>>1837159Mana is a character that was created and debuted for the visual novel "Girlfriend of Steel". I'm pretty sure it was a non-hentai dating sim. The novel has a mood similar to the Angelic Days, and Shinji Ikari Raising Project doujins: a non-apocalyptic world in which the kids live happy lives to the point of worrying about things as "trivial" as high school relationships. It still retains the whole Eva-pilots fight angels theme. In other words, a happy, cute story. In teh VN, who Shinji ends up with is dependent on the actions of the player. But the VN not only spawned a second VN (Girlfriend of Steel 2), but also a doujin series (like Angelic Days)
In it, and the VNs, Mana is characterized as being cute and attractive, but unlike Rei, whom seems romatically disinterested in Shinji (in the original EVA, not the VN; also she's interested in him as a friend/companion, but not romantically), and unlike Asuka, whom is romantically interested in Shinji but doesn't express it in a way he understands, Mana both is interested in Shinji and is also outgoing, flirty, and very nice to Shinji.
Of course, this causes Shinji to clumsily prefer Mana over Asuka or Rei because Mana is not only attracted toward him, but she expresses her "love" without calling Shinji stupid or hitting him over the head. As we know, he's too dumb to understand the inner feelings and body language of a Tsundere like Asuka.
