Rei Ayanami had a significant influence on Japanese animation and many subsequent fictional characters, with numerous heroines created after the great success of "Evangelion" sharing her traits. Critics regarded Rei and her success as the beginning of the so-called moe phenomenon, with the creation of characters according to definite stereotyped features easily recognizable and consumable by the Japanese "otaku" audience. In the late 1990s, characters bearing a close resemblance to Rei have been produced and consumed on a massive scale in comics, anime and novelization, both in the commercial market and the fanzine market. According to Japanese scholar Hiroki Azuma, this output is not linked to a direct "Evangelion" influence, since "the emergence of Ayanami Rei did not influence many authors so much as change the rules of the moe-elements sustaining otaku culture". As a result, even authors who were not deliberately thinking of "Evangelion" unconsciously began to produce characters closely resembling Rei, using newly registered moe-elements, such as a quiet personality, blue hair, white skin, mysterious power and an absence of emotions. For Azuma, moreover, the twenty-sixth episode, in which an alternative reality with Rei running with a slice of bread in her mouth is shown, constitutes a turning point within the otaku culture; the scene, according to him, represents the point where the era of great stories ends and that of moe characters begins. He regards Ruriko Tsukishima from "Shizuku" as being directly influenced by Rei, while Ruri Hoshino of "Martian Successor Nadesico" was created as a combination of both.