Рей Аянами
In a scene from the last episode of the animated series, an alternate universe is presented with a different story from the previous episodes; in this parallel reality, Shinji lives with both his parents and is a normal middle-school student. He is also a protagonist in ' and ', where he is portrayed in a different light than his anime counterpart: happier and more stable. The same characterization is found in '. Some spin-offs and video games have the option of pairing Shinji romantically with Asuka Langley Soryu, Rei Ayanami, Kaworu and other characters, including his classmate Hikari Horaki and original characters such as Mana Kirishima, an extrovert transfer student firstly introduced in the ' videogame, and Mayumi Yamagishi, an introverted girl presented in the ' videogame. In "Neon Genesis Evangelion: Shinji Ikari Raising Project", he is presented as a childhood friend of Asuka and a distant cousin of Rei Ayanami. In ', Shinji is portrayed as a boy "frightened by the idea of growing up" but popular with the students of Tokyo-3's Municipal Nerv High School. In "Evangelion: Detective Shinji Ikari", Kaji and Kaworu are portrayed as private investigators whom Shinji asks for help and investigates a mysterious case.