title: The Strain

text: A Romanian Jew (partly of Armenian descent), Setrakian was held in the Treblinka extermination camp during the Second World War, where he became aware of the Master feeding on the weak and sickly inmates. His first attempt to stop the Master was a failure, leaving him with multiple fractures in his hands that never healed properly. After escaping from the camp, he dedicated his life to hunting down the vampiric scourge for more than six decades. Originally a professor of East European literature and mythology at the University of Vienna, Setrakian was dismissed and forced to go into hiding after refusing to help Eldritch Palmer locate the Master. Wielding an ancient silver sword in his nearly crippled hands, Setrakian is an expert on vampire biology and destruction, and recruits Eph and Nora to his cause. His determination and will are strong, but his weak heart has become an obstacle to his lifelong quest.


title: The Strain

text: One of the seven original "Ancients," the propagators of the vampire race, the Master scorns the truce between the six others and intends to eliminate their strains and subjugate the entire human race. By the time of his arrival in New York, having spent nearly a millennium in Europe in various host bodies, the Master currently inhabits the body of Jusef Sardu, a 19th-century Polish nobleman afflicted with gigantism. Through the cooperation of Eldritch Palmer, promising the dying billionaire immortality, the Master has gained unlimited financial and political power to ensure the success of his plan.


title: The Strain

text: In the television series, the Master is voiced by Robin Atkin Downes with Jusef Sardu portrayed by Robert Maillet. The Master's second host Gabriel Bolivar is played by Jack Kesy.


title: The Strain

text: The Master's chief facilitator. He was a Nazi SS officer at a concentration camp whom the Master mutated into a Strigoi, a Renfield-type character but immortal. He killed Setrakian's wife in the past.


title: The Strain

text: An exterminator of Ukrainian ancestry working for the New York City Bureau of Pest Control, Fet's occupation soon leads to his discovery of the truth about vampires while working in a derelict building. Reaching Eph through a professional connection at the CDC, the exterminator lends both his skills as a vermin hunter and his powerful physique to Setrakian and Goodweather's cause. Loyal and unwaveringly brave, he becomes a surrogate son to the old professor.


title: The Strain

text: A Mexican gang member fresh out of prison, Gus is attacked by a newly-mutated vampire on the streets of Times Square and is subsequently arrested by the police after throwing the creature under a truck. Learning the truth about vampires from a temporarily incarcerated Setrakian, Gus escapes confinement and finds himself to be a natural vampire slayer on the streets of his tenement neighborhood. He is recruited by the three American Ancients as a "day hunter" against the Master's exponentially spreading hordes.


title: The Strain

text: Gus shares his last name with makeup and special effects artist Mike Elizalde, who has frequently collaborated with Guillermo del Toro, including on del Toro's films "Blade II", "Hellboy" and "".


title: The Strain

text: One of the richest men in the world, Eldritch Palmer craves the one thing that all his money cannot buy: immortality. The elderly tycoon's fear of death leads him to make a pact with the Master, trading his vast fortune, political influence, and the fate of the human race in exchange for an undead place at the vampire king's side. (His name is an in-joke reference to the 1965 Nebula Prize nominated novel "The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch" by Philip K. Dick){Four Novels of the 1960s, Philip K. Dick, American Library, 2007, , page 231}.


title: The Strain

text: As the Director of the Centers for Disease Control, Barnes is Eph and Nora's direct superior. Skilled in the politics and media aspects of the medical industry, he is a shrewd bureaucrat who carefully maintains a quaint, "country doctor" image. His insistence upon wearing a Navy-style Public Health Service uniform, combined with his white goatee, make him resemble a "combat-decorated Colonel Sanders." His response to the Boeing 777 crisis makes it clear he is a politician first and a doctor second, more concerned with maintaining public order and the CDC's reputation than acknowledging the growing number of anomalies that point to something more sinister taking place.


title: The Strain

text: Eph and Nora's colleague, and the chief liaison between the Canary Project and the rest of the CDC. Well-meaning, he has nonetheless sold his services to Eldritch Palmer, who has recruited Kent as a spy under the guise of being concerned about any impending health crisis. Kent witnesses the mutation of Captain Redfern in the basement of the Jamaica Hospital Medical Center. In order to avoid news of the vampire infestation leaking out prematurely, Palmer has Kent and Gus retrieve the body of Captain Redfern and dispose of it. He is attacked during a gas station battle and begins mutating into a vampire. His life is subsequently ended after he begs Eph and Nora to kill him but they cannot.


title: The Strain

text: Eph's estranged wife and current opponent in a drawn-out custody battle over their only son, Kelly is a public school teacher and fiercely protective mother, pulling no punches in her attempt to paint her husband as the less suitable parent. Eph constantly worries about the growing influence of her milquetoast live-in boyfriend, Matt, on their son Zack. But when the Master begins sending out his followers, Kelly ends up becoming infected and becoming a means for the Master to track down Goodweather and the resistance.


title: The Strain

text: Known as "the Born", Mr. Quinlan is a rare human/vampire hybrid, the son of the Master who is now the Ancients' chief hunter and bodyguard. He is efficient and loyal, recruiting Gus Elizalde to help him and his squad in their mission to kill his father. Mr. Quinlan is disgusted by his father's actions, and is determined to stop him at all costs.


title: The Strain

text: In the television series, Mr. Quinlan was introduced in the fifth episode of Season 2, and is played by Rupert Penry-Jones.


title: The Strain

text: "The Times Literary Supplement" carried a review by Peter Millar dated 23 May 2009. The review praises the novel's "arresting start" and frequently alludes to Guillermo del Toro's career as a film director by comparing the novel to a Hollywood movie. The implication may be that del Toro intends to direct the film version of the novel. The review closes by calling "The Strain" a "rattling piece of escapism" with a "predictable" blockbuster ending. Xan Brooks of "The Guardian" calls the novel "a pulpy, apocalyptic fable" and a "fast-paced, high-concept outing that seems tailor-made for either a big-screen adaptation or - as Hogan has enthused - 'a long-form, cable-type TV series'. And yet at the same time this opening salvo also looks to the past; doffing its cap to an illustrious ancestor." He calls the vampires "mindless, undead leeches."


title: The Strain

text: Less enthusiastically, Deirdre Crimmins described the novel as "an imperfect vampire book" marred by "some very awkwardly worded phrases and poorly described scenarios scattered throughout the book" and some "terribly clichéd" characters. Jeff Jensen, reviewing "The Strain" for "Entertainment Weekly", wished for more evidence of del Toro's participation, saying, "It's hard to believe he found time for such an ambitious project — and after reading the book, it seems clear he didn't. ... "The Strain" is a competently constructed piece of entertainment, and I'll give it bonus points for shaking up some vampire clichés. ... The novel could have used a little less Hogan and little more del Toro."


title: The Strain

text: Writer David Lapham and artist Mike Huddleston adapted the novel into an 11-issue story arc for the eponymous comic-book series from Dark Horse Comics.


title: The Strain

text: Executive producer and showrunner Carlton Cuse adapted the novel into the 13-episode first season of the eponymous television series from FX, which ran from July 13, 2014 to September 17, 2017.


title: The Strain

text: 16. 'The Strain': Carlton Cuse, Guillermo del Toro Reveal Five-Season Plan. The Hollywood Reporter Retrieved 7 August 2015.


title: Operation Cowboy

text: Operation Cowboy was fought in the Czechoslovakian village of Hostau (now Hostouň, Czech Republic), on 28 April 1945, in the last days of fighting in the European Theater of World War II. It is one of two known incidents during the war in which Americans and Germans of the Wehrmacht fought side by side against the Waffen-SS, the other being the Battle of Castle Itter.


title: Operation Cowboy

text: After the annexation of Austria to Nazi Germany in 1938, the Lipizzaner Breeding Mares of the Spanish Riding School in Vienna were transferred to an experimental farm in the village of Hostau, in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia. The goal was to create a race of "Aryan horses". The head of the Spanish Riding School, Alois Podhajsky, was a famed German horseman and dressage expert, and had been a bronze medallist at the 1936 Olympics. He had also been an Austrian Army officer, and by 1938 had been enrolled in the Wehrmacht with the rank of Major. In the final phases of World War II, Hostau was on the advancing path of the Soviet Red Army from the East, and the German soldiers in the farm were unenthusiastic about surrendering to the Russians. On the other side, to the West, the XII Corps of the American Third Army were also advancing toward the farm, commanded by General George Patton, racing with the Soviets for the liberation of Prague.


title: Operation Cowboy

text: German veterinarians at the farm, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Hubert Rudofsky, were scared about what the Russians could do to their horses, as during the liberation of Hungary they had already killed the whole Royal Hungarian Lipizzaner collection. Then Luftwaffe intelligence officer Lieutenant Colonel Walter Holters, not part of the farm personnel but forced there due to fuel shortage, tried to arrange an agreement with the advancing US troops. Holters, a general staff officer, was senior to Rudofsky but they agreed about the goal of saving the precious horses, and a contact was made with the nearest US unit in the area, the 42nd Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron of the 2nd Cavalry Group. 2nd CG was famous for its daring deep strikes and was famed between German troops as "Ghosts of Patton's Army". In spite of being a mechanized unit, many of the officers of the Group were horsemen and had served in mounted units before the mechanization, so they immediately planned a rescue operation.


title: Operation Cowboy

text: Furthermore, it seems that there was a meeting between Patton and Podhajsky, about a rescue operation of those horses, and for a source the meeting between Holters and Reed was not casual, but planned before 26 April.


title: Operation Cowboy

text: The operation was not simple for a series of factors. First, German troops at the Czech border were not part of the agreement and would likely oppose the American troops entering the area. Second, many of the hundreds of horses were pregnant and most of the rest had just given birth. Finally, Czechoslovakia had been posted in the Soviet area of influence during the Yalta Conference and the advancing Red Army would likely not have agreed with the operation, had they reached the farm in time.


title: Operation Cowboy

text: General Patton, who agreed to the operation, gave orders to quickly create a task force, but available troops were scarce. Assigned were two small cavalry reconnaissance troops with M8 scout cars, some M8 Howitzer Motor Carriages and two M24 Chaffee light tanks and a screening infantry force of 325 men; the task force being command by Major Robert P. Andrews. The path was 20 miles long, into still German-occupied territory with thousands of German troops, including two understrength armoured divisions; among them the 11th Panzer Division that a few days later would surrender at Passau.


title: Operation Cowboy

text: After having passed German defences at the border, with the help of an artillery barrage by the XII Corps, Andrews secured the farm and was then confronted with the task of evacuating the horses. As the horses outnumbered the men in the task force, Andrews enrolled many Allied POWs – British, New Zealanders, French, Poles and Serbs – freed from concentration camps in the area. Furthermore he gave arms to the present German soldiers of the Heer and the Luftwaffe, even if they were formally prisoners of war. Finally he accepted the help of a Russian anticommunist Cossack Prince Amassov, who led a small force of Cossack cavalry that had deserted the German 1st Cossack Cavalry Division and was present in the area.


