Mari Illustrious Makinami

Mari Illustrious Makinami is a female anime and manga character who features in Neon Genesis Evangelion.

Biography

Mari Illustrious Makinami (Japanese: 真希波・マリ・イラストリアス, Hepburn: Makinami Mari Irasutoriasu)

In Mari's first engagement with the Third Angel, she used no tactics whatsoever. The fight instead featured her attacking the Angel head-on, chasing it outside of the base and pinning it down before self-destructing. She also appears to be aware of the EVAS' sentient nature to some extent, going so far as to directly addressing them in a compassionate tone and even whispering goodbye to Unit-05 after its destruction. This makes it unlikely that she was the one who sabotaged it, although her being an acquaintance of Ryoji Kaji was suspicious. When the Tenth Angel attacked Tokyo-3 at the end of the film, Mari launched Evangelion Unit-02 with IPEA assistance to engage in battle, intercepting the Angel inside the Geofront while dual-wielding pallet rifles. Unlike Asuka's repeated attempts at damaging the Angel in the series however, Mari quickly gave up on ranged attacks and went into a screaming charge with a GB-012 Evangelion Custom Electrical Discharge Portable Ordinance 'Thunder Spear', leaping onto the Angel and firing Unit-02's needle guns in an unsuccessful attempt to penetrate the Angel's A.T. Field with a point-blank attack. She also demonstrated considerable knowledge about the inner workings of Evangelions by activating Unit-02's Beast Mode (which resembles a "controlled berserk"). During this, she demonstrated a bloodthirsty, animalistic behavior not unlike that of the EVA, and despite the heavy damage sustained, she never once attempted to retreat but pressed her attacks until her EVA was damaged beyond combat capability.

Not long after Near Third Impact, Mari is only shown piloting an EVA transport plane, flowing Asuka's Unit-02 in search of survivors, and they come across Midori Kitakami. As usual, Mari was singing while piloting, but in this instance, she is wearing aviator glasses. Although Mari already took on her 'princess' nickname for Asuka, at this time Asuka is dismissive of her, and acts dismissive towards her, calling her 'rookie'. Before launching Operation US to rescue Unit-01 from space, Asuka is reciting a poem near the launchpad before being surprised by Mari, wearing her school uniform and asking her if she agrees the Moon is beautiful. Mari asks Asuka if she agrees that the moon is beautiful. Mari explains she wants Shinji to be able to easily recognize them once he's recovered. Misato's plan was for Mari to lead the operation with Asuka in support, as her Evangelion Production Model Custom Type-08α is less damaged, but Mari suggests Asuka take the lead instead for Shinji's sake. Asuka however is reluctant and believes Shinji himself dead and unrecoverable. Looking back on memories of Shinji and Misato before Third Impact, Asuka changes her mind and puts on her repaired old plugsuit. Mari sings to Asuka as they launch.

Overview

Personality and attributes

In appearance, Mari Illustrious Makinami was a female human with brunette hair tied into twin-tails with bangs parted to the sides. She wears an indigo headband with a white robotic design. Her eyes are teal, and she wears burgundy rimmed glasses. She wears a white shirt with a symbol on the left breast, a dark grey tie, a red and green pleated skirt with black knee socks, and brown tassel loafers.

Mari has a rather energetic and enigmatic personality and is generally in a positive mood. She enjoys piloting her Evangelion, Evangelion Provisional Unit-05, and sometimes sings to herself in the entry plug. She is also very friendly, though in combat she is shown to be extremely aggressive.

She is shown to have a casual and energetic demeanour, but it hides a thoughtful, clever, and enigmatic personality. Out of all the pilots, she is the only one who admits that she genuinely enjoys piloting. Her repeated comments suggest that she has a liking to the smell of LCL. She also appears to have reduced inhibitions and even identifies Shinji as a pilot in their first encounter by crawling up to him on all fours and sniffing for the smell of LCL.

One account showed her as being quite foul-mouthed, constantly taunting her opponents while piloting.

In addition, Mari is very noble in her fight against the Third Angel, being willing to sacrifice her life to destroy it by self-destructing her Eva. In the end, however, the entry plugs ejected seconds before the explosion that would have killed her.

Powers and abilities

She also demonstrated considerable knowledge about the inner workings of Evangelions by activating Unit-02's Beast Mode (which resembles a "controlled berserk").

Mari was shown to wear a variety of different plugsuits. The first was the unusual green and white suit that appears to be custom-built for Unit-05, with different material on the limbs (corresponding to the EVA's mechanical prostheses) and three green tubes attached to each wrist (probably involved in the "forced synch" with the prostheses). The second plugsuit, worn for Mari's sortie in Unit-02, is a pink one with white trim very similar to Kaworu's one. Despite her change in EVAS, her new plugsuit still bears a 05, suggesting it may have been intended for use with that unit once it would have been fully completed.

Notes

• Mari Illustrious Makinami was created by Kazuya Tsurumaki and designed by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto where she featured in the setting of the Rebuild of Evangelion universe.
• For the film Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance (2009), the second installment of the Rebuild of Evangelion saga, King Records representative and former Neon Genesis Evangelion producer Toshimichi Ōtsuki requested a new female character to strengthen its appeal and expand its audience.

Appearances

• Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance: (2009)

External Links

• Evangelion Wiki Entry
• Wikipedia Entry

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