Shinji Matou

is the main rival and background antagonist of Fate/stay night and is the acting Master of Rider in the Fifth Holy Grail War. He is a member of the Matou family and the older step-brother of Sakura Matou. He is one of Shirou Emiya's best friends and attends Homurahara Academy.
==Profile==
===Background===
YoungShinji-CarnivalPhantasm.jpg|Shinji as a child in Carnival Phantasm.
Shinji's past.jpg|Shinji's dream of becoming a mage, in the Fate/stay night: Heaven's Feel Manga.
Due to the thinning of their bloodline, the Matou are no longer capable of producing heirs naturally capable of sorcery. This led Byakuya, the eldest son of Zouken Matou, to marry a woman with an "inheritor" sorcery trait, who later gave birth to his son, Shinji. Unfortunately, Shinji was incapable of sorcery. This did little to dissuade Shinji's determination to become the successor, the boy instead convincing himself that he was special for being born in a family of magi.
Shortly after, Sakura Tohsaka was adopted into the Matou family and introduced to Shinji as his new sister. At first he was against this because he didn't want 'outsiders' coming into his family but later grew to like and accept her, though due to his selfish, arrogant nature, he refused to show it and teased her instead. Not wanting his son to get involved in the affairs of the Matou magecraft, Byakuya sent him to study abroad when the Fourth Holy Grail War started. Because of that he does not know that his uncle Kariya participated and died, probably because Byakuya (who despised Kariya) chose to hide this fact from him. He also didn't tell him about the worm pit or the reasons why Sakura was adopted by the family.
The farce ended when Shinji accidentally found the worm pit, seeing as Sakura was being infested by Zouken's worms. This caused Byakuya to cut all ties with him due to no longer having to hide anything from him. Blaming Sakura for "ruining his dreams", he started mistreating her, treating her like an object to do with as he pleased. Sakura, in a mixture of pity and guilt, silently accepted Shinji's abuse, which he mistook for her submitting to him. After Byakuya's death, Shinji decided to "take possession" of Sakura and started sexually abusing her. 
During middle school he met Shirou Emiya, who did menial tasks for people free of charge, and despite Shinji deriding him as an idiot from behind his back, he hung around with him until he was done. At the end of the day, Shinji laughed as if he was having a good time, and exclaimed, "You may be an idiot, but you sure do good work, at least!". They started an estranged friendship and frequently invited him over to his house to hang out.
A year before the events of Fate/stay night, after Shirou was injured in an accident, Sakura started getting close to him. Shinji disapproved of this, fearing that Sakura will start turning against him. When the Fifth Holy Grail War started, he was resigned to his situation, but after noticing that Sakura, who had just summoned Rider, did not want to fight, he persuaded Zouken into letting him enter the war by controlling Rider, all in an attempt to prove to Zouken that he was not useless and that he could be the Matou family heir instead of Sakura. His wish was to acquire the ability to utilize magecraft.
===Appearance===
Shinji Casual.png|Casual
Much like his father, Byakuya, Shinji has curly blue hair and gray blue eyes. Due to his hair style looking like a seaweed, he has been given the nickname .
During school, he wears the standard Homurahara uniform.
His casual clothing consists of a white and black jacket, a black shirt and blue jeans.
When he was young in the manga adaptations, his clothing consisted of a white shirt and suspenders. In the non-canon Carnival Phantasm his hair was messier and wore a red bowtie.
Shinji studio deen character sheet.png| character sheet of Shinji in Fate/stay night.
Shinji Carnival Phantasm Character Sheet.png|'s character sheet of Shinji in Carnival Phantasm.
ShinjiTC.png|Shinji in Fate/tiger colosseum, illustrated by Yukio Hirai.
False_attendants_writings.png| in Fate/Grand Order, illustrated by B-suke.
CE1277.png| in Fate/Grand Order, illustrated by Endou Kaori.
Victor's Complacency (CE 426).png| in Fate/Grand Order, illustrated by TCB.
The Have-Not (CE 1415).png| in Fate/Grand Order, illustrated by Waltz.
Trace of a Dream (CE 668).png| for Fate/Grand Order, illustrated by Shiojima Yuka.
