Shinji Ikari

Shinji Ikari is the main protagonist of the Neon Genesis Evangelion franchise. Shinji is the Third Child and the pilot of Evangelion Unit-01, a giant mecha used to fight the Angels, a series of extraterrestrial beings that threaten humanity.
In Japanese, he is voiced by , who also voiced Yuta Okkotsu from the Jujutsu Kaisen series. 
In the original English dub by ADV Films, he was voiced by . In the newer Netflix dub, he was voiced by .
== Personality ==
Shinji Ikari is a laid back, troubled and introverted child that suffers many psychological problems due to his father abandoning him and the troubles he goes through as an Eva pilot. In the series, he is an introvert that desires praise from others as an Eva pilot and the attention of his father, Gendo Ikari. He is commonly describe through the "Hedgehog Dilemma" where Shinji desires friendship from others, but continues to deny it, which is evidence of his introverted behavior. He hates the idea of being an Eva pilot and has ran away a couple of times, but he continues to come back filled with regret for running away despite how painful it is for him as pilot.
His quote "I mustn't run away!" highlights him trying to motivate himself to pilot the Unit-01 in order to gain the approval of others and his father. Despite his chances, he never get to speak or interact with his father in a friendly or genuine manner. Shinji, understandably, hates his father for abandoning him when he was a child and never bothered to see Shinji until asking him to pilot Evangelion Unit-01. The most notable relationships he has with others are Misato, Asuka, Rei, Kaworu, and finally his father. 
Though Misato is his guardian and lives with her, he found her at first lazy and irresponsible, but grew to like her when being told by Toji and Kensuke that she is willing to show her true self to him unlike to others. His relationship with Rei and Asuka is odd and complex at best since Rei is emotionless and does not react much to him and Asuka bullys him despite them having feelings for each other. Kaworu was the only one who blatantly told Shinji that he "loves him" before the reveal that he is the 13th angel, during which he was forced to kill Kaworu in order to prevent the Third Impact.
Shinji's mentality begins to dwindle when things become much worse for him after Asuka entered a coma. He started to become nihilistic and felt that nothing matters. He is afraid of getting hurt and receiving pain, but at the time, wants praise and attention from others despite his psychological problems. This shows Shinji is an escapist, hates the painful reality that he lives in and develops the impression that people around him hate him, showing his immense self-loathing.
His way of shutting himself from the world is by listening to music through his music player, but plays songs that he has nostalgia for. In the End of Evangelion movie, Shinji lost all motivation to keep on going and decides not to pilot Unit-01 because he felt by piloting the Evangelion, people would continue to die and get hurt. 
In conclusion, Shinji is a broken child who hides his issues through his introverted behavior, but underneath it is a sad vulnerable boy who hates the painful reality that he is living in.
==Relationships==
===Asuka Langley Sohryu===
Shinji and Asuka's relationship is complex and interesting. They are very attracted to each other but continue to hide their true feelings. They have similar backstory and psychological issues including hiding their feelings, Asuka hides it through a prideful persona and Shinji through his introverted behavior. When they first met, Asuka is pretty bossy and tends to bully Shinji, but despite not being nice to him, he became very attracted to her. For a while, they did bond and start to know each other to the point of Asuka noticing Shinji's issues with his dad. 
Her constant belittlement of Shinji and energy starts to give him motivation as an Eva pilot and the strength that he did not knew he had. Their attraction can be represented through a simple kiss in episode 15 when she ask him if he ever kissed a girl. Though she later washed her mouth afterwords, it's still odd that she would do this with Shinji going along with it. Despite their very evident attraction, there are times Shinji is confused about his feelings towards her, which tend to make things awkward for both of them. Shinji does not represent the strong male that Asuka would project towards him like she did with Kaji but later on, she develops a friendship with Shinji and accepts him as her equal, a relationship she was unable to do with Rei since Asuka could not understand her as a person due to her emotionless behavior. 
However, things changed when Asuka entered a coma after her attempted suicide; Shinji becomes more depressed, feeling that he is causing more people harm as a pilot. By the time of the movie End of Evangelion, Shinji accidentally ejaculated towards Asuka when he touched her body revealing her breast. He was very shocked and disgusted by his action, but this is enough prove that Shinji is genuinely attracted to Asuka and his sexual desire for the opposite sex. Besides this, he develop fantasies about her, including ones that are very sexual in nature. Shinji seems to relate to Asuka, but she says that he would never understand her, though this could be chalked up to his self-loathing since he believes that people hate him. Asuka even mentions that she knows about his fantasies about her and demands him to give himself to her and only her, but he was unable to return his affection, much like Asuka herself. Since both could not admit to themselves that they seek attention and desires from each other, they could never truly get close to one another like they really wanted, which only contributes more to their respective inner struggles. In Shinji's case, he believes no one is nice to him; Rei, Asuka and Misato disagree, but Shinji does not believe it. 
