Flashback: Shinji around 4 or 5 years old, crying on a train station platform.
Shinji (OFF):“Father.”
Reichu: This image first turned up in the OP (OP C-066), but its full significance won't be apparent until the second half of the series.
Additional Commentary
Kendrix: Ah, that one cut. We'll see it quite a lot. The first thing we're supposed to gather from this, is, of course, that Shinji was abandoned, he's bawling his eyes out, there's lots of empty space around him, and there's a bag, presumably filled with his things. there is no need to even say he was abandoned, the picture speaks clearly. But there is more information packed into this Picture than you'd think:
a) His pants are too short and the shirt is too big. Presumably, Gendo haphazardly stuffed him into the first things he could find, no really knowing the arcane order Yui organized the baby's clothes in or not knowing what size the kid wears because Yui did the clothes shopping. An early hint that Gendo didn't leave him out of coldheartedness, but because he felt overburdened with the task of caring for him.
b) This is ostensibly a train station in the back. Presumably, Gendo sent Little Shinji on a train to go to his sensei's place, which is why he came to associate trains with entrapment... this moment, this abandonment shaped his entire idea of himself, and the fact that his mental landscape looks like a train, with the ocassional ghostly mini-Shinji sitting around in it, only serves to accentuate that. As with the bag, there is also the peculiarity that he came to Tokyo-3 in a train... and then there's episode 4.
c) Shinji looks quite a bit older than he does in the flashbacks of Yui's death. He wasn't dumped immediately after her death. Stuff happened. Stuff that stays nebulous untill the end even though it's the main character's back-story. I really like this, how Shinji still manages to stay as mysterious as everyone else in the show despite being the PoV character. Frankly, he's not as ordinary as he seems to be.... It probably also means that Gendo first gave it a try before sending him away.
