title: Welcome to the N.H.K.

text: "Welcome to the N.H.K." is a 192-page novel written by Tatsuhiko Takimoto, with the cover drawn by Yoshitoshi ABe of "Serial Experiments Lain" fame. The novel was first published on January 28, 2002 in Japan by Kadokawa Shoten, and the bunko edition was published in 2005.


title: Welcome to the N.H.K.

text: The manga series is illustrated by manga author Kendi Oiwa. It was serialized in Kadokawa Shoten's manga magazine "Shōnen Ace" between December 26, 2003 and May 26, 2007. The manga's forty chapters have been collected into eight bound volumes released in Japan. Tokyopop licensed the manga for release in English, and the first volume was published on October 10, 2006. The manga version diverges from the original version later in the story. After Tokyopop's license expired, Viz Media picked up the series in 2015.


title: Welcome to the N.H.K.

text: In November 2005, the limited edition of the fourth Japanese volume was published with a Misaki figurine which caused sales of the manga to skyrocket, and was once ranked third at Japan's Amazon website in terms of sales. The limited edition of the sixth volume, released in November 2006 in Japan, included the hard copy of the bishōjo game from the manga, "True World: Shinjitsu no Sekai". The game was authored by Tatsuhiko Takimoto, the characters designed by Kendi Oiwa and produced by Circus (famous for ""). The limited edition of the eighth volume included a diploma signifying graduation from being a "hikikomori".


title: Welcome to the N.H.K.

text: A 24-episode anime adaptation produced by Gonzo and directed by Yusuke Yamamoto aired in Japan between July 9 and December 17, 2006 on Chiba TV and on later dates on other JAITS stations. Hiroshima Home Television, a local ANN station in Hiroshima, aired the series from July 16 to December 23, 2006. The series was coordinated by Satoru Nishizono, featured character design by Takahiko Yoshida, and the music was headed by Masao Fukuda. ADV Films licensed the anime for $240,000 and released the first DVD of the English edition in October 2007. In 2008 the English license was transferred to Funimation. Siren Visual has licensed the series for release in Australia and New Zealand.


title: Welcome to the N.H.K.

text: The anime has four pieces of theme music; two opening themes and two ending themes. The first opening theme, was written by Rieko Ito, composed by Kitagawa Katsutoshi, and performed by Round Table featuring Nino. The second opening theme is a remix of the first entitled which was produced by the same people as with the first opening theme. The first ending theme used for episodes one through twelve, , was written by Kenji Otsuki, composed by Fumihiko Kitsutaka, and featured vocals by Otsuki and Kitsutaka. The second ending theme used for episodes thirteen through twenty-four, , was written and composed by Yugo Sasakura, arranged by Masanori Shimada, and performed by Yui Makino.


title: Welcome to the N.H.K.

text: A. E. Sparrow of IGN gave the novel a nine out of ten while comparing it to "Catcher in the Rye", saying "there's enough Holden Caulfield, or even Tyler Durden, in Satou and the events that surround him to make this story a solid read for anyone interested in books that examine the human condition."


title: Welcome to the N.H.K.

text: The manga version of "Welcome to the N.H.K." was also positively reviewed. Writing for Anime News Network, Carlo Santos rated the Tokyopop releases of the third manga volume with a B grade for story, an A− for art, and an A− overall. Speaking on the volume's art, Santos noted "it's endlessly entertaining to watch the parade of shocked, disturbed and stressed-out faces as Satou confronts each of society's ills," as well as highlighting the "detailed backgrounds" and "clean, rectangular layouts and frequent speedlines." Concerning the writing, "the dialogue is full of vigor and wit, with a straightforward tone that conveys mad outbursts, tearful breakdowns, and everything in between." And with regards to the adaptation, Santos praised the volume by writing "out of Tokyopop's many, many translations, this series stands among one of their best, if not the best." Santos was more couched in his approval for the fourth volume, giving it a C+ for story, an A− for art, and a B grade overall. While criticizing that "the plot has taken a vacation," he wrote that "those who are into NHK for the highly developed character drama, however, will find these chapters to be some of the most memorable yet," and concluded "it may not be the best or most entertaining volume of NHK, but it does serve its purpose, which is to deepen the story and make the characters even more dysfunctional and twisted than they already are."


title: Welcome to the N.H.K.

text: The anime series was generally well received by critics. In his review for "Animation World Magazine", James Brusuelas wrote ""Welcome to the NHK" is a true anime gem," describing it as "a delicately human tale." He went on to praise the series, saying "This is more than just anime. This is film." Concluding his review, he remarked "I cannot recommend this series enough. It is perhaps the best anime I saw during 2008."


title: Teddy Riley

text: Edward Theodore Riley (born October 8, 1967) is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer credited with the creation of the New Jack Swing genre. Riley credits Barry Michael Cooper with giving the genre its name.


title: Teddy Riley

text: He fused hip hop and R&B in his production work with artists including Michael Jackson, Bobby Brown, Keith Sweat, Samantha Mumba, Doug E. Fresh, Today, Heavy D & the Boyz, Hi-Five, Men of Vizion and Profyle, as well as his spearheaded groups Guy and Blackstreet. Riley's consistency and drum ideas had some influence on modern-day R&B, leading to more samples and rapping segments as well as singing, a practice which in part was reminiscent of the Jackson family. Along with neo soul-style singers such as Marvin Gaye, Riley has had a seminal influence on gospel and R&B music, which became more open to using rap and sound effects in their recordings.


title: Teddy Riley

text: Teddy Riley was raised in St. Nicholas Houses in Harlem, New York City. A child prodigy from the age of five, he began playing instruments in church. His uncle, who owned the famed Harlem club The Rooftop, built a studio in the club in which Riley would spend most of his time while growing up. By 14, upstate New York rappers began making music to his tracks. Under the guidance of local music producer Gene Griffin, Riley formed the short-lived group Kids at Work. At the age of 18, Riley produced Kool Moe Dee's 12" single Go See the Doctor. Released on an independent label in 1986, the song became a crossover hit, reaching No.89 on the "Billboard" Hot 100. Riley had previously worked on the production of Doug E. Fresh and the Get Fresh Crew's "The Show" in 1985.


title: Teddy Riley

text: In 1987, Riley, Aaron Hall, and Timmy Gatling formed the R&B group Guy. Managed by Gene Griffin, Riley's work with Guy pioneered the "new jack swing" style of R&B. Riley infused his own blend of hip-hop beats, R&B progressions and the gospel vocal stylings of Hall to create the archetypal new jack swing sound on Guy's eponymous debut. In 1989, Riley produced Big Daddy Kane's "I Get the Job Done", as well as other work for the Jacksons, the Winans and James Ingram. In that year, he helped produce the debut album of his rap-band, Wrecks-N-Effect. He also created the highly successful remix of Jane Child's "Don't Wanna Fall in Love", which became a crossover pop smash.


title: Teddy Riley

text: After the release and tour of Guy's second album, "The Future", Riley co-produced half of Michael Jackson's "Dangerous" album on the recommendation of Jackson's long-time producer Quincy Jones. After the disbandment of Guy in 1992, Riley moved to production, performance on and promotion of Wreckx-N-Effect's second album "Hard or Smooth".


title: Teddy Riley

text: In late 1991, Riley formed a second group, Blackstreet. The group would go on to release several major hits, including "Don't Leave Me" (1997), the number one single "No Diggity" (1996, featuring Dr. Dre and Queen Pen), and "Girlfriend/Boyfriend" (1999, with Janet Jackson, Eve, and Ja Rule). By 2011, the group had disbanded and reformed several times.


title: Teddy Riley

text: In 2000, Riley worked with Spice Girl Melanie B on the tracks "ABC 123", "I Believe", and "Pack Your S**t" for her solo debut album "Hot". He also worked on an album with Outsiderz 4 Life, producing "Wil' Out" and other songs.


title: Teddy Riley

text: At the start of 2006, he was part of the New Jack Reunion Tour, featuring Blackstreet and Guy, in addition to After 7, SWV, and Tony Toni Toné. In May 2006, Riley announced that he would be working on two key projects: a new Blackstreet album and a new Guy album.


title: Teddy Riley

text: In 2008, Riley was the victim of a Ponzi scheme that left him bankrupt. In June 2008, a fire destroyed Riley's Virginia Beach recording studio. Fire investigators said that an electrical problem caused the blaze that burned the abandoned recording studio. The Virginia Beach Fire Department said lightning in the area also could have been a factor, although there was no direct


title: Teddy Riley

text: In 2009, Riley performed with Guy at the BET Awards. In the same year, Riley worked with Amerie and Robin Thicke on their respective albums. Leading on from his work on Snoop Dogg's album "Ego Trippin'", Riley became part of the production supergroup QDT, which features DJ Quik as well as Snoop Dogg.


title: Teddy Riley

text: Riley produced and co-wrote the song "Teeth" with Lady Gaga for her EP "The Fame Monster". Speaking in March 2010 to Blues & Soul's Pete Lewis – Riley said that he was no longer affiliated with Guy (Riley had last performed with the group in October 2010). Riley also said that the current line-up of Blackstreet consisted of himself, Chauncey Hannibal, Dave Hollister and Sherman 'J-Stylz' Tisdale. He confirmed that he was working on a new Blackstreet album, though intended to release his own album – entitled 'TRX' – first. Artists he could possibly be working with for the project included Stevie Wonder and Elton John, plus his own new, upcoming acts. However, Hannibal stopped performing with the group and the lineup became Riley, Hollister, Mark Middleton and Eric Williams. In 2012, Hannibal returned to Blackstreet. Middleton and Williams left the group. As of 2019, the group's lineup now consists of Riley, Dave Hollister, J-Stylz, and Rodney Poe under the name "Blackstreet 2".


title: Teddy Riley

text: In an August 2010, co-executor of the Michael Jackson estate, John Branca, confirmed that a posthumous album of Michael Jackson would be released, containing work done in the previous five years with producers Neff-U, Christopher "Tricky" Stewart and Riley, as well as work written and produced solely by Jackson himself. The album "Michael" was released on December 14, 2010, in the United States. After the release, several people questioned some of the music Riley produced for the project. Riley insisted all of the songs were sung by Jackson and claimed that vocal artifacts were added from overprocessing Jackson's voice. However, Riley made comments in an interview with Dan Dodds (aka Soul Jones) in which he stated that there were some elements of his voice in the music. "They may use some elements from me, put together ideas but I haven't been working on the new album" Riley is reported to have said.


title: Teddy Riley

text: Recently, Riley has stepped into the Korean music market. Riley worked with singer/rapper Jay Park on an English track titled "Demon", which was originally meant for Michael Jackson. Riley produced a mini album for the Korean girl group Rania.