Shinji_Character_Sheet_Emiya-san.png|'s character sheet of Shinji in Today's Menu for Emiya Family, illustrated by Toko Uchimura.
Hollow ataraxia cast (Shidzuki Morii).jpg|Shinji among the cast of Fate/hollow ataraxia, illustrated by Shidzuki Morii.
Shinji Board Game.png|Shinji in Dominate Grail War, illustrated by okojo.
Shinji Matou Himuro no Tenchi.png|Shinji in Fate/school life
Shinji Matou Today's Menu for Emiya Family.png|Shinji in Today's Menu for Emiya Family.
===Personality===
Shinji is arrogant and impulsive. Initially he considered himself to be special when he discovered the Matou were a clan of magi and began putting all of his heart and effort into becoming one himself, only to later find they were a fallen clan who no longer had magical power, and that Sakura was going to fullfil his lifelong dream. He also feels entitled to things that he believes both the world and his family denied him, and will do anything to get recompensated, even going as far as to angrily shout at both Shirou and Rin to turn their attention on him, when the latter was telling Shirou that Sakura's the true heir of the Matou Family. Due to his arrogance and inferiority complex, he refuses to admit that Shirou and Sakura are the only ones that care for him and believes it must be pity instead.Fate/stay night: Heaven's Feel II. lost butterfly Drama CD
Though he is selfish and has the bad habit of looking down on other people, he has some faintly redeeming qualities. He values rules (but he does not follow them himself), and he hates injustice (if he's not the one responsible). Due to the gap between his "ideal world" and the world he actually lives in, his personality has become warped, but when Shirou first made his acquaintance four years ago he was not nearly as bad as he is now.
It seems Shinji and Shirou's friendship was close, though Shinji often made fun of him, he socially assassinated anybody that took advantage of Shirou in the shadows. However, for a temperamental genius like Shinji, even a friend of many years is not safe from suddenly becoming his enemy for incomprehensible reasons. Basically, he's the kind of person that's reliable when he's on your side but ends up being really troublesome if he turns on you.
Character Material reveals that he is not as haughty as he looks like in the visual novel. After getting involved in the Holy Grail War he becomes overconfident and willing to lash at others with his new power. As shown in the universes when he survives the war, he's back to his more tolerant yet arrogant old self and begrudgingly gives up his pursuit of magecraft after seeing the dangers of it. No fundamental changes in his personality after his near death experience but since a great burden was lifted off his back especially his obsession with sorcery, he will be able to enjoy life as a fussy, loudmouthed, smarter-than-average, troublesome person.
Since Sakura eats at the Emiya home, he'd rather eat at some Italian restaurant and flirt with girls than eat in his own home.
==Role==
===Fate/stay night===
Shinji is very popular as the vice-captain of the Archery Dojo despite his personality.
Near the beginning of the 5th Holy Grail War, Shinji acquires Sakura's Servant, Rider, and becomes a temporary Master. He is initially depicted as an evil and deceptive character, but as the story moves along his character begins to show cowardly and even pathetic qualities.
====Fate====
fsn shinji0016.png|Shinji in the Fate/stay night anime
FATE_anime_Shinji's_death.png|Shinji is killed by Berserker
Shinji tries to partner with Shirou, but Shirou declines the offer. Shinji later finds out that Shirou has already partnered with Tohsaka and gets angered, trying in vain to turn Shirou and Rin against one another. When he persists in his attempt to partner with Rin, she punches him in the face and tells him she trusts Shirou more than she would ever trust Shinji.
He later tricks Shirou into coming to school, to trap him there as he forces Rider to activate her Blood Fort Andromeda. Shirou is able to hold on and tries to reason with Shinji, but he does not listen and orders Rider to kill him. Rider's blade is unable to deal Shirou a killing blow, so she kicks him out of the window. Shirou calls out to Saber and the two servants fight. Shirou defeats Shinji, forcing him to call off Blood Fort. Shirou and Saber travel through town trying to find Shinji and Rider but are unsuccessful at first. After finding them, Rider and Saber start fighting and in the end Saber is forced to unleash her Noble Phantasm, Excalibur, to defeat Rider. After losing Rider and his Book of False Attendant is burned, Shinji escapes the building, only to be murdered by Illya and Berserker.
