I have complicated feelings about Evangelion.
Aesthetically, emotionally, and artistically it's had more of an impact on my life than basically any other media. Politically and morally I find its leering camera and the fortune it made in skeevy figures of 14-year-olds entirely reprehensible. I became obsessed with it as a teenager, with the way it made me feel. I've spent hours chewing over it, debating its sins and merits and wrestling with the psychosexuality. It's a challenging series.
Asuka struck me immediately. Her rage, her ego, her isolation; it was like looking in a mirror. Her haughty defensiveness covering the ill-hidden yearning to be loved and appreciated... she embodied the struggle of adolescence under the pressures of cultural misogyny and sexualization, desperate for adult attention in the only ways she's been taught its available. The fact that we can only see her through Shinji's eyes makes me want to punch a wall. The Series 2 fight from End of Evangelion is lodged in my brain permanently. The vocal performance alone made that scene do something to me.
I still love her as an adult. She's my shitty little bastard daughter. I have a little collection of figures and keychains of her. The rest of the series is still important to me too but she's the star. Oh, and the Rebuild movies suck.