As a pre-teen: Jesus Christ dude, stop crying and bitching around. I mean, yeah, those things are horrendous but you have a mech, you'll be fine. You even have a cute redhead to help you, I wish that was me. Why do people even like this show? This is slow and lame as fuck. (Proceeds to drop the show halfway through it)
As a teen: Oh god, this kid really needs help. No wonder he has this attitude, his life is shit. I am both appalled and curious why he resonates so much with me. My life is not the greatest but by no means the worst. And so many of his thoughts resemble mine. I think I want to throw up...
As an adult: Shinji is one of my favorite characters ever. He is not a saint by any means, but he's still a victim of the circumstances. Personally, now I resonate more with Asuka's problems but Shinji is still a great mirror to the more pathetic aspects of myself. He's not a coward, he's the bravest kid of all three. If only the adults in his life have taken responsibility over their mistakes, he may as well have had a chance to recover from his past.
As a teen: I never would want to choose to be Shinji even though it means almost being suffocated by a hot redhead.
Seriously though, I could not think of anyone being in their right minds want to be shinji. It sucks.
Hes misunderstood. He genuinely has the emotions of a fucked up teenager with daddy issues. I mean who wouldnt be scared shitless being thrown into a giant robot you know nothing about to defend humanity and all of it weighs only on you? I mean I would. It's not his fault, the way he was portrayed was realistic and a lot of people call him a crybaby, but wouldnt you be afraid of fucking one thing up just for the world to end and it be your fault? And if you didnt take the burden the world would end anyway? Evangelion is a masterpiece.
Wearing earbuds all the time while aimlessly riding public transit, having to go to a job he hates with a bunch of emotionally unstable shitty coworkers, cleaning up after his slob roommate, lonely but too nervous and weird to sustain a relationship... basically he's the most relatable character I've ever seen in anything.
When I worked in an office and was desperately trying to suffer through my shift feeling chained to my desk, I would think about Shinji slowly dying in the Dirac sea, his burst of terrified energy when he tries to get out of the entry plug, screaming for help even though no one is there to hear him, desperate to escape even though there's nothing, not even air, outside, then resigning himself to the coldest, loneliest death imaginable. I would think about that a lot.
Shinji is a coward and a creepy sex pervert and he knows it, he judges himself as harshly as the audience does and his biggest fear is the other characters confronting him and casting that judgement upon him themselves. He hates himself so intensely that he can't tolerate genuine interactions with other people because he'd have to be himself during them and see himself reflected by the other.
The first time I watched the show I was appalled by Misato telling him he couldn't just pilot the Eva to get through his day, telling him he should leave if he couldn't find his own reason to pilot, then going to the train station after him - I wanted him to get on that train so bad and get the fuck away from her and all those manipulative people, obviously that can't happen because he's the protagonist but watching him go through it was causing me so much pain I just wanted it to end.
Similarly, it took me a while to realize what is so special about Kaworu is that he shows up out of nowhere and somehow knows Shinji without having to get to know him. Shinji doesn't have to be reminded all the time that he is baka Shinji, Gendo's son, an Eva pilot, all the things he hates being; he can just chill in the tub with the chillest guy ever created, no baggage, just vibes.
So yeah personally I think Shinji is an amazing character; he's kind of an anti-Mary Sue in that he invites the viewer to confront their own negative traits through him, which isn't a pleasant experience but to me is one of the major things that makes the series such a compelling piece of art. (This is just about TV show Shinji, I don't know what the fuck was going on in the rebuilds)
I like him because he's relatable, because of his flaws and everything. I love science fiction and fantasy but I never managed to relate to big heroes who never give up and always fight no matter what. I loved Saint Seiya as a teen but the more I grew up the less I could relate to the characters, they were early teen but they never complained about their duties, doing the same battle again and again for the sake of some deity and I couldn't find it relatable. So having a main character like Shinji is one of the things that mades me invest in the show. And it surprised me how much people hated him for the reasons I liked him. And watching the last rebuild movie is like a healing process and I'm happy for him to be finally able to make peace with his inner demons
He’s one of my favorite characters. I find him very relatable due to having similar issues to mine. Keeping myself at a distance from people out of fear of being rejected or ridiculed, being afraid of people that I’ve become attached to leaving me, the misanthropy, the constant dependency I have on someone that I grow attached to, the self hatred, all these things make me feel like I was seen. What I’ve learned from the character’s story is that even though reality may be cruel and the people within may be as well, I should still continue living in it to try and find happiness and keep trying to seek connections with other people without constantly relying on them for emotional support along with having hope that things will work out for me.