title: Teddy Riley

text: Riley is one of the producers part of the production team QDT, with DJ Quik and Snoop Dogg. He produced the tracks "Believe" and "Flow" for the "Twenty" album of the R&B group Boyz II Men. He has also produced Korean girl group Girls' Generation's single "The Boys" for the group's first international release. He has also produced songs for Girls' Generation's labelmates SHINee and EXO. He worked with Shinee on "Beautiful", "Shine", and "Dangerous" from their two part third Korean studio album. Riley also produced the songs "MILK" and "All Night" for f(x)'s third studio album "Red Light" and the song "What Is Love" for Exo.


title: Gene Clark

text: Harold Eugene Clark (November 17, 1944 – May 24, 1991) was an American singer-songwriter and founding member of the folk rock band the Byrds. He was the Byrds' principal songwriter between 1964 and early 1966, writing most of the band's best-known originals from this period, including "I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better", "She Don't Care About Time", "Eight Miles High" and "Set You Free This Time". Although he did not achieve commercial success as a solo artist, Clark was in the vanguard of popular music during much of his career, prefiguring developments in such disparate subgenres as psychedelic rock, baroque pop, newgrass, country rock, and alternative country. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991 as a member of the Byrds.


title: Gene Clark

text: Clark was born in Tipton, Missouri, the third of 13 children in a family of Irish, German, and American Indian heritage. His family moved to Kansas City, Missouri, where as a boy he began learning to play the guitar and harmonica from his father. He was soon playing Hank Williams tunes as well as songs by early rockers such as Elvis Presley and the Everly Brothers. He began writing songs at the age of 11. By the time he was 15, he had developed a rich tenor voice, and he formed a local rock and roll combo, Joe Meyers and the Sharks. Like many of his generation, Clark developed an interest in folk music because of the popularity of the Kingston Trio. When he graduated from Bonner Springs High School, in Bonner Springs, Kansas, in 1962, he formed a folk group, the Rum Runners.


title: Gene Clark

text: Clark was invited to join an established regional folk band, the Surf Riders, based in Kansas City at the Castaways Lounge, owned by Hal Harbaum. On August 12, 1963, he was performing with them when he was discovered by the New Christy Minstrels. They hired him, and he recorded two albums with the ensemble before leaving in early 1964. After hearing the Beatles, Clark quit the New Christy Minstrels and moved to Los Angeles, where he met fellow folkie and Beatles convert Jim (later Roger) McGuinn at the Troubadour Club. In early 1964 they began to assemble a band that would become the Byrds.


title: Gene Clark

text: Clark wrote or co-wrote many of the Byrds' best-known originals from their first three albums, including "I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better", "Set You Free This Time", "Here Without You", "You Won't Have to Cry", "If You're Gone", "The World Turns All Around Her", "She Don't Care About Time" and "Eight Miles High". He initially played rhythm guitar in the band, but relinquished that position to David Crosby and became the tambourine and harmonica player. Bassist Chris Hillman noted years later in an interview remembering Clark, "At one time, he was the power in the Byrds, not McGuinn, not Crosby—it was Gene who would burst through the stage curtain banging on a tambourine, coming on like a young Prince Valiant. A hero, our savior. Few in the audience could take their eyes off this presence. He "was" the songwriter. He had the 'gift' that none of the rest of us had developed yet... What deep inner part of his soul conjured up songs like 'Set You Free This Time,' 'I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better,' 'I'm Feelin' Higher,' 'Eight Miles High'? So many great songs! We learned a lot of songwriting from him and in the process learned a little bit about ourselves."


title: Gene Clark

text: A management decision gave McGuinn the lead vocals for their major singles and Bob Dylan songs. This disappointment, combined with Clark's dislike of traveling (including a chronic fear of flying) and resentment by other band members about the extra income he derived from his songwriting, led to internal squabbling, and he left the group in early 1966. He briefly returned to Kansas City before moving back to Los Angeles to form Gene Clark & the Group with Chip Douglas, Joel Larson, and Bill Rhinehart.


title: Gene Clark

text: Columbia Records (the Byrds' record label) signed Clark as a solo artist, and in 1967 he released his first solo album, "Gene Clark with the Gosdin Brothers". The Gosdin Brothers were selected to back him because they shared the same manager, Jim Dickson, and because Chris Hillman, who played bass on the album, had worked with the Gosdin Brothers in the mid-1960s when he and they were members of the Southern California bluegrass band the Hillmen. The album was a unique mixture of pop, country rock and baroque psychedelic tracks. It received favorable reviews, but unfortunately for Clark, it was released almost simultaneously with the Byrds' "Younger Than Yesterday", also on Columbia, and (partly because of his 18-month absence from public attention) was a commercial failure.


title: Gene Clark

text: With the future of his solo career in doubt, Clark briefly rejoined the Byrds in October 1967 as a replacement for the recently departed David Crosby; following an anxiety attack in Minneapolis, he left after only three weeks. During this brief period with the Byrds, he appeared with the band on "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour", lip-synching the group's current single, "Goin' Back"; he also performed "Mr. Spaceman" with the band. Although there is some disagreement among the band's biographers, Clark is generally viewed as having contributed background vocals to the songs "Goin' Back" and "Space Odyssey" for the forthcoming Byrds' album "The Notorious Byrd Brothers" and was an uncredited co-author, with McGuinn, of "Get to You", also from that album.


title: Gene Clark

text: In 1968, Clark signed with A&M Records and began a collaboration with the banjo player Doug Dillard. Guitarist Bernie Leadon (later with The Flying Burrito Brothers and The Eagles), bassist Dave Jackson and mandolinist Don Beck joined them to form the nucleus of Dillard & Clark; in addition, Michael Clarke briefly drummed for the group before joining The Flying Burrito Brothers. They produced two albums, "The Fantastic Expedition of Dillard & Clark" (1968) and "Through the Morning, Through the Night" (1969).


title: Gene Clark

text: "The Fantastic Expedition of Dillard & Clark" was a pivotal work of acoustic country rock. It included such enduring songs as "Train Leaves Here This Morning" (a collaboration between Clark and Leadon prominently covered by the latter in 1972 on The Eagles' debut album) and "She Darked the Sun" (covered by Linda Ronstadt on her 1970 album "Silk Purse"). In contrast, "Through the Morning, Through the Night" was more indebted to traditional bluegrass but also employed electric instrumentation. By this juncture, Dillard's girlfriend Donna Washburn had joined the group as a backing vocalist, a factor that precipitated the departure of Leadon. The shift to traditional bluegrass also caused Clark to lose interest. Written by Clark, the title song was used by Quincy Jones in the soundtrack of the 1972 Sam Peckinpah film "The Getaway"; it was also covered by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss (along with "Polly," another Clark-penned track from the album) on their 2007 album "Raising Sand". Both albums by Dillard & Clark fared poorly on the charts, but they are now regarded as seminal exemplars of the country rock and progressive bluegrass genres.


title: Gene Clark

text: The collaboration with Dillard rejuvenated Clark's creativity but greatly contributed to his growing drinking problem. Dillard & Clark disintegrated in late 1969 after the departures of Clark and Leadon. During this period, Clark, Leadon, Jackson and Beck contributed to the debut album of Steve Young, "Rock Salt & Nails," released in November 1969.


title: Gene Clark

text: In 1970, Clark began work on a new single, recording two tracks with the original members of the Byrds (each recording his part separately). The resulting songs, "She's the Kind of Girl" and "One in a Hundred", were not released at the time, because of legal problems; they were included later on the 1973 album "Roadmaster". In 1970 and 1971, Clark contributed vocals and two compositions ("Tried So Hard" and "Here Tonight") to albums by the Flying Burrito Brothers.


title: Gene Clark

text: Frustrated with the music industry, Clark bought a house in Albion, California and married former go-go dancer and Bell Records production assistant Carlie Lynn McCummings in June 1970, with whom he had two sons (Kelly and Kai Clark). In semi-retirement, he subsisted on his still-substantial Byrds royalties throughout the early 1970s, augmented by income from The Turtles' 1969 American Top Ten hit "You Showed Me", a previously unreleased composition by McGuinn and Clark from 1964 rearranged for the band by Chip Douglas.


title: Gene Clark

text: In 1971, Clark released his second solo album, "White Light" (the title was not on the cover sleeve, and thus some later reviewers mistakenly assumed that the title was "Gene Clark"). The album was produced by the Native American guitarist Jesse Ed Davis, with whom Clark developed a great rapport, partly due to their common ancestry. An intimate, poetic and mostly acoustic work supplemented by Davis's slide guitar, the album contained many introspective tracks, such as "With Tomorrow", "Because of You", "Where My Love Lies Asleep" and "For a Spanish Guitar" (which Bob Dylan reportedly hailed as one of the greatest songs ever written). All of the material was written by Clark, with the exception of Bob Dylan and Richard Manuel's "Tears of Rage". Launched to considerable critical acclaim, the album failed to gain commercial success, except in the Netherlands, where it was voted album of the year by rock music critics. Once more, modest promotion and Clark's refusal to undertake promotional touring adversely affected sales.


title: Gene Clark

text: In the spring of 1971, Clark was commissioned by Dennis Hopper to contribute the tracks "American Dreamer" and "Outlaw Song" to "American Dreamer", a documentary that chronicled the fractious editing process of "The Last Movie". A rerecorded, longer version of the song "American Dreamer" was later used in the 1977 film "The Farmer", along with an instrumental version of the same song plus "Outside the Law (The Outlaw)", a re-recording of "Outlaw Song".


title: Gene Clark

text: In 1972, Clark attempted to record a follow-up album. Progress was slow and expensive, and A&M terminated the project before completion. The resulting eight tracks, including "Full Circle Song" and "In a Misty Morning", along with those recorded with the Byrds in 1970 and 1971 ("She's the Kind of Girl" and "One in a Hundred") and with the Flying Burrito Brothers ("Here Tonight"), were released in 1973 as "Roadmaster" in the Netherlands only.


title: Gene Clark

text: Clark left A&M in late 1972 to join a reunion of the original five Byrds. They cut the album "Byrds", which was released in March 1973 by Asylum Records. While the album charted relatively well (U.S. No. 20), its placement did not live up to the label's initial expectations in the wake of the recent success of Crosby (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young) and Hillman (a member of Stephen Stills's band Manassas). Clark's compositions "Full Circle" and "Changing Heart" and the Neil Young covers on which he sang the lead vocal ("See the Sky About to Rain" and "Cowgirl in the Sand") were widely regarded as the standout tracks on the critically divisive album. Disheartened by the bad reviews and unhappy with Crosby's performance as the record's producer, the group members chose to dissolve the band. Clark briefly joined McGuinn's solo group, with which he premiered "Silver Raven", arguably his most celebrated post-Byrds song.


