Evangelion Unit-02 (エヴァンゲリオン 弐号機, Evangerion Nigōki?) is the third Evangelion completed, the first Production Model Evangelion. The design of Unit-02 supposedly rectifies the mistakes made during the construction of Prototype Unit-00 and Test Type Unit-01, making it the first Evangelion built specifically for combat against the Angels. It is piloted by Asuka Langley Sohryu and briefly by Kaworu Nagisa.

Unit-02 is a Production Model Evangelion and uses the same armor arrangement as the succeeding Unit-03 and Unit-04, along with the upgraded Unit-00'. All Evangelion using this arrangement have the same shoulder pylon design and five V-shaped armor plates on their torso.

This Evangelion is unique in having bluish-purple blood, blue-gray skin, and four eyes. (All other Evangelion possess red blood, and, for all non-Mass Production Evangelion, including Unit-00, two eyes and brown skin are the standard.) The eyes are a uniform fiery orange in color.

Although Unit-02 has a jaw and mouth, when armored these cannot open to the same extent as those on Unit-01, Unit-03 and Unit-04, and so there is no hinged jaw piece in the helmet. Instead, the helmet has movable sections that can shift to cover or uncover the Evangelion's eyes. Four prominent nostril holes are located in the bulging forehead section of the helmet.

Eva02 EoE
Artwork of Unit-02, notice the small differences.

An altered Unit-02 design was adopted for The End of Evangelion. Although visually similar to the original, the new design has more human-like body proportions, drastically reduced pylon size, and a narrower, redesigned head shape. The blades of armor on the lower arms have also been eliminated. Some of these changes may have been made in order to ease the animation of Unit-02's final battle, although they sometimes add a jarring visual discontinuity with the rest of the series.

The "helmet-popping" mechanism is eliminated in the movie version. Although Unit-02 is never seen opening its jaws while the head is fully covered (despite the fact that it roars and makes other vocalizations), the jaw piece, when exposed later, visibly has "teeth" as per Unit-01 and others.