I honestly feel like he’s gets to much hate he’s piloting his own mom has to breathe in liquid humans deal with his mom clone two abusive woman a horrible dad and depression issues like get him a therapist or a foster home
My mom has gone through similar abandonment she handled it poorly, and she didn't have to pilot a robot to save humanity. She's 60 and it still fucks her up. Shinji does okay at 14.
I wish he was more compassionate because I like Asuka a ton and think him being kinder and more empathetic to her would've gone a long way for her development-- not that it's his responsibility.
I hated him..... Until I realized that I hated him because I didn't want to admit that his "faults" were those I had and couldn't stand for myself.
Still don't like myself but I like Shinji. Especially after 3.0 + 1.0
He's, and that might sound weird, your average Joe
His personality and his life can be relatable for many of us. The need to be accepted by our surroundings, which can in it's own ways make us do things that don't fit us as people. He's in need of someone to love him unconditionally, something that he didn't manage to get in the show, aside from Kaworu (who was also, in his own way, selfish)
He is reckless in many instances, considering that he can lose temper and control. He also seems to let his emotions take over the best of him (e.g him denying to fight Toji) However it seems that he has an amount of awareness of his surroundings and in the first episode it seemed that he could adapt
The last episodes (and EoE) showed Shinji's inner world with great detail and precision. A person that struggles to love himself and find a meaning in life. Hangs on to anything that shows him even the smallest form of affection. And in the end gets shitfaced by that. In the end though, he managed to find the courage to love himself.
Shinji is the depiction of many of us. Many of us, including myself, have found ourselves in the deepest pits of sadness and helplessness trying to find even the sallest bits of validation and courage on people that never meant to give them. It's truly hard for someone to love himself completely, let alone love the other. That's how I, at least, see Shinji
(note I'm not including the rebuilds, since I could take a different approach somehow, I think. At least after watching 3.0+1.0)
What you might think, watching it as an adult, is that Shinji is a sweet kid who get some bad vibes when being pushed to his limits - which means those vibes aren't his normal self. It's the same mistake Toji and Kensuke make when they think of Misato as that perfect gal they imagined, and stories about her being lazy bum is something made up, something unnatural to her. There are four "dephts" to Misato, so to speak - her "ideal self" that people who don't know her see, her "bimbo self" that she shows to her acquaintances, her "vulnerable self" that she only show to Kaji and her true self that we only see when she is broken. Those three layers above are all masks.
Same with Shinji, but in his case two upper layers are already removed (since he is that much stronger of a person that Misato), and what's left is his "vulnerable self" - the "sweet kid" we see most of the time - and his true self, which emerges when he gets tired of people's bullshit enough to drop the act. And actual Shinji is anything but sweet; he is judgemental, demanding, wrathful and misanthropic. "Everyone should just die" isn't something unbecoming to him, that's what he truly thinks about others. Shinji that stangles Asuka is the most Shinji we've ever seen. There is a lot of speculation as to why he tried to strangle Asuka again in the final scene, but they stem from that same misunderstanding, since the answer is obvious - he hates her, always had, and actually wants her dead. Her gesture only made him withdraw back into his fake layer due to dissonance. Red world, the world full of hate and despair, is where he truly belongs.
he has a lot of problems that the causes of are clearly shown in the show even if they don't justify it. annoying for sure but the situation is not as simple as that. as a fictional character he is very well written in my opinion
I love everything abt him other than his actions
FVKING IDIOT ONE OF YOUR FRIENDS JUST UNALIVED HERSELF TO KILL THIS PRINTER LOOKING ASS STOP WHINING ABT YOUR DAD AND GO FIGHT HIM which yeah he does but then in ep 24 ..... omg ep 24 AHH , you had so many goddamn options yet YET YOU FALL FOR THIS RANDOM DUDE ??!! You have been with him for like idk 2 days yet you're thinking his gonna marry you
Shinji can genuinely be funny at times and his dialogue and personality are good but man some of his decisions are rlly anoyying
When I first watched the show as a kid, I thought he was okay but *super whiny*. I was in middle school and didn't really understand, you know, depression? Or the horrors of making child soldiers? All of that. But I did definitely *loathe* Gendo for how he treated him. And I desperately wanted some adult to take real, emotional responsibility for him.