====Unlimited Blade Works====
In the Unlimited Blade Works route, he loses Rider when she is killed by Souichirou Kuzuki. Shinji's failure and loss of Rider results in him approaching Kirei Kotomine, who lends him Gilgamesh as a Servant. Some details of his past are revealed, like the fact he hates his father, Byakuya, for hiding the truth about the real heir of the Matou family and that he hates his own mother (whose corpse is revealed to be at the worms storage) for giving birth to him without Magic Circuits. Gilgamesh quickly notices that Shinji has no idea about the Grail and realizes that he thinks it is just a game. He takes advantage of it and manipulates Shinji into killing Illya.
After Lancer kills Kirei, Shinji tries to rape Rin (in the visual novel, he also tries to make her partner with him, despite Rin's warnings that he is just being used by Gilgamesh) only to be pricked in the arm by Lancer's Gáe Bolg. He escapes and has a mental breakdown in which he imagines himself ripping off the arms of everyone. Gilgamesh appears and ignoring Shinji's protests, implants Illya's heart inside of him in order to use him as a new vessel for the Holy Grail. It results in him being forced to endure a mass of flesh growing from his body. He is rescued by Rin and is eventually hospitalized. According to Shirou, Shinji returns to his more tolerable old self, thus getting along with Sakura again. Although unmentioned in the route, Shinji has his Magic Circuits opened by force from having Illya's magical core heart implanted at the end of the route.
====Heaven's Feel====
In Heaven's Feel, his past and his torn relationship with Sakura are expanded upon. After losing Rider in a fight against Saber, Zouken comments that Shinji is much more worthless and pathetic than Byakuya. This infuriates him and in an attempt to show Zouken that he can be the heir instead of Sakura, he becomes more manipulative, frustrated and violent towards Sakura.
He later tries to take Sakura back home by force only to be stopped by Shirou. The next day, the ill Sakura wants to walk to school with Shirou, but he declines. Shinji takes advantage of this and kidnaps Sakura with the help of Rider, because he has another new Book of False Attendant. He orders Shirou to go to school without Saber if he wants Sakura back. When Shirou arrives to school, he is forced to reinforce himself in order to fight Rider alone. Rider is fairly weakened and starts disobeying Shinji's orders. After Shinji orders Rider to kill Shirou, the hostage Sakura screams and Shinji's Book of False Attendant is burned again. At that moment, Rider becomes more powerful and it is revealed that Sakura is the principal Master of Rider, who was summoned several days prior to the start of the 5th Holy Grail War. However, under pressure from Shinji and the desire not to fight either Shirou or Rin, Sakura yielded her Master's right to him, although Sakura retains her original Command Mantra.
With Shinji losing two of Sakura's Command Spells and without his Book of False Attendant, he has no control over Rider. Shinji has a breakdown and orders Sakura to help him kill Shirou and Rin, to which Sakura declines.
Shinji remembers how his father and sister hid the truth about the heir of the Matou family from him for seven years, which resulted in his father becoming harsh and causing Shinji to hate Sakura. Soon after, Shinji has an ultimate mental breakdown and blames Shirou and Sakura for his disgraces, deciding that he will break Sakura on his own. Shinji pours a substance on Sakura that causes her to go haywire before fleeing the school.
Sakura arrives in the Matou house in order to find Zouken and to force him into ending her life. However, Shinji appears and tries to rape Sakura again, blackmailing her into staying with him by telling Shirou about her history of being raped by him for the last three years. This ultimately causes Sakura to kill Shinji, and after realizing she is "The Shadow", Sakura becomes Dark Sakura.
It is eventually revealed that Shinji's actions in the whole route were orchestrated by Zouken in order to further his schemes for Sakura, and that he was being manipulated the whole time.
After the war, the Holy Church covered up Shinji's death as a casualty of the Holy Grail War.
====Fate/stay night Manga====
In the Fate/stay night manga adaptation, (which follows the Fate and Unlimited Blade Works scenarios), his background is different, as he and Sakura were raised by Byakuya instead of Zouken (who doesn't appear). Also, Kirei was the one who convinced him to enter the Holy Grail War. He's more open with Shirou and though he is still physically and verbally abusive towards Sakura, he never rapes her. When the Holy Grail War starts, Shinji tries to make Shirou partner with him, but gets angry after discovering that he's already allied with Rin. He becomes more paranoid and easy to anger, causing Ayako to warn him that he is on the verge of being expelled from the club. In response, he orders Rider to attack Ayako and to use Bloodfort Andromeda to kill everyone at school.
