SHINJI IKARI
SI
Called by his father to pilot a machine he has never seen to fight a creature he cannot comprehend, and he does it. That part always gets lost in the discourse. Shinji gets in the Eva. He gets in every time, despite the fear and the pain and a father who treats him as an instrument rather than a son. He is fourteen years old and the full weight of human survival gets placed on his shoulders by a man who never once asked if that was acceptable.
The show's sharpest trick is making you frustrated with Shinji before it makes you understand him. He is passive, conflict-averse, desperate for approval from people who are not equipped to give it. He is also a textbook portrait of what an absent and cold father produces in a sensitive child. Hideaki Anno was not writing a bad protagonist. He was writing a real one. That is considerably harder and the fandom has been arguing about it for thirty years.
The show's sharpest trick is making you frustrated with Shinji before it makes you understand him. He is passive, conflict-averse, desperate for approval from people who are not equipped to give it. He is also a textbook portrait of what an absent and cold father produces in a sensitive child. Hideaki Anno was not writing a bad protagonist. He was writing a real one. That is considerably harder and the fandom has been arguing about it for thirty years.
SHINJI THROUGH THE ARCHIVE //
CHARACTER PHASE PROFILES //
Open page →Before the Unit-03 incident, Shinji can still imagine quitting as a way to remove himself from the violence around NERV.
After Gendo uses the Dummy Plug to destroy Toji's Eva, that idea collapses. Shinji can refuse an order and still be forced to witness what his Eva does.
After Gendo uses the Dummy Plug to destroy Toji's Eva, that idea collapses. Shinji can refuse an order and still be forced to witness what his Eva does.
Why it matters
His later return against Zeruel is not a reset to the boy from episode 1. He returns knowing that piloting and refusing to pilot can both hurt people.
Kaworu gives Shinji a form of acceptance he has been desperate to receive, then reveals himself as the final Angel.
Shinji is forced to kill the person who made closeness feel safest.
Shinji is forced to kill the person who made closeness feel safest.
Why it matters
By episode 25, Shinji does not merely fear rejection. He has evidence from his own experience that the relationships he needs most can become sources of unbearable pain.
Kaworu arrives without the accumulated resentments that define Shinji's other relationships. He offers affection immediately and seems to understand Shinji without demanding explanation.
That ease is part of why the connection is so powerful and so dangerous.
That ease is part of why the connection is so powerful and so dangerous.
Why it matters
Kaworu offers the fantasy of being understood without the painful work of ordinary human intimacy. Evangelion then makes Shinji lose even that.
Toji's selection as a pilot changes him from Shinji's school friend into part of the Eva system.
The audience knows enough about NERV by this point to understand that becoming a Child is not a promotion.
The audience knows enough about NERV by this point to understand that becoming a Child is not a promotion.
Why it matters
The Unit-03 disaster hurts because the story lets a normal relationship be absorbed into the same institution that already controls Shinji's life.