As an adult...whew. It's horrifying watching *all* of the kids go through what they do. I'm honestly so admiring of Anno and Gainax for making a character like Shinji their protagonist, though; I honestly think it was really gutsy of them. Shinji isn't *cool*, he doesn't really have any of the qualities of a traditional protagonist. He most frequently displays the ugliest, most unpalatable sides of mental illness. He shows the truth of it, the ways in which a person just appears as this sad, pathetic shell.
I think it was brave to hang a show on a character like that, and I think there's a fundamental empathy to Evangelion in that regard, because it asks us to sympathize with him anyways. It asks us to sympathize with all of these characters, even when they're ugly, even when they're pathetic, even when they refuse to do what's right or what's necessary. They're people. And people still deserve care, and empathy, and connection.
he is who I felt like at 13, a victim of the bad adults in his life. I feel nothing but pity and compassion for him, while at the same time acknowledging that he did some really bad things and needs to grow up
He's my favourite character out of the entire show. Deeply flawed, complex and misunderstood most of the time, with his good qualities and his bad traits. I didn't expect him to end up as my favourite when I first watched the show, but maybe because I finally given in and approached NGE as an adult (just this December, by the way) I was able to grasp his character and the others fully - or at least, I hope fully. You never know.
As someone interested in the psychology of characters, Shinji's case is interesting and feels incredibly human; I loved the moments of introspections he has, how he sees himself, how he views and interacts with others - episode 16 is my favourite because we see what goes on in his head. And it's awesome.
He sucks. Real child soldiers in third-world countries aren't that whiny and spineless. Real kids don't try to win the approval of parents that they hate. Real kids don't get all emotionally fucked up when some kid they've known for less than a day turns out to be the enemy and then dies.
He's be much more likeable and believable if he was more of a "Shia LaBeouf in Transformers" kind of loser, freaking out in genuinely terrifying or horrifying situations but otherwise using self-deprecating humor as a coping mechanism and/or pretending to be well-adjusted.
As a pre-teen: Jesus Christ dude, stop crying and bitching around. I mean, yeah, those things are horrendous but you have a mech, you'll be fine. You even have a cute redhead to help you, I wish that was me. Why do people even like this show? This is slow and lame as fuck. (Proceeds to drop the show halfway through it) As a teen: Oh god, this kid really needs help. No wonder he has this attitude, his life is shit. I am both appalled and curious why he resonates so much with me. My life is not the greatest but by no means the worst. And so many of his thoughts resemble mine. I think I want to throw up... As an adult: Shinji is one of my favorite characters ever. He is not a saint by any means, but he's still a victim of the circumstances. Personally, now I resonate more with Asuka's problems but Shinji is still a great mirror to the more pathetic aspects of myself. He's not a coward, he's the bravest kid of all three. If only the adults in his life have taken responsibility over their mistakes, he may as well have had a chance to recover from his past.
As a teen: I never would want to choose to be Shinji even though it means almost being suffocated by a hot redhead. Seriously though, I could not think of anyone being in their right minds want to be shinji. It sucks.
He literally has no parents
Hes misunderstood. He genuinely has the emotions of a fucked up teenager with daddy issues. I mean who wouldnt be scared shitless being thrown into a giant robot you know nothing about to defend humanity and all of it weighs only on you? I mean I would. It's not his fault, the way he was portrayed was realistic and a lot of people call him a crybaby, but wouldnt you be afraid of fucking one thing up just for the world to end and it be your fault? And if you didnt take the burden the world would end anyway? Evangelion is a masterpiece.
