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.
NERV, SEELE & INSTRUMENTALITY //
Open page →Gendo follows SEELE's program when doing so gives him the resources and conditions he needs. He withholds information, redirects pieces and gradually makes Unit-01 and Rei central to his own version of the endgame.
Why it matters
Gendo is not trying to stop Instrumentality because he opposes the idea of remaking humanity. He wants control over what the process gives him.
Gendo's behavior is organized around Yui's absence. He builds a private path through Rei, Adam and the Eva project because Instrumentality offers a way to cross the separation death created between them.
Why it matters
Calling Gendo emotionless misses the point. He is driven by attachment so absolute that almost everyone else becomes expendable.
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.
After Rei II dies, Rei III returns in a familiar body but does not reproduce the exact emotional relationship Gendo expects.
Gendo has built an entire plan around the assumption that Rei can remain a controllable vessel.
Gendo has built an entire plan around the assumption that Rei can remain a controllable vessel.
Why it matters
The replacement system can reproduce a body. It cannot guarantee the same person will keep making the same choices.
STORY & EPISODE GUIDE //
Open page →Shinji reaches Tokyo-3 expecting to meet the father who abandoned him and instead finds a city under attack. Gendo's first meaningful request is that Shinji pilot Unit-01.
The series does not wait for Shinji to become brave. He agrees while frightened, untrained and angry because the alternative is watching an injured Rei be sent in his place.
The series does not wait for Shinji to become brave. He agrees while frightened, untrained and angry because the alternative is watching an injured Rei be sent in his place.
Why it matters
The central fact about Shinji is not that he refuses to pilot. It is that he keeps piloting under conditions that give him very little reason to trust the adults asking him to do it.
Shinji will not attack Unit-03 while another pilot may be trapped inside. Gendo responds by activating the Dummy Plug and makes Unit-01 destroy the infected Eva anyway.
The pilot is Toji.
The pilot is Toji.
Why it matters
Shinji learns that refusing to act does not remove him from the consequences. NERV can use his Eva without his consent, and his friend can still be the person crushed under its hands.
