In 2015, fifteen years after a global cataclysm known as the Second Impact, teenager Shinji Ikari is summoned to the futuristic city of Tokyo-3 by his estranged father Gendo Ikari, the director of the special paramilitary force Nerv.
Asuka is reduced to a catatonic state by her depression, and Kaworu Nagisa replaces her as pilot of Unit-02.