A few kids downstairs were playing.
"I'm playing the red one, you always play the red one Shotaro"
"But the red one's cooler, it's go four eyes!"
"Well if you don't like that, you could play the Angels," the first countered.
"The Angels suck," the second pouted, "They always lose,"
Thanks for the vote of confidence. I listened for a few moments… but there was no mention of a black one. For one thing, the black one had much better armour… a better fire control system and an onboard computer that could discriminate between information important to the pilot and what wasn't, filter it, then report what the pilot most needed to know in a way that was easy to read at a glance. She helped me pilot her.
Asuka didn't have that in Unit 02. She made up for the lack of technical aids with raw skill, training and talent. Coupled with her EVA's relative light weight, much better manoeuvrability and better technical reliability…it was a close match.
Unit 03 was very American… big, brash, a bit overcomplex and loaded with stuff to make life easier. She had a tendency to break down from time to time, but was generally pretty solid. Unit 02 was the epitome of Germaness… efficient, functional and reliable to a tee with nothing there that didn't need to be. Not necessarily the easiest thing to use, however.