Asuka Langley Sohryu is the second child to be selected by the Marduk Institute to become the pilot of EVA-02. She is ¼ Japanese, ¾ German and was born in the USA. She came with Kaji and EVA-02 to Japan. She is active, decisive, competitive and full of confidence. She really hates to lose to anyone and hates being saved or defended by others. To Asuka, Kaji is the man that she always wanted. But to Kaji, Asuka is just a girl. Later on, when Asuka finds out that Ichiro is in love with her, she tries hard to get him to hate her. She feels that if she gets too close to Ichiro, she might hurt him. She believes that the insanity her mother had is hereditary and that she, one day, will also go insane. But she eventually tells Ichiro the truth, that she likes him too. She is a brilliant girl and finished her studies at university by the age of 14.

Asuka is only feels that she is still worth something when she is piloting EVA-02. She is not afraid of death because she thinks that death is the ultimate freedom. Asuka's mother was a technician of the NERV-1 base in Germany. Her mother got into an accident while test piloting EVA-02 and became insane. After this, she thought a doll was Asuka and ignored her real daughter. Her mother always wanted Asuka (the doll) to die with her and later killed the doll and hung herself. When Asuka wanted to tell her that she had been chosen to be the pilot of EVA-02, she instead saw the dead body of her mother. After her mother's death, Asuka's father remarried. Asuka, however, never considered her as a mother and treated her as a stranger instead.