GENDO IKARI
GI
Shinji's father. NERV Commander. Had not spoken to his son in years before using the end of the world as the occasion to call him back to pilot. Everything Gendo does across twenty-six episodes serves a plan the show reveals in careful pieces, and each piece makes the man harder to assess cleanly. Cold is not accurate. Cold implies the absence of feeling. Gendo has feeling. He has aimed it entirely at a singular purpose that does not include his son, and he is aware of the cost to Shinji, and he proceeds anyway. The most comprehensively damaging father in anime. The show earns that completely.
GENDO THROUGH THE ARCHIVE //
CHARACTER PHASE PROFILES //
Open page →Gendo presents himself as somebody who can reduce relationships to commands, plans and useful pieces.
His entire private endgame contradicts that performance. The system he builds is organized around the loss of Yui and his inability to accept separation from her.
His entire private endgame contradicts that performance. The system he builds is organized around the loss of Yui and his inability to accept separation from her.
Why it matters
Gendo and Shinji are not opposites. They are two people responding to fear of closeness with different forms of withdrawal.