title: Operation Cowboy

text: After arriving at the farm Colonel Reed looked for vehicles to move the pregnant horses and new-born foals. Meanwhile Major Andrews turned over the task force to his deputy, Captain Thomas M. Stewart. Before being able to evacuate the farm the composite force was attacked twice by Waffen-SS infantry, both being repelled with some dead and injured. The SS unit suffered more losses and eventually retreated. Immediately afterwards, Stewart managed to evacuate the horses, some mounted and the rest being herded, just before the first Soviet T-34 appeared in sight. The Soviets avoided any confrontation and the operation was concluded when all the horses were loaded into trucks near the border and secured behind American lines.


title: Monarchy of Luxembourg

text: The Grand Duke of Luxembourg (, , ) is the monarchical head of state of Luxembourg. Luxembourg has been a grand duchy since 15 March 1815, when it was created from territory of the former Duchy of Luxembourg. It was in personal union with the United Kingdom of the Netherlands until 1890 under the House of Orange-Nassau. Luxembourg is the world's only sovereign grand duchy and since 1815, there have been nine monarchs, including the incumbent, Henri.


title: Monarchy of Luxembourg

text: After a constitutional change (to article 34) in December 2008 resulting from Henri's refusal to assent to a law legalizing euthanasia, laws now no longer require the grand duke's formal assent (implying "approval") but his task of promulgating the law as chief executive remains.


title: Monarchy of Luxembourg

text: The grand duke does not receive a salary, but the grand ducal family receives annually 300,000 gold francs (€281,000) for grand ducal functions. In 2017, the Luxembourg budget included €10.1 million for the grand duke's household costs.


title: Monarchy of Luxembourg

text: Succession to the throne was governed by Salic law, as dictated by the Nassau Family Pact, first adopted on 30 June 1783. The right to reign over Luxembourg was until June 2011 passed by agnatic-cognatic primogeniture within the House of Nassau, as stipulated under the 1815 Final Act of the Congress of Vienna and as confirmed by the 1867 Treaty of London. The Nassau Family Pact itself can be amended by the usual legislative process, having been so on 10 July 1907 to exclude the Count of Merenberg branch of the House, which was descended from a morganatic marriage.


title: Monarchy of Luxembourg

text: An heir apparent may be granted the style 'hereditary grand duke'. The current heir apparent is Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume. In June 2011, agnatic primogeniture was replaced with absolute primogeniture, allowing any legitimate female descendants within the House of Nassau to be included in the line of succession.


title: Monarchy of Luxembourg

text: The traditional titulatures of the grand duke are "By the Grace of God, Grand Duke of Luxembourg, Duke of Nassau, Count Palatine of the Rhine, Count of Sayn, Königstein, Katzenelnbogen and Diez, Burgrave of Hammerstein, Lord of Mahlberg, Wiesbaden, Idstein, Merenberg, Limburg and Eppstein".


title: Monarchy of Luxembourg

text: It should, however, be noted that many of the titles are held without regard to the strict rules of Salic inheritance and that most, save for Grand Duke of Luxembourg and Duke of Nassau, are simply not used.


title: Monarchy of Luxembourg

text: Under the 1783 Nassau Family Pact, those territories of the Nassau family in the Holy Roman Empire at the time of the pact (Luxembourg and Nassau) were bound by semi-Salic law, which allowed inheritance by females or through the female line only upon extinction of male members of the dynasty. When William III died leaving only his daughter Wilhelmina as an heir, the crown of the Netherlands, not being bound by the family pact, passed to Wilhelmina. However, the crown of Luxembourg passed to a male of another branch of the House of Nassau: Adolphe, the dispossessed Duke of Nassau and head of the branch of Nassau-Weilburg.


title: Monarchy of Luxembourg

text: In 1905, Grand Duke Adolphe's younger half-brother, Prince Nikolaus Wilhelm of Nassau, died, having left a son Georg Nikolaus, Count von Merenberg who was, however, the product of a morganatic marriage, and therefore not legally a member of the House of Nassau. In 1907, Adolphe's only son, William IV, Grand Duke of Luxembourg, obtained passage of a law confirming the right of his eldest daughter, Marie-Adélaïde, to succeed to the throne in virtue of the absence of any remaining dynastic males of the House of Nassau, as originally stipulated in the Nassau Family Pact. She became the grand duchy's first reigning female monarch upon her father's death in 1912, and upon her own abdication in 1919, was succeeded by her younger sister Charlotte, who married Felix of Bourbon-Parma, a prince of the former Duchy of Parma. Charlotte's descendants have since reigned as the continued dynasty of "Nassau", and also constitute a cadet branch of the House of Bourbon-Parma.


title: 1991 NFL Draft

text: The 1991 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 21–22, 1991, at the Marriott Marquis in New York City, New York. No teams elected to claim any players in the supplemental draft that year.


title: 1991 NFL Draft

text: The first six selections of the draft were defensive players, the most in draft history. It began with the Dallas Cowboys using the first overall pick to select Russell Maryland. No previous draft had begun with more than three consecutive defensive picks.


title: 1991 NFL Draft

text: The day of the draft, wide receiver and projected number one pick Raghib Ismail signed with the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League (CFL). He was nevertheless selected by the Los Angeles Raiders in the fourth round (100th overall), and began playing with the Raiders in 1993 after two CFL seasons.


title: Grendizer

text: , known as Grandizer in the United States, is a Japanese Super Robot anime television series and manga created by manga artist Go Nagai. It is the third entry in the "Mazinger" series, however it is non-canon due to "" taking place losely 10 years after "Great Mazinger", discarding any connection other than Koji Kabuto and Boss to the "Mazinger" anime storyline, the manga however takes place in the same timeline as the Mazinger Z and Great Mazinger in an unspecified timeskip after Great Mazinger. The anime television series was produced by Toei Doga and Dynamic Planning and broadcast on Fuji TV from October 5, 1975, to February 27, 1977, and lasted 74 episodes. The robot's first appearance in the United States was as a part of the Shogun Warriors line of super robot toys imported in the late 1970s by Mattel, then in Jim Terry's "Force Five" series, both under the title "Grandizer". It was widely popular in the Middle East, North Africa, France, French-speaking Canada (as "Goldorak") and Italy (as "Goldrake").


title: Grendizer

text: The Vega homeworld has become unstable due to the exploiting of Vegatron, a powerful radioactive ore. Seeking to expand his militaristic empire and find a substitute planet to settle upon, the ruthless King Vega unleashes his armies—composed of flying saucers and giant robotic monsters—and turns first against neighbors such as Fleed, a highly advanced but peaceful world. The once verdant, idyllic Fleed is turned into a radioactive wasteland. Too late, the only known survivor of the royal family, the Crown Prince Duke Fleed, manages to steal the Grendizer, the robotic embodiment of the Fleedian God of War, from the Vegan invaders who plan to use it to spearhead their invasion fleet. Grendizer is a giant monster robot that interfaces with Spacer (Spaizer), a flying saucer that enables the robot to fly.


title: Grendizer

text: Fleeing Vegan space by flying at faster than light speed, the Duke enters our solar system and switches course to Earth, making a rough landing in Japan, on the slopes of Mount Fuji. He is befriended by Doctor Umon, a noted scientist who oversees a research laboratory called the Space Science Lab near a small ranch. The kindly Umon takes in the young humanoid alien as his son, under the assumed name of Daisuke, and assists him in hiding Grendizer. Taking the name Daisuke Umon, Duke Fleed works at the ranch run by Danbei Makiba (based on Abashiri Daemon of Go Nagai's manga "Abashiri Ikka").


title: Grendizer

text: Roughly two years later, Koji Kabuto, after studying abroad, returns to Japan in a flying saucer he personally designed and built, called the TFO. He heads to the Space Science Lab after hearing of multiple sightings of "flying saucers". He plans to contact the aliens if possible and make peace with them. Daisuke, however, scoffs at the notion and fears that these aliens, the Vegans, led by generals Blaki and Gandal, are preparing to attack Earth. Koji ignores his warnings and flies out to meet the incoming saucers, only to discover the horrible truth. In order to save Koji and protect his adoptive homeworld from destruction, Daisuke is forced to return to his true identity as Duke Fleed. He unearths Grendizer from its hiding place under the lab and sets off to fight his enemies.


title: Grendizer

text: The Vegans establish a base on the far side of the Moon and start to attack Earth from there. Koji discovers Duke Fleed's true identity and their bitter rivalry soon turns to friendship. The daughter of Danbei Makiba, Hikaru, also discovers Daisuke's secret and becomes a pilot in order to assist him despite his objections. Later on, it is revealed that there were two more survivors from planet Fleed: Duke's younger sister Maria Grace Fleed and a man who had rescued her and fled to Earth, raising her under the guise of her grandfather. Caught in a crossfire between Grendizer and a Vegan beast, he reveals to Maria that she is the last survivor of the royal family of Fleed (under the belief that Duke was killed) before dying from his wounds. Maria swears revenge on Grendizer and its pilot. She tries to ambush Duke, Koji and Hikaru at the Space Science Lab, but the fight is short. Maria's attacks bring Duke's necklace (which is the same as the one she wore) into view and the truth is revealed. The lost siblings are reunited at last and Maria becomes the last addition to the team.


title: Grendizer

text: As the conflict nears its end, it is shown that Duke Fleed was engaged to King Vega's daughter, Princess Rubina, prior to the attack on Fleed. When Rubina discovers that planet Fleed is no longer polluted with Vegatron radiation and that her fiancé is alive and well, she rushes to Earth to bring him the good news. Unfortunately, one of King Vega's generals uses this opportunity to ambush Duke Fleed, and Rubina is killed when she takes a shot aimed at Duke. This makes Duke even more determined to wipe out the Vegan menace once and for all.


title: Grendizer

text: King Vega decides to gather his remaining forces and make an all-out attack on Earth, destroying the Moon Base to coax his troops into fighting to the end and finally succeed in invading Earth and taking it as their new home planet. Duke and company go out to intercept them in Grendizer and the newly designed space combat Spazers. After a fierce battle, they finally manage to destroy the Vegan mother ship along with King Vega himself. Soon afterwards, Duke and Maria bid a tearful farewell to Earth and their friends and return to help reconstruct planet Fleed.


