>>3007784She could have a larger spotlight, that's for sure. Currently the spotlight isn't on Rei, but other characters. It's a damned shame. How many years since the last positive Rei story again? 20 years? That's not helping either. Most people want to get into characters that there's hope for, and in the words of Megumi Hayashibara:
"When I think about Rei, it just gets worse. I don't want to think about it."
- comment from 3.33
>>3007792>The west has a different demographic than Japan (the west is mostly otaku) so people tend to prefer the easier to understand characters that give more "bang for the buck".I had a thought concerning this, basically Rei is rather unorthodox for an anime character - the vast majority is extremely expressive, with faces often becoming deformed to emphasize a curren emotion. This also happens in Evangelion, with for example, Misato, Asuka etc - but it never happens with Rei. Hence Rei is outside the norm or rather was, since Rei helped popularize the expressionless archetype.
Look at
https://www.japanpowered.com/anime-articles/anime-facial-expressionsfor instance, not that I agree with the article but it has a good amount of exaggerated expressions.
I think most of the otaku who watch anime precisely for the fun expressions, the slapstick humour and exaggerated emotion are alienated by Rei - it's certainly a different treat. Rei doesn't provide this sort of entertainment that Asuka and Misato provide in truckloads. If you don't understand what Rei is saying, you're not getting much out of it - and that was the case early in the 90's, with very, very poor subs that made Rei's often abstract dialogue and monologue make no sense at all. I dare you to pick up the crabstick fansubs of EVA in the 90's and understand even a little bit of the plot.