title: Gene Clark

text: On the basis of the quality of Clark's contributions to "Byrds", David Geffen signed him to Asylum Records in early 1974. The label was the home of the most prominent exponents of the singer-songwriter movement of the era and carried the kind of hip cachet that Clark hadn't experienced since his days with the Byrds. While composing the album, he spent long periods with a notebook and an acoustic guitar at the picture window of his home, deriving inspiration from staring at the Pacific Ocean.


title: Gene Clark

text: Produced by Thomas Jefferson Kaye with a vast array of session musicians (including members of The Section and the Allman Brothers Band) and backing singers, the ensuing "No Other" fused elements of country rock, folk, gospel, soul and choral music with poetic, mystical lyrics. Although the album was praised by critics, its unconventional arrangements (which anticipated the later innovations of Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie) limited public appeal. Furthermore, its high production costs (exceeding $100,000) prompted Geffen to publicly berate Clark and Kaye. The album was minimally promoted and stalled in the "Billboard" album chart at No. 144. In 2013, members of the bands Beach House, The Walkmen, Grizzly Bear, and Fleet Foxes performed the album in its entirety in a series of concerts.


title: Gene Clark

text: Clark's return to Los Angeles to record the album resulted in his reversion to a hedonistic lifestyle and accelerated the disintegration of his marriage. Disillusioned by professional and marital failure, he mounted his first solo tour by road, playing colleges and clubs with Roger White (lead guitar and backing vocals) and Duke Bardwell (electric bass, backing vocals and acoustic guitar); the drumless trio was billed as Gene Clark and the Silverados.


title: Gene Clark

text: After the commercial failure of "No Other", Clark was confused about his artistic direction. Throughout 1975 and 1976, he had hinted to the press that he was assembling a set of "cosmic" songs fusing country rock with R&B and funk, elaborating on the soundscapes of his most recent album. In 1976, he recorded a set of ten demos that combined country and folk music with a light touch of cosmic consciousness. These were submitted to RSO Records, which promptly bought out Clark's Asylum contract and issued the long-gestating "Two Sides to Every Story" in 1977. The album—a melange of bluegrass, traditional honky tonk, echoes of "No Other" ("Sister Moon") and strident country rock (a new arrangement of "Kansas City Southern")—was produced by Kaye with an understated touch.


title: Gene Clark

text: The emotional fallout from his divorce is reflected in the album title and several of Clark's compositions, including the aforementioned "Sister Moon", "Lonely Saturday", "Past Addresses", "Silent Crusade" and "Hear the Wind". The album also contains covers of the traditional "In the Pines" (a key component of Clark's live repertoire with the Silverados) and "Give My Love to Marie" by James Talley. Once again, his style of sensitive balladry failed to achieve success on the U.S. charts. In a belated attempt to find an appreciative public, he reluctantly overcame his travel anxiety and launched an international promotional tour with the KC Southern Band. Some six weeks before his death in 1991, Clark told interviewer Bill Wasserzieher that he considered "Two Sides to Every Story" his best album, rivaled only by "No Other".


title: Gene Clark

text: For his British tour dates, Clark found himself on the same bill as ex-Byrds Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman, each fronting their own bands. Shortly after returning to the United States, Clark and McGuinn began touring as an acoustic duo. After Hillman joined his former bandmates, the reformed trio named themselves McGuinn, Clark & Hillman and signed with Capitol Records. Produced by the Albert Brothers (who had recently recorded Crosby, Stills & Nash's 1977 comeback album), the ensuing "McGuinn, Clark & Hillman" (1979) was a rebirth in both performing and songwriting for Clark, who ensconced himself as the group's dominant creative force. He wrote four songs for the album, including "Backstage Pass" (a rumination on the ennui of touring and his fear of flying), "Release Me Girl" (a disco-inflected collaboration with Thomas Jefferson Kaye), the UFO-inspired "Feelin' Higher" and "Little Mama".


title: Gene Clark

text: Many critics felt that the album's slick production and disco-influenced soft rock rhythms didn't flatter the group, but the album reached No. 39 on the "Billboard" 200 (underpinned by the McGuinn-penned "Don't You Write Her Off", which peaked at No. 33 in May 1979) and earned a RIAA gold certification, selling well enough to generate a follow-up. McGuinn, Clark and Hillman's second release was to have been a full group effort entitled "City"; although it was ultimately released in 1980, a combination of Clark's unreliability (including experimentation with heroin) and his dissatisfaction with their musical direction (mostly regarding Ron and Howard Albert's production) resulted in the album being credited to "Roger McGuinn & Chris Hillman featuring Gene Clark." Despite the turmoil, Clark penned the song "Won't Let You Down". By 1981, Clark had left, and the group recorded one more album as "McGuinn/Hillman".


title: Gene Clark

text: Clark moved to Hawaii with Jesse Ed Davis to try to overcome his drug dependency, remaining there until the end of 1981. Upon his return to Los Angeles, he assembled a new band, the Firebyrds, and in 1982 proceeded to record what would eventually become the album "Firebyrd". While waiting for the album to be released, Clark joined up with Chris Hillman and others in an abortive venture called Flyte, which failed to secure a recording contract and was quickly dissolved. The eventual release of "Firebyrd" in 1984 coincided with the emergence of jangle rockers like R.E.M. and Tom Petty, who had sparked a new interest in the Byrds. Clark also began developing new fans among LA's roots-conscious Paisley Underground scene. Later in the decade, he embraced his new status by appearing as a guest with the Long Ryders, in a session arranged by Saul Davis and he cut an acclaimed duo album with Carla Olson of the Textones titled "So Rebellious A Lover" (including the notable "Gypsy Rider" and "Del Gato") in 1986. The album included contributions from Chris Hillman, Stephen McCarthy (of The Long Ryders) and Randy Fuller (of the Bobby Fuller Four) and was produced and arranged by session drummer Michael Huey.


title: Gene Clark

text: In 1985, Clark approached McGuinn, Crosby and Hillman regarding a reformation of the Byrds in time for the 20th anniversary of the release of "Mr. Tambourine Man". The three of them showed no interest. Clark decided to assemble a "superstar" collection of musicians, including ex-Flying Burrito Brothers and Firefall member Rick Roberts, ex-Beach Boys singer and guitarist Blondie Chaplin, ex-Band members Rick Danko and Richard Manuel, and ex-Byrds Michael Clarke and John York. Clark initially called his band "The 20th Anniversary Tribute to the Byrds" and began performing on the lucrative nostalgia circuit in early 1985. A number of concert promoters began to shorten the band's name to "the Byrds" in advertisements and promotional material. As the band continued to tour throughout 1985, their agent decided to shorten the name to "the Byrds" permanently, to the displeasure of McGuinn, Crosby and Hillman. Clark eventually discontinued performing with his own "Byrds" band, but drummer Clarke continued on with Skip Battin (occasionally with ex-Byrds York and Gene Parsons), forming another "Byrds" group, prompting McGuinn, Hillman, and Crosby to go on the road as "the Byrds" in an attempt to establish a claim to the rights to the name. Their effort failed this time; Clark was not included in the reunion, primarily because of his involvement with the act that didn't include them. Crosby finally secured rights to the name in 2002.


title: Gene Clark

text: Despite the critical success of "So Rebellious a Lover", which led to several TV appearances (including "Nashville Now"), Clark was increasingly afflicted with serious health problems, including ulcers and alcohol dependence. In 1988, he underwent surgery to remove a malignant ulcer.


title: Gene Clark

text: A period of abstinence and recovery followed until Tom Petty covered "I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better" on "Full Moon Fever" (1989), yielding a windfall of royalties from the album (which peaked at No. 3 in the United States) to Clark. Flush with money, he began to neglect his professional obligations. Although the circumstances remain nebulous (with Carla Olson citing alleged financial improprieties), the binge also precipitated his final break-up with Terri Messina, who had had a two-decade on-again, off-again relationship with Clark.


title: Gene Clark

text: During this period, The Byrds set aside their differences long enough to appear together at their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in January 1991, at which the original lineup performed several songs together, including Clark's "I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better".


title: Gene Clark

text: Clark's health continued to decline as his substance abuse accelerated, and he was diagnosed with throat cancer in early 1991. He died on May 24, 1991, at the age of 46 from a bleeding ulcer due to alcoholism. He was buried at St. Andrews Catholic Cemetery in Tipton, Missouri, beneath an epitaph that reads ""No Other.""


title: Gene Clark

text: During his career and after his death, Clark's songs have been covered by a number of artists. Iain Matthews was an early promoter of Clark's songs, covering "Polly" on his 1972 album "Journeys from Gospel Oak" and "Tried So Hard" on his 1974 album "Some Days You Eat the Bear". "Tried So Hard" was later covered by Yo la Tengo on "Fakebook" in 1990. Death in Vegas and Paul Weller covered his song "So You Say You Lost Your Baby" on their 2003 album "Scorpio Rising". In 1993 the Scottish band Teenage Fanclub recorded a tribute entitled "Gene Clark" on their album "Thirteen".


title: Gene Clark

text: In 2007, two of his songs were recorded by Alison Krauss and Robert Plant on the T-Bone Burnett–produced "Raising Sand": "Polly Come Home" and "Through the Morning, Through the Night." Also in 2007, Chris and Rich Robinson released a live version of "Polly" on their album "". This Mortal Coil covered "Strength of Strings" from his album "No Other" and "With Tomorrow" from his album "White Light". Soulsavers with Mark Lanegan recorded a version of "Some Misunderstanding" from "No Other" on their 2009 release, "Broken". The song "Gorgeous" from Kanye West's 2010 album "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" is based on elements of The Turtles' cover of "You Showed Me".


title: Gene Clark

text: A documentary about Clark's life and career, entitled "The Byrd Who Flew Alone", was released in 2013, featuring contributions from family, friends, the three surviving original members of the Byrds, latter-day Byrd John York and late-era collaborators Carla Olson and Pat Robinson. The documentary revealed that Clark was suffering from throat cancer at the time of his death.


title: Asuka Langley Soryu

text: Within the franchise, Asuka is designated as the Second Child and the pilot of a giant mecha named Evangelion Unit 02, to fight against enemies known as Angels for the special agency Nerv. Because of childhood trauma, she has developed a competitive and outgoing character, to get noticed by other people and affirm her own self. In the "Rebuild of Evangelion" films, her Japanese surname is changed to and she differs significantly in her background and characterization from her TV series incarnation.


