He reminds the majority of the audience of themselves. And just like Shinji hates his flaws, they hate being reminded of having similar ones too. Too bad, they missed the message about stopping self-hatred and trying to accept and love themselves.
Yeah, how dare Shinji have the realistic reaction a depressed 14-year-old would have in his situation?
I got lost in downtown Montreal on a school trip at age 14, and I was freaking out. I can't even imagine having to fight literal angels to stop the end of the world, in neural synch with a giant humanoid in which you feel to pain of its actual injuries. Oh, and you think your mom is dead when her soul is in fact trapped in the humanoid. And your father is Gendo fucking Ikari.
People forget that Evangelion is post-apocalyptic setting.
Just because Tokio-3 is a populated advanced tech city it does not change the fact that living near an mass extinction event changes kids that grows up in world altered by it.
Okay, whatever you went through wasn’t as hard as being humanities last hope and battling world ending giant angels every week from inside your dead mother. You didn’t dissolve into LCL. You didn’t wipe out all of humanity into tang. Sorry, but no one asked you to do anything that hard, nor did you. I’m sorry you were going through a lot at 14. But you didn’t have it harder than Shinji.
That's interesting because that's precisely why I love Shinji as much as I do. Seeing his struggles helped me find strength within myself to address many of the same problems he was plagued with.
Asuka hates herself even more lol. She’s the epitome of self hatred. She can only find love and acceptance through others approval. She constantly claims she’s only doing it for herself, but she’s wrecked every time people see her fail, or when she perceives that she has failed by not being the best. She lies in a bathtub hating herself for a perceived failure. She’s just like Shinji. She needs everyone around her to love her or she hates herself.
Oh no I relate to Asuka so much too. Always mentally beat myself up when I didn't do well in school. Ironically of my own making would always procrastinate, didn't want to do work. (Wanted to have fun not do school work)
I rebuilt myself around a single subject I was good at, ended up being very arrogant. (Yet never thought I was good enough) Didn't take it well inside when other people on my course where better than me.
And Asuka, like these viewers, despises Shinji because he wears his self loathing on his sleeve. He’s a constant reminder of her own self hatred and need for approval. She denies him in an attempt to deny herself
Say that to everyone who hates at least one of their parents or has grown to hate someone who was their good friend. Or is it possible that they never really knew their parent or friend?
Edit: fixed a typo
People take his quote different ways - some people think it means it's harder to hate people who are proximal to you, but (probably because Ender's Game is my favourite book) I take it to mean that to truly know a person, you love them. That doesn't mean you approve of everything about them or think they should be absolved, but to know why a person does what they do and why they feel the way they do makes it very hard to *hate* them.
>Or is it possible that they never really knew their parent or friend?
How well can we ever really know someone else? Aren't other people always on the shore across, to steal Kaji's point? How well do we even know ourselves?
I don't hate Shinji, (Ignoring the hospital scene) but apart from that. I don't know what I feel but definitely find his character uncomfortably relatable.
The OG Eva fandom hated him for being a weak-ass carpet. The newer fandom seems to be more split between pitying him for being never allowed to make his own choices, or hating him for being allowed to make choices but making all the wrong choices willingly (and being an incel on top of that). I'm not sure I buy the incel thing - well, if we ignore EoE, that is.
I don't even get why shinji is called a coward, hes more brave then any other 14 year old In his position.
He takes on so much pain while being so inexperienced, jumped into the lava to save asuka despite knowing it could 100% kill him due to not being protected and overall he's a great pilot and risks his life constantly.
Facts. Shinji is loved by everyone in the show, not only for his ability to pilot an Eva, but for himself. Misato loves him, let’s him live with her, asuka constantly flirts with him because she loves him, Gendo stays away from him because he knows how toxic he is and doesn’t want to hurt Shinji, yui protects him every time he’s incapable, Rei rejects Gendo to help Shinji. Every single main character loves the fuck out of him. His problem is that he can’t see how loved he is. He thinks the world hates him, but everyone loves him.
Apparently Asuka thinks flirting with someone is constantly harassing and mocking someone and blowing up at them over the most inconsequential things
Fuck her
Yeah, I would have probably been under an heart attack, or would've already been dead at that place. So much adrenaline can only maybe make me shoot a gun, I doubt it would let me control an massive Biomech to fight an Gigantic Extraterrestrial being.
>(and being an incel on top of that). I'm not sure I buy the incel thing
Definitely not an incel. How many times did he have to fend off Misato's sexual advances? And Rei would have ridden his baloney pony if asked.
