When I watched the original series at first I hated Asuka, then they brought in her background about her crazy mom that helped give provide for some sympathy and of course the character development in the original series was quite good. But in NGE 2.22 I really like what they did with Asuka, making her a bit less bitchy from the get go and got the audience to care for her in a much shorter amount of time. I love the scene where
I guess there was similar development in the series but I think they did a good job here.