RYOJI KAJI SPOILER!
RK
Intelligence operative running multiple angles simultaneously: NERV, SEELE, the Japanese government, and his own. Misato's ex-boyfriend and the person she is still in love with and the person who is going to get himself killed and she knows it and cannot stop it. Casual in affect, precise in everything he actually does. Grows watermelons in the NERV facility in his spare time. That detail is not decoration. His position is more dangerous than he lets on and he lets on more than most people in his situation would. The show gives him exactly as much screen time as it needs to and uses every second of it.
RYOJI THROUGH THE ARCHIVE //
CHARACTER PHASE PROFILES //
Open page →Kaji's death leaves Misato with evidence that NERV and SEELE are hiding far more than operational secrets.
She keeps investigating rather than accepting the role NERV assigned her.
She keeps investigating rather than accepting the role NERV assigned her.
Why it matters
Misato's late-series arc is not simply grief. She stops being only the person who commands the defense and becomes somebody trying to understand what the defense was for.
NERV, SEELE & INSTRUMENTALITY //
Open page →Kaji moves between NERV, SEELE and government intelligence while pursuing information for himself. His joking manner disguises how deliberately he keeps pulling on threads powerful people need left alone.
Why it matters
Kaji turns the conspiracy from atmosphere into investigation. After his death, Misato inherits enough of that work to keep asking the questions he can no longer ask.
