I suspect that a lot of Rei's popularity has to do with the Spock archetype--
having an emotionless, hard to understand, character who does have hidden
emotions that the viewer imagines s/he can get him/her to express.

Of course it's a lot harder to give that a feminist slant than to go on
about how the fans like submissive women.
-- 
       Ken Arromdee / arromdee@rahul.net / http://www.rahul.net/arromdee

"How pleasant it would be if only we lived a hundred years ago when it was
easy to get servants."
"It would be horrible...  We'd be the servants." -- Isaac Asimov