title: Asuka Langley Soryu

text: Series creator and director Hideaki Anno originally proposed her as the main protagonist of the series. Character designer Yoshiyuki Sadamoto asked Anno to include a male main character instead, downgrading her to the role of co-protagonist with Shinji Ikari. Anno based her psychology on his personality, bringing his moods into the character, acting instinctively and without having thought about how the character would evolve. During the first broadcast of the series, he changed his plans, creating an evolutionary parable in which Asuka becomes more dramatic and suffers, intentionally going against the expectations of the fans. The Japanese voice actress Miyamura was also influential, deciding some details and some of Asuka's lines.


title: Asuka Langley Soryu

text: Asuka maintained a high ranking in every popularity poll of the series and has appeared in surveys to decide the most popular anime characters in Japan. Merchandising based on her has also been released, particularly action figures, which became highly popular. Some critics took issue with her hubris and her personality, judging these as tiresome and arrogant; others appreciated the series's realism and her complex psychological introspection. Asuka is also one of the most successful and influential examples of the tsundere stereotype, characteristic of grumpy and arrogant characters with a fragile hidden side, helping to define its characteristics.


title: Asuka Langley Soryu

text: In the early design stages of the "Neon Genesis Evangelion" anime, creator and director Hideaki Anno proposed including a girl similar to Asuka as the protagonist. Character designer Yoshiyuki Sadamoto proved reluctant to accept the idea of a female character in the lead role after Gainax's previous works like "Gunbuster" and ""; he said: "A robot should be piloted by a trained person, whether it is a woman or not makes no difference, but I cannot understand why a girl should pilot a robot". He thus asked the director to use a boy in the role of main character, downgrading Asuka to the role of female co-protagonist. He modeled the relationship between her and the male protagonist Shinji Ikari taking inspiration from Nadia and Jean from "The Secret of Blue Water". Asuka should have represented "[Shinji's] desire for the female sex", as opposed to Rei Ayanami's "motherhood", and should have been the idol of "Neon Genesis Evangelion". Anno also thought of her as Nadia La Arwal from "The Secret of Blue Water" with a different hairstyle. In the initial project, she was described as "a determined girl" who adapts to the situation in which she finds herself, passionate about video games and "aspires to become like Ryoji Kaji". In the nineteenth episode, she would have had to be seriously injured in her attempt to protect Shinji, who would have thus "proved his worth" trying to save her.


title: Asuka Langley Soryu

text: For the character's name, Anno took inspiration from , the protagonist of the manga , written by Shinji Wada; for the surname, he merged the names of two ships used in the Second World War, the Japanese World War II aircraft carrier "Soryu" and the American aircraft carrier "Langley". Despite her multi-ethnic origins, the staff made Asuka's skin the same color as that of Rei Ayanami. For the German language terms used in the scenes with Asuka, staff asked for help from an American employee of Gainax, Michael House, who exploited his basic knowledge of the language, acquired in high school, and a Japanese-German dictionary from a local library. According to Anime News Network's May Callum, Gainax did not pay attention to the dialogue's German grammar, believing the series would never be successful enough to be watched by native German speakers. For Asuka's psychology, Anno relied on his personality, as with the other characters in the series. Staff originally inserted her after the first six episodes to lighten the tones of the series. She was presented with an exhilarating personality without foreshadowing her eventual depressing moments in the latter half. Anno said that he didn't intend to go "that far" at first and that he didn't completely grasp the character of Asuka until he made her "Are you stupid?" (あんたバカ?, "Anta baka?") catchphrase, with which the character was definitively born.


title: Asuka Langley Soryu

text: During the series's first airing, the director began to criticize "otaku", Japanese obsessed animation fans, accusing them of being excessively closed and introverted; therefore, he changed the atmosphere of the second half of the series, making the plot darker, violent, and introspective. Asuka's story reflected the changes: although she had been introduced in an essentially positive role, her character became increasingly dramatic and introverted, going against the expectations and the pleasure principle of anime fans. In the twenty-second episode, Anno focused on Asuka's emotional situation, harassed by her first menstrual cycle, but not considering himself capable of exploring such a feminine theme, he condensed everything into a single scene. Miyamura's interpretation was also important. During the production of the last episodes he inserted scenes in which he represented Asuka with simple hand-drawn sketches, remaining satisfied with the result, saying: "After having drawn Asuka with a marker, as soon as Yuko Miyamura gave it her voice, it was more Asuka than ever". Furthermore, the author's original intent was a long live action segment for the film "The End of Evangelion" (1997), with different content than the final version. The original segment focused on the character of Asuka, who would wake up in an apartment after drinking and spend the night with Tōji Suzuhara, with whom she would embark on a sexual and sentimental relationship. Misato Katsuragi would have been the roommate in the apartment next to her; Rei Ayanami would have been her colleague and her "senpai". In the alternate universe of live action, Shinji would never have existed; walking the streets of Tokyo-2, however, Asuka would hear his voice calling her.


title: Asuka Langley Soryu

text: Yūko Miyamura voices Asuka's character in all her appearances in the original series, and the later films, spin-offs, video games, and the new "Rebuild of Evangelion" film series. The only exception is an introspective scene from the twenty-second episode, when other female members of the cast replace the character's voice during a metaphysical sequence. She had originally auditioned for the role of Rei, but staff felt her voice was too energetic, so she was offered Asuka instead. According to Miyamura, Asuka's dubbing proved difficult. She said she wished to "erase "Evangelion"" and forget her experience with it. Towards the end of the first broadcast, Miyamura suffered from bulimia and found herself in a disastrous psychic state, similar to that of Asuka's character. After the release of the movie "The End of Evangelion" (1997) she said, "I think I had a kamikaze feeling during the voice-over". The voice actress identified herself so much with the character she took a conversation course in German, decided some of the character's lines, and Asuka's details, such as the cloth puppet in the shape of a monkey featured in her childhood flashbacks. One of her ideas was the German sentences Asuka utters in the twenty-second episode of the series in a telephone conversation with her stepmother.


title: Asuka Langley Soryu

text: When dubbing the last scene of "The End of Evangelion", in which Shinji strangles Asuka, Shinji's voice actress Megumi Ogata physically imitated his gesture and strangled her colleague. Because of her agitation, Ogata squeezed her neck too hard, risking having her not properly recite the rest of the film's lines. With Ogata's gesture, Miyamura could finally produce realistic sounds of strangulation and thanked her colleague for her availability. Anno based the scene on an incident that happened to one of his female friends. She was strangled by a malicious man, but when she was about to be killed, she stroked him for no reason. When the man stopped squeezing her neck, the woman regained a cold attitude, speaking the words that Asuka would have said to Shinji in the original script: . Dissatisfied with Miyamura's interpretation, Anno asked her to imagine a stranger sneaking into her room, who could rape her at any time, but who prefers to masturbate by watching her sleep. The director asked her what she would say about this if she woke up suddenly, noticing what had happened. Miyamura, disgusted by the scene, replied saying . After the conversation, Anno changed the line by echoing the voice actress's reaction.


title: Asuka Langley Soryu

text: Further difficulties arose during the dubbing sessions for the film "" (2012), the third installment of the "Rebuild" saga, set fourteen years after the previous movies. According to Miyamura, the scenario gave her "very confused feelings" and "a constant feeling of light-headedness". Hideaki Anno did not explain the plot and setting of the film to her, complicating her work. At the beginning, however, she didn't want to go back to dubbing the "Rebuild" and she was scared, given the suffering caused by "The End of Evangelion". Even after finishing the final film of the saga, "" (2021), Miyamura stated: "I felt like a mother to Asuka at times. I cannot watch "End of Evangelion" even now because it's too painful." Recording for "Thrice Upon a Time" was less stressful, but also taxing due to the many delays and revisions in production. At the end of the recording, Anno thanked her for playing the role of Asuka for twenty-five years; Miyamura furthermore noted Anno and Kazuya Tsurumaki orientated her far more than before.


title: Asuka Langley Soryu

text: During the recording of the feature film, she had to dub a scene in which Asuka screams in pain as she pulls an anti-Angel seal from her eye. When she recorded, the drawings for the sequence had not yet been completed, so she imagined the scenes involved, listening to the director's explanations and trying to do her best to feel the required sensations. Screaming, she tried to use all her imagination and pretended to stab herself, as if flesh were being torn from her. The support of Megumi Ogata, Shinji's voice actress who was already used to screaming in other "Evangelion" scenes, also helped her in the process. The last thing asked of her was to write the character's full name in cursive herself to be used in the film. She had lived in Australia for the past two decades, but was still unsure of how to write "Langley". Miyamura also played Soryu and Shikinami as two different people, but both with a strong desire to be better. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, her sessions were already finished; later, some points were resumed and re-recorded, so there was no precise prediction as to when the work would be finished. She still had difficulties in understanding the story, and had taken the habit of reading fan-made analysis.


title: Asuka Langley Soryu

text: Asuka is voiced by Tiffany Grant in English in the ADV films dub, and Stephanie McKeon in the Netflix dub. Grant felt playing Asuka was "refreshing", as "she says the most horrible things to people, things that you'd like to say to people and can't get away with". Grant says she greatly identified with the character, to the point of Asuka becoming a part of her: "She's kinda like my kid sister, which is why I feel the need to stick up for her". Grant met Miyamura in conventions in the early 2000s and, discussing their experiences portraying Asuka, Miyamura rekindled their shared love and concern for the character's happiness.


title: Asuka Langley Soryu

text: Asuka Langley Soryu was born on December 4, 2001. She is the daughter of Dr. Soryu Kyoko Zeppelin, an employee of a research center named Gehirn. Born in Germany, she has German and Japanese blood and U.S./German citizenship. In 2005 her mother participates in a failed contact experiment with Unit 02, but, because of an accident, she suffers a severe mental breakdown, becoming permanently hospitalized. These injuries render her unable to recognize her child. Asuka is deeply hurt by her mother's behavior. She now speaks to a doll believing it to be her daughter. After some time, Asuka is chosen as the Second Child and Eva-02's official pilot. Hoping that her selection could lead her mother to pay attention to her again, she excitedly runs to her room to announce the news, only to find her mother's corpse hanging from the ceiling. Shocked and traumatized by her mother's suicide, Asuka adopts self-affirmation as the only reason to be, participating in training sessions to become a pilot and meet other people's expectations.


