kotono Mitsuishi
Misato Katsuragi (voice)