>>2866320Like Rei, Kaworu is an important character, admittedly not as much as Rei, but he serves a great purpose towards Shinji's development as a person. In EoE he was one of the main reasons Shinji decided to reject instrumentality. Perhaps it serves a larger part in the new narrative because Anno simply wishes to use his character in a way he couldn't in the original.
Rei was portrayed as a motherly figure since the original NGE. Shinji even complimented her on it in an episode. It's very fitting to her character as she has lilith's soul.
I doubt Anno cares what people post on 2ch. He said Asuka's his favorite character because she's "cute", but that doesn't mean he can't like other characters.