title: Asuka Langley Soryu

text: Her custody is assigned to Ryoji Kaji, towards whom she is infatuated. At fourteen, after graduating from a German university, Asuka leaves there, accompanied by Kaji and Unit 02, on board a United Nations aircraft carrier escorted by numerous warships to protect the Eva. During the trip, she meets Shinji Ikari, Third Child and pilot of Unit 01, and her new classmates Tōji and Kensuke. The United Nations fleet is then attacked by Gaghiel, the sixth Angel. Recognizing this event as a good chance to demonstrate her skills, Asuka independently activates her Eva, coercing Shinji into joining her in the cockpit. Despite struggling to work together, and the Eva not yet being equipped to operate underwater, the two children destroy the enemy. She is later placed in class 2-A of Tokyo-3 first municipal middle school, living with Shinji under Misato Katsuragi's care. She teases Shinji continuously about his passivity and perceived lack of manliness, but gradually comes to respect and like him as they fight Angels together. She is rarely able to express these feelings. However, following a series of Angel battles where Shinji outperforms her, she grows increasingly unable to continue to suppress her traumatized psyche, drastically lowering her pilot skills. This comes to a head when the Angel Arael attacks; Asuka, burdened by her continually worsening performance in tests, tries to attack the Angel alone, but is overwhelmed by the Angel's attack, a beam that penetrates her mental barrier and forces her to relive her darkest memories. In the battle with the next Angel, Armisael, she cannot activate the Evangelion. As a result of this, Asuka loses all will to live, runs away and goes to the home of her friend Hikari Horaki, spending time aimlessly roaming the streets of Tokyo-3. She is eventually found by Nerv personnel, naked and starving in the bathtub of a ruined building. The main series ends with her lying in a hospital bed in a catatonic state.


title: Asuka Langley Soryu

text: In the movie "The End of Evangelion" (1997), as the Japanese Strategic Self-Defense Force invades Nerv headquarters, Asuka is placed inside Unit 02, which is then submerged in a lake for her protection. As she is bombarded by depth charges, Asuka wakes up, declares she does not want to die, and, in a moment of clarity, feels her mother within the Eva. Her self-identity regained, she emerges and defeats the JSSDF, before encountering nine mechas named Mass-Production Evas. Though she successfully disables all nine opponents, Eva-02's power runs out; the power of the mass-produced Evas allows them to eviscerate and dismember Unit 02. Seeing Asuka's destroyed Evangelion makes Shinji go into a frenzy, which eventually culminates in him starting a catastrophic event named the Third Impact. Shinji and Asuka have an extended dream-like sequence inside Instrumentality, a process in which the soul of humanity merges into one collective consciousness; Asuka claims she can not stand the sight of him, but Shinji responds that this is because he is just like her. Shinji claims he wants to understand her, but she refuses. He is furious at her rejection and lashes out by choking her. After Shinji rejects Instrumentality, she returns after him in the new world; in the film's final scene, Shinji begins strangling Asuka, but stops when she caresses his face. Shinji breaks down crying at this unexpected show of affection and the film ends with Asuka disdainfully looking down on Shinji, saying simply, "How disgusting", before cutting to black.


title: Asuka Langley Soryu

text: In the "Rebuild of Evangelion" saga, Asuka appears first in the second film, "" (2009). Changes have been made to her character, such as her family name being changed from to , continuing the Japanese maritime vessel naming convention. The name change resulted from a precise choice by Hideaki Anno, who said he had somehow changed the background of the character. Asuka Shikinami Langley, compared to her original counterpart, seems even more open and vulnerable: near the end of the film, for example, she confides in someone for the first time talking genuinely about her feelings with Misato. She does not feel infatuated with Ryōji Kaji and maintains a more affectionate and peaceful relationship with Shinji. Although she publicly rejects others, she becomes possessive of Shinji, feeling jealous for him and taking an interest in his feelings. During the production phase, screenwriter Yōji Enokido has added a night scene in which Asuka, feeling alone, enters her colleague's room without permission, sleeping next to him. In the course of events, she also plays video games and tries to cook something for Shinji. She is a captain of the European Air Force, faces the seventh Angel with her Eva-02, and is designated pilot of the Eva-03, whereas in the original series this Eva was piloted by Tōji Suzuhara. Unit 03 is later contaminated by a parasitic-type Angel, Bardiel, and collides with Eva-01; Asuka survives, but is last seen in urgent care.


title: Asuka Langley Soryu

text: In "" (2012), the saga's third instalment, Asuka is initially part of the rescue operation for Eva-01, which is stranded in space and is now working together with Mari, supporting her piloting Eva-08 for an organization named Wille, which is dedicated to destroying Nerv, aboard a ship named AAA Wunder. Convinced by Mari, she dons her old plugsuit in an attempt to get Shinji to recognize them. After fighting off an initial attack by Nerv, Asuka confronts Shinji in his holding cell and tells him fourteen years have passed. Asuka is biologically twenty-eight years old, but has not physically aged thanks to what she calls the "curse of Eva"; she is also wearing an eyepatch that glows blue. Asuka, again supported by Mari, confronts Shinji and his co-pilot Kaworu Nagisa and eventually self-destructs her Eva during the fight. After the fight, she grabs Shinji's wrist, and they move along the ruins of Tokyo-3, followed by Rei Ayanami.


title: Asuka Langley Soryu

text: In the final film, "", Asuka guides them along before they're picked up by Kensuke Aida. She lives in a place named Village-3 in Kensuke's house. She feels she is no longer human as a result of the changes to her body and lack of aging, growing indifferent to her well-being. In the course of the feature film she goes to check on Shinji's distraught and almost catatonic state in silence; Miyamura described hers as the attitude of a mother "who quietly leaves food in front of her son's room to see how he is doing when he is locked up in his room". Shikinami eventually forces Shinji, completely helpless and no longer wanting to continue living, to eat by forcibly stuffing food into his mouth, and for the voice actress, her role would be to be both kind and stern towards the boy. When Wunder arrives to pick-up Asuka, Shinji insists on going with her. During the final battle in Antarctica Asuka is forced to take off her eyepatch, releasing the Ninth Angel contained within. She converts Eva-02 to a new form, but is absorbed by Eva-13. Inside, Asuka meets the original member of the Shikinami clone series she's a part of. Asuka is shown to have fought the other clones as a child before being selected as a pilot. Lamenting not having anyone to take care of her, Kensuke appears, dressed as her stuffed doll, and reassures her. Asuka is then present in an adult body, and Shinji thanks her for saying she liked him, and tells her he liked her as well, before him and Mari bid her farewell. In the final scene of the film, she is last seen on a train platform in a rebuilt world.


title: Asuka Langley Soryu

text: During "3.0+1.0", Asuka confesses her feelings to Shinji by saying that she liked him; for Miyamura, the sentence would not imply that her love is over or that she now loves someone else, "but that she genuinely wanted to tell him that". The actress also emphasized during the interviews that she did not interpret Kensuke and Asuka's relationship as romantic, as Shikinami is still physically fourteen years old; according to her, Kensuke would only be a sort of parental reference figure, and even Anno said that the character's last scene in "Thrice Upon A Time" is related to the image of Kensuke as a father figure for Shikinami. According to her, "Kensuke is a warmth for those who are lonely or want to feel safe". During production, a scene in which Kensuke shoots Asuka with a camera was thought to be a love scene; however, the voice actress also interpreted this love as paternal. Tetsuya Iwanaga, Japanese interpreter of Kensuke, described his character as "a friend she's never quite been able to get rid of ever since middle school". In an interview, Iwanaga stated that he interpreted the scene in which Kensuke is seen disguised as Asuka's rag doll as a representation of him becoming "the prop that rescued Asuka". Miyamura also voiced a scene in which Asuka says "baka Shinji?" as a "love letter" to everyone who supported the couple.


title: Asuka Langley Soryu

text: In the "Neon Genesis Evangelion" manga, illustrated and written by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, Asuka has a more immature character than her animated counterpart and her story is different; despite having a similar, familiar past, in the manga she was conceived through artificial fertilization, as the result of an experiment in eugenics. In her first actual battle against Gaghiel, whom she confronts alongside Shinji in the same Evangelion unit in the classic series, she fights alone, while Shinji later watches the recorded fight on a projector. In the next battle, Asuka and Shinji fight, as in the classic series, against Angel Israfel together; Sadamoto conceived their dance training as akin to a "kiss", underlining their psychological connection. "Kotaku" also noticed how much of their relationship is "absent", while she remains fixated on Kaji. In the comic her fellow pilot Kaworu Nagisa is also introduced before and interacts with her, immediately arousing her antipathy. Further differences are presented in the last chapters of the manga, corresponding to the events of the movie "The End of Evangelion". In the feature film, the Eva-02 is dismembered by the Eva Series before Shinji's arrival, while in the comic the Third Child intervenes in battle in her defense. In the final chapter of the comic, following the failure of Instrumentality, Shinji lives in a world where it snows again in Japan and where people do not seem to have any memory of recent events. The Third Child, traveling on a train to his new school, meets a girl similar to Asuka. According to Sadamoto, the Asuka-like girl is not concretely Asuka, but the symbol "of an attractive woman that Shinji can meet in the new world".


title: Asuka Langley Soryu

text: In a scene from the last episode of the animated series, an alternate reality is presented with a completely different story than in the previous installments, where Asuka is a normal middle school student and a childhood friend of Shinji Ikari, the Evangelion units never existed, and Asuka did not experience any childhood trauma regarding her mother Kyōko. A similar version of events can be found in "", and the parody series "", where she behaves like a sister towards Shinji. In "", Asuka is a foreign exchange student, and uses a whip in battle. She is also present in "Neon Genesis Evangelion: Legend of the Piko Piko Middle School Students". The simulation game "", includes an expansion in its PlayStation 2 version that allows the player to take on the role of Asuka's guardian instead of Rei's. She is also available as a romantic option in "", "Neon Genesis Evangelion 2", "" and its manga adaptation. In "", Asuka is older, more stable and mature, having developed a strong friendship with Shinji and even Rei. Asuka also merges with her Eva unit turning into a hybrid named Crimson A1.


title: Asuka Langley Soryu

text: She also appears in the crossover "Transformers x Evangelion", in the video games based on the original animated series and media not related to the "Evangelion" franchise, including "Honkai Impact 3rd", "Monster Strike", "Super Robot Wars", "Tales of Zestiria", "Puzzle & Dragons", "Keri hime sweets", "Summons Board", "Puyopuyo!! Quest" and in an official "Shinkansen Henkei Robo Shinkalion" cross-over episode. In the "Super Robot Wars" franchise, she butts heads with Kouji Kabuto, the pilot of "Mazinger Z" and "Mazinkaiser". It is also implied that she developed crushes on famous heroes such as Char Aznable (in the guise of Quattro Bageena) and Amuro Ray, but proves jealous of Shinji, who crushes for Lynn Minmay of the "Macross" franchise.