By the end of Instrumentality, Shinji and Asuka are seen together on the beach. Shinji strangles her while Asuka caresses his cheek cryptically remarks "disgusting", which causes Shinji to let go and start crying, but whatever this scene means is left to the viewers perspective. It should be noted that Shinji is not strangling her out of malice but to see the existence of another after instrumentality happen. This can mean at least a couple things; either Shinji and Asuka reconcile with each other, understanding their mistakes and issues or they embrace their romantic feelings and understand that they are nothing without each other. It is believed that the poster for the movie, where Shinji and Asuka are close to each other staring at the Dead Sea, is what happen after the movie's ending.
===Rei Ayanami===
Rei is the first Eva pilot that Shinji meets and becomes friends with. She appears in the first episode of the series, in where Shinji is told by his father to get in Eva Unit-01. Shinji goes to pilot Unit-01 despite his initial protests when seeing Rei's injured body. Like everyone else, she is very mysterious and does not open up to anyone but his father, Gendo Ikari. The first time he tried to interact with her is when he went to her apartment for the first time and was sent to deliver something to her. All of a sudden, he tripped on her when she got out of the shower and accidentally touched her breast, but she express no reaction towards this and went to put her clothes on while ignoring Shinji. Through their interactions, she is shown to be emotionless and unreactive to most things, but when Shinji brought up his father and starts ranting about the man, Rei slaps him due to the close relationship she has with Gendo. Oddly, Shinji does develop an attraction to Rei, but it's unknown why even to him. It can be stated that his attraction is different compared to his romantic attraction to Asuka.
However, it's possible he's attracted to her mainly because Rei seems to be a vestige of his late mother since Rei shares a very close resemblance to her. As they grow closer to each other, their relationship becomes a source for joy and pain. The two can never grown their relationship into a romantic one due to Shinji being related to Rei's ultimate fate in the series, and therefore cannot wish for one. What's worth noting is that Rei tends to see Shinji as his father, which is possible due to the familial connection to each other and it becoming some sort of parallel to Yui's relationship with Gendo. Shinji relates to her isolation and loneliness since he isolates himself from others, but also feels lonely while doing it. When Shinji is absent, Rei finally understands her feelings and develops a drive to protect him, showing that she is not entirely empty inside. Eventually, she even sacrifices herself to save him from Armisael. Despite this, Shinji becomes alienated from her when she comes back afterward due to being shocked at the revelation that many clones of her were made. According to Hideki Anno, he considers Rei Shinji's unconscious self. In the movie, she rejects Gendo plans to bring Yui back to life and allowed herself to be absorb by Lilith and hand over the control of Instrumentality to Shinji.
In the end of the movie, Rei is seen watching over Shinji right before he notice Asuka on the beach next to him. It can be speculated that she develop a mother-like relationship with Shinji due to their closeness and wanting to protect him. This would probably explain why Rei rejected Gendo and handed over Instrumentality to Shinji. In Sadomoto's manga of the anime, Rei and Shinji have a more sibling-like relationship instead of a romantic one and emphasized her role in the story.
== Changes in the Manga ==
The manga goes in almost the same way as the anime, but there's some significant changes:
#He was not fighting against Sandalphon, Matarael, Ireul, and Leliel alongside Asuka and Ayanami as those angels are omitted.
# Shinji, Toji and Kensuke first encounter Asuka at an arcade, where she is unable to grab the toy she wants from the machine she is playing and furiously begins to kick the machine. Asuka then notices the boys staring at her and demands a "viewing fee" from them for seeing her underwear (100 yen, as opposed to the anime in which Toji's "viewing fee" is a slap across the face). She and Toji begin to quarrel, and then Asuka accidentally bumps into a thug and is threatened by his gang. Asuka then proceeds to single-handedly take on—and defeat—the entire gang. Shinji is punched in the face by one of the thugs during the melee, and not until he arrives at NERV headquarters does he learn that the girl he has just met is in fact Asuka.
#During the training session to synchronize their teamwork against Israfel, they had to live in a special room together, much to their dismay. But the training session was success as it was in the anime nevertheless, though unlike in the anime, when their Evas ended up piled on each other and Asuka blames Shinji for it, Shinji and Asuka ended up sleeping inside their Evas due to exhaustion as they silently perfected their synchronization teamwork exercises the previous night.
#Shinji is noticeably more apathetic, depressive, and prone to being angry than he is in the anime, as he tries to punch his father's for his ruthless actions, specifically for putting the Eva in dummy plug mode in the battle against Bardiel, which in this version, gets Toji killed.
#Shinji appears to be attracted to Rei Ayanami, and their relationship is far more developed than in the anime. However, at the same time Shinji had a crush on Asuka too.
#When Shinji visits Asuka in the hospital, he confesses his love to her in a way, claiming, "the Asuka I want to protect isn't this empty shell!" However, instead of shaking her and revealing her body, Asuka wakes up, and chokes Shinji, until she is subdued by the nurses due to her psychological injuries by Arael.
# Shinji was far more determined to save Asuka and her Eva from the Mass Production Evangelions than in the anime as when he saw his Eva still frozen, he begged his mother's soul inside it to free so he can pilot it, and therefore, successfully saved Asuka for being killed by the surviving Mass Production Evas before they could deliver the final blow. But unfortunately, his heroic attempts were not entirely successful due to the Evas turned resurrecting themselves.
