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 //
REI, ADAM, LILITH & KAWORU //
Open page →Rei begins the series defined by obedience and by a bond with Gendo that Shinji does not understand.
Across the middle of the series, her relationship with Shinji becomes increasingly personal. By the time Armisael attacks, her willingness to destroy herself to protect him is not the behavior of a disposable tool.
Across the middle of the series, her relationship with Shinji becomes increasingly personal. By the time Armisael attacks, her willingness to destroy herself to protect him is not the behavior of a disposable tool.
What changed
Rei's choices begin to come from relationships she formed herself rather than from the role NERV assigned her.
Kaworu enters after Asuka has collapsed, Rei has been replaced and Shinji's trust in the adults around him has been badly damaged.
He offers Shinji immediate warmth and acceptance.
He offers Shinji immediate warmth and acceptance.
Why it matters
The timing is the point. Kaworu does not simply become important because he is an Angel. He becomes important because he reaches Shinji at the exact moment connection has become hardest to believe in.
Kaworu descends toward Terminal Dogma expecting Adam. When he discovers Lilith instead, he stops.
He gives Shinji the choice to kill him so humanity can continue.
He gives Shinji the choice to kill him so humanity can continue.
What changed
The Angel conflict ends with an Angel making an ethical choice and Shinji being forced to carry out the violence himself.
