I don't actually care about Evangelion very often. It's not my kind of thing. But if I had to choose a favorite character, I unironically choose Rei (Asuka is second place).
Rei is my favorite because most of the time she's not even a character. I love those characters that are mostly symbols, specifically symbols of other's desires. Characters who exist as canvases to project stuff on. Rei is pretty, passive, femenine, very literally a mother turned virgin girl. A plastic figurine to be sold covered in bandages because she looks weak and cute. Easier to deal with compared to Asuka, no apparent emotional baggage or perversion like Misato.
And the best/worst part is that all of this is why she is difficult to like as a character.
Your Anthys, your pre-season 5 Bettys. Pretty dolls, objects of devotion. Characters who only become characters when they break from the identities built for them by others, when they realize they have to exist by and for themselves to become a person in the eyes of others.
"Character who only become characters, when they break from the identities built for them by others"
This is the reason I like rebuilds of evangelion. In these movies she did break this identity, which made me, as a very anxious about how others will perceive me person, relate to her a lot
