Shinji Ikari Raising Project

[Black Aeronaut]

I
will add that I was reasonably certain that the checksum was meant to
be 'grown up Asuka' rather than the cheescake aspects of the image. :p

Eh. 
Not surprised myself.  Sophia was a porn actress in Italy before she
hit the mainstream US movie biz.  Plenty of her NSFW pinups out there on
the Internet, as I recently discovered.

Would he visit Earth, Japan? Just to totally convince himself that it isn't 'home'?

.... That's honestly far too easy.  Especially once he sees the pictures.  Let's rattle off the differences.

1. Lower sea levels, so no flooded out cities on the skyline
   
2. Lots more people around, so no more cities with deserted ghost-town air.
   
3. No more threat of impending doom by giant horrors.
   
4. No more twenty-story tall robots.  Some of the fans might like it, but the government would be pissed.
   
5. JUST. PLAIN. DIFFERENT.
   

So yeah, there you have it.