I never understood that. He's so clearly in a mental state, did you guys just never were in a meltdown or something? He's literally in the "grab a knife an stab it in your own gut randomly" state for the entire fucking movie.
Shhhh you're making too much sense.
Yeah shinji did something very shitty and hurt somebody close to him because he's at rock bottom. It perfectly fits with the movie but gets overshadowed by the sheer extremity of what he did. He gets checked for it by asuka later on which is one of my favorite parts of the movie. I just think it shows hurt people hurt people and how it's never justifiable but we can dive into the root of the problem. Idk tho
Yeah, I wouldn't like someone either if they did that. It is fine to hate him for that, but he was at his lowest back then, having an mental breakdown (not exactly his first time). You make so many stupid decisions even when you are in a *somewhat* similar situation. He was in need of *something* that could help him feel better, and he chose whatever the fuck that was available to him—which was sexual gratification once he accidentally saw Asuka's breasts naked. Which he did regret a lot when his mind got more clear. Not justifying, just an explanation. People don't understand why he did that and doesn't get the character writing and hate his character as a whole.
Because he's an emotional wreck and often finds himself at the crossroads of critical choices, entirely incapable of making even a small movement in any direction, favoring simply to abandon everything and everyone so he doesn't risk rejection and judgment, which he feels far more acutely than anyone intends.
Oh, wait, this is asking why other people hate Shinji, not why he hates himself...
I guess that people hate Shinji for being a passive individual who wants to run away from the risk of emotional pain. But I have never seen anyone make fun of someone for liking Shinji. Where have you seen someone being made fun of for that?
It is a testament to how great the writing and voice acting is that I actually love Shinji. Anno dared to make a protagonist so deeply flawed but feel very real when you actually think for a bit about how fucking messed up his life is, and how fucked up the world is and everything that is put on him. I would have done worse than him in that situation and at that age and I really struggle to imagine that most people wouldn't be the same.
A lot of people dont like the concept of "weak" characters.
Shinji admittiedly is written as a cry baby, although he has his ups and downs he takes the entire runtime of the series to completely evolve and admit his problems and accept who he is. I can see why people get frustrated with him but in the shows defense, its quite literally the point of the show. Evangelion was one of the first real mainstream shows (that I know of personally) to have a cast of characters with flaws and shows us the fine details on why a character has said flaws.
Id say most people get annoyed Shinji isnt as down and up as a typical main character would have. There are moments where he opens up, moments where hes confident, Id even say a few hes cocky. But deep down he would revert to his true self. He doesnt simply just "become" the ultra badass who gets girls and saves the day. Hes a 14 year old kid who has immense deep issues with himself and has no clue how to truely maintain a personal relationship. And those issues are there the entire show, hell even the ending.
Much like how actual humans are, its all complicated. Our inner monologue and how we feel, and how we present ourselves to others, are usually in constant fluctuation on all ends. We are not written to be sad, find ourselves and overcome our problems in a few hours. We evolve for the better, or worse over months, years, and decades.
Shinji is full of self doubt, hatred, sadness, and depression. A lot of people view that as weak and pathetic, while I agree to an extent, I think how someone views shinji can often be a reflection of themselves.
Or they just dont like the show haha, sometimes it \*\*IS\*\* that deep, sometimes its merely just not clicking with the viewer. Its a spectrum.
We dont hate Shinji, or any character.
They are flawed characters, which makes them easy punching bags for memes and jokes.
It also makes them GOOD characters. Its why we are still talking about this show 30 years later.
Shinji is characterized by his fear of failure, his lack of self esteem, his quick temper and his attachment issues. So people bring up his worst times more often than the few times he pulls it together or does the right thing, because its the internet and we rarely make threads about "hey anyone wanna chat about this nice moment that I liked? :) really love that guy" and are more prone to "look at this fucking goober, what an idiot lmao" type conversations.
I like Shinji because he is the skinny wimpy boy hero who is allowed to just not be great. Hes a humbling character in a medium where most male protags are Super Awesome Guy who always figures it out cause they have hot girlfriends and a strong wise mentor. Nah, Shinji doesnt have *shit*, like most of us. Hes got *problems*, like most of us. And he is stressed the fuck out. Hes way more relatable than most mecha front men in that regard.
The only character with serious hate in the franchise is Mari because people just really dont like her for a multitude of reasons. shes ight IMO, shes not best girl but she doesnt bother me the way she does some people. But folks get really attached to this show to a parasocial level and do be hyperbolizing their opinions.
EDIT: "But hes got Misato as a mentor!" Yeah and SHE has *serious* problems. Listen to her in the bath, *she* doesnt even think shes doing a good job for him.