title: Grendizer

text: "UFO Robo Grendizer"'s origins dates back to "Uchu Enban Daisenso" (宇宙円盤大戦争, "Uchū Enban Daisensō"), translated and also known as "Battlefield of The Space Saucers" and "The Great Battle of the Flying Saucers", a 1975 animated short film created by Go Nagai and produced by Toei Doga. It is also known as "Space Disk War" and was also released in Italy under the name "UFO Robot Gattaiger-La grande battaglia dei dischi spaziali". It was originally shown along with the short film "Great Mazinger tai Getter Robot G: Kuchu Daigekitotsu", also from Toei and Nagai.


title: Grendizer

text: Nagai and Dynamic Productions created Grendizer using some of the elements and characters from Daiseno including Duke, the Makiba family, and even Blaki. Some changes were made to make it more original. The most obvious are the changes in design and the addition of characters such as Koji Kabuto and Maria Fleed.


title: Grendizer

text: "UFO Robot Grendizer" was developed to be a sequel to "Great Mazinger" after the initial concepts of a sequel were rejected by Toei. With the appearance of "Uchu Enban Daisenso" at the March 1975 Toei Manga Festival a remake was pitched using elements from "Mazinger". To breathe new light into the series, the villains of the series were decided to be aliens, a trend that followed in other Toei mecha series while also making Duke a more Blue Blood character with his suit being based on a knight including more romantic elements with its characters and sense of adventure.


title: Grendizer

text: Go Nagai, however, at one point stated in an interview that the anime series was considered a fun side project and does not consider "Grendizer" to be part of the series timeline. This is mainly because he had many disagreements with Toei and Shingo Araki over the direction the show should take as well has Toei not paying him royalties for the show's overseas airings, which culminated in a 1986 court settlement that lead to Toei paying Nagai his royalty earnings. In the end, "UFO Robo Grendizer" is more of a stand-alone spin-off in the "Mazinger" universe.


title: Grendizer

text: The licensed dubbed version for some French-speaking countries was officially announced in 2006. In 2005, a major crisis led Toei to take legal actions against DVD customers, all French megastores, and two major French anime publishers in France, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland and Luxembourg. The crisis started with the official release of unlicensed "Goldorak" DVDs by Manga Distribution and Déclic Images via websites and on eBay. By November 28, 2005, Manga Distribution and Déclic Images were ordered to pay €7,200,000 to Toei and Dynamic Planning for selling unlicensed DVD boxes.


title: Grendizer

text: As of 2013, following an agreement with Toei, an official "fully remastered and uncensored" DVD release of the complete series is available on the French market. The series has also aired on the French Mangas anime TV channel.


title: Grendizer

text: The entire Arabic dub is available on "Istikana", a paid streaming service that has On-Demand Arab movies and TV shows.


title: Grendizer

text: "Grendizer" was the second longest running animated "Mazinger" series in Japan, having 74 episodes. However, it has been criticized about its connection to the other "Mazinger" series in the franchise, especially with Koji's status as a mere sidekick and giving him a different romantic interest who wasn't Sayaka, as well as the lack of the other "Mazinger" mechs.


title: Grendizer

text: This created the popular assumption that the anime wasn't a success in Japan, especially since the merchandise based on the anime didn't sell as well as the merchandise for both "Mazinger Z" and "Great Mazinger". However, Go Nagai disputes this, saying the anime was actually quite successful in Japan: “It was actually a hit in Japan. Maybe some people thought it was not as popular as "Mazinger Z", because "Mazinger" was super popular.” The average viewership metrics for "UFO Robot Grendizer"'s original Japanese broadcast was around 20.9% audience share across its 74 episodes with a peak share of 27.6% for Episode 21.


title: Grendizer

text: Regardless of its disputed success in Japan, "Grendizer" was one of the first anime programs to be a major success in both Europe and the Arabic regions of the Middle East, and continues to have a strong following in those parts of the world to this day.


title: Grendizer

text: In Europe it was a major success in France and Italy, known in both countries as "Goldorak" and "Goldrake" respectively.


title: Grendizer

text: The Italian dub was titled "Goldrake" and it changed all the characters' names and created a whole new soundtrack for the series. It was so popular in Italy that sets of episodes were compiled into films and released theatrically across the country. Both Italian theme songs were among the best-selling singles of 1978, with the first selling over 700,000 copies and the second selling over 1,000,000 copies. It would also get its own comic series titled "Atlas UFO Robot Presenta Goldrake (Atlas UFO Robot Presents Goldrake)", whose story diverged even further from the source material. This comic ran for 89 issues and spawned several other similar comic adaptations of anime airing on Italian television at that time.


title: Grendizer

text: The French dub titled "Goldorak" was the first anime series to be telecast in France and legend goes that the series was so popular among French viewers that several episodes scored a 100% TV rating. Like the Italian dub, it changed all of the characters’ names and inserted additional songs, although it did translate the series’ original opening and ending themes into French. Some versions of the dub have a completely different theme simply titled "Goldorak", which was sung by Franco-Israeli singer Noam Kaniel. Kaniel's performance earned him unprecedented celebrity status in France; by the time "Goldorak " had ended its original run on French TV, its theme song achieved platinum status in France. The Francophone dub was also one of the first anime programs to be a major success in Canada where it was broadcast on Quebec’s TVA network. The show continues to have a strong following, garnering widespread news coverage of its DVD release and return to broadcast TV in Canada. In October 2021 a fully licensed French-language "Goldorak" graphic novel was released by Editions Kana. According to the creative team, Go Nagai himself gave his blessings to the comics story, which serves as a sequel to the original Toei anime set 10 years after the final episode. The comic has received positive reviews from readers for its detailed art and a story that keeps the spirit of the original series. To coincide with the graphic novel’s release, the French postal company, La Poste issued stamps inspired by the anime.


title: Grendizer

text: "UFO Robot Grendizer Raid" was released theatrically as "Goldorak" and became a hit at the French box office, selling 922,964 tickets upon release in 1979.


title: Grendizer

text: The show was also extremely popular in the Arab-speaking world, first airing in Lebanon on Télé Liban in 1979 under the title مغامرات الفضاء: يوفو - غرندايزر ("Moughamarat Al Fada: UFO - Grendizer, Adventures In Space: UFO - Grendizer") before being distributed to most other Arabic speaking regions. Unlike the Italian and French dubs, the Arabic dub retained the characters’ names and kept songs from the Japanese version. Also unlike most other Arabic dubs of anime, the show retained most of its plot details without any alteration or censorship in most Arabic-speaking markets, although some markets—such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE—did censor certain scenes.


title: Grendizer

text: The Arabic language version of "Grendizer" was so popular when it first aired that it spawned several long-running "Grendizer" comics published for the Arabic market. Many of these were translations of the Italian-produced comics, the most well known of these being for the Lebanese comics anthology ما وراء الكون ("Ma'Wara El Koun, Beyond The Universe"). The magazine founded by Lebanese publisher Bassat Al Reeh (Flying Carpet) and headed by the company's editor Henry Matthews, published Arabic translations of science fiction comics ranging from one-off short stories to licensed "Star Trek", "Star Wars", and Marvel superhero comics, as well as TV licensed comics adaptations like "Six Million Dollar Man" and "The Bionic Woman". "Grendizer" didn't make its appearance until the fifth issue, but was so popular that it became the top feature on the title, running for 140 issues. It later spawned its own comic series titled مغامرات غرندايزر ("Moghamarat Grendizer, Grendizer Adventures") that ran for over 70 issues. The series' popularity continues on in the region, as Arab News journalist Hala Tashkandi stated; “"Grendizer" memorabilia still sell like hot cakes in the region, and its popularity has barely declined.” Lebanese pop star Sami Clark, who sang the Arabic version of the opening and ending in the Arabic dub, had frequently sung the theme in his concerts, including an orchestral rendering in 2018


title: Grendizer

text: . Clark also performed a duet with the singer of the original Japanese themes, Issao Sasaki, at the 2019 Saudi Anime Expo. There's even a store in Kuwait that started out mainly selling "Grendizer" merchandise, before expanding to selling other anime merchandise. In 2016, a Kuwaiti volunteer group made a "Grendizer" mural in Kuwait City during Urban Culture Week. Karim El Mufti, a professor of political science, said in his article about the anime, ""UFO Robo Grendizer" has surpassed the initial expectations of its producers. Although the conversion works of the original Japanese version into Arabic had kept the Japanese phonetics, sites and cultural references, the cartoon has actually blossomed into a life of its own. As such, the domestication process of this character and of its whole narrative set was intimately connected to the Arab context and politics at the inception moment of the series, thus mirroring the deep preoccupations of the generations of that time. High exposure to violence, aggression, and injustice in the Middle East had established a hospitable environment for the super-powerful resistance figure and pro-justice hero." Go Nagai stated in an interview with "Arab News" that he believes the geopolitical climate in the Arab world played a big role in "Grendizer" becoming popular in Arab regions.


title: Grendizer

text: "Grendizer" had limited success in the United States, where it was one of 5 mecha shows included in the 1980 TV anthology "Force Five". The series was renamed "Grandizer" for the American market, and only had 26 episodes, which were run out of order. Despite the low episode count, it enjoys a small but dedicated cult following among East Coast American viewers who saw the show as children, as well as children who grew up with military families because "Force Five" was frequently aired on the cable TV feed of US military installations in Europe. This was also the version of the show broadcast in the United Kingdom, India, and the Philippines (though an earlier local Filipino English dub of the show existed before it was taken off the air by orders of the Ferdinand Marcos regime).


title: Grendizer

text: "UFO Robot Grendizer" returned in 2002 in the sixth chapter of "Dynamic Superobot Wars" and in 2004 in "Dynamic Heroes" (ダイナミックヒーローズ, "Dainamikku Hîrôzu")—also known as "Nagai Go Manga Gaiden—Dynamic Heroes" (永井豪まんが外伝 ダイナミックヒーローズ, "Nagai Gô Manga Gaiden Dainamikku Hîrôzu") and as "Go Nagai Manga Heroes Crossover Collection—Dynamic Heroes", a Japanese manga based on several works of Go Nagai, including most of his most famous robots, such as Mazinger Z, Getter Robot and Great Mazinger. It was originally published as a monthly manga magazine e-manga from Kodansha, from June 2004 to July 2007.


title: Grendizer

text: Characters from the series also appeared in several installments of Banpresto's (now Bandai Namco Entertainment) popular crossover video game series "Super Robot Wars", making its debut in the second installment of the franchise, "2nd Super Robot Wars". In recent years, however, Grendizer has made far less appearances in the mainline games but has recently been making a comeback starting with "Super Robot Wars MX".


title: Grendizer

text: A video game adaptation based on the anime was announced by French video game publisher Microids in February 2021. The game is being developed by Endroad and set to be release in 2023.


