Tenth Angel

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This article is about the character from Rebuild of Evangelion film series. For the character from the Neon Genesis Evangelion, see Zeruel.

Tenth Angel (第10使徒, Dai 10 no shito^?) is the 10th Angel belonging to the Rebuild of Evangelion film series. It was introduced in the Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance film.

Profile[]

The Tenth Angel is over twice the size of an Evangelion (80m), with a fleshy, arthropod-like body over which a large dark green cowl of undulating prehensile ribbons is draped. When the Angel first appears, the cowl is folded up, giving the Angel a mummy-like appearance. Two of the ribbons are much longer than the others and serve as its primary melee weapon, capable of being coiled up into piercing drills of variable circumference; the Angel also uses them to prop itself up when standing. The face—modified slightly from the original Zeruel—conceals two red eyes and a mouth containing a tripartite jaw and a biting tongue-like appendage that can grow to massive size. Two sets of interlocking "teeth" flanking the core are capable of closing down to provide additional protection to the organ if needed.

The Angel's A.T. Field is the strongest among all Angels in the Rebuild of Evangelion film series, capable of protecting it from multiple point-blank missile collisions with no effort. It can also extend multiple layered barriers outward, which can forcibly push foes away along with making any effort to breach the Angel's field that much more energy-intensive. The Tenth Angel's other energy projection abilities are much the same as Zeruel's if superior in both power (penetrating all 24 layers of the Geofronts protection in a single shot) and fire capability (capable of rapidly firing an uncountable number of Cross blasts in a single volley). The Angel's physical armor is also extremely strong. Although Unit-02 succeeds in destroying all the Angel's A.T. Field layers and allowing Unit-00 to fire the N² Missile on the Angel, the Angel extends its chest to cover its core, and the explosion is proven useless as it stands before the severely damaged Unit-00 in the ruins of the Geofront.

Upon devouring and absorbing Unit-00, the Tenth Angel contains the Evangelion's core within its own, and the Angel's intrinsic pattern is replaced by that of the EVA's. The Angel's body reconfigures into the form of a distorted humanoid female with ghostly white flesh accented by gray markings, abnormally long and gaunt arms, and lower legs that terminate in stubs, which may represent the pilot of the devoured Unit-00: Rei Ayanami. The humanoid arms replace the primary cutting ribbons but can be instantaneously reverted as need dictates. The Angel also employs two additional ribbons when it battles the reactivated Unit-01.

After being incapacitated by Unit-01, the humanoid extension of the Angel's body becomes a homogeneous mass of ribbons (off-screen, without explanation). Unit-01 forcibly extracts Unit-00's core and kills the Tenth Angel. Its body fluid reforms around Unit-00's core in the form of a gigantic reddish Rei Ayanami, which then fuses into Unit-01. Thus the Angel has effectively been absorbed by Unit-01, but whether Unit-01 received a Fruit of Life out of the deal, as in the TV series, is not known.

In contrast with the other Angels, the Tenth Angel is never seen deploying a halo,^[1] and a rainbow appears well in advance of its death, when Unit-01 delivers the crippling blow.

History[]

Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance[]

The Tenth Angel appears over Tokyo-3 and lays waste to the city's defenses in short time. It effortlessly breaches the Geofront, then unfolds its body and enters.

Mari Illustrious Makinami deploys inside Unit-02 and confronts the Tenth Angel within the Geofront, attacking first with two Pallet Rifles fire and then attempting a melee attack with a Thunder Spear and the right shoulder pylon's Needle Gun. None make a dent in the Angel's defensive power, and as a result Mari resorts to activating Unit-02's Beast Mode. Despite this boost in strength and mobility, the EVA is still unable to breach the Angel's A.T. Field and is severely damaged by the Angel's counterattack.

Unit-00 attacks with a large N² missile, and, with Unit-02's aid, the Angel's A.T. Field is finally penetrated. The attack is again ineffective, and Unit-00 loses both arms in the explosion. The pilot makes no attempt to resist as the Angel extends an appendage from its mouth and devours the EVA. The Tenth Angel subsequently grows a humanoid body and, due to shifting its pattern to Unit-00's, gains the ability to bypass the automated self-destruct that would otherwise prevent it from reaching Second Angel Lilith's chamber.

The Angel demolishes the NERV pyramid and invades the main shaft, confronting and nearly annihilating the command center crew before being stopped by Shinji in Unit-01. The fight between both parties continues until Unit-01 runs out of power, at which point the Angel skewers the EVA and throws it against the remains of the pyramid. The EVA soon restarts and initiates the process of [[Eva Pseudo-Evolution]: reconstructing its lost arm from its A.T. Field, blocking all of the Tenth Angel's overpowered attacks, and finally taking the Angel down with optical energy beams. Shinji recovers Rei from inside the Angel's body, and its blood-like remains are assimilated into Unit-01 as Near Third Impact is initiated.

In Other Media[]

Evangelion New Theatrical Edition: 3nd Impact[]

Tenth Angel appears in the rhythm game Evangelion New Theatrical Edition: 3nd Impact as the last 3 final battles.

Shironeko Project[]

The Tenth Angel appeared as the main threat in the Evangelion collaboration.

Development[]

At first the design reminds people of the Angel that appeared in episode 19 of the original TV series, but new design concepts of the elongating arms and how it devours Evangelions reinforces its differences. This Angel was designed from the start with the assumption that it would be primarily be rendered by hand drawn animation and Yoshitoh Asari, the designer of the original Angel in the TV series, was again placed in charge of design. The design of the angel after it devours whole Unit-00' and transforms was worked out by director Kazuya Tsurumaki and Takeshi Honda was placed in charge of refining the design to match the needs of animation production.^[2]

The premise that the Tenth Angel would have two forms—one with a "vestigial" body, the other more humanoid—seems to have been present early on. That the Angel would develop a feminine body was established later in the process, however, at Anno's insistence. The final design for the Tenth's second form was prepared by Takeshi Honda, incorporating the mane-like cowl from a drawing by Kazuya Tsurumaki (which incidentally resembled the original Zeruel the most of the published concepts).^[3]

The Tenth Angel also incorporates Armisael from the original series.

References[]