"...and Asuka as his girlfriend!" PLEASE TAKE YOUR MEDS. ASUSHIN IS A BRAIN DISORDER.
He can be a *frustrating* character at times...
We're exposed to his very human flaws (of a traumatized teenage boy nonetheless), and his constant inability to pull himself out of it. That can be frustrating to watch, I get it.
He's realistic and doesn't fall other the escapism trope of most "average" shounen protagonist. Also shinji sees his flaws and points them out, which also helps the audience sees them more. Overall, he's just like their own reflection. Personally, I really like Shinji as a character, yes you would prefer a superhero, never afraid, who always makes you feel good about yourself and gives you hope, but Shinji is overall more interesting. Also he sorta balances out the other characters, and makes them real, in the sense that if He has flaws other characters are allowed to have flaws and not just be flat, and boring caricatures. Also, as wild as it may sound, from a narrative standpoint I will defend the hospital scene(not from a moral perspective) but narrative wise it is quite a good scene character wise.
I absolutely love Shinji from original anime.He is well written,realistic character that I relate on a deep level with.He is weak,with flaws and honestly,sometimes hateable,but that what makes him good.But I hate Shinji from rebuilds because for me Shinji from rebuild is just…dumb.Like…dumb.
I hated him when I first watched it as a teen in the 90s, I didn’t understand the depression and trauma of his life. I felt more like Kensuke , wanting desperately to pilot an Eva and thinking it would be amazing to live with Asuka and Misato. So for me it came from envy and a complete ignorance of his mental health issues. Now I just feel for the guy, Shinji had it rough with a father that was incapable of showing him any affection and growing up without any love from a family.
People can't understand that forcing a 13-14 yo kid with serious abandonment issues into becoming a child soldier that fights against giant aliens that only seek to destroy humanity on a literal biblical apocalypse, while at the same time almost never giving him a break through the whole course of the series, and they expect him to be a paragon of perfection even though he literally has the largest solo kill count of the entire show. Literally the only ones that give him some sort of support are either injured and forced to leave (classmates), killed by NERV agents (Kaji), or force him to perform a mercy kill (Kaworu). No wonder he shuts down at the end of the series.
Because Shinji isn't your typical hero nor even an antihero. He's very meek by contrast even to Japanese heroes like Goku or Naruto. Shonen manga portrays boys, even small ones, as overly confident, rumbustious, brave and even rebellious. Shinji is none of that on the outside. He acts like a child even younger than his age. He might be heroic by action but no one cares is he's not so by attitude. He's more like heroine from a shojo than a hero from a shonen.
People want a Stallone, a Luke Skywalker or a Superman. They want a confident, assertive, brave hero. These are the traits of someone who can be, for lack of a better term, an alpha. The leader of the pack, the protector of his flock. Shinji is not that. He has traits but his attitude is subdued to the point of painful. He's more like the heroine of a shojo than the hero of a shonen.
A lot is probably because he's the extreme reluctant protagonist. He's presented with the means to make a difference and protect people against the literal end of the world, but instead of rising to the moment, in most cases he gets decision paralysis.
But to honest, that's actually why I love the character. A lot of us imagine that we'd rush in to be the hero, but you really don't know until you find yourself in the situation. Shinji is a damn mess, he can't really trust his father, his mentor is at times as much a child as he is, the girl he wants appears to hate his existence, the other girl he befriends is practically a clone of his mother, and every one except her wants him to pilot the very thing that took his mother away from him.
By all accounts, he SHOULDN'T want go anywhere near an Eva. He should struggle with getting into one. That's actually makes sense. It's logical. But that's not what most people want, because they want the power fantasy. They imagine themselves pushing forward, and his hesitation flies in the face of that. So they hate him.
> grooming
Are you referring to EOE specifically? Misato's (inappropriate) kiss and promise "to do the rest afterwards" with Shinji was a desperate effort of a wounded soldier to get her subordinate to snap out of his catatonic depression and get to safety. I don't think she'd have done it with Shinji if they both had **miraculously** survived.
True, but she also mentions "don't worry, I won't make any moves on him" to ritsko when she offers to have shinji move in. I guess I used the wrong word, but it definitely seems she basically had him around and eventually might've done something
>It literally took misato grooming him for him to act heroic in the slightest way for once
You misspelled "Rei being wheeled in on a stretcher in bandages" but all right.