title: Gautamiputra Satakarni

text: Gautamiputra Satakarni (Brahmi: 𑀕𑁄𑀢𑀫𑀺𑀧𑀼𑀢 𑀲𑀸𑀢𑀓𑀡𑀺, "Gotamiputa Sātakaṇi", IAST: ) was a ruler of the Satavahana Empire in present-day Deccan region of India. He was mentioned as the important and greatest ruler of Satavahana Dynasty. He ruled in the 1st or 2nd century CE, although his exact period is uncertain. His reign is dated variously: 86-110 CE, c. 103-127 CE, 106-130 CE, or more recently and specifically ca. 60-85 CE.


title: Gautamiputra Satakarni

text: The information available about Gautamiputra Satakarni comes from his coins, the Satavahana inscriptions, and the royal genealogies in the various Puranas. The best known of these is the Nashik "prashasti" (eulogy) inscription of his mother Gautami Balashri, which credits him with extensive military conquests. Historical evidence suggests that Gautamiputra revived the Satavahana power after a decline caused by Saka invasions.


title: Gautamiputra Satakarni

text: Except the "Brahmanda Purana", all the Puranas that contain the genealogy of Satavahana kings mention Gautamiputra. According to "Bhagavata", "Matsya" and "Vishnu" Puranas, his predecessor was Shivasvati (IAST: Śivasvāti). However, Shivasvati remains historically unattested: no coins or inscriptions issued by him have been discovered. The "Vayu Purana" names the predecessor of Gautamiputra as Shivasvami (IAST: Śivasvāmi). The "Brahmanada Purana" does not mention the name "Gautamiputra" at all; instead it names a king called "Yantramati", who ruled for 34 years, and was preceded by Svātisena.


title: Gautamiputra Satakarni

text: The mother of Gautamiputra Satakarni was Gautami Balashri (IAST: Gautami Bālaśri), as attested by "Nasik prashasti", an inscription found at Cave No.3 of the Pandavleni Caves in Nashik. The inscription is dated to the 19th regnal year of his son Vasishthiputra Pulumavi (or Pulumayi). It records the grant of a village to the Buddhist monks of the Bhadrayaniya sect.


title: Gautamiputra Satakarni

text: "Gautamiputra" literally means "son of Gautami", while Satakarni is a title common to several Satavahana kings. Such matronymics also appear in the names of other Satavahana kings, including Vasishthiputra Pulumavi ("Pulumavi, son of Vasishthi"). These do not indicate a matriarchy or a matrilineal descent system. The real explanation for matronymics seems to be that since the rulers married a number of wives from different royal families, a prince was best identified with reference to his mother.


title: Gautamiputra Satakarni

text: Historical evidence suggests that the Western Kshatrapas (known to the Satavahanas as Shakas) expanded their empire at the expense of Satavahanas in the years preceding the reign of Gautamiputra Satakarni. Based on the Nashik inscription of his mother, it appears that Gautamiputra revived the Satavahana power. The inscription states that he defeated the Shakas (Western Kshatrapas), the Pahlavas (Indo-Parthians), and the Yavanas (Indo-Greeks). It also states that he emerged victorious in several fights against a confederacy of enemies.


title: Gautamiputra Satakarni

text: The "Nashik prashasti" inscription of Gautamiputra's mother, located in the Nasik Caves, calls him the "king of kings", and states that his orders were obeyed by the circle of all kings. It indicates that his rule extended from Malwa and Saurashtra in the north to Krishna river in the south; and from Konkan in the west to Vidarbha (Berar) in the east. It states that he ruled the following regions:


title: Gautamiputra Satakarni

text: The identity of "Kukura" is uncertain. R G Bhandarkar identified it with a part of Rajputana, while Alexander Cunningham identified it with Gurjara. Sudhakar Chattopadhyaya identified it with an area in Madhya Pradesh, possibly near the western part of the Vindhyas.


title: Gautamiputra Satakarni

text: Sudhakar Chattopadhyaya identifies Mahendra, Sreshtha-giri and Chakora with portions of Eastern Ghats. He, therefore, believes that Gautamiputra's empire included the Telangana and Coastal Andhra regions. M. Rama Rao also supports this theory on the basis of coins discovered in the eastern Deccan region. Although coins can travel via trade, Chattopadhyaya believes that the Nashik inscription corroborates this theory. However, there are no other records of Satavahana presence in the eastern Deccan region before the period of his son Vashishtiputra Pulumavi.


title: Gautamiputra Satakarni

text: An inscription at Karle records the grant of Karajika village (identified with a village in Pune district) by Gautamiputra, confirming that the Pune region was under his control.


title: Gautamiputra Satakarni

text: The "Nashik prashasti" inscription further states that the horses of Gautamiputra drank waters of the "three oceans" (the Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean). This implies that Gautamiputra subdued the Cholas and the Pandyas in southern India. However, there is no historical evidence of this. One view is that this is just a conventional literary device: Gautamiputra's empire was not as extensive as the inscription claims. Sudhakar Chattopadhyaya speculates that Gautamiputra might have raided some territories in the South.


title: Gautamiputra Satakarni

text: According to American academic Carla M. Sinopoli, it is not clear if Gautamiputra actually had effective control over all the territories claimed as a part of his empire in the inscription. In any case, his military successes were short-lived.


title: Gautamiputra Satakarni

text: Caves excavated by Gautamiputra Satakarni as well as the Western Kshatrapa king Nahapana are located at Nashik. The "Nashik prashasti" inscription states that Gautamiputra uprooted the Kshaharata (or Khagarata) family, to which Nahapana belonged. The Nashik inscription dated to the 18th year of Gautamiputra's reign states that he reaffirmed a grant of land to Buddhist monks living at the Triraśmi peak. This land was earlier in the possession of Nahapana's son-in-law Rishabhadatta (also known as Ushavadata), who had donated it to the monks.


title: Gautamiputra Satakarni

text: A hoard of Nahapana's coins, discovered at Jogalthambi in Nashik district, includes coins re-struck by Gautamiputra. These coins feature an arched chaitya (Buddhist shrine) and the "Ujjain symbol" (a cross with four circles at the end).


title: Gautamiputra Satakarni

text: Most historians now agree that Gautamiputra and Nahapana were contemporaries, and that Gautamiputra defeated Nahapana. M. K. Dhavalikar dates this event to c. 124 CE, which according to him, was the 18th regnal year of Gautamiputra. R.C.C. Fynes dates the event to sometime after 71 CE, in the same line, Shailendra Bhandare places the victory of Gautamiputra and the end of Nahapana's reign to the start of Saka era, 78 CE, in the year of Castana's accession, and considers Gautamiputra's whole reign to ca. 60-85 CE.


title: Gautamiputra Satakarni

text: According to the "Matsya Purana" and the "Vayu Purana", Gautamiputra ruled for 21 years. However, an inscription dated to his 24th regnal year has been found at the Nashik cave. The inscription mentions his mother as "jiva-suta" ("having a living son"). D. C. Sircar interpreted this to mean that the king was ill, and the term "jiva-suta" was intended to assure the people that the king was alive, while his mother ran the administration. Shailendra Nath Sen also speculated that the king might have been assisted by his mother in administration because of his illness or military preoccupation. V. V. Mirashi dismissed Sircar's theory as "ridiculous", arguing that "jiva-suta" is an expression used in several ancient sources and simply emphasizes the good fortune of a woman. Sudhakar Chattopadhyaya also criticizes Sircar's interpretation, pointing out that the first line in the inscription refers to the king's order. He adds that "jiva-suta" is simply an "affectionate expression of a mother", and should not be over-analyzed.


title: Gautamiputra Satakarni

text: D. R. Bhandarkar and R. G. Bhandarkar believed that Gautamiputra and his son Vasishthiputra Pulumavi ruled jointly during the last years of his reign. This theory is based on their interpretations of the various Satavahana inscriptions. In "Nashik prashasti", Gautami Balashri calls herself the mother of the great king as well as the grandmother of the great king, indicating that both were kings at that time. There are also indications that Gautamiputra was alive, when this inscription was issued in the 19th regnal year of his son. Despite this, the inscription describes the achievements of Gautamiputra Satakarni, but remains silent about the exploits of his son. Based on these arguments, Bhandarkar speculated that Gautamiputra ruled eastern Deccan, while Vasishthiputra ruled western Deccan. This theory has been dismissed by several other scholars, including K. A. Nilakanta Sastri and H. C. Raychaudhuri. G.J. Dubreuil theorizes that the excavation of the cave (where this inscription was found) began during the reign of Gautamiputra. However, the work was finished only after his death, and the inscription was placed on his behalf by his mother, during the reign of his son. Bhandarkar's theory is further weakened by the fact that there is clear historical evidence of Gautamiputra's rule over western Deccan. Moreover, no inscriptions issued jointly by the father-son duo are available.


title: Gautamiputra Satakarni

text: It is possible that by the end of his reign, Gautamiputra lost some of his territory to the Kardamakas, a Western Kshatrapa dynasty that succeeded Nahapana's Kshaharata dynasty. The Junagadh inscription of the Kardamaka ruler Rudradaman I states that he defeated Satakarni, the lord of Dakshinapatha (Deccan), twice. It also states that he spared the life of the defeated ruler because of close relations. "Satakarni" is a title common to several Satavahana kings. According to D. R. Bhandarkar and Dineshchandra Sircar, the ruler defeated by Rudradaman was Gautamiputra Satakarni. However, E. J. Rapson believed that the defeated ruler was his son and successor Vasishthiputra Pulumavi. Shailendra Nath Sen and Charles Higham believe that the defeated ruler was Vashishtiputra's successor Shivaskanda or Shiva Sri Pulumayi (or Pulumavi).


title: Gautamiputra Satakarni

text: The location of Gautamiputra's capital is uncertain. In the Nashik inscription dated to his 18th regnal year, he is described as the "Lord of Benakataka". Carla M. Sinopoli identifies Benakataka as a place in the Nashik region. V. V. Mirashi identified it with Pauni Bhandara district.


title: Gautamiputra Satakarni

text: The inscriptions of Gautamiputra Satakarni indicate that his empire was divided into units known as "āhāra"s. Each "āharā" was governed by an "amātya" or "amaca". Three types of settlements are named in the inscriptions: "nagara" (city), "nigama" (town) and "gama" (village).


title: Gautamiputra Satakarni

text: The "Nashik prashasti" inscription calls him "ekabrahmana". One interpretation of this word is "a peerless Brahmin" or "a staunch Brahmin", since the same inscription also states that he destroyed the haughtiness of other Kshatriyas. However, this term has also been interpreted differently as "the only protector of the Brahmins" or "a proud champion of Brahmanism". Nevertheless, the king also patronized Buddhist monks. According to one of his Nashik inscriptions, the monks were exempted from taxes and granted immunity from any interference by the royal officers.


