Shinji Ikari

Shinji Ikari
碇 シンジ
Age	14
Birthday	06/06/2001
Seiyū	Megumi Ogata

Shinji Ikari is the Third Children, and the designated pilot of Evangelion Unit-01. He is the son of "deceased" Gehirn bioengineer Yui Ikari and Nerv Commander (formerly Chief of Gehirn) Gendo Ikari. After his mother's apparent death, he was abandoned by his father and lived for 11 years with his "sensei" (a general term used to describe various types of authority figures. In Shinji's case, the most likely translation could be "teacher", and this is the one used by ADV Films), until he was summoned to Tokyo 3 to pilot Eva-01 against the Angels. He lives initially just with Misato Katsuragi; they are later joined by Asuka Langley Soryu.

Profile

At the age of three, Shinji lost his mother to the Eva-01 Contact Experiment. He was there to witness this, causing a trauma that had lingering effects upon him.

Shinji initially appears somewhat passive, most content when he was living with his ‘‘sensei’’ and not feeling like he had to do anything but exist. And at first, when put to Eva piloting, he does it because the others tell him to.

But Shinji is far from indifferent to the people around him. He yearns for the praise of others and that is his primary motivation for Eva piloting: to be noticed and treated well. Despite the cynicism he sometimes expresses about his father, Shinji wants Gendo's love as well. But because Shinji cannot find a reason to pilot for himself, he subsumes his entire identity in the act.

Shinji is also afraid of pain, and of being hated or left behind. This might stem from being "abandoned" at a young age by both of his parents (though his mother, in truth, hadn’t gone far), and his blaming himself for not being good enough to make his father stick around.

Three-year-old Shinji, from Episode 21

Perhaps because he has had little meaningful contact with others, Shinji has difficulty controlling his emotions and seeing nuance in them. In Episode 18 he fixates on saving the life of a single pilot when Bardiel could destroy many more people, and at certain points in End of Evangelion he shows a considerable anger and indifference, even wishing that everyone in the world would die.

Yet Shinji is also aware of his own faults, and can appear gentle and compassionate. He is the only one who tries to find a reason to fight the Angels, and sometimes his justification for fleeing from piloting is to avoid hurting others. Shinji is also usually very polite.

Shinji has a nervous tic in which he often twitches or flexes his right hand when being thoughtful, nervous, or anticipating something. In early episodes he can often be seen plugged into his SDAT music player to shut out the world, though in Episode 25' he ignores its dead battery, a sign of his increased apathy. In Episode 15, Shinji mentions that he's been playing the cello since he was 5 years old, because "No one told me to stop". Despite his lack of enthusiasm, he apparently has some talent at it, according to Asuka.

Relationships with Other Characters

With his Father

Shinji's torn I.D.

Gendo abandoned Shinji shortly Yui disapeared into Eva-01, sending him to live with his "sensei". Shinji resents Gendo for this, even though it was he who ran away the last time they met, three years before. When Misato asks Shinji if his father sent him a Nerv ID card, he hands her the letter that his father sent him summoning him to Tokyo-3. All of the printed out words on the entire letter are censored and blacked out because it is classified information. The only actual information on it is a handwritten message from Gendo which reads: "COME -- Gendo Ikari". Shinji presumably tore up the paper out of frustration at his father, and then taped the pieces back together (after getting a load of Misato's picture??). Nonetheless, Shinji still longs for words of praise from Gendo.

With Asuka

Shinji is attracted to Asuka, though the reasoning is not explicitly stated. It might be that her bullying sometimes causes Shinji to bite back at her, and he views Asuka, in a strange fashion, as a source of strength, one that he misses when Asuka is laid low by her encounter with Arael. However, the only times Shinji directly expresses his feelings for Asuka are when he tried to kiss her as she slept,, when he masturbated at the accidental exposure of the then-comatose girl's breasts, and in the Ep. 26' Pre-instrumentality sequence when he says "I want to help you somehow and be with you forever".