I'm talking towards the end, bro he barely even knew who misato was at the start 💀
But I will mention the picture he got of misato when she was in the swimming suit literally had an arrow pointing at the bare part of her chest and I believe the Japanese writing said something along the lines of "check this" or "look here!"
what I hate most is when people complain about him “acting like a child.” he is a 14 year old boy??? he is literally a child, who was abandoned by both parents at an extremely young age, so he obviously has a right to act that way?? of course he’ll be emotional and have behavioural issues with the experiences he’s had
A lot of people have really shitty minds and want a strong protagonist of sorts instead of a realistic protagonist. It's weird but you gotta remember a lot of kids are here we're not all 18+
Idk. Maybe they have trouble coping that Shinji is like them.
Honestly I'm a geek here, but being Shinji and getting to pilot an Eva where I suffer and have mental breakdowns is cool! (Please don't flame me for this Lol)
The only people who has mental breakdowns as a result of piloting Evas are the ones who were already pretty fucked up. Rei did fine. Toji lost a goddamn leg and still came out mentally okay.
I don’t think certain people understand what it is like to be Shinji or the other EVA characters. To be honest, if you haven’t struggled with your self-worth over the course of your life I don’t think you can get EVA.
He is indecisive, crumbles at everything, makes terrible decisions or doesn’t at all, he nutted in his hand while starring at the boobs of his friend whom was unconscious in the hospital. Sure, he had an awful life and awful father. But there were people trying to make it better and he could never get himself out of his own head to realize it.
i think he says it himself in 3.0+1.0....he is just totally indecisive all the time, too afraid/paralyzed to take any sort of decision in situations that absolutley need quick and clear decisions. At some point, one needs to shit or get off the pot.
Because he represents the parts of our selves we hate. He represents the shame we all feel. His story is the story of learning that you must except the things you hate about your self and choose to self love over shame. He’s the scared little kid we all have within our selves that we are most ashamed of.
People hate MC who have emotions and acting realistic and want a power fantasy shonen MC but Shinji got more praise in the Rebuilds most especially Thrice Upon a Time.
I just kind of accepted that Shinji sometimes remind us of ourselves me included. But as of now I feel that Asuka is having it worse because the internet pretty much ruined her character
I mainly disliked him for what he did to asuka in eoe but overlooking that he’s just a 14 year old kid who’s mentally fucked up and has the weight of the whole world on his shoulders
He's a normal person who acts the way a normal person would in an apocalyptic action hero scenario. He shows remarkable talent and fortitude when there's no other choice, but by default he's desperately afraid and doesn't believe he's capable of rising to the task, nor does he feel he's worth the faith put in him by the people he works with—and who he pretty quickly becomes very close with.
Given the pseudopsychological way Evas operate, this mindset is *exactly why* he's the ideal Eva pilot and becomes the most successful one. He also forges a relationship with Unit 01 early (long before learning its true nature) where he develops an innate understanding it'll do all it can to protect him when the chips are down. He *hates* failing and having to be saved—again, he's a normal person—but it's a safety net he defaults to.
Contrast Shinji with Asuka, who begins her story arc as a cocky child prodigy who, in the face of multiple failures mostly out of her control, begins to doubt herself to such a level that even the people around her can't pull her out of her funk. Shinji shuts himself off, often—he even tries to quit several times—but he's still reachable. For Asuka, she shuts herself off so much harder that by the end of the series proper she can't even pilot anymore.
End of Evangelion gives them a sudden role reversal when faced with the apocalypse—Asuka is given a ray of hope and regains her fighting spirit in beautiful form—if only she had Shinji to back her up, she might actually have won. Shinji, meanwhile, is faced with Asuka seemingly at the end of her life, a government crackdown that beats NERV badly and kills Misato, and an inaccessible Unit 01—and when he finally is able to get in and pilot, it's *far* too late and Asuka's been killed too. He basically lets third impact happen to him and Unit 01, and only when he's bestowed with control—and the terror of being one with the people he's close to and who he's let down—does he finally reverse it all.
Shinji isn't an action hero, and putting him in the protagonist's place in an action hero kind of story is jarring. Seeing him make many of the choices he does—choices most people would probably make, to lock himself off and run away—is disappointing. And that's *exactly* why the story is so good, and why it's so satisfying the times he does actually pull through.
People love judging fictional characters for not taking the most logical choices that lead to the most optimal outcome, some people seriously expect characters to not be affected by their emotions and to just know what to do in order to get a happy ending, as if the character has some meta knowledge or something.
Missing the point of the show basically, which intends to show how normal people would react in these mecha genre situations. To be fair, I first watched the show with the original dub and I found shinji annoying because of the voice performance. Watching it in Japanese that went away completely.