title: Asuka Langley Soryu

text: Asuka is an energetic, proud and enterprising girl with a brave and resolute character. She tends to look down on other people and wants to be constantly at the center of attention. Although she normally shows a stubborn and exuberant attitude, in some moments she exhibits a kinder, more sensitive and caring side. Her abrupt and impulsive ways often arouse other people's antipathy, since they do not fully understand her real intentions. Unlike fellow pilots Shinji and Rei, she is extremely proud to be a pilot and engages in missions with great enthusiasm, but despite her apparently strong, aggressive and competitive character, Asuka suffers from the same sense of alienation as her companions. She suffers from a masculine protest, a psychological expression that indicates exaggeratedly masculine tendencies in tired and rebellious women who protest against traditional female gender roles. She sees her male peers merely as rivals and spectators of her abilities, and suffers from a marked emotional complex for the male sex, merging a so-called "radical rivalry" and a latent inferiority complex. Her masculine protest is reflected in her strong misandric tendencies, since she is dominated by the need to beat male peers with an obsessive self-affirmation desire. Despite this, she also has a sense of admiration for her guardian and "senpai", Ryōji Kaji. Asuka is emotionally dependent on him, since she has a strong unconscious desire to find a reference figure to rely on. Asuka's infatuation also leads her to feel great jealousy for him and she eventually tries to seduce him. "Newtype" magazine noted how she sometimes beats boys while being kind to Kaji.


title: Asuka Langley Soryu

text: Asuka's excessive pride prevents her from admitting—even to herself—that she feels something for male protagonist Shinji, and as events and battles unfold, her feelings of love and hate intensify and dominate her. She kisses Shinji in the fifteenth episode, but when he beats her in pilot tests, she develops an inferiority complex towards him. This leads her to attack Shinji's virility continuously, directing both interest and open hostility towards him. Because of their intimate fragility and insecurities, Shinji and Asuka are unable to communicate effectively with one another on an emotional level, despite their mutual latent interest. According to "Newtype" magazine, Shinji has feelings for her, while Asuka openly states her feeling of being frustrated with wanting him as her partner, so "her feelings for him as a man are less than they appear to be". According to critic Susan J. Napier, they might be expected to develop a romantic attraction for each other, but their sexual tension is subsumed under Asuka's intense competitiveness; Napier also noted that Shinji feels fear and attraction towards the maternal figures of the women around him, such as Rei or Misato, but only Asuka "is allowed to seem explicitly sexual". In one scene from "The End of Evangelion" movie, Asuka is seen on a bed while she speaks with an angry expression, interpreted by writers Kazuhisa Fujie and Martin Foster as a representation of Shinji's libido. Asuka is framed while she has sexual intercourse with her partner, in a position described by an official artbook as "of the cowgirl". According to an official card game, moreover, neither Yui, nor Rei and nor Misato could be a woman for Shinji, while Asuka, the only girl equal to him, becomes the center of his desire, using her as an object to console himself and ending up hurting her. Despite this, in the last scene Shinji meets Asuka in the new world after the failure of Instrumentality, just as he had wished. Asuka's relationship with Rei Ayanami is also conflictual. She despises Rei, calling her and "mechanical puppet girl". In a scene from the twenty-second episode, Rei and Asuka are left alone in an elevator; Rei states she is ready to die for Commander Gendō Ikari, provoking Asuka's anger, who slaps her and says she has hated her from the moment they met. Shortly thereafter, Rei helps her during the fight against Arael, an act that destroys her already wounded pride.


title: Asuka Langley Soryu

text: Her ostentatious competitiveness originates from her childhood experiences, marked by the mental illness and the suicide of her mother Kyōko. Asuka faced her loss by immersing herself in pride, becoming indisposed to any kind of help or advice and adopting strength and self-affirmation as her only "raison d'être". Tormented "by the fear of not being necessary", she pilots Unit-02 only to satisfy her intimate desire for acceptance, longing to be considered "an elite pilot who will protect humanity". She also wants to be recognized by others through her role as a pilot and has been described as a perfectionist. Her excessive self-confidence leads her to clash with Shinji, gradually losing self-confidence and becoming psychologically and physically compromised. The Fourth Child's selection, Tōji Suzuhara, also contributes to the destruction of her pride. After she learns of Kaji's death, she questions the meaning of her life and her identity, avoiding any kind of human contact and never meeting the gaze of other people. Overwhelmed by the fear of being alone, the young woman shows that she has a great and morbid need for the Eva, even more than her colleague Shinji has. In a scene from the twenty-fifth episode, she excoriates the Evangelion unit as a "worthless piece of junk", but immediately admits "I'm the junk". In the director's cut version of the twenty-second episode, two scenes set in the ninth and fifteenth episodes were added, in which Asuka appears frustrated in front of the sliding door of her room and after the kiss with Shinji; from Asuka's dialogue that overlaps these scenes, it becomes clear that she has been looking for help and love from Shinji. Her self-love represents an act of psychological compensation to be recognized in the eyes of other people. After her mother's mental illness, she represses her sadness and eventually decides to not cry anymore and to behave like an adult with a reaction formation. Her memories related to her past and her mother are repressed and removed from her consciousness during this phase. In the last episodes, Asuka completely loses her self-confidence. She develops a deep disgust with herself and suffers from separation anxiety. The caption also appears in the same episodes. The word attachment in psychology can also refer to the emotional bond that is established between the mother and her child; while Asuka's behavior is that of "attachment", Rei's is made up of "bonds".


title: Asuka Langley Soryu

text: Miyamura noted that Asuka was not called "tsundere" at the time, but agreed to the definition of her having to hide her feelings in 2007. Furthermore, for Japanese philosopher and cultural critic Hiroki Azuma, she was the "symbol of the outside" in the world of "Evangelion", taking Shinji away from his comfort zone in the "Nerv family"; in contrast to Rei, who'd play an "imaginary healing" role, Asuka would be an independent person in reality. Critics also noted that Asuka is iconographically and psychologically opposed to Rei. Rei has blue hair and red eyes and is often associated with the Moon, while Asuka has red hair and blue eyes and is presented in the eighth episode ("Asuka Strikes!") silhouetted by the Sun. Rei is also related to white; the writer Claudio Cordella noted how white is associated in Japanese culture with sanctity, light, eternity, while red is the color of sterile sexuality, traditionally chosen by unmarried girls or geisha for their kimono. Japanese psychiatrist Kōji Mizobe linked Asuka's red to menstruation, Rei's white to altruism, attributing Asuka's unstable behavior to a narcissistic or histrionic personality disorder. Writer Dennis Redmond instead noted that Shinji's Eva-01 is purple, halfway between Rei's blue Eva-00 and Asuka's 02, describing Rei as a symbol of an empty and "lyric neonational interiority", while Asuka as a mirror of a pragmatic and "outrageous multinational exteriority". According to the "Polygon", the two girls are two shades of the same spectrum of the feminine, neither of which good or bad in themselves, which Shinji must recognize as autonomous individuals by overcoming the Madonna-whore complex, the inability of some men to see women in their individual nuances, perceiving them dichotomously either as angelic beings or maleficent entities.


title: Asuka Langley Soryu

text: Rei has been compared to the Superego, Shinji to the Ego and Asuka to the Id, the three intrapsychic instances proposed by Sigmund Freud's second topic, since the Id is the instinctual part of human being. The three Children have also been compared to the three stages of the human soul postulated by the Jewish Kabbalah: Asuka to "Nephesh", source of animal vitality, Shinji to "Ru'ah", the soul, fruit of the raising of man from his purely biological aspect, and Rei to "Neshamah", the spirit, fruit of the connection between man and God. Others critics have linked Asuka to Ama-no-Uzume, a Shinto female deity associated with dance and sensuality. Hiroki Azuma also described Asuka and the other characters in the series as "stereotypical characters", with no particular individual or aesthetic characteristics; Asuka, in particular, has been described as a "typical sci-fi anime character". According to Azuma, however, with these stereotypical characters Anno would have been able to describe the 1990s. Mizobe described her and Shinji as "communicationally disabled", a feature that allowed contemporary Japanese youth to identify with them even twenty-six years after the original series's airing. Moreover, for the critic Manabu Tsuribe in "The End of Evangelion" she would represent for Shinji the Other, another person separated from himself with whom he can never become one. For Tsuribe, the film concludes when Shinji recognizes Asuka as a separate entity. Japanese critic Akio Nagatomi (The Animé Café), noting how other characters in "Evangelion" bear similarities with others in a previous work by Gainax and Anno, "Gunbuster", described Asuka as a counterpart to Jung Freud. Engineer Yumiko Yano also compared Asuka's dull gaze in the final episodes, locked up in a hospital room after a psychic and emotional breakdown, to the dolls of artist Katan Amano.


title: Asuka Langley Soryu

text: Website Otaku Kart described Asuka as "one of the most popular female characters in anime history". She appeared in polls on best anime pilots and female anime characters, proving popular among both female and male audiences. In 1996 she ranked third among the "most popular female characters of the moment" in the Anime Grand Prix survey by "Animage" magazine, behind Rei Ayanami and Hikaru Shido from "Magic Knight Rayearth". In 1997 and 1998 Anime Grand Prixes, she remained among the top 10 female characters; in 1997 she ranked in fourth place, while in 1998 she ranked sixth. Asuka also appeared in the magazine's monthly surveys, remaining in the top 20 in 1996, 1997 and 1998 polls. In 1999, "Animage" ranked her 40th among the 100 most popular anime characters.


title: Asuka Langley Soryu

text: Her popularity increased after the release of the second "Rebuild of Evangelion" movie; in August and September 2009 she emerged in the first place and remained the most popular female "Neon Genesis Evangelion" character in "Newtype" magazine popularity charts, while in October she ranked tenth. In a "Newtype" poll in March 2010, she was voted the third most popular female anime character from the 1990s, immediately after Rei Ayanami and Usagi Tsukino from "Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon". In February 2015, almost twenty years after the show first aired, she emerged again on the magazine's charts in sixth place. In 2017, she also ranked 16th among the characters Anime! Anime! site readers would "rather die than marry". Her line "Are you stupid?" (あんたバカ?, "Anta baka?") also became widely used among hardcore fans after her first appearance in the eighth episode. In 2021, after the release of the final "Rebuild" film, Asuka ranked most popular female character in another "Newtype" poll.