title: Gautamiputra Satakarni

text: The "Nashik prashasti" also states that the king's joys and sorrows were same as those of his citizens. It claims that he did not like to destroy life, even that of the enemies who offended him. The edict compares him to legendary heroes such as Rama, Keshava, Arjuna, Bhimasena, Nabhaga, Nahusha, Janamejaya, Sagara, Yayati and Ambarisha.


title: Gautamiputra Satakarni

text: "Gautamiputra Satakarni", a Telugu language film directed by Krish and featuring Nandamuri Balakrishna in the titular role, was released on 12 January 2017.


title: Kaworu Nagisa

text: , real name , is a fictional character from the "Neon Genesis Evangelion" franchise created by Gainax. In the series of the same name, he is the pilot of a giant mecha named Evangelion Unit 02 for the special agency Nerv. Kaworu is the seventeenth and final member of a series of enemies which threaten humanity, named Angels. When he arrives at Nerv, he befriends Eva-01 pilot Shinji Ikari, showing great affection towards him. After revealing his nature as an Angel, he asks Shinji to kill him to allow humanity to survive. Kaworu appears in the franchise's animated feature films and related media, video games, the original net animation "", the "Rebuild of Evangelion" films, and the manga adaptation by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto. He also has a prominent role in "", the third film of the "Rebuild" saga.


title: Kaworu Nagisa

text: The character, originally conceived by Gainax as a cat controlling a boy, was supposed to appear in the series' twenty-second episode. After several changes, director Hideaki Anno and screenwriter Akio Satsukawa portrayed him as the last Angel and he was included in the twenty-fourth episode.


title: Kaworu Nagisa

text: Although Kaworu only appeared in one episode, the character was popular with audiences and animation enthusiasts and topped popularity polls. Some critics disliked his ambiguity, his lack of clarity, and the undertones of his relationship with Shinji; others praised his personality, finding him open, affectionate and sociable. His role in the film "Evangelion 3.0" also attracted the attention of critics, with reviewers generally appreciating his relationship with Shinji. Merchandise, particularly action figures, based on Kaworu have been released.


title: Kaworu Nagisa

text: Akio Satsukawa, a screenwriter who contributed to the writing of the series' twenty-fourth episode, "The Beginning and the End, or 'Knockin' on Heaven's Door, chose Kaworu's name. Satsukawa opted for the surname Nagisa (Japanese for "shore"), an homage to Japanese director Nagisa Ōshima. The choice of a term related to the sea allowed him to connect to the names of other series' characters inspired by Imperial Japanese Navy ships and in the surname of character Rei Ayanami. The name Kaworu was not written with the contemporary spelling with the katakana , but with the archaic character . The kanji was chosen for his graphic connection with the katakana and the kanji , a detail referring to the Japanese title of the episode: . Satsukawa then created a pun with the phoneme "shisha", which can mean or .


title: Kaworu Nagisa

text: Two years before the series was broadcast, Gainax published a presentation about the series entitled . In the twenty-second episode of the original project, a ""bishōnen" constantly accompanied by a cat" should have appeared. Nerv would have allowed the boy to enter its laboratories and, after a clash in which his fellow pilot Shinji Ikari found himself "in the dilemma of having to fight against an anthropomorphic enemy", "the greatest secret of the organization" would be revealed. In the first version, the Angel would have been the cat, and the boy his puppet; the initial project was abandoned, and elements of it were merged into Kaworu. In preliminary proposals, he had an organ characteristic of Angels named core and the ability to modify his appearance through metamorphosis, ideas which were set aside during series' production. Anno conceived of him as an "ideal male"; according to him: "The plan was that the 'unconscious Shinji' would be Ayanami Rei, the Shinji who appears on the surface would be Ikari Shinji, and the 'ideal Shinji' would be Nagisa Kaworu". Character designer Yoshiyuki Sadamoto conceived him as "more elegant and more refined" than Shinji. Compared to him he should have been "taller, thinner and with a smaller face". For the somatic features of his face, he decided to blend those of Rei, Shinji himself, and Asuka Langley Soryu. Following a personal request from the director, colorist Harumi Takaboshi dyed his eyes red to draw an analogy with Rei's and give him "a distinct impression". In one of the drafts of the twenty-fourth episode he is also described as a blond-haired boy. Although he was conceived to appear only in the final episodes, during the making of the opening theme the main staff decided to depict him with a sketch by Sadamoto; in the editing phase, the sketch was inserted just before a frame depicting Rei Ayanami and the caption "Angels". While designing him, Sadamoto envisioned a "younger" voice than the final version.


title: Kaworu Nagisa

text: In the early stages of production, scriptwriter Akio Satsukawa wrote some drafts of the script for the twenty-fourth episode in which Kaworu's relationship with Shinji would have been expanded and presented with less ambiguity. Some of his ideas included Kaworu and Shinji swimming naked in a river at night, Kaworu proposing to Shinji to play piano and cello together and a kiss scene between them. Anno originally gave him an outline that Satsukawa greatly expanded, something that struck Sadamoto. Though Anno did not attempt to dissuade Satsukawa and the homoerotic tone of his draft, at one point he considered it "above my tolerance level". The "Evangelion" staff and producers also rejected these proposals. Episode director and animator Masayuki refused to work on them and threatened to resign. The drafts then underwent several modifications before being accepted as the definitive script. However, they did not change or alter the essence of Nagisa's character; Anno said the draft's "atmosphere" was preserved in the script. Anno explained he wanted to hold on to the idea of an Angel "conversing in human language", mentioning it as a progression from Shinji's conversation with the Angel Leliel in the sixteenth episode. He also considered expanding Kaworu's role in the expanded director's cut version of the episode but decided to prioritize clarifying Kaworu's connection to Seele. Staff indicated they had not been expecting Kaworu to provoke a strong sexual impression, or for him to become very popular in the first place. They attributed their lack of attention to this to the short time they had when they produced the later episodes, and mentioned Kaworu was not supposed to hold Shinji's hand in the bath scene. This was an animation error; he was supposed to touch it instead. Anno, like other characters in the series, conceived Kaworu based on his personality. He described Rei and Kaworu as part of his unconscious, and Kaworu specifically as his shadow—the dark and unconscious side of the psyche. According to some fans, he may have also used Kunihiko Ikuhara, the director of the animated series "Sailor Moon" and a friend of his, as a model. In an interview, Ikuhara denied the rumors, comparing Kaworu's cynical personality to Anno himself, while stating he was not in the least involved in the creation of the character. He also said he had close correspondence with Anno, with whom he was on good terms from the early design stages of "Neon Genesis Evangelion". During the production of "Sailor Moon", the entire staff went on a trip to the spa, and Ikuhara chatted all night with his colleague, the animator of some of the series' episodes. Ikuhara himself, watching the episode, noticed how the situation with the bath was the same as the conversation he had with Anno.


title: Kaworu Nagisa

text: Akira Ishida voices Kaworu Nagisa in every appearance in the original series, as well as the later films, spin-offs, video games, and the "Rebuild of Evangelion" saga. In 1997, when "The End of Evangelion" was released, Ishida said he found the role "very difficult", and felt "a lot of pressure" during the dubbing of the film version. His emotional tension grew exponentially when he learned that there would be two feature movies, but he was satisfied with his performance. During the recording of "" (2007), the first chapter of the "Rebuild of Evangelion" cinematic tetralogy, Anno explained in detail the role played by Kaworu in the new theatrical version and his relationship with Shinji. Even during the dubbing sessions for "" (2012) he felt tense, but, supported and instructed step-by-step by the director, he overcame his performance anxiety and reprised the role. For the final installment, "", Ishida noted he had trouble saying the character's "complex" lines.


title: Kaworu Nagisa

text: In English, Kyle Sturdivant voices him in the original series; he's also dubbed by Greg Ayres in the director's cut version, by Aaron Krohn in the two 1997 films, by Clifford Chapin in the Netflix' dub, by Jerry Jewell in the first dub of "Rebuild of Evangelion" and Daman Mills in the Amazon Prime Video's dub.


title: Kaworu Nagisa

text: In the Netflix dub, one of Kaworu's lines to Shinji was changed from ADV DVD's "I love you" to "I like you". This generated controversy with some fans who felt it altered their relationship and contributed to queer erasure. Dan Kanemitsu, studio Khara's in-house translator responsible for the updated "Evangelion" subtitles, production assistance, and other official Gainax and Khara translations including the "Rebuild of Evangelion" films explained in an interview that he consults the original creator when the meaning is unclear or ambiguous. He defended the importance of ambiguity, citing Anno's commentaries on "Evangelion"s ambiguity and open-endedness, his commitment to accuracy, and getting the intended nuances of the text across a cultural gap. Shinji's voice actress, Megumi Ogata, also agrees with the translation for the Netflix/Khara release, saying she originally interpreted Kaworu's lines as "like", and that she is glad that the new version is closer to the Japanese original.


title: Kaworu Nagisa

text: Kaworu appears in the twenty-fourth episode of "Neon Genesis Evangelion". A secret sect called Seele, and a group called Commission for the Instrumentality of Mankind sent him to the headquarters of the special agency Nerv to carry out a mission as Fifth Child and the replacement for Asuka Langley Soryu, who became unable to pilot Unit 02. Soon after arriving in Tokyo-3 city, Kaworu has a premeditated meeting with Shinji Ikari, Third Child and Eva-01 pilot. He becomes friends with him, showing an unconditional and sincere sympathy towards him. His position as a pilot allows him to enter Nerv without impediment, but he arouses the suspicions of Misato Katsuragi, a major in the organization's operations department. He is subjected to a synchronicity test with Unit 02, obtaining a result so high it astounds the organization's entire staff. He can arbitrarily vary his rate of synchronization with the mecha. All data about his past is erased to conceal his true identity. Misato discovers that he was born on September 13, 2000, the day in which an enormous calamity called the Second Impact occurred at the South Pole, caused by the first of a series of enemies called Angels. He is revealed to be the seventeenth Angel and "last sacrificial messenger", named Tabris. The soul of the first Angel, Adam, is implanted in him. Seele, who captured Tabris when he was still in an embryonic state, "recovered" it. Unlike the other Angels, he can develop feelings close to those of humans and communicate with them. Once in the headquarters, he comes into contact with Rei Ayanami, pilot of the Eva-00, in which the soul of another Angel is implanted, and confesses to sharing his nature as a hybrid.


title: Kaworu Nagisa

text: Using his Angel abilities, Kaworu manages to manipulate and control the movements of Unit 02, in an attempt to enter the Terminal Dogma of the Nerv headquarters and get in touch with the angel Adam, supposedly guarded within the structure. Despite his anthropomorphic features, the young man proves to possess a series of anomalous abilities, including levitation and an AT Field, a powerful force field characteristic of Angels and Evangelions. Arriving at his destination, he discovers that Adam is not kept inside the base, but the second Angel Lilith is. At the sight of Lilith, Kaworu interrupts his attempt at contact and decides to preserve the Lilim's lineage, the humankind that descends from her, rather than causing their extinction, allowing himself to be killed by Eva-01 and Shinji.