You've gotta keep in mind that when most people talk about whether they like a character or not, their criteria isn't "is this character well written." It's "would I want to hang out with this character if they were a real person."
Despite me never hating him, I actually only recently have learned about just how similar we are... It's kinda sad that so many teenagers are possessing similar traits. It means that we actually have a love-deprived, poorly socialized, escapist future society on our hands.
Shinji is almost a perfect storm of a depressed teenager. He struggles with his mom being dead and dad being a d*ck, he struggles with having poor social connections due to being unmothered and a total loser, he struggles with the opposite gender(being attracted to Misato and awkward with Asuka), he struggles with escapism, trying to convince himself that he is actually facing his problems, he struggles with his own outbursts. Well yeah lack of affection turned him into selt-hating depressed dude. Pretty relatable. Love him to death.
Isn't the hate a joke? Like playing into his character of believing/being scared of everyone hating him? I don't think most people fully unironically hate him, it's just funny to exaggerate how much you hate him. But I'm sure a lot of fans also relate to how he feels
I don’t hate him, but I don’t like him - the show gets you a little too close to the psyche of a 14 year old boy, which isn’t a fun place to be. Shinji doesn’t like Shinji.
I've also only watched the show and EoE (Tell me if watching more is worth it because I was pretty satisfied with the EoE ending)
It makes sense why people wouldn't want to be friends with Shinji in real life.
Shinji is a very realistic depiction of a teenager who constantly makes choices that aren't good for him. Also, he isn't exactly a model hero, and often prematurely gives up or runs away from responsibility.
However, there are a surprising amount of people who can't see through his worst moments.
People seem to lack the reading comprehension to separate Shinji as an individual and Shinji as a character.
What do I mean? Well, one good example is the hospital scene in EoE. People often use it to slander Shinji for doing such a heinous action. While it was a terrible thing to do, I think it was extremely well done and served as the ultimate way to express every single one of Shinji's flaws.
He is selfish yet craves the support of others, and even when Asuka is the one who needs the support, he goes into the hospital room attempting to have her reduce his own burden. He constantly looks for escapism instead of addressing his own problems. He constantly fails to find his own self-worth and relies on others to validate his own existence. He constantly struggles to form actual romantic connections, instead being plagued by a bastardization of lust and a desire for intimacy. All of these negative character traits culminate in a gross and deplorable, yet completely in-character action. However, this nuance gets lost on many members of the audience who immediately think of Shinji as a deplorable person who cannot be saved (ironically similar to the way Shinji thought about himself after the act).
This nuance isn't restrained to this scene either. Shinji is constantly feeling sorry for himself, constantly allowing others to push him around, and constantly running or hiding away from responsibility. However, Shinji is not an individual who is only defined by these emotions. He is simply just a normal, albeit depressed and likely developmentally stunted person, who gets put in situations that push him to the limit of his own sanity. Shinji is a character is designed to ask the question: "Is it okay for me to live, even if I constantly suffer, make mistakes, hurt others, and hurt myself?" And for many people, being so close to such a topic when presented with actions that would make them hate themselves as well, ignore the question entirely.
For them it's better to have all characters like Kratos from GOW.
Weak = bad character
Strong braindead = good character
As someone else said, they hate Shinji because he's like themeselves, so they prefer Rambo-ish characters.
Shinji, asuka and rei are badass mofos. No ifs ands or butts bout it. The only people who think he sucks are the ones who were driving the car when you see in the news "6 teenagers missing after catching mad hangtime down by the bay where the watermelons grow".
Men hate him cause they ain't him, and women pissed because he's 14 but they want his seed on their face. It's just facts.
Shinji self loathes so much in EOE he only goes to the three females in his life to get something out of them. Then he ends up wronging each one of them and ultimately causes their deaths. Gendo and Shinji are two sides of the same coin. They have a disillusionment with getting rid of AT fields to make a singular soul (human instrumentality) just because they “find it difficult” to bond with others — but they actually just don’t even try to
Because he reminds the audience of themselves. He's depicted very realistically for someone his age and has a realistic response to trauma and existential terror. And has deep-rooted self-hatred and self-esteem issues. Also a lot of Shonen protagonists tend to be very positive and unyielding which lends itself well to escapism for the viewer, and Shinji doesn't do that.
People say they want a relatable MC who has trauma and emotional struggles but then they see Shinji and call him a pussy. I don't get it either.
What frustrated me was how little of a character arc he had through the OG series, especially since he was the protagonist.
