Fanon / Neon Genesis Evangelion

• Misato has purple hair. It's actually stylized black.
• Misato always drives at fast speeds. This is a case of Never Live It Down from her intro sequence, although one could still guess that her job (and her personality) might require her to drive fast.
• Many wonder what Hikari's sisters are like, since they do not appear in canon. What we have, however, are the turnaround sheets for the two girls, as well as a picture of them with Hikari◊. Perhaps they had been due to appear in Rebuild at some point.
• Shinji is a Supreme Chef, based on Ritsuko having a line about not wanting to eat over unless Shinji is cooking. In context, however, this is more about how bad Misato is rather than indicating that Shinji is particularly skilled. It became Ascended Fanon in Rebuild of Evangelion, though.
• Many fans claim that Rei is an Emotionless Girl in the literal sense, rather than the "suppressed emotions" sort that she actually is. Somehow, they gloss over the few times where she unambiguously displays emotion, such as angrily slapping Shinji in Episode 5, or smiling for Shinji in Episode 6.
• Shinji's wardrobe consists entirely of school uniforms. In reality, there are several occurrences of him in other outfits (excluding the dance outfit and plugsuits), such as t-shirts, sweatpants and shorts. It is true, however, that his school uniform is his only street clothing seen in the series, although the same could be said of other characters from his class.
• Shinji's S-DAT player originally belonged to his mother Yui. Being one of the only mementos he has of her since Gendo threw everything else away is generally used in fanfics as a Hand Wave for why he still uses such an outdated music device. This has nothing to do with canon, especially given that back when the series was produced, it was certainly not outdated technology. Moreover, in the Rebuild continuity, it apparently belonged to Gendo of all people.
• The notion that Misato killed Kaji remains popular despite an explicit statement from the show's creator to the contrary. Anno, in fact, was so shocked at this idea, he even changed its "smoking gun" proof in the Director's Cut version of Episode 21.
• The idea that Naoko Akagi's soul resides in Unit 00 persists despite it not making any sense whatsoever, given that she took her life separately and without any connection to Unit 00.
  • Rei I is another theory, though this is also questionable, since it would imply that the Rei clones have different souls.
• In canon, Kaji never cheated on Misato. It's revealed in episode 15 that Misato pretended to have another boyfriend to break up with Kaji because she was scared of how much Kaji reminded her of her father. The idea of Kaji cheating seems to be popular because it helps clear the way to pair Shinji with Misato or to just make Kaji look worse. (It should be noted that the manga version of this scene does state that Kaji cheated on Misato, to the point where he describes her dumping him as him having to "pay all those roaming charges.")
  • Misato being sexually promiscuous is another common perception, in part due to her behaviour towards Shinji. In actuality, however, there is no indication of her having even slept with anyone besides Kaji ever since they broke up in college, as she also admits that she lied when she told him there was someone else. Ritsuko also notes that Misato seems to be perpetually hung up about Kaji until they eventually rekindle their relationship.
• The fanon name for Touji's little sister, "Mari", was common until a new pilot character in the Rebuild of Evangelion movie series was named Mari. In the second Rebuild movie, she is briefly shown leaving the hospital with Touji, whereas in the original series she never leaves and is only mentioned. In fact, by the third Rebuild movie, Touji's sister becomes a significant character, and is shown as a young adult named Sakura, which also happened to be the second most common fanon name for Touji's sister in fanfics and might be a case of Ascended Fanon.
• A common cliche of fan works is Misato ruffling Shinji's hair at least once.
• The rather popular fan theory that all of the iterations of Evangelion (the anime vs the manga, for example) are in different timelines is just that: a fan theory. It is expressed most often in the theory that the Rebuild of Evangelion movies are a sequel to the series. To be fair, it does explain Kaworu's actions and attitudes towards Shinji, as well as explain some otherwise bizarre scenery. While Anno did not comment on this, Sadamoto, the author of the manga, did tell people, repeatedly, not to use the manga to inform the anime or Rebuild because it is his personal project alone and has no links to either of them.
  • This particularly being the case because of the manga bonus chapter featuring Mari supposedly being proof for this theory, when in fact Sadamoto was not at all involved, and merely did that as a Shout-Out and to have his own fan, describing it merely as Fanservice and not canon even within the manga.
• Misato wears a cross around her neck, which has led to the fanon that she's a lapsed Christian. In canon, it's actually an heirloom from her father and doesn't suggest anything on Misato's part.
• Due to being raised in Germany, Asuka is often written as either Christian or having been raised Christian.
• Shinji being bisexual and Kaworu being gay thanks to the subtext between Shinji and Kaworu. One could say it is all but stated, but even so, stated it is not.
  • Rei and/or Kaworu being ascended, asexual beings is also a common interpretation.
• There's a fan theory that Shinji, Rei, and Asuka were intended to represent various personality disorders. Asuka has either Narcissistic Personality Disorder or Borderline Personality Disorder, Rei has Schizoid Personality Disorder, and Shinji either has Borderline Personality Disorder or Avoidant Personality Disorder. A different fan theory is that Shinji and Asuka both have Major Depression.