title: Kaworu Nagisa

text: In the following film, "" (1997), the souls of all humanity unite into one collective consciousness, and during a process called Human Instrumentality, Shinji argues symbolically with Kaworu and Rei Ayanami. Akira Ishida said the Kaworu who appears in "The End of Evangelion" is not real, nor is he concretely present; during the feature film he and Rei say they represent the "hope that people will one day be able to understand each other". He also appears during the death of the Nerv commander, Gendo Ikari, along with Rei and Shinji's mother Yui Ikari.


title: Kaworu Nagisa

text: In the "Rebuild of Evangelion" saga, Kaworu has a prominent role and he is aware of details of Shinji's life, even before he can physically meet him. He is introduced in the final sequence of the first film, "Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone" (2007), in which he awakens on the surface of the moon to converse with a Seele member. During the scene, he rises from a coffin placed on a lunar sea; next to him there are four other coffins already open and four still closed, for a total of nine visible coffins. Behind him, for a moment, a white giant is framed, similar to the Angel Lilith. He is completely naked, with no need for a suit or other means to breathe on the moon. He addresses commander Gendo Ikari, who is visiting a place named Tabgha Base, as "father". In "" (2009), the second installment of the saga, when Shinji tries to save Rei and unwittingly starts the Third Impact cataclysm, he descends aboard an Evangelion unit known as Mark.06. He stops the Third Impact, addressing Shinji with the phrase: "At least this time I will be able to make you happy." Originally, Kaworu would have said the line with the light-hearted smile of the original series; in the production phase, however, it was decided to give him an unusually troubled expression. Kazuya Tsurumaki, the assistant director of the classic series and related movies, described him as a man who takes his wife back by force. He also said: "[We thought it would be] more interesting if Kaworu looked like [he was thinking]: 'You've been with a woman while I've been away? How dare you...!'". Staff initially wanted to give him a "showier entrance", and give him a scene talking to Asuka when Eva 03 was possessed the ninth Angel.


title: Kaworu Nagisa

text: In the third movie "Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo" (2012), set fourteen years after the previous feature film, he works for Nerv and is designated to pilot the Eva-13 together with Shinji on behalf of Gendo, who he calls "king of Lilim". He shows Shinji, alone and scared of the new world, the consequences of his actions on planet Earth. Shinji is initially reluctant, but Kaworu offers him an opportunity to revert the damage done by Third Impact. To train, the two boys practice piano on the same "a quatre mains" musical base. Having reached a good harmony, the two head aboard Eva-13 to the Terminal Dogma of the Nerv base. Asuka and Mari Makinami confront them. However, Kaworu falls for a trap set by Gendo, and causes Shinji to start the Fourth Impact accidentally. Nagisa reveals he is the first Angel, but demoted to thirteenth, and dies telling Shinji: "We will meet again." Akira Ishida, Kaworu's voice actor, was asked if the sequence of the two boys united in the same Evangelion could be interpreted as a "love scene"; Ishida replied he "could not make that interpretation", and left it up to what the director said or what fans would speculate, saying: "But, at the very least, them getting in the same unit is different, as they both pursue the same goal together. It seems representative of the depth of their connection.".


title: Kaworu Nagisa

text: In the "Neon Genesis Evangelion" manga, written by the series' character designer Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, Kaworu is introduced in advance in a narrative arc roughly corresponding to the nineteenth episode of the series. In the 57th chapter of the comic, he meets Shinji in the ruins of a church during a piano solo. In his first appearance, he kills a stray cat in front of Shinji. He argues this would spare the cat further pain. This disturbs Shinji and angers him, and he realizes he had a similar feeling when he first met Rei. He is later brought into Nerv to replace the Fourth Child, Toji Suzuhara, who died in a fight, fighting alongside Rei Ayanami against the Angel Armisael. His role as an Angel also changes, being presented as the twelfth instead of the seventeenth. In this version of events, Shinji has strong suspicions of the Fifth Child; he accuses Kaworu of violating his personal space. Following Rei's death, Shinji temporarily moves to his apartment, afflicted and heartbroken by the loss he has just suffered, and afraid of facing Misato. Shinji has a nightmare and starts to hyperventilate. Kaworu uses this opportunity to perform CPR by kissing Shinji, arousing his anger. Over time, their relationship becomes increasingly cold and tormented, until they take two different paths.


title: Kaworu Nagisa

text: Unlike the original animated series in which ambiguity remains about the relationship between Shinji and Kaworu, leaving great freedom of interpretation for the viewers, for the manga Sadamoto changed Kaworu's characterization, leaving less margin for interpretation. According to him, in the comic, Kaworu feels "a reflection of Rei's feelings" for Shinji, but he fails to understand them. Irritated by his behavior, after killing Kaworu, Shinji admits he felt "drawn to him". He wonders why human beings feel drawn to others, but in the end rejects him, "because he is not Rei". Before his death, the Third Child imagines himself strangling Kaworu at the same time and place he met him. For this scene, the author took inspiration from the film "Betty Blue", the tormented story of two young lovers, by Jean-Jacques Beineix, in which he strangles her in the end. Sadamoto created Kaworu to represent "a situation in which Shinji has to confront liking someone"; according to him, Nagisa, most of all, is the person who understands the boy. In an interview Sadamoto compared his death to a "contradictory "fumi-e"", an ancient Japanese ritual consisting of the trampling of Christian icons, in which Tabris would ask Shinji to prove he liked him by killing him. According to Sadamoto, in this particular moment of his life Shinji "does not want the affection of a girl, but the approval of another boy". Unlike Hideaki Anno, who wanted to give Kaworu the image of an "ideal man", Sadamoto, who believes that human beings are the last evolutionary stage of angels, tried to represent him as a "pre-human", innocent and naive character. The artist was inspired by his experience, particularly by a classmate in elementary school, a charming transfer student from Tokyo for whom he felt great admiration. "I secretly thought it was very cool. It is not romance ... It is a delicate feeling in a delicate age".


title: Kaworu Nagisa

text: After the conclusion of "Neon Genesis Evangelion"s first airing, a self-parody audio track written by Anno called "After the End" was released. On it the series' characters, played by their original voice actors, jokingly discuss and prepare a new ending just before the production schedule deadline, breaking the fourth wall. Kaworu appears; when Asuka calls him "homoboy", he tells her, "I wish you wouldn't make statements when you lack evidence for them." Nagisa, along with Eva's other pilots, joins a "super sentai"-style superhero group named "Shin sentai Evangelion" by Asuka. In the movie "" (1997) there are sequences in which four children from the third middle school of the city of Tokyo-2, with their respective instruments, practice a string quartet in the school's auditorium. Among them is a violinist who looks like Kaworu; according to what is indicated by the superimposed writings, however, the event would take place eighteen months before his appearance in Tokyo-3. From the script, it is clear that, despite the similarity with the protagonists of the series, the four children should still be interpreted as actors in an imaginary sequence.


title: Kaworu Nagisa

text: The character appears in video games dedicated to "Neon Genesis Evangelion" and is available as a romantic option in "", "Neon Genesis Evangelion 2", and "". He's also present in "Raising Project" manga adaptation as an agent sent by Seele at Ritsuko's behest. In the manga "" he knows Shinji's father, Gendo, years before the main events without having changed his appearance. In the "chibi" parody series "" Kaworu is president of the school student council particularly popular student among those at his school who tends to protect Shinji, whom he loves. In the manga "Evangelion - Detective Shinji Ikari", written by Takumi Yoshimura, Ryōji Kaji and Kaworu are portrayed as two private investigators to whom Shinji is forced to turn; In "", his personality is relatively similar to that of the original series. At the beginning of the manga, Kaworu is seen by Shinji near a vending machine running away from the scene of an explosion with Rei Ayanami, with whom he has an unspecified bond. Like the original series, he immediately shows great interest in Shinji, making him uncomfortable. He is also present in "Neon Genesis Evangelion: Legend of the Piko Piko Middle School Students." Kaworu is one of the main characters of a "pachinko" entitled , released in Japan in April 2009. During the game, Nagisa intervenes during Operation Yashima against Ramiel with his Eva-04. In addition to video games based on the original animated series, Kaworu has also appeared in media not related to the "Evangelion" franchise, such as "Million Arthur", "Hortensia Saga", "Keri hime sweets", "Summons Board", "Divine Gate", "Monster Strike", "Final Gear", "Puzzle & Dragons", and "Puyopuyo!! Quest". Kaworu briefly assists Shinji in "", which also features a "Dark Kaworu" who hates humans and music; he is also present in the crossover franchise "Super Robot Wars".


title: Kaworu Nagisa

text: Kaworu is an erudite boy with an easy-going, straightforward and honest personality, particularly with Shinji Ikari. Right from the start, he shows great interest in the Third Child, the first person with whom he comes into contact after arriving in Tokyo-3. Shinji is feeling great isolation and need after the death, departure, or alienation of all his peers. However, his esoteric way of communicating confounds Shinji. Kaworu also shows great interest in humanity. He describes the Ode to Joy as the highest achievement of human culture and reflects on the fragility and nature of humans. He is very direct in his interactions and seemingly has no interest in, or knowledge of, social conventions. He shows sympathy for Rei, who shares his hybrid nature. Kaworu seeks active contact with Shinji as a friend. Talking with Shinji, Kaworu says he thinks was "born to meet him". Although Shinji is inclined to maintain a certain emotional distance from other people, the Fifth Child can make him express his feelings openly. Kaworu shows he feels spontaneous sympathy and affection towards Shinji, irrespective of his goal as the seventeenth Angel. After they meet, Shinji accepts the friendly and unreserved nature of his actions and lets him approach. The Fifth Child captivates Shinji with his charm. Despite the short time spent together, Kaworu and Shinji are interested in each other and build a relationship based on mutual appreciation. He is the first person to tell Shinji he likes him and the first person that Shinji opens his heart to. When Kaworu takes over Eva-02, Shinji expresses disbelief in him not revealing his Angelic nature and says Kaworu has betrayed him, "just like my father". After his sudden death, the Third Child falls back into a state of profound affliction. Shortly before dying, Kaworu maintains his feelings of affection for his colleague, saying that meeting him made him happy. After killing Kaworu, Misato, having grown apathetic in the latter episodes of the series, fails to console Shinji.