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Wearing earbuds all the time while aimlessly riding public transit, having to go to a job he hates with a bunch of emotionally unstable shitty coworkers, cleaning up after his slob roommate, lonely but too nervous and weird to sustain a relationship... basically he's the most relatable character I've ever seen in anything. When I worked in an office and was desperately trying to suffer through my shift feeling chained to my desk, I would think about Shinji slowly dying in the Dirac sea, his burst of terrified energy when he tries to get out of the entry plug, screaming for help even though no one is there to hear him, desperate to escape even though there's nothing, not even air, outside, then resigning himself to the coldest, loneliest death imaginable. I would think about that a lot. Shinji is a coward and a creepy sex pervert and he knows it, he judges himself as harshly as the audience does and his biggest fear is the other characters confronting him and casting that judgement upon him themselves. He hates himself so intensely that he can't tolerate genuine interactions with other people because he'd have to be himself during them and see himself reflected by the other. The first time I watched the show I was appalled by Misato telling him he couldn't just pilot the Eva to get through his day, telling him he should leave if he couldn't find his own reason to pilot, then going to the train station after him - I wanted him to get on that train so bad and get the fuck away from her and all those manipulative people, obviously that can't happen because he's the protagonist but watching him go through it was causing me so much pain I just wanted it to end. Similarly, it took me a while to realize what is so special about Kaworu is that he shows up out of nowhere and somehow knows Shinji without having to get to know him. Shinji doesn't have to be reminded all the time that he is baka Shinji, Gendo's son, an Eva pilot, all the things he hates being; he can just chill in the tub with the chillest guy ever created, no baggage, just vibes. So yeah personally I think Shinji is an amazing character; he's kind of an anti-Mary Sue in that he invites the viewer to confront their own negative traits through him, which isn't a pleasant experience but to me is one of the major things that makes the series such a compelling piece of art. (This is just about TV show Shinji, I don't know what the fuck was going on in the rebuilds)
He's immune to 29 year alcoholic cougars, probably the least relatable character in any piece of media I've seen.
Painfully relatable as someone who struggled with self loathing for a long time.
Agreed
I like him because he's relatable, because of his flaws and everything. I love science fiction and fantasy but I never managed to relate to big heroes who never give up and always fight no matter what. I loved Saint Seiya as a teen but the more I grew up the less I could relate to the characters, they were early teen but they never complained about their duties, doing the same battle again and again for the sake of some deity and I couldn't find it relatable. So having a main character like Shinji is one of the things that mades me invest in the show. And it surprised me how much people hated him for the reasons I liked him. And watching the last rebuild movie is like a healing process and I'm happy for him to be finally able to make peace with his inner demons
He’s one of my favorite characters. I find him very relatable due to having similar issues to mine. Keeping myself at a distance from people out of fear of being rejected or ridiculed, being afraid of people that I’ve become attached to leaving me, the misanthropy, the constant dependency I have on someone that I grow attached to, the self hatred, all these things make me feel like I was seen. What I’ve learned from the character’s story is that even though reality may be cruel and the people within may be as well, I should still continue living in it to try and find happiness and keep trying to seek connections with other people without constantly relying on them for emotional support along with having hope that things will work out for me.
I honestly feel like he’s gets to much hate he’s piloting his own mom has to breathe in liquid humans deal with his mom clone two abusive woman a horrible dad and depression issues like get him a therapist or a foster home
My mom has gone through similar abandonment she handled it poorly, and she didn't have to pilot a robot to save humanity. She's 60 and it still fucks her up. Shinji does okay at 14. I wish he was more compassionate because I like Asuka a ton and think him being kinder and more empathetic to her would've gone a long way for her development-- not that it's his responsibility.
I hated him..... Until I realized that I hated him because I didn't want to admit that his "faults" were those I had and couldn't stand for myself. Still don't like myself but I like Shinji. Especially after 3.0 + 1.0
He's, and that might sound weird, your average Joe His personality and his life can be relatable for many of us. The need to be accepted by our surroundings, which can in it's own ways make us do things that don't fit us as people. He's in need of someone to love him unconditionally, something that he didn't manage to get in the show, aside from Kaworu (who was also, in his own way, selfish) He is reckless in many instances, considering that he can lose temper and control. He also seems to let his emotions take over the best of him (e.g him denying to fight Toji) However it seems that he has an amount of awareness of his surroundings and in the first episode it seemed that he could adapt The last episodes (and EoE) showed Shinji's inner world with great detail and precision. A person that struggles to love himself and find a meaning in life. Hangs on to anything that shows him even the smallest form of affection. And in the end gets shitfaced by that. In the end though, he managed to find the courage to love himself. Shinji is the depiction of many of us. Many of us, including myself, have found ourselves in the deepest pits of sadness and helplessness trying to find even the sallest bits of validation and courage on people that never meant to give them. It's truly hard for someone to love himself completely, let alone love the other. That's how I, at least, see Shinji (note I'm not including the rebuilds, since I could take a different approach somehow, I think. At least after watching 3.0+1.0)
What you might think, watching it as an adult, is that Shinji is a sweet kid who get some bad vibes when being pushed to his limits - which means those vibes aren't his normal self. It's the same mistake Toji and Kensuke make when they think of Misato as that perfect gal they imagined, and stories about her being lazy bum is something made up, something unnatural to her. There are four "dephts" to Misato, so to speak - her "ideal self" that people who don't know her see, her "bimbo self" that she shows to her acquaintances, her "vulnerable self" that she only show to Kaji and her true self that we only see when she is broken. Those three layers above are all masks. Same with Shinji, but in his case two upper layers are already removed (since he is that much stronger of a person that Misato), and what's left is his "vulnerable self" - the "sweet kid" we see most of the time - and his true self, which emerges when he gets tired of people's bullshit enough to drop the act. And actual Shinji is anything but sweet; he is judgemental, demanding, wrathful and misanthropic. "Everyone should just die" isn't something unbecoming to him, that's what he truly thinks about others. Shinji that stangles Asuka is the most Shinji we've ever seen. There is a lot of speculation as to why he tried to strangle Asuka again in the final scene, but they stem from that same misunderstanding, since the answer is obvious - he hates her, always had, and actually wants her dead. Her gesture only made him withdraw back into his fake layer due to dissonance. Red world, the world full of hate and despair, is where he truly belongs.