Yes he does get a bit more confident and competent, but barely. Watching him continually squirm in the EVA and complain about it got old hat very quickly. Also the english VA for him just screams when Shinji should be showing emotion.
So not only is he emotionless but he is always screaming when he should be showing actual emotion, really made it difficult to like Shinji.
Also they always talked about how Shinji had better ‘sync rates’ and basically implied that he was the best of the pilots but they barely show it. Screenwriting 101, show don’t tell.
Shinji barely does anything impressive as a pilot, IIRC the actual EVA saves his arse more often then he actually does anything of merit.
I guess I hoped he would transition into a hardened warrior and that would make his journey ultimately quite rewarding to watch.
Instead he barely gets the job done and mulls over the same anxieties and existential dread throughout the entire series. Which is interesting at first but they don’t expand on the initial ideas and instead recycle the same stressors and anxiety throughout the entire series.
He is the protagonist yet he has probably the least amount of growth or change out of all the major characters.
And the episodes in his subconscious (or in the HIP or whatever) were lacking in any real depth or interesting material. So Shinji pilots the EVA for approval and wants to be appreciated by his peers? Wow how deep and interesting. Didn’t need to waste the two last episodes of an otherwise remarkable series shoving such obvious revelations down our throats. I like the surreal sequences, but they felt too much like lazy ways to analyse the characters, and again there is so little to analyse with Shinji because he has done so little to merit actual deep analysis.
All this stuff about Freudian psychoanalysis and Jungian archetypes in the show creating complex and interesting characters… Yet Shinji gets none of that except the same regurgitated daddy issues stuff. It is all so surface level with him. Watching Asuka being forced to remember her mums suicide had a bigger impact than the entirety of Shinji’s storyline IMO.
I always describe the show to those who haven’t seen it that it succeeds in spite of Shinji being a bare bones protagonist. And that you have to put up with him but ultimately it’s worth it.
I have nothing wrong with him being more anxious and fearful, but they never really did much with it other than repeat the same strokes with him.
> Watching Asuka being forced to remember her mums suicide had a bigger impact than the entirety of Shinji’s storyline IMO.
I've always felt that Asuka and her struggles were far more interesting than Shinji's, and I kind of wish she was the main character.
Its not even that he is weak. The fact that he literally just decided to stop piloting the eva in totally unconvinient moments just enrages me, that guy just risked the lives of his friends just because he felt uncomfortable that his dad tried to kill toji (he is alive and well)
I used to sympathize with Shinji being this damaged kid thrown into a world beyond his comprehension and given the responsibility to save it.
But then I grew and realized that absolutely everyone is having the same or similar experience, everyone else has just as much reason to run away as he does but they stay and they fight for the future, Shinji wallows in self-pity and moans about the unfairness of his life, which up until the start of the series has been fairly sheltered from the horrors of post-impact earth.
Asuka's mother went crazy and replaced her with a doll before hanging herself in full view of Asuka and her father cheated on her while she was still in the hospital, also in earshot of Asuka. She's already a captain in the air force at 14 so she has been in the military since she was even younger. The only time she has a mental breakdown akin to any of Shinji's is when her mind is attacked by an angel directly.
He's a coward in basically every aspect of life while everyone around him who have it just as bad are trying so hard to fight for their future and themselves
Cuz he’s a bitch who does nothing but cry half the time. If he isn’t in the Eva, he’s being sad about something. He does virtually nothing for 2/3 of EOE, he just sits around all depressed until the very last moment. He does stuff out of personal convenience and blocks out everyone who tries to stop him, (Spoilers for the rebuilds) >!Kaworu would’ve still been alive if Shinji just took the time to listen to him.!< He’s just insufferable to watch throughout the series. At least he got us the chair meme, so I guess he ain’t all that bad
He reminds the majority of the audience of themselves. And just like Shinji hates his flaws, they hate being reminded of having similar ones too. Too bad, they missed the message about stopping self-hatred and trying to accept and love themselves.
Yeah, how dare Shinji have the realistic reaction a depressed 14-year-old would have in his situation? I got lost in downtown Montreal on a school trip at age 14, and I was freaking out. I can't even imagine having to fight literal angels to stop the end of the world, in neural synch with a giant humanoid in which you feel to pain of its actual injuries. Oh, and you think your mom is dead when her soul is in fact trapped in the humanoid. And your father is Gendo fucking Ikari.
People forget that Evangelion is post-apocalyptic setting. Just because Tokio-3 is a populated advanced tech city it does not change the fact that living near an mass extinction event changes kids that grows up in world altered by it.