title: Kaworu Nagisa

text: Since the first airing of the series, controversies have arisen over the nature of Shinji and Kaworu's relationship, as has Kaworu's character's nature. Kaworu and Shinji's relationship is depicted in an ambiguously worded manner, as Kaworu uses the phrase to express his feelings for Shinji; it can be used to denote anything from intimacy or friendship to love; and that Shinji deserves . In his book "Anime Explosion!", writer Patrick Drazen expresses the view that Kaworu's offer of apparent love for Shinji is a tactic that he uses as the last Angel to disarm Shinji. Drazen reports that some believe that whether Kaworu as an Angel has any concept of sexuality is unclear because of the way he is presented in the series. Lynzee Loveridge of Anime News Network interpreted Kaworu as a negative figure, saying that "Kaworu's kindness has a nefarious side", seeing him as an Angel who deceives and uses Shinji for his own purposes. For Mike Crandol he "is representative of blind, total and unconditional love and acceptance, but like those things Kaoru turns out to not be real at all". Their colleague Zac Bertschy has a mixed opinion in his review of "Rebuild 3.0". While not interpreting him as an antagonist or a negative figure, according to Bertschy, his presence demonstrates Shinji's great emotional fragility and the difficulty of his long path to self-acceptance. He describes Kaworu as a loving, considerate partner who cares deeply for Shinji's happiness, refuses to leave him behind, and even takes Shinji's terrible burden as his own; he notes: "Shinji has misinterpreted Kaworu's love not as evidence that he himself is worth loving and thus his motivation can be entirely his own, but that Kaworu's love itself makes him worthwhile [...] But he's still just fooling himself. He's still making catastrophic decisions motivated by self-hatred – Kaworu's love doesn't make him a complete person."


title: Kaworu Nagisa

text: Kentaro Takekuma, editor of a book of interviews with "Evangelion" staff named "Parano Evangelion", believes that for Shinji, Kaworu turns out to be the first friend he can trust and a homosexual romantic interest. Japanese scholar and writer Yūya Satō compared his role to that of the male characters of the "yaoi", as well as that of the characters of the "shōjo" genre; for Sato, the appearance of Kaworu is more important on a thematic than narrative level, and would have the purpose of deepening the psychological aspects of Shinji. She compares his role to "shōjo" manga, where the process and the relational dynamics of the protagonists have more weight than the conclusion or the fights. Elliot Gay ("Japanator") described Kaworu as a positive figure, and for Shinji he "represents hope; the hope that maybe he can redo things". For Kunihiko Ikuhara, director of "Sailor Moon" and a friend of Hideaki Anno: "Shinji is bullied by his father, slapped by Ayanami, called stupid by Asuka and Misato yells at him to behave like a man; he doesn't receive much compassion from others, and I believe that in this situation the only one to tell him that it's okay as it is, is Kaworu." Kotono Mitsuishi and Megumi Hayashibara, Japanese voice actresses of Misato Katsuragi and Rei Ayanami, compared the two to Orihime and Hikoboshi, two legendary lovers of the Japanese "tanabata" myth. Megumi Ogata, Shinji's voice actress, rejected the notion of Kaworu as his lover, or that he is someone he can depend on, but instead sees him as a friend that is his equal. She pointed out that Shinji is more clingy in the original series, while in the "Rebuild" saga he has a more active role and his relationship with Kaworu is consequently different: "I feel like, this time, it's more than his attraction to Kaworu or what he learns from him – they're depicted more as friends gradually closing the distance between each other."


title: Kaworu Nagisa

text: In Apollonius of Tyana's "Nuctemeron", Tabris is the Angel of free will and freedom. In "Neon Genesis Evangelion", connecting to the Judeo-Christian tradition, Tabris chooses to be killed by Shinji, finding absolute freedom in death. Apollonius' "Nuctemeron" also mentions a demon named Cahor, spelled in Japanese as , referred to as the Angel of lies and deceit, a detail that guidebook "Evangelion Chronicle" relates to his deceptive anthropomorphic features. Writer Aaron Ploof compared Kaworu to Jesus Christ for his compassionate character and his sacrifice. Conversely, Carl Horn, editor of the "Evangelion" manga in English, compared Kaworu to the character Satan in Mark Twain's novella "The Mysterious Stranger", for acting with indifference to human morality, while French website Du9 likened the image of Kaworu killed by Eva-01 to Francisco Goya's "Saturn Devouring His Son". "Wired" also speculated that Kaworu is inspired by Satan, also known as Ryo Asuka, the main antagonist of Gō Nagai's "Devilman". According to Yūichirō Oguro, who curated contents of the home video editions of "Neon Genesis Evangelion", he presents affinities with Lalah Sune, a female character from the "Mobile Suit Gundam" franchise. For Oguro, their relationship with the story's male protagonist traces an analogy between the characters: both appear in the last episodes of the series and seem to be able to understand the feelings of the male main character, dying by his own hand.


title: Kaworu Nagisa

text: Reviewer Toji Aida compared Kaworu to a ghost of the Noh theatre who disrupt the events of the story in the tripartite "Jo-ha-kyū" structure of the "Rebuild" series. "Los Angeles Times"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s Inkoo Kang also saw in his dialogues with Shinji, in which he tells him that all sins can be expiated, a reference to Christianity. Furthermore, in the "Rebuild" saga, Kaworu claims that his name is written on the , which would allow him to die and be reborn forever; he subsequently added to his name the name of Shinji, thus managing to meet him several times. According to critic Mario Pasqualini, the Book of Life cited by Kaworu is a reference to a concept of the same name in Christianity, according to which it is a text in which God would have listed in his hand the people destined to go to Heaven on the Last Judgment. The reviewer also compared the "Rebuild" to the science fiction movie "Summer Vacation 1999" (1988). The film introduces a character named Kaoru, a new student at a boys' boarding school who has a love affair with fellow student Kazuhiko. Kaoru turns out to be the reincarnation of Yū, a boy who died by suicide shortly before, who was resurrected to try to win Kazuhiko over, change the story, and give him a new ending.


title: Kaworu Nagisa

text: Despite his one-episode appearance, the character of Kaworu became popular among series' fans and he rivaled the female protagonists of "Neon Genesis Evangelion" Rei Ayanami and Asuka Langley Soryu. The character ranked high in popularity polls about the best anime male characters, the strongest anime pilots, most memorable anime deaths and best Angels in "Evangelion". In 1997 and 1998, Kaworu took second and sixth place among the most popular male characters of the moment in two polls conducted by "Animage" magazine. He also appeared in the monthly surveys of the magazine, remaining in the top 20 in 1997 polls. In 1998 "Animage" ranked him 23rd among the 100 most popular anime characters, and 43rd in 1999. In August and September 2009, after the release of "Evangelion 2.0" movie, he emerged in sixth and third place among the most popular characters of "Newtype" magazine; in October he ranked fourth. In March of the following year, "Newtype" included him among the most popular male characters of the 1990s, giving him second place after Shinji. In February 2015, nearly twenty years after the series first aired, he emerged seventh on "Newtype" charts. He also ranked in "Evangelion" popularity polls, usually in the top three. In June 2021, after the "3.0+1.01" re-release of the final "Rebuild" film, he finished second most popular male character in another "Newtype" poll.


title: Kaworu Nagisa

text: Criticism of Kaworu's character and his relationship with Shinji has ranged from mixed to positive. According to the website Otaquest, detractors have labeled him as a "yaoi fuel", "while others see him as a vital piece of the "Evangelion" puzzle". For Caleb Bailey of Comic Book Resources the hot spring scene "blazed the trail" on homosexual relationships in Japanese animation, being "ahead of its time". Anthony Gramuglia cited Shinji and Kaworu among the best queer representations in Japanese animation, but criticized Kaworu's degrading role in some spin-offs.


title: Kaworu Nagisa

text: LGBT-oriented portal Pride.com praised Kaworu and his relationship with Shinji, "especially during a time where LGBTQ representation was almost nonexistent in many forms of media". Lyznee Loveridge of Anime News Network praised its development, finding it "refreshing". Her colleague Kenneth Lee criticized Kaworu as "an enigmatic figure that further adds fuel to the fire of confusion, but he just manages to raise even more questions that remain unanswered". Lee considers their relationship to be "disturbing, gratuitous, and unnecessary". According to Lee, the openness Shinji shows towards Kaworu is implausible and "irrational": "Ultimately, the homosexuality issue seems nothing more than cheap shock value tactics to stun Generation X."


title: Kaworu Nagisa

text: "Screen Rant" and Comic Book Resources listed him among the best characters in the series. The twenty-fourth episode is considered one of the best of the series, and his fight with Shinji was also received positively by critics. For CBR's Reuben Baron, in particular, his defeat is "the most dramatic example" of the narrative seriousness of "Neon Genesis Evangelion" later episodes. Screen Rant's Jack Cameron feels his confrontation with Shinji is, "Perhaps the most heartbreaking of fights in the whole series." Kaworu's last scenes were also appreciated by anime critics. According to the Asiascape site, his last scene, in which he's trapped in the hands of Shinji's Eva-01 and marked by a long sixty-second freeze-frame, represents one of the more prominent uses of creative visual motifs in the series.


title: Kaworu Nagisa

text: Carlo Santos of Anime News Network appreciated the character of Kaworu and the role he played in Sadamoto's manga; he wrote, "the tension between the two boys soon becomes one of the most intriguing subplots". Zac Bertschy, reviewing "Evangelion 3.0", praised the development of their relationship, describing it as the film's highlight. "Anime Reign" magazine expressed a similar opinion, considering it one of the few merits of characterization in the movie. Nicoletta Christina Browne of THEM Anime Reviews found Kaworu's personality and relationship with Shinji in "3.0" effective, but wordy and rushed, while "Los Angeles Times"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s Inkoo Kang considered Kaworu's interactions with Shinji melodramatic.


title: Kaworu Nagisa

text: Kaworu Nagisa has been used for advertising campaigns and a wide range of merchandising items: action figures, nendoroids, backpacks, perfumes, sweets, cosmetics, clothing, toys, key rings, watches and jewelry. On 22 May 1997, Kadokawa Shoten published a book dedicated to him, entitled . In August of the same year, Japanese yaoi magazine "June" published a volume entitled , dedicated to Shinji and Kaworu. The book, whose title is taken from the first verse of the theme song, contains two long interviews with Hideaki Anno, the discarded episode drafts, and "dojinshi" by mangaka from the "shonen ai" scene, such as Reku Fuyanagi ("Gundam Wing: Ground Zero") and Takamure Tamotsu ("Umi ni nita sora no iro"). In 2005, to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the series release, mangaka Mine Yoshizaki designed an action figure of a female version of Angel Tabris named "Tabris-XX". As a promotion for its 10th Anniversary Special Edition of "Evangelion", ADV Films published a humorous bumper sticker which reads ""Kaworu died for your sins"." Kaworu's popularity is also parodied in a spin-off manga entitled "It's A Miraculous Win" (, released in fourteen volumes from 2006 to 2015, in which a parody of him works in a "pachinko" parkour and dates and obsessive "Evangelion" female fan named Sakura Mogami.