title: Asuka Langley Soryu

text: Asuka divided anime critics, receiving an ambivalent response. Negative reviews criticized her arrogant, surly and authoritarian character. While appreciating her for providing "a good dose of comic relief" to "Evangelion", Anime Critic Pete Harcoff described her as "an annoying snot". Raphael See from T.H.E.M. Anime Reviews, who found "Neon Genesis Evangelion"s characterization "a little cliché, or just plain irritating at times", despised Asuka for her arrogant attitude. Matthew Perez ("Anime Reign") described her as initially "overly stuck up", but he also appreciated her evolution. By contrast, "IGN" critic Ramsey Isler ranked her as the 13th greatest anime character of all time for the realism of her characterization, saying: "She's a tragic character, and a complete train wreck, but that is what makes her so compelling because we just can't help but watch this beautiful disaster unfold." Comic Book Resources included her among the best anime female pilots, describing her as "the best classic "tsundere" in "shounen" anime" and "one of the most fascinating characters in anime".


title: Asuka Langley Soryu

text: Screen Rant ranked her among the best "Neon Genesis Evangelion" characters, praising her development. WatchMojo described her as an "iconic female character"; it also listed her among the best mecha anime pilots and best "tsundere" anime girls. According to critic Jay Telotte, Asuka is "the first credible multinational character" in the history of Japanese science fiction television. Crunchyroll and Charapedia also praised her realism and personality. Asuka's fight sequence against the Mass-Production Evangelions in "The End of Evangelion" was particularly well received by critics, while Tiffany Grant was praised for her role as Asuka's English voice actress by Mike Crandol of Anime News Network.


title: Asuka Langley Soryu

text: Eric Surrell (Animation Insider) commented on Asuka's role in "" (2009), the second installment of the "Rebuild" saga, stating that "the arrival and sudden dismissal of Asuka was shocking and depressing, especially considering how integral she was to the original "Evangelion"". "Slant Magazine"s Simon Abrams, reviewing "Evangelion: 2.0", responded negatively to Shinji and Asuka's new relationship, "which is unfortunate because that bond should have the opportunity to grow in its own time". WatchMojo praised her debut, since it features "a lot less fanservice and a lot more badass". "LA Weekly"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s Brian Miller also appreciated this aspect, praising Shinji's "downright charming" courtship. The Fandom Post found the character neglected by Anno's script, given the lesser space devoted to her and Mari's introduction, while Renan Fontes (Comic Book Resources) judged Asuka Shikinami significantly less interesting than Langley. UK Anime Network on the other hand found "Rebuild"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s Asuka a more human and easier to empathize with character than the one of the classic series. Website Otaku Revolution enjoyed the development and revelations about Asuka in "", finding them "very fitting". Geek Ireland praised the fact that the movie gives a sense of conclusion to Asuka, Shinji, and the other characters, while Otaku Voice's A. Dean Kelly wrote that: "Everything about Asuka from "" finally begins to make sense in this moment".


title: Asuka Langley Soryu

text: Asuka's character has been used for merchandising items such as life-size figures, action figures, guitars, clothes, and underwear, some of which sold out immediately. Her action figures proved successful. According to Japanese writer Kazuhisa Fujie, "Evangelion"-related household items with the image of Asuka or other female characters of the series have become so popular that they have been put back on the market with a second edition. Movic has also released a cassette drama featuring her and Shinji as part of its "Animate" series featuring other popular works. On February 27, 1997, Kadokawa Shoten published a book dedicated to her entitled . In 2008, Broccoli released a video game entitled "Shin Seiki Evangelion: Ayanami Ikusei Keikaku with Asuka Hokan Keikaku", in which the player takes on the task of looking after Asuka or Rei Ayanami.


title: Asuka Langley Soryu

text: Japanese celebrities cosplayed her during concerts or tours, such as Haruka Shimazaki, singer Hirona Murata and Saki Inagaki. Lai Pin-yu, a Taiwanese Democratic Progressive Party and Legislative Yuan member, held election rallies cosplaying Asuka, gaining popularity. Asuka's character was parodied by Excel from "Excel Saga" and some of her aesthetic and character traits inspired other female characters. Richard Eisenbeins (Kotaku) lists her as an example of the "tsundere" stereotype, a term used to indicate grumpy, assertive and authoritarian characters that nonetheless possess a more gentle, empathetic and insecure side, hidden due to a stormy past or traumatic experiences. Anthony Gramuglia (Comic Book Resources) identified her as one of the most popular and influential "tsundere" characters, comparing Asuna Yūki ("Sword Art Online"), Rin Tōsaka ("Fate/stay night"), Kyō Sōma ("Fruits Basket") and Taiga Aisaka ("Toradora!") to her. Critics also compared Mai Shibamura from "Gunparade March", Michiru Kinushima from "Plastic Memories" and D.Va from "Overwatch" game series to Asuka. Japanese band L'Arc-en-Ciel took inspiration from the character for their song "Anata". Further references have been identified in other Japanese animated series, including "Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei", "", "Gurren Lagann", and "Sword Art Online", in which a scene of her and Rei in an elevator from the twenty-second episode is parodied.


title: LAV III

text: The LAV III, originally named the Kodiak by the Canadian Army, is the third generation of the Light Armoured Vehicle (LAV) family of armored personnel carriers built by General Dynamics Land Systems – Canada (GDLS-C), a London, Ontario, based subsidiary of General Dynamics. It first entered service in 1999, succeeding the LAV II. It is the primary mechanized infantry vehicle of both the Canadian Army and the New Zealand Army. It also forms the basis of the Stryker vehicle used by the U.S. Army and other operators. The Canadian Army is upgrading its LAV IIIs to the LAV 6 standard.


title: LAV III

text: By July 1991, the Canadian Armed Forces had identified the need to replace their aging fleet of 1960s and 1970s era armoured personnel carriers. As a result, $2.8 billion was earmarked for the Multi-Role Combat Vehicle (MRCV) project by the sitting Conservative government. The mandate of the MRCV project was to provide a series of vehicles based on a common chassis which would replace the M113 armored personnel carrier, Lynx reconnaissance vehicle, Grizzly armoured personnel carrier, and Bison armoured personnel carrier. The project was, however, deemed unaffordable and cancelled by March 1992.


title: LAV III

text: By 1994, after the Liberal Party had returned to government, the army was still in need of new vehicles. As a result, the army embarked on the Light Armoured Vehicle Project, which would adapt parts of the MRCV Project, and be implemented incrementally to spread out the costs. Also, the requirement to replace the Bisons was dropped. The first phase of the project saw the selection of the LAV II Coyote Reconnaissance Vehicle to replace the Lynx.


title: LAV III

text: General Motors Diesel proposed a upgraded variant of their 8×8 platform incorporating the turret and weapon system of the Coyote. In August 1995, it was announced that GM Diesel (later renamed GM Defense, and subsequently purchased by General Dynamics Land Systems of London, Ontario) had been awarded the contract to produce the LAV III which would replace the Grizzly and a large portion of the M113 armoured personnel carriers.


title: LAV III

text: The LAV III is fitted with a two-man turret, armed with the M242 Bushmaster 25 mm caliber chain gun and a coaxial 7.62-mm machine gun. One more 5.56 mm or 7.62 mm machine guns is positioned on top of the turret. The LAV III also has eight 76-mm grenade launchers in two clusters of four launchers positioned on each side of the turret. The grenade launchers are intended for smoke grenades. In 2009, a number of LAV III's were modified with a Nanuk remotely controlled weapon station (RCWS) to provide better protection and to increase the chances of survival of the crew against improvised explosive devices and anti-tank mine threats on the battlefield.


title: LAV III

text: The LAV III is powered by a Caterpillar 3126 diesel engine developing and can reach speeds above 100 kilometres per hour. The vehicle is fitted with 8x8 drive and also equipped with a central tire inflation system, which allows it to adjust to different terrain, including off-road. The LAV III is fitted with a modern anti-locking brake system (ABS). Unlike earlier versions of the LAV, the LAV III does not have amphibious capabilities.


title: LAV III

text: The LAV III faces the same concerns that most other wheeled military vehicles face. Like all wheeled armoured vehicles, the LAV III's ground pressure is inherently higher than a tracked vehicle with a comparable weight. This is because tires will have less surface area in contact with the ground when compared to a tracked vehicle. Higher ground pressure results in an increased likelihood of sinking into soft terrain such as mud, snow and sand, leading to the vehicle becoming stuck. The lower ground pressure and improved traction offered by tracked vehicles also gives them an advantage over vehicles like the LAV III when it comes to managing slopes, trenches, and other obstacles.


title: LAV III

text: The LAV III can somewhat compensate for these effects by deflating its tires slightly, meaning that the surface area in contact with the ground increases, and the ground pressure is slightly lowered.


title: LAV III

text: However, wheels offer several advantages over tracked vehicles, including lower maintenance for both the vehicle and road infrastructure, quieter movement for improved stealth, greater speed over good terrain, and higher ground clearance. Wheeled vehicle crews are also more likely to survive mine or IED attacks than the crew of a similarly armoured tracked vehicle.


title: LAV III

text: The LAV III's turret gives the vehicle a higher centre of gravity than the vehicle was initially designed for. This has led to concerns that the vehicle is more likely to roll over on uneven terrain.


title: LAV III

text: While there have been several recorded rollovers (about 16), the most common cause was found to be unstable terrain, specifically road shoulders unexpectedly giving away beneath the vehicle. The weight balance of the LAV III is taken into consideration during driver training, largely mitigating the chances of a rollover.


title: LAV III

text: The basic armour of the LAV III, covering the Standardization Agreement STANAG 4569 level III, which provides all-round protection against 7.62×51mm NATO small calibre rounds. A ceramic appliqué armour (MEXAS) can be added, which protects against 14.5×114mm heavy calibre rounds from 500 meters. In December 2008 the Government of Canada awarded EODC Engineering, Developing and Licensing Inc. C$81.5 million worth of contracts to provide for add-on-armour kits, modules and spares for its LAV III wheeled armoured personnel carriers. This armour kit is intended to provide increased protection against improvised explosive devices (IED), explosively formed penetrators and 30 mm caliber armour piercing rounds. The LAV III can be also fitted with cage armour, which provides protection against shaped charges. The LAV III is fitted with a nuclear, biological, chemical (NBC) filtration system accompanied with a GID-3 chemical detector and AN/VDR-2 radiation detector systems. The LAV III was designed to produce a very low and very compact structure to minimize radar and IR-signatures. The LAV III also uses heat-absorbing filters to provide temporary protection against thermal imaging (TIS), image intensifiers and infrared cameras (IR). General Dynamics is in the process of integrating the LAV III with an active protection system based on the Israeli Trophy system.


