Misato Katsuragi

Misato Katsuragi is the Operations Director of NERV, the officer who scoops teenage pilot Shinji off a rubble-strewn street and into her care. Brash, disorganized, and prone to celebratory beers still in her work clothes, she runs battle strategy with sharp competence by day and lives in cheerful domestic chaos by night.

The gag of the messy slob who commands a military operation could be a one-note joke, but the writing keeps letting her competence and her damage sit right next to each other without resolving the contradiction. Mitsuishi and Keith both play the exhaustion under the bravado so lightly you almost miss it, which is exactly why it lands.