title: Kaworu Nagisa

text: In 2008, Kadokawa published a fanbook entitled "All About Nagisa Kaworu: A Child of the Evangelion", a collection of fan letters, poems, reprinted manga pages, erotic "dōjinshi", and interviews with gravure idols. In 2015, Kadokawa published a third book dedicated to him, entitled , containing unpublished illustrations, information and interviews with staff. In the same year, the 7-Eleven chain put on the market a life-size statues of the character, auctioned and sold for over 1,728,000 Japanese yen. In 2017, the official "Evangelion" Store inaugurated a summer festival dedicated to Kaworu, offering unreleased merchandising. In 2018 it was used for features of the 500 Type Eva, a high-speed train dedicated to "Evangelion". In 2019, Bandai announced a card game dedicated to "Evangelion" titled "Evangelion Card Game"; one of the two sets of the game, called Ev02, is dedicated to the characters of Kaworu and Asuka. Tony Takezaki paid homage to him in his comic "Tony Takezaki's Evangelion", in which he is parodied by Keroro, the protagonist of "Keroro Gunso". References and homages to the character of Kaworu are present in "Spider-Verse", in the "dorama" "The Full-Time Wife Escapist", and "Keroro Gunso", in which he is parodied by Saburō, another character played by Ishida. Japanese singer and voice actress Chiaki Kuriyama stated that she developed interest in dubbing after Kaworu and Rei Ayanami. Comic Book Resources's Kristen Lopez also compared Albedo from "Genshin Impact" to Kaworu, speculating that the latter character may have been an influence for the former.


title: Non-official cover

text: In espionage, operatives under non-official cover (NOC) are operatives without official ties to the government for which they work who assume covert roles in organizations.


title: Non-official cover

text: This is in contrast to an operative with official cover, where they assume a position in their government, such as the diplomatic service, which provides them with diplomatic immunity if their espionage activities are discovered. Operatives under non-official cover do not have this "safety net", and if captured and charged as spies are subject to severe criminal punishments, up to and including execution. Operatives under non-official cover are also usually trained to deny any connection with their government, thus preserving plausible deniability, but also denying them any hope of diplomatic legal assistance – or official acknowledgment of their service. Such an operative or agent may be referred to as a "NOC" (pronounced ) or as an "illegal" (see Clandestine HUMINT operational techniques). Sometimes, front companies or strawman entities are established in order to provide false identities for agents.


title: Non-official cover

text: An agent sent to spy on a foreign country might, for instance, work as a businessperson, a worker for a non-profit organization (such as a humanitarian group), or an academic. For example, the CIA's Ishmael Jones spent nearly two decades as a NOC.


title: Non-official cover

text: Many of the agents memorialized without names or dates of service on the CIA Memorial Wall are assumed to have been killed or executed in a foreign country while serving as NOC agents. In nations with established and well-developed spy agencies, the majority of captured non-native NOC agents have, however, historically been repatriated through prisoner exchanges for other captured NOCs as a form of gentlemen's agreement.


title: Non-official cover

text: Some countries have regulations regarding the use of non-official cover: the CIA, for example, has at times been prohibited from disguising agents as members of certain aid organizations, or as members of the clergy.


title: Non-official cover

text: The degree of sophistication put into non-official cover stories varies considerably. Sometimes, an agent will simply be appointed to a position in a well-established company which can provide the appropriate opportunities. Other times, entire front companies can be established in order to provide false identities for agents.


title: Non-official cover

text: Examples include Air America, used by the CIA during the Vietnam War, and Brewster Jennings & Associates, used by the CIA in WMD investigations and made public as a result of the Plame affair.


title: Non-official cover

text: Former MI6 officer "Nicholas Anderson" wrote an account of his service in a fictionalized autobiography (as per British law) entitled "NOC: Non-Official Cover: British Secret Operations", and two sequels: "NOC Twice: More UK Non-Official Cover Operations" and "NOC Three Times: Knock-On Effect (Last of the Trilogy)".


title: Non-official cover

text: Michael Ross, a former Mossad officer, operated as a Mossad NOC or "combatant" as described in his memoir, "The Volunteer: The Incredible True Story of an Israeli Spy on the Trail of International Terrorists" (Skyhorse Publishing, September 2007, ).


title: Non-official cover

text: Fictional notable examples include Chuck Barris, who made a satirical claim to have been a NOC with 33 kills in his book and movie "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind". Other examples are featured in the books "Debt of Honor" and "The Eleventh Commandment"; the films "", "Spy Game", "The Bourne Identity", "Safe House", and "The Recruit"; and the television shows "The Americans", "Burn Notice", "Spooks", "The Night Manager", "Covert Affairs", "The Spy", and "Patriot".


title: Crown Prosecution Service

text: The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is the principal public agency for conducting criminal prosecutions in England and Wales. It is headed by the Director of Public Prosecutions.


title: Crown Prosecution Service

text: The main responsibilities of the CPS are to provide legal advice to the police and other investigative agencies during the course of criminal investigations, to decide whether a suspect should face criminal charges following an investigation, and to conduct prosecutions both in the magistrates' courts and the Crown Court.


title: Crown Prosecution Service

text: The Attorney General for England and Wales superintends the CPS's work and answers for it in Parliament, although the Attorney General has no influence over the conduct of prosecutions, except when national security is an issue or for a small number of offences that require the Attorney General's permission to prosecute.


title: Crown Prosecution Service

text: Historically prosecutions were conducted through a patchwork of different systems. For serious crimes tried at the county level, justices of the peace or the sheriff would issue a presentment to a grand jury, who would either return a "true bill" resulting in an indictment, or not. If a true bill followed presentment, the individual would be tried by a petit jury by justices of the King's Bench, Common Pleas or Exchequer as they toured the circuits conducting the assizes. Individuals could be prosecuted upon indictment by prosecutors ranging from the Attorney-General or Solicitor-General, king's serjeants or attorneys, prosecutors instructed by the sheriff or justice of the peace. It was more likely that the Attorney-General or Solicitor-General would be involved in prosecutions of serious crimes such as high treason at the Court of King's Bench at Westminster Hall.


title: Crown Prosecution Service

text: The second means of prosecution was by "appeal", which was when the prosecution was initiated not by presentment to a grand jury but by direct private prosecution of an interested party. An "appeal of murder" prosecuted by the widow of a murdered man was typical of this form of prosecution.


title: Crown Prosecution Service

text: Sir John Maule was appointed to be the first Director of Public Prosecutions for England and Wales in 1880, operating under the Home Office; his jurisdiction was only for decisions as to whether to prosecute in a very small number of difficult or important cases; once prosecution had been authorised, the matter was turned over to the Treasury Solicitor. Police forces continued to be responsible for the bulk of cases, sometimes referring difficult ones to the Director.


title: Crown Prosecution Service

text: In 1962 a Royal Commission recommended that police forces set up independent prosecution teams so as to avoid having the same officers investigate and prosecute a case. Already technical barriers were in place that those prosecuting did so as private citizens, rendering them open to the range of evidential offences imposable by the court. This Royal Commission's recommendation was not implemented by all police forces, however, and so in 1978, another was set up, this time headed by Sir Cyril Philips. It reported in 1981, recommending that a single unified team, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) be made responsible for all public prosecutions in England and Wales. A White Paper was released in 1983, becoming the Prosecution of Offences Act 1985, which established the CPS under the direction of the Director of Public Prosecutions, consisting of a merger of his old department with the police prosecution departments. It started operating in 1986.


title: Crown Prosecution Service

text: In 1997, the Home Office tasked Sir Iain Glidewell to inquire into performance of and make recommendations for the CPS. The Glidewell Report of June 1998 found that 12% of charges by police were discontinued by the CPS and that there were failures to communicate between the two. It recommended the CPS:


title: Crown Prosecution Service

text: The CPS undertook more than 800,000 prosecutions in 2012–13, approximately 700,000 of which were in the magistrates’ courts and 100,000 in the Crown Court. The conviction rate was 86% in the magistrates' courts and 80% in the Crown Courts.


title: Crown Prosecution Service

text: The Spending Review undertaken by HM Treasury in 2010 (and revised in 2013) has led to a budget decrease of almost 30% between 2010 and 2014, resulting in a restructure of the organisation and a large number of voluntary redundancies. The CPS has implemented measures such as the Core Quality Standards with the intention of maintaining and raising standards.


title: Crown Prosecution Service

text: The CPS employs about 9000 staff. These primarily prepare cases for internal and external advocates and liaise with police and third parties. Its approved external advocates number 2,900 solicitors and barristers, among which are specialists. Both sets of advocates include King's Counsel—concentrated externally.


title: Crown Prosecution Service

text: Headquartered in London and York the senior management team sets policies and handles corporate matters (such as finance and communications). The Director of Public Prosecutions is assisted by the CPS Chief Executive in running the organisation.


title: Crown Prosecution Service

text: Most of its casework is dealt with by the thirteen CPS Areas, which are responsible for conducting prosecutions in specific parts of England and Wales; each area is led by a Chief Crown Prosecutor. The areas (with their respective police forces) are:


title: Crown Prosecution Service

text: Before a review, these numbered 42 to mirror the police forces (save that CPS London dealt with both of London's territorial police forces).


title: Crown Prosecution Service

text: CPS Direct provides charging advice/authorisation by phone and electronically to police forces at all hours. Prosecutors assigned to CPS Direct are remote workers to provide support outside of normal business hours. Most charging decisions by the CPS are now made by CPS Direct, which then passes the prosecution to the appropriate CPS Area.


title: Crown Prosecution Service

text: The Attorney General oversees the work of the CPS, meeting regularly with the DPP and requesting briefings on matters of public or Parliamentary concern. The Attorney General (or their deputy, the Solicitor General) answer for the CPS's performance and conduct in Parliament.


title: Crown Prosecution Service

text: However, the Attorney has no role in the day-to-day running of the organisation or in deciding whether a suspect should be prosecuted. The CPS is an independent prosecuting authority and government ministers have no influence over its decision making.


title: Crown Prosecution Service

text: The only exceptions to this rule are when a case involves matters of national security or the Attorney must personally consent to a prosecution (e.g. all Official Secrets Act prosecutions require the Attorney General's permission to proceed).


title: Crown Prosecution Service

text: Due to the Attorney General's limited role in the CPS's casework, the use of nolle prosequi (halting of proceedings on indictment; a prerogative of the Attorney General) is now rare. Questionable incidents, such as the dropping of the case against John Bodkin Adams for what was believed to be purely political reasons, have not been repeated in modern times.


title: Crown Prosecution Service

text: His Majesty's Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate (HMCPSI) is responsible for inspecting the work of the CPS. The current Chief Inspector of the CPS is Kevin McGinty.