#When Shinji rejected Instrumentality, he had the world restored to normal like before the Second Impact and also reincarnated with a better life: In this revived world, he was never an Evangelion pilot, had a few friends who cheered him on, and meets Asuka and Kensuke's reincarnated selves for the first time on his way to a boarding school in Tokyo (in mid-winter, a season Japan hadn't had since Second Impact that now has been restored). It is unclear how much of the pre-Instrumentality world carries over since the world's restoration, although the déjà-vu Shinji experiences on seeing Asuka and Kensuke, as well as "relics" resembling Angels or rather, the fossilized MP Evas, suggests that some significant portion of it has.
==Trivia==
*Shinji Ikari is probably one of the very few anime heroes (or, for that matter, heroes in general) whose perversion is not played for laughs or provides an advantage. This is because his rather infamous action of disrobing Asuka while she's in a coma in order to make her love him (since he has a crush on her), only to accidentally ejaculate on her (and his hands) which is treated as a sign that Shinji is losing so much hope to the point where he would resort to actions like this in order to "make him happy" (he himself is disgusted, yet somewhat pleased at his action). He may also be suffering from necrophilia (a sexual paraphilia in which one is attracted, aroused, or excited by lifeless or unmoving corpses/bodies that can be the result of desiring a partner incapable of rejection as well as feelings of deep isolation, two of Shinji’s main struggles).
*It is possible that the three main protagonists of Gainax's super robot "trilogy" (which consists of Gunbuster, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and Gurren Lagann) each represent an aspect of Shinji's personality. Noriko Takaya's personality is similar to his joyous and hopeful side, Simon's personality is similar to his realistic, yet pragmatic side, and Shinji himself represents the cynical side of his personality (though he starts out hopeful, he ends up suffering from depression due to the sadness and "hope spots" of his life, and isn't given hope again until the Rebuild of Evangelion quadrilogy, and even then he still had depression, father issues, and possibly necrophilia).
*His Japanese voice actress, Megumi Ogata, also voiced Kurama in Yu Yu Hakusho, Sailor Uranus in Sailor Moon S, Yugi Muto/Yami Yugi in Yu-Gi-Oh! (Toei Anime), Yukito Tsukishiro/Yue in Cardcaptor Sakura series, Makoto Naegi and Nagito Komaeda in Danganronpa.
*His English voice actor, Spike Spencer, also voiced Hanataro Yamada in Bleach, Karasu Tengu in Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan, Rolo Lamperouge in Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2 and Inojin Yamanaka in Boruto: Naruto Next Generations.
*In Episode 22, Shinji can be seen wearing a shirt with the logo of the English pop, new wave, and post-punk band , suggesting that he may be a fan of them. This may have been included as a reference to their song "", which describes a boy with almost the exact same relationship with his father as Shinji does with his.
*He was featured on Inconsistently Heinous Wiki, but it was decided that non-villain characters are blacklisted.
*Ever since the anime reached it's ending, many fans have expressed disappointment towards Anno for creating what's considered to be anti-climatic ending that confused a lot of people. Spike Spencer, Shinji's English voice, is one these people and was very vocal on his disappointment. As a joke, he made a video of Shinji talking about the ending as a way to express his confusion.
==External Links==
*
*
==Navigation==
pl:Shinji Ikari
Category:Male
Category:Anime Heroes
Category:Manga Heroes
Category:Doujin Soft Heroes
Category:Weaklings
Category:Nihilistic
Category:Tragic
Category:Teenagers
Category:Protectors of Innocence
Category:Mentally Ill
Category:Reluctant Heroes
Category:Villain's Lover
Category:Lethal
Category:Pessimists
Category:Determinators
Category:Divine Gate Heroes
Category:Anti-Heroes
Category:Movie Heroes
Category:Action Heroes
Category:Related to Villain
Category:Suicidal
Category:Fighters
Category:True Neutral
Category:In Love
Category:Misguided
Category:Protectors
Category:Global Protection
Category:The Messiah
Category:Pawn of the Villain
Category:Paranoid
Category:Insecure
Category:Honorable
Category:Rescuers
Category:Localized Protection
Category:Heroes by Proxy
Category:Sympathetic
Category:Selfless
Category:Pragmatists
Category:Wrathful
Category:Wayward Heroes
Category:Karma Houdini
Category:Misanthropes
Category:Type Dependent on Version
Category:Berserkers
Category:The Hero
Category:Crossover Heroes
Category:Orphans
Category:Friend of a Villain
Category:Military
Category:Betrayed
Category:Traitor
Category:Scapegoat
Category:Envious
Category:TV Show Heroes
Category:Science Fiction Heroes
Category:Damsels
Category:Nemesis
Category:Obsessed
Category:Rivals
Category:Exorcists
Category:Vengeful
Category:Warriors
Category:Bond Creators
Category:Honest
Category:Bond Protectors
Category:Hope Bringers
Category:Revived
Category:Anti-Nihilists
Category:Amnesiac
Category:Merciful
Category:Soul Searchers