Gendo Ikari

Gendo Ikari
碇 ゲンドウ
Age	48
Birthday	1967/04/29
Seiyū	Fumihiko Tachiki

Gendo Ikari is the Commander of Nerv.

Past

Originally known as Gendo Rokubungi, he changed his name to Ikari after his marriage to Yui Ikari. He was appointed as head of Gehirn and later Nerv, by his benefactors Seele. He became a widower after Yui's "death" in her Contact Experiment with Unit-01.

Tokyo 3

Gendo is the commander of Nerv, and along with sub-commander Kozo Fuyutsuki, is responsible for the defense of Tokyo-3 against the Angels. He is also responsible for the Human Instrumentality Project. He has recently summoned his long-abandoned son, Shinji Ikari, to Tokyo-3 to pilot Evangelion Unit-01.

Profile

Though he appears cold and distant, Gendo's primary motivation is in fact love: his goal working on the Human Instrumentality Project is to reunite with his beloved wife, Yui Ikari, even if it means hijacking Seele’s plans.

But in doing this, Gendo manipulates or rejects the people who are still existing in Lilin form, including his son, whom Gendo set to live with his sensei shortly after Yui Ikari’s disappearance.

Episode 26' revealed that this was not an act of callousness, but that Gendo genuinely believed that he only hurt Shinji when his son was with him, so it was better to do nothing. This, along with Adam/Kaworu’s suggestion that Gendo had just been "running away" indicates that Gendo and Shinji may have more in common than it first appeared.

During the series, Gendo was also involved in a sexual relationship with Naoko Akagi and later her daughter Ritsuko Akagi. Naoko, at least, appeared to understand that Gendo would only give him her body, that he could not forget about Yui. But both women's unbalanced natures were triggered by rejection from Gendo. It is likely that Gendo was using the Akagi women as a way to gain access to more knowledge.

In several episodes, Gendo is strongly concerned with Rei Ayanami’s welfare. This concern might be read as semi-paternal in nature, given that if his and Yui’s child was a daughter, Gendo wanted to name her "Rei" (Episode 20), and Rei is almost like a daughter in that he shares some of his wife's genetic material. Alternatively it could be read as ensuring that his "investment" survives (for Rei is apparently Gendo’s gateway to controlling Instrumentality), as the transition from one Rei clone to the next is not entirely smooth and it would be difficult to build up that trust again.

He was willing to have the gravely injured Rei pilot Eva-01 in Episode 01 but that could relate more to the need to do whatever is needed to succeed in a tense situation, rather than any coldness towards Rei, for Gendo does often appear extremely pragmatic, almost ruthless.

Notes

Gendo's white gloves cover the burns he sustained in rescuing Rei from her ejected entry plug, as seen in Episode 05. They later cover something else as well.

• Gendo's original surname, Rokubungi, means "Sextant", a navigational device that calculates a ship's location using the positions of the sun, moon and stars.

• While Gendo was originally named "Rokubungi", he takes on Yui's surname, "Ikari", after marraige. In Japanese marraige, if the wife is of higher social status than the husband, the husband often takes his wife's surname as his own.

• "Gendo" might refer to "Gendoryoku", which means "Driving impetus" in Japanese. Keel Lorenz tells the committee that they could never have gone as far as they did without Gendo at the lead, and in Episode 21, it is Gendo who takes the initiative to start the Instrumentality Project. In effect, he serves as the impetus behind all the work done till the moment.

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Characters

Main characters: Shinji Ikari | Rei Ayanami | Asuka Langley Soryu

Nerv staff: Misato Katsuragi | Gendo Ikari | Ritsuko Akagi | Kozo Fuyutsuki | Ryoji Kaji | Maya Ibuki | Makoto Hyuga | Shigeru Aoba

Classmates: Toji Suzuhara | Kensuke Aida | Hikari Horaki

Other characters: Kaworu Nagisa | Yui Ikari | Naoko Akagi | Kyoko Zeppelin Soryu | Dr. Katsuragi | Mr. Langley | Keel Lorenz | Pen Pen

Rebuild of Evangelion: Asuka Shikinami Langley | Mari Makinami Illustrious | Sakura Suzuhara | Ryoji Kaji (Jr)

Miscellaneous: Minor Characters | Minor Characters (Rebuild) | Extracanonical Characters

Theory and Analysis: Name Origins (Warships) | Designs | Relationships | Profiles

Resources: 2015: The Last Year of Ryohji Kaji