title: LAV III

text: The majority of Canadian casualties in Afghanistan have occurred during a patrol aboard a LAV III. This can be explained by the fact that the LAV III is the most commonly used Canadian armoured personnel carrier in theatre, and simply represents a normal association between use and likelihood to encounter a mine or improvised explosive device. The LAV III offers comparable or better protection than most other infantry carriers used in Afghanistan. In an effort to improve protection as a result of experiences in Afghanistan, future LAV III upgrades will likely include improved mine and IED protection.


title: LAV III

text: The LAV III is equipped with a daytime optical Thermal Imaging System (TIS) and Generation III Image Intensification (II). The LAV III is equipped with a Tactical Navigation System (TacNav) to assist in navigation and target location tasks. The LAV III is equipped with an LCD monitor directly connected to the vehicle's external cameras, providing real-time images of the battlefield for the passengers.


title: LAV III

text: In May 2009, two NZLAVs were deployed to support police during the Napier shootings. They protected specialist police while retrieving the body of a deceased police officer from outside the offender's residence. In November 2009, it was announced that three NZLAVs would be deployed to assist NZSAS operations in Afghanistan and they were up-armoured. In 2011, these three LAVs were moved to Bamyan to support the provincial reconstruction team there as they were no longer needed in Kabul due to reduced SAS numbers. Five additional LAVs were also flown to Bamyan. One was later damaged by a roadside bomb. All these LAVs were returned to New Zealand by November 2013.


title: LAV III

text: In 2011, after the Christchurch earthquake, LAVs from Burnham Camp were deployed to assist police with securing the inner city at night.


title: LAV III

text: In March 2016, two LAVs were deployed to assist with lifting a siege near Kawerau in the Bay of Plenty after four policemen were shot at and severely injured.


title: LAV III

text: In October 2011, GDLS-Canada was awarded a contract to upgrade 409 of the service's 651 LAV III APCs to the LAV 6 standard. Four variants were ordered: an infantry section carrier, a command post, an observation post and an engineer vehicle. The upgrade was expected to extend the service life of the vehicle to 2035. In February 2017, the service awarded GDLS-Canada a $404 million contract to upgrade 141 more LAV IIIs. In August 2019, GDLS-Canada received a four-year, $3 billion deal to build 360 armoured combat support vehicle variants. The first of these rolled off the assembly line in May 2021.


title: Eusociality

text: Eusociality (from Greek εὖ "eu" "good" and social), the highest level of organization of sociality, is defined by the following characteristics: cooperative brood care (including care of offspring from other individuals), overlapping generations within a colony of adults, and a division of labor into reproductive and non-reproductive groups. The division of labor creates specialized behavioral groups within an animal society which are sometimes referred to as 'castes'. Eusociality is distinguished from all other social systems because individuals of at least one caste usually lose the ability to perform at least one behavior characteristic of individuals in another caste. Eusocial colonies can be viewed as superorganisms.


title: Eusociality

text: Eusociality exists in certain insects, crustaceans, and mammals. It is mostly observed and studied in the Hymenoptera (ants, bees, and wasps) and in Blattodea (termites). A colony has caste differences: queens and reproductive males take the roles of the sole reproducers, while soldiers and workers work together to create a living situation favorable for the brood. In addition to Hymenoptera and Blattodea, there are two known eusocial vertebrates among rodents: the naked mole-rat and the Damaraland mole-rat. Some shrimp, such as "Synalpheus regalis", are also eusocial. E. O. Wilson and others have claimed that humans have evolved a weak form of eusociality, but these arguments have been disputed.


title: Eusociality

text: The term "eusocial" was introduced in 1966 by Suzanne Batra, who used it to describe nesting behavior in Halictine bees. Batra observed the cooperative behavior of the bees, males and females alike, as they took responsibility for at least one duty (i.e., burrowing, cell construction, oviposition) within the colony. The cooperativeness was essential as the activity of one labor division greatly influenced the activity of another. Eusocial colonies can be viewed as superorganisms, with individual castes being analogous to different tissue or cell types in a multicellular organism; castes fulfill a specific role that contributes to the functioning and survival of the whole colony, while also being incapable of independent survival outside the colony.


title: Eusociality

text: For example, the size of pollen balls, a source of food, depended on when the egg-laying females oviposited. If the provisioning by pollen collectors was incomplete by the time the egg-laying female occupied a cell and oviposited, the size of the pollen balls would be small, leading to small offspring. Batra applied this term to species in which a colony is started by a single individual. Batra described other species, wherein the founder is accompanied by numerous helpers—as in a swarm of bees or ants—as "hypersocial".


title: Eusociality

text: In 1969, Charles D. Michener further expanded Batra's classification with his comparative study of social behavior in bees. He observed multiple species of bees (Apoidea) in order to investigate the different levels of animal sociality, all of which are different stages that a colony may pass through. Eusociality, which is the highest level of animal sociality a species can attain, specifically had three characteristics that distinguished it from the other levels:


title: Eusociality

text: E. O. Wilson then extended the terminology to include other social insects, such as ants, wasps, and termites. Originally, it was defined to include organisms (only invertebrates) that had the following three features:


title: Eusociality

text: As eusociality became a recognized widespread phenomenon, however, it was also discovered in a group of chordates, the mole-rats. Further research also distinguished another possibly important criterion for eusociality known as "the point of no return". This is characterized by eusocial individuals that become fixed into one behavioral group, which usually occurs before reproductive maturity. This prevents them from transitioning between behavioral groups and creates an animal society that is truly dependent on each other for survival and reproductive success. For many insects, this irreversibility has changed the anatomy of the worker caste, which is sterile and provides support for the reproductive caste.


title: Eusociality

text: Most eusocial societies exist in arthropods, while a few are found in mammals. Ferns may exhibit eusocial behavior amongst clones.


title: Eusociality

text: Eusociality has evolved multiple times in different insect orders. In certain cases, eusociality has been reversed back into solitary behavior. The order Hymenoptera contains the largest group of eusocial insects, including ants, bees, and waspsthose with reproductive "queens" and more or less sterile "workers" and/or "soldiers" that perform specialized tasks. For example, in the well-studied social wasp "Polistes versicolor", dominant females perform tasks such as building new cells and ovipositing, while subordinate females tend to perform tasks like feeding the larvae and foraging. The task differentiation between castes can be seen in the fact that subordinates complete 81.4% of the total foraging activity, while dominants only complete 18.6% of the total foraging. Eusocial species with a sterile caste are sometimes called hypersocial.


title: Eusociality

text: While only a moderate percentage of species in bees (families Apidae and Halictidae) and wasps (Crabronidae and Vespidae) are eusocial, nearly all species of ants (Formicidae) are eusocial. Some major lineages of wasps are mostly or entirely eusocial, including the subfamilies Polistinae and Vespinae. The corbiculate bees (subfamily Apinae of family Apidae) contain four tribes of varying degrees of sociality: the highly eusocial Apini (honey bees) and Meliponini (stingless bees), primitively eusocial Bombini (bumble bees), and the mostly solitary or weakly social Euglossini (orchid bees). Eusociality in these families is sometimes managed by a set of pheromones that alter the behavior of specific castes in the colony. These pheromones may act across different species, as observed in "Apis andreniformis" (black dwarf honey bee), where worker bees responded to queen pheromone from the related "Apis florea" (red dwarf honey bee). Pheromones are sometimes used in these castes to assist with foraging. Workers of the Australian stingless bee "Tetragonula carbonaria", for instance, mark food sources with a pheromone, helping their nest mates to find the food.


title: Eusociality

text: Reproductive specialization generally involves the production of sterile members of the species, which carry out specialized tasks to care for the reproductive members. It can manifest in the appearance of individuals within a group whose behavior or morphology is modified for group defense, including self-sacrificing behavior ("altruism"). An example of a species whose sterile caste displays this altruistic behavior is "Myrmecocystus mexicanus", one of the species of honey ant. Select sterile workers fill their abdomens with liquid food until they become immobile and hang from the ceilings of the underground nests, acting as food storage for the rest of the colony. Not all social species of insects have distinct morphological differences between castes. For example, in the Neotropical social wasp "Synoeca surinama, "social displays determine the caste ranks of individuals in the developing brood. These castes are sometimes further specialized in their behavior based on age. For example," Scaptotrigona postica" workers assume different roles in the nest based on their age. Between approximately 0–40 days old, the workers perform tasks within the nest such as provisioning cell broods, colony cleaning, and nectar reception and dehydration. Once older than 40 days, "Scaptotrigona postica" workers move outside of the nest to practice colony defense and foraging.


title: Eusociality

text: In "Lasioglossum aeneiventre", a halictid bee from Central America, nests may be headed by more than one female; such nests have more cells, and the number of active cells per female is correlated with the number of females in the nest, implying that having more females leads to more efficient building and provisioning of cells. In similar species with only one queen, such as "Lasioglossum malachurum" in Europe, the degree of eusociality depends on the clime in which the species is found.


title: Eusociality

text: Termites (order Blattodea, infraorder Isoptera) make up another large portion of highly advanced eusocial animals. The colony is differentiated into various castes: the queen and king are the sole reproducing individuals; workers forage and maintain food and resources; and soldiers defend the colony against ant attacks. The latter two castes, which are sterile and perform highly specialized, complex social behaviors, are derived from different stages of pluripotent larvae produced by the reproductive caste. Some soldiers have jaws so enlarged (specialized for defense and attack) that they are unable to feed themselves and must be fed by workers.


title: Eusociality

text: "Austroplatypus incompertus" is a species of ambrosia beetle native to Australia, and is the first beetle (order Coleoptera) to be recognized as eusocial. This species forms colonies in which a single female is fertilized, and is protected by many unfertilized females, which also serve as workers excavating tunnels in trees. This species also participates in cooperative brood care, in which individuals care for juveniles that are not their own.


title: Eusociality

text: Some species of gall-inducing insects, including the gall-forming aphid, "Pemphigus spyrothecae" (order Hemiptera), and thrips such as "Kladothrips" (order Thysanoptera), are also described as eusocial. These species have very high relatedness among individuals due to their partially asexual mode of reproduction (sterile soldier castes being clones of the reproducing female), but the gall-inhabiting behavior gives these species a defensible resource that sets them apart from related species with similar genetics. They produce soldier castes capable of fortress defense and protection of their colony against both predators and competitors. In these groups, therefore, high relatedness alone does not lead to the evolution of social behavior, but requires that groups occur in a restricted, shared area. These species have morphologically distinct soldier castes that defend against kleptoparasites (parasitism by theft) and are able to reproduce parthenogenetically (without fertilization).