Page "Kaworu Nagisa" Paragraph 13

The possibly homosexual undertones of Kaworu's interactions with Shinji has been a persistent topic of debate among fans of Evangelion since the series ' first run as discussed in the Patrick Drazen's book Anime Explosion!

The What?

Why?

& Wow!

Of Japanese Animation.

Patrick Drazen's self-admittedly minority view is that Kaworu's offer of love for Shinji is a tactic that Kaworu as the last Angel used to disarm Shinji.

Gainax is clearly aware that the audience associates Kaworu with bishōnen tropes, and have produced artworks such as splash pages for their website in reference to Kaworu's ambiguity and the audience's reaction to the character.

However, whether Kaworu, an Angel, actually has any concept of sexuality as he is presented in the series is unclear.

Mike Crandol regards Kaworu as being " representative of blind, total and unconditional love and acceptance, but like those things Kaoru turns out to not be real at all ".

The 1998 reviewer Kenneth Lee criticizes the character of Kaworu: "... the element of homosexuality is perhaps the most disturbing, gratuitous, and unnecessary aspect that presents itself in episode 24 ... Ultimately, the homosexuality issue seems nothing more than cheap shock value tactics to stun generation X " and considers the entire Shinji-Kaworu relationship " ludicrous and pathetically humorous ".