Shinji is stopped by Shirou, who tries to warn him that using magecraft isn't a game like he thinks. Shinji refuses to listen to him and admits he's jealous of Shirou. After Rider is defeated by Saber, Shinji falls from a building, despite Shirou's attempts to save him. However Sakura, who was watching the whole fight from afar, uses her last Command Spell to make Rider save his life. Shinji is surprised by her action, because he thought she hated him for abusing her for the last three years and that she just saved him for being Shirou's friend. However, Sakura shows that she still cares about him and both walk home together. 
He is later hospitalized and after a talk with Ayako he realizes he's been forgiven for all his misdeeds and apologizes to Sakura for his abuse. Shinji is hospitalized until the end of the Holy Grail War. He's last seen getting along with Sakura and Shirou and confesses to the latter that he's given up on magic.
===Fate/hollow ataraxia===
In Fate/hollow ataraxia, Shinji is alive alongside Zouken, his appearances being for comic relief. After the Holy Grail War ended, Sakura became more assertive and assumed control of the Matou household, much to Zouken and Shinji's chagrin.Fate/hollow ataraxia - 10/08 - Streets - Matou residents Now that they don't have to compete for the Holy Grail anymore, he's more affable with Shirou and Sakura and is back to his arrogant yet tolerable old self. He's also resigned about being a failure and finally understands that being a magus isn't fun and games like he thought. 
Now that he's about to graduate, he is making plans to leave the Matou household and live his own life. Zouken isn't too happy about this and compares him to Kariya for leaving the house. He also wants Sakura to find her own path as well, but due to his arrogance he won't admit it.Fate/hollow ataraxia - 10/09 - Emiya's - A guest from 5 years back He's also prone to break the 4th wall, calling Shirou a hero and complaining that Sakura has more scenes than him.
Rider describes Perseus, the slayer of Medusa, as a Shinji who succeeded.Fate/hollow ataraxia - 10/08 - Emiya's - Mirror of Kibisis
===Fate/tiger colosseum series===
Shinjiendbn8.png|End of Shinji's route.
DarkSakuraTCEnding.jpg|Dark Sakura Ending.
NecoArcTCending.jpg|Neco-Arc Ending.
Like in Fate/hollow ataraxia, Shinji's appearances are for comic relief and he has been reduced to a gag character. 
In Shinji's route, he uses the Grail to wish for all the girls to fall in love with him and to be respected like a god. After fighting Shirou and Kotomine, he sees Sakura and Rider approaching him and tries to give them orders. However they reveal that his wish somehow has been cancelled and everyone has returned to normal. Horrified, Shinji tries to escape from them to no avail. In the end Sakura and Rider catch him and proceed to punish him, much to his horror.
===Carnival Phantasm===
In Carnival Phantasm, Shinji has been reduced to a gag character, often bullied by the cast, with the exception of Sakura.
He's one of the protagonists of Episode 6, Type-Moon Serial TV Novel Sakura, parodying a soap opera in which he mistreats Sakura until Rider tries to put a stop to it. In the end he's purified thanks to Caster's Rule Breaker, but Sakura isn't happy about it, because he was so awful it made her look better in comparison.
===Today's Menu for Emiya Family===
Shinji makes minor cameos in Today's Menu for Emiya Family, but he finally makes an appearance in Episode 5, Bamboo Shoots Gratin. Sakura cooks the aforementioned dish for him after learning it from Shirou. Much to her delight, Shinji likes the gratin and doesn't leave any leftovers. In the anime he's shown in his room afterwards, thinking about the bamboo shoots; while in the manga he's wondering why would Sakura fuss after him so much. 
===Koha-Ace===
Shinji appears as during the Strange Tales of the Imperial Holy Grail, acting as the Master of Berserker.
