Rei Ayanami is a taciturn and shy girl who limits relations as much as possible and mechanically executes any order given to her, even if particularly cruel. She is introverted, socially detached and laconic. Sociologist Satomi Ishikawa noticed that, in a scene from the sixth episode of the series, her companion Shinji asks her the reason that pushes her to want to pilot Evangelion 00, to which Rei replies saying she finds her only "bond" with other people in this, thus demonstrating that she is committed to the struggle against angels, "as if it were the only reason why she exists". Throughout the series, she has dropped hints of her indifference to living and has engaged in drastic acts that could have cost her life. Writer Justin Wu ("The Artifice") noticed that, unlike other characters, she does not care if she dies and embraces death "as if death is the only way to prove that she has lived". For the critic Gerald Alva Miller, Rei experiences feelings of alienation existential angst. According to "Evangelion" character designer Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, she is "translucent", like a shadow or "the air": "The kind of girl you can't touch. The girl you long for, but there is nothing about her that you can grab a hold onto." He also described Asuka and Rei as "such strong characters, in their own separate ways".