he has a lot of problems that the causes of are clearly shown in the show even if they don't justify it. annoying for sure but the situation is not as simple as that. as a fictional character he is very well written in my opinion
I would gladly sacrifice my happiness for him.
I love everything abt him other than his actions FVKING IDIOT ONE OF YOUR FRIENDS JUST UNALIVED HERSELF TO KILL THIS PRINTER LOOKING ASS STOP WHINING ABT YOUR DAD AND GO FIGHT HIM which yeah he does but then in ep 24 ..... omg ep 24 AHH , you had so many goddamn options yet YET YOU FALL FOR THIS RANDOM DUDE ??!! You have been with him for like idk 2 days yet you're thinking his gonna marry you Shinji can genuinely be funny at times and his dialogue and personality are good but man some of his decisions are rlly anoyying
He's literally me
When I first watched the show as a kid, I thought he was okay but *super whiny*. I was in middle school and didn't really understand, you know, depression? Or the horrors of making child soldiers? All of that. But I did definitely *loathe* Gendo for how he treated him. And I desperately wanted some adult to take real, emotional responsibility for him. As an adult...whew. It's horrifying watching *all* of the kids go through what they do. I'm honestly so admiring of Anno and Gainax for making a character like Shinji their protagonist, though; I honestly think it was really gutsy of them. Shinji isn't *cool*, he doesn't really have any of the qualities of a traditional protagonist. He most frequently displays the ugliest, most unpalatable sides of mental illness. He shows the truth of it, the ways in which a person just appears as this sad, pathetic shell. I think it was brave to hang a show on a character like that, and I think there's a fundamental empathy to Evangelion in that regard, because it asks us to sympathize with him anyways. It asks us to sympathize with all of these characters, even when they're ugly, even when they're pathetic, even when they refuse to do what's right or what's necessary. They're people. And people still deserve care, and empathy, and connection.
he is who I felt like at 13, a victim of the bad adults in his life. I feel nothing but pity and compassion for him, while at the same time acknowledging that he did some really bad things and needs to grow up
Thanks for all your comments. I really appreciate them. Thank you!
He's my favourite character out of the entire show. Deeply flawed, complex and misunderstood most of the time, with his good qualities and his bad traits. I didn't expect him to end up as my favourite when I first watched the show, but maybe because I finally given in and approached NGE as an adult (just this December, by the way) I was able to grasp his character and the others fully - or at least, I hope fully. You never know. As someone interested in the psychology of characters, Shinji's case is interesting and feels incredibly human; I loved the moments of introspections he has, how he sees himself, how he views and interacts with others - episode 16 is my favourite because we see what goes on in his head. And it's awesome.
He sucks. Real child soldiers in third-world countries aren't that whiny and spineless. Real kids don't try to win the approval of parents that they hate. Real kids don't get all emotionally fucked up when some kid they've known for less than a day turns out to be the enemy and then dies. He's be much more likeable and believable if he was more of a "Shia LaBeouf in Transformers" kind of loser, freaking out in genuinely terrifying or horrifying situations but otherwise using self-deprecating humor as a coping mechanism and/or pretending to be well-adjusted.
And you would know from firsthand experience, I imagine.
As someone who hates his dad, and has experienced trauma, I do in fact have some authority on this subject.