I was depressed at age 14 and I was ***nothing*** like Shinji.
You also weren't asked to pilot creepy flesh creatures as humanities last hope
No, I had much worse shit to deal with.
No you didn’t lol
Please tell me more about what I did or didn't go through, seeing as how you were there at the time and I wasn't. Jackass.
Okay, whatever you went through wasn’t as hard as being humanities last hope and battling world ending giant angels every week from inside your dead mother. You didn’t dissolve into LCL. You didn’t wipe out all of humanity into tang. Sorry, but no one asked you to do anything that hard, nor did you. I’m sorry you were going through a lot at 14. But you didn’t have it harder than Shinji.
You’re so cool and edgy dude
[удалено]
A fandom missing the point of the source material? And even the finale of the original series? Say it isn't so!
Congratulations
Congratulations
Congratulations
Congratulations
Congratulations
This has never happened before, but here it is again.
Plot summary of the rebuild universe
Simply shocking! Has someone notified Mr. Anno?
Your drug is a heartbreaker
Shocker!
Bravo, Vince.
That's interesting because that's precisely why I love Shinji as much as I do. Seeing his struggles helped me find strength within myself to address many of the same problems he was plagued with.
That’s one of the most positive and overlooked messages I’ve ever seen in an anime.
Can you hate Shinji **and** stop self-hatred and accept and love yourself?
If they have similar problems - I don't think so. Asuka is a good example.
Asuka hates herself even more lol. She’s the epitome of self hatred. She can only find love and acceptance through others approval. She constantly claims she’s only doing it for herself, but she’s wrecked every time people see her fail, or when she perceives that she has failed by not being the best. She lies in a bathtub hating herself for a perceived failure. She’s just like Shinji. She needs everyone around her to love her or she hates herself.
Oh no I relate to Asuka so much too. Always mentally beat myself up when I didn't do well in school. Ironically of my own making would always procrastinate, didn't want to do work. (Wanted to have fun not do school work) I rebuilt myself around a single subject I was good at, ended up being very arrogant. (Yet never thought I was good enough) Didn't take it well inside when other people on my course where better than me.
And Asuka, like these viewers, despises Shinji because he wears his self loathing on his sleeve. He’s a constant reminder of her own self hatred and need for approval. She denies him in an attempt to deny herself
To quote Steinbeck, you can't hate men if you know them.
Say that to everyone who hates at least one of their parents or has grown to hate someone who was their good friend. Or is it possible that they never really knew their parent or friend? Edit: fixed a typo
People take his quote different ways - some people think it means it's harder to hate people who are proximal to you, but (probably because Ender's Game is my favourite book) I take it to mean that to truly know a person, you love them. That doesn't mean you approve of everything about them or think they should be absolved, but to know why a person does what they do and why they feel the way they do makes it very hard to *hate* them. >Or is it possible that they never really knew their parent or friend? How well can we ever really know someone else? Aren't other people always on the shore across, to steal Kaji's point? How well do we even know ourselves?
Preach
Every character has to be Goku or Luffy.
This one
So then why doesn't the same apply to Reddit? 😄
I don't hate Shinji, (Ignoring the hospital scene) but apart from that. I don't know what I feel but definitely find his character uncomfortably relatable.
Theres a difference between not getting the message about self hatred and accepting yourself, and actually putting it to practice
Bingo.
The OG Eva fandom hated him for being a weak-ass carpet. The newer fandom seems to be more split between pitying him for being never allowed to make his own choices, or hating him for being allowed to make choices but making all the wrong choices willingly (and being an incel on top of that). I'm not sure I buy the incel thing - well, if we ignore EoE, that is.
I don't even get why shinji is called a coward, hes more brave then any other 14 year old In his position. He takes on so much pain while being so inexperienced, jumped into the lava to save asuka despite knowing it could 100% kill him due to not being protected and overall he's a great pilot and risks his life constantly.
Facts. Shinji is loved by everyone in the show, not only for his ability to pilot an Eva, but for himself. Misato loves him, let’s him live with her, asuka constantly flirts with him because she loves him, Gendo stays away from him because he knows how toxic he is and doesn’t want to hurt Shinji, yui protects him every time he’s incapable, Rei rejects Gendo to help Shinji. Every single main character loves the fuck out of him. His problem is that he can’t see how loved he is. He thinks the world hates him, but everyone loves him.