With Kaji

Shinji looks up to Kaji as a sort of mentor, and accepts behavior in him that he would disaprove of in other characters. For instance, in Episode 08 when Kaji asks him about Misato's sleeping habits, implying that Shinji and Misato might be in a sexual relationship and simultaneously implying that he is intimately familiar with these habits as well, Shinji just laughs. If anyone else asked him that same question he would probably have stuttered with embarrassmnet, barely able to get out a denial.

With Kaworu

Though fans have speculated on what kind of relationship Shinji had with Kaworu it is at least clear that Kaworu represented a sort of idealized friend-figure to Shinji, granting his wish for someone to understand him, treat him well. Shinji also found himself confessing his own emotions to Kaworu, talking about things he hadn’t had with anyone else.

This, paired with the fact that Shinji had killed what he saw as a human being, was part of what drove Shinji into his state of absolute despair in Episode 25', in which he declared that he felt unworthy even of the piloting which had consumed his identity, thinking that if all he did was hurt and kill others, it was better to do nothing. By that, though, he may have condemned Asuka, who was fighting against the Mass Production Evangelions, to death.

With Others

The two other main women in Shinji’s life are Rei Ayanami and Misato Katsuragi. He seems to care about them both dearly, but with them it is more difficult to determine the exact nature of his feelings. Shinji appears frightened by Misato’s attraction to him, and though he is kind to Rei, grows to fear her after discovering her connection to his mother.

Shinji is friends with Toji Suzuhara and Kensuke Aida. He is sometimes confused by their more typical teenage male behavior, and especially by Kensuke’s burning desire to be an Evangelion pilot.

Shinji's Mental State at the End ot the Story

A rather "Kaji-like" Shinji from the Proposal.

Episode 25 and Episode 26 have Shinji feeling lost and begging for others to help him. Much of the TV ending is devoted to Shinji being taught by the other characters about the ability of individuals to make their own destiny by reshaping their viewpoint.

In Episode 26', Shinji chooses to reject Instrumentality for individual existence, even though it will be painful. He learned that he wanted real feelings even if he would be betrayed and hurt again, because fleeing from that reality brought him no happiness. This might suggest that, buried deep in Shinji, is the capacity for redemption and change.

In the final scene of The End of Evangelion, Shinji is surprised at seeing both Rei and Asuka alive before trying to strangle the latter. He had apparently been alone for some time before Asuka's return, and was nearly insane from isolation. The fact that he stopped strangling Asuka (and began sobbing at her caress), however, suggests that he's capable of returning to his true self.

Shinji in Other Media

Main Article: Shinji Ikari in Other Media

Notes

• "I mustn't run away" ("Nigecha dameda!" in Japanese) becomes a trademark line delivered by Shinji starting in Episode 1. According to Hideaki Anno, this was the phrase that came to him that inspired him to keep working on and finish Evangelion. (http://www.evamonkey.com/writings_anno01.php)

• XTC is the name found on the back of Shinji's shirt in Episode 15, which refers to a band in the real world by the same name. This New Wave band covers many of the themes that are associated in Evangelion. See example, Making Plans for Nigel.

• In Episode 16, it's revealed that Shinji doesn't know how to swim.

• Shinji's birthday is the same day as his seiyu Megumi Ogata. This is a trait that can be found in several of the Evangelion characters, Rei Ayanami being an exception.

• The two songs usually played on Shinji's SDAT are: Track 25 for "You are the only one" and Track 26 for "Blue Legend", respectively. The songs are from "Lilia from Ys", an image album for the "Ys" RPG series. The Vocalist is Kotono Mitsuishi, Misato's seiyu. However, Episode 02 has two Eva BGM pieces playing, while Episode 23 has a different vocal song for Track 25 instead.

• According to an interview with Yoshiyuki Sadamoto featured in volume 2 of the manga, Shinji’s design is a male version of Sadamoto’s design for Nadia, the title character from Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, which Hideaki Anno also directed.

References

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 | 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