>>3705531Ok, I'll just roughly translate the relevant parts:
>The results of the Evangelion poll aired on NHK, May 16th. Asuka Langely Shikinami took 1st place and Rei Ayanami took 3rd. Over the course of over 25 years since the Anime first aired, these two have been portrayed as "double heroines" for the series, but Rei Ayanami was always consistently regarded as the top girl in various Anime magazines/books that came out up until the mid 2000s. Anything about Eva was more often than not advertised with Rei on the front cover. So longtime fans of the series saw these poll results as surprising, "Ayanami and Asuka have suddenly switched places in popularity!" In this article, we analyzed and speculated why and how this change in popularity took place.>The popularization of the "expressionless girl" archetype>Many believe Ayanami was consistently at the top of popularity because she established the "expressionless girl" archetype. A girl who shows more and more emotion as the show goes on, she was an entirely new character that was never seen in Anime before. However since the original airing of Eva, more and more characters following this archetype, such as in Nadesico and Haruhi, etc. have been made. The archetype came to be established as a facet of "moe", and Rei was no longer considered a new and unique character in the Anime industry.>The portrayal of Asuka Shikinami as a "good person">Many changes were made to the portrayal of Asuka's character in the new movies. She has a fierce attitude on the outside, but subtly sweet on the inside. A cute "tsundere" character that is quite different from Soryu in the original series. She no longer has attachment to Misato's ex-boyfriend Kaji, and elects pity from the audience when corrupted in Unit 03. She tries to get along with Shinji and Rei, and sacrifices herself so they can both have dinner with Gendo. She is thoroughly portrayed as a "good person". >These two elements may explain the shift in popularity. 