VOICE - MIYAMURA YUUKO

Miyamura Yuuko is the Japanese voice actor (seiyuu) for Asuka in both the original TV series and the Rebuild of Evangelion films. She nearly was unable to return to the role of Asuka for Rebuild due to contracting Grave's Disease in September 2007. Fortunately, she was able to make a recovery in time to work on the films. She also provides the voice for Asuka in the many Evangelion video games and was also the beautiful voice behind the Evangelion ending theme song, Fly Me to the Moon.

In interviews, Miyamura-san has stated that Asuka was a very hard role for her and at one point, she regretted taking the job of voicing Asuka. She feels that there was a wall in Asuka's heart that never allowed for her to get into complete synchronization with the character.

"Just to let you know, Asuka wasn't the most open-hearted character I've ever met...every time I tried to draw myself in closer synchronization, Asuka would never allow herself to sync with me. Even in the end, she would never step across the line and draw closer to me. The last scene in The End of Evangelion was done, and still she had never stepped across that line and come forward. One day, I figured out that there was a wall in Asuka's heart."
Miyamura Yuuko

Recording the final line in The End of Evangelion film appears to be the lowest point for her as director Hideaki Anno was not satisfied with the delivery of her final line in the film. No matter how many times Miyamura would recite the line "An'ta nanka ni korosareru no wa mappira yo!" ("I'd hate to be killed by a bastard like you!"), it didn't sound right to Anno. Although it was only Miyamura's line that was in question, Anno called Ogata Megumi (Shinji's seiyuu) to the studio as Miyamura's line was directed at Shinji. As they acted out the scenein which Shinji strangles Asuka, Ogata pushed Miyamura into the floor to strangle her. Ogata was so frustrated that she used too much force when strangling Miyamura, resulting in Miyamura being unable to say her lines for a while. In the end, the line of dialogue was changed to "Kimochi warui" ("I feel disgusting").

"Concerning the final line we adopted, I'm not sure whether I should say about it in fact. At last Anno asked me "Miyamura, just imagine you are sleeping in your bed and a stranger sneaks into your room. He can rape you anytime as you are asleep but he doesn't. Instead, he masturbates looking at you, when you wake up and know what he did to you. What do you think you would say?" I had been thinking he was a strange man, but at that moment I felt disgusting. So I told him that I thought "Disgusting." And then he sighed and said, "I thought as much."
Miyamura Yuuko

Despite the struggles Miyamura has faced in her role as Asuka, it seems that she genuinely likes the character. She describes Asuka as being an unfortunate girl that she wants to see happy. She has hopes that Rebuild of Evangelion will provide a happy ending for Asuka.