===Other appearances===
Great Luvia vs Dynamite Rin 02.jpg
Great Luvia vs Dynamite Rin 03.jpg
In the Fate/stay night - Heaven's Feel - II. Lost Butterfly drama CD, Shinji is trapped in a dark room and tells the listener about his past and his estranged relationships with Sakura and Shirou. As the story progresses, it's shown he's quite not right in the head, and has deluded himself into thinking he won the Grail War. At the end, it's revealed he was dead all along and his spirit was absorbed by Dark Sakura. Shinji has lost his mind completely, and is tormented by his worst memories and fears forever, blaming Sakura for everything that went wrong in his life.
Shinji was briefly mentioned by Byakuya in the original Fate/Zero novel, as his only child sent overseas in the name of studying to not be harmed during the Holy Grail War.Fate/Zero Volume 4: Flames of Purgatory - Act 14 Part 4 -36:38:09
Shinji Matou in the World of Fate/EX is a different person but they share the same name. Shinji in the real world is a eight-year-old child but his digital avatar is based on this Shinji.
In Type-Moon's April Fools' Day 2008, he is a referee in the . He was knocked out by both Dynamite Rin and Great Luvia powerful drop kicks. The referee had always been an unreasonable judge, and karma may take a while to manifest but it always does in the end. While being carried away to a hospital, he stated that he had a feeling this might happen.
In Type-Moon's April Fools' Day 2009, moon.cinemas.jp is a fake movie theater site listing a number of parody films. He was featured in the animated film , a parody film of .
In Type-Moon's April Fools' Day 2010, Tmitter is a fake online social networking, a parody of . His online user account is @Shinji_tm41.
==Abilities==
Shinji, like Shirou, is unskilled in magic, but unlike the latter, Shinji does not have any particular abilities aside from some archery skills. His mother had a Carrier Sorcery Trait like the Fraga family, but the pathogen is nothing special like the Fraga's ability to use a Noble Phantasm. According to Zouken, she was just the daughter of "a random third-rate magus." While the Matou mage bloodline has died out, they still contain hereditary traces of Magic Circuits. However, though Shinji still has latent Magic Circuits, they cannot be accessed due to being "closed off" and would require the magical equivalent a nuclear fusion reactor to be implanted in him to open. This can be achieved with Illya's heart, as the core of a nascent Holy Grail, in can be used to forcibly open Shinji's atrophied Magic Circuits in order to use him as a new vessel for the Holy Grail.Fate/stay night - Unlimited Blade Works route - Day 15: After image - Before the final battle
Because Shinji is not Rider's true Master, he must use an item created by combining the Matou family Crest Worms with a command spell of Rider's true Master known as the Book of the False Attendant. The book, which acts as a provisional command spell, allows Shinji to control Rider and, due to Shinji's incompetence, was made twice by Rider's original Master. Because it is not a true command spell, it burns if it is used beyond its limits or if Rider is destroyed, but a new book can be created using another of the true Master's command spells, but the true Master must retain at least one command or else the the Servant cannot be bound to the book. In the Fate scenario and the anime, while the book seemingly allowed for Shinji to use a form of magecraft that fired shadows at his opponents, the shadows were weak, and even an incompetent Shirou using a reinforced broom was able to cut them away.
==Development==
Originally there was going to be "Shinji route", an option to accept his invitation to join forces in the Fate route, players would have gotten to see a bit of Shinji's good side. But with the tight schedule with the deadline has forced them to cut it. While not present in-game, the script files contain a joke about Shirou teaming up with Shinji.
===Reception===
Takashi Takeuchi said that among the Fate/stay night characters, Shinji and Gilgamesh are the strongest characters.TYPE-MOON 10th Anniversary Phantasm - p.208
*In the first Popularity polls of Fate/stay night in 2004, Shinji was ranked 19th.
*In the second Popularity polls of Fate/stay night in 2006, Shinji was ranked 28th.
*In the Type-Moon's 10th Anniversary Character Poll, Shinji was ranked 79th.
==References==
Category:Characters in Fate/stay night
Category:Characters in Fate/hollow ataraxia
Category:Characters in Fate/tiger colosseum
Category:Normal humans
Category:Masters
Category:Homurahara Academy students
Category:Matous
Category:Introduced in 2004
Category:Residents of Fuyuki City
Category:Japanese