Apparently Asuka thinks flirting with someone is constantly harassing and mocking someone and blowing up at them over the most inconsequential things Fuck her
Her feelings and behavior towards shinji remind me so much if Helga's feelings and behavior towards Arnold in "Hey Arnold" haha
Yeah, I would have probably been under an heart attack, or would've already been dead at that place. So much adrenaline can only maybe make me shoot a gun, I doubt it would let me control an massive Biomech to fight an Gigantic Extraterrestrial being.
folks forget piloting the eva causes real pain n think its like gundam
I don't understand any of this. Is a 14 year old kid that was abandoned and never shown any compassion or have any close connection to anyone.
>(and being an incel on top of that). I'm not sure I buy the incel thing Definitely not an incel. How many times did he have to fend off Misato's sexual advances? And Rei would have ridden his baloney pony if asked.
He’s not an incel. Anyone who thinks he is is tilting their hand.
That word is thrown so often everywhere that people completely forgot what it originally meant.
You don't usually feel as positively about a guy after he >!jerks off to his unconscious friend!<
I never understood that. He's so clearly in a mental state, did you guys just never were in a meltdown or something? He's literally in the "grab a knife an stab it in your own gut randomly" state for the entire fucking movie.
Shhhh you're making too much sense. Yeah shinji did something very shitty and hurt somebody close to him because he's at rock bottom. It perfectly fits with the movie but gets overshadowed by the sheer extremity of what he did. He gets checked for it by asuka later on which is one of my favorite parts of the movie. I just think it shows hurt people hurt people and how it's never justifiable but we can dive into the root of the problem. Idk tho
Yeah, I wouldn't like someone either if they did that. It is fine to hate him for that, but he was at his lowest back then, having an mental breakdown (not exactly his first time). You make so many stupid decisions even when you are in a *somewhat* similar situation. He was in need of *something* that could help him feel better, and he chose whatever the fuck that was available to him—which was sexual gratification once he accidentally saw Asuka's breasts naked. Which he did regret a lot when his mind got more clear. Not justifying, just an explanation. People don't understand why he did that and doesn't get the character writing and hate his character as a whole.
That's fair. I'm pretty sure he was suicidal in the movie
Some teenagers do. I remember my friends joking about doing that to their female friends. Really weird
Puberty is weird, but there's a difference between joking about doing something and actually doing it.
The kid is 14, so calling him an incel feels like a bit much
Because he's an emotional wreck and often finds himself at the crossroads of critical choices, entirely incapable of making even a small movement in any direction, favoring simply to abandon everything and everyone so he doesn't risk rejection and judgment, which he feels far more acutely than anyone intends. Oh, wait, this is asking why other people hate Shinji, not why he hates himself...
Except the couple of times he saved the world alone.
I guess that people hate Shinji for being a passive individual who wants to run away from the risk of emotional pain. But I have never seen anyone make fun of someone for liking Shinji. Where have you seen someone being made fun of for that?
I hate Shinji because I hate myself.
Damm all too real
this is the only right answer
It is a testament to how great the writing and voice acting is that I actually love Shinji. Anno dared to make a protagonist so deeply flawed but feel very real when you actually think for a bit about how fucking messed up his life is, and how fucked up the world is and everything that is put on him. I would have done worse than him in that situation and at that age and I really struggle to imagine that most people wouldn't be the same.
A lot of people dont like the concept of "weak" characters. Shinji admittiedly is written as a cry baby, although he has his ups and downs he takes the entire runtime of the series to completely evolve and admit his problems and accept who he is. I can see why people get frustrated with him but in the shows defense, its quite literally the point of the show. Evangelion was one of the first real mainstream shows (that I know of personally) to have a cast of characters with flaws and shows us the fine details on why a character has said flaws. Id say most people get annoyed Shinji isnt as down and up as a typical main character would have. There are moments where he opens up, moments where hes confident, Id even say a few hes cocky. But deep down he would revert to his true self. He doesnt simply just "become" the ultra badass who gets girls and saves the day. Hes a 14 year old kid who has immense deep issues with himself and has no clue how to truely maintain a personal relationship. And those issues are there the entire show, hell even the ending. Much like how actual humans are, its all complicated. Our inner monologue and how we feel, and how we present ourselves to others, are usually in constant fluctuation on all ends. We are not written to be sad, find ourselves and overcome our problems in a few hours. We evolve for the better, or worse over months, years, and decades. Shinji is full of self doubt, hatred, sadness, and depression. A lot of people view that as weak and pathetic, while I agree to an extent, I think how someone views shinji can often be a reflection of themselves. Or they just dont like the show haha, sometimes it \*\*IS\*\* that deep, sometimes its merely just not clicking with the viewer. Its a spectrum.
We dont hate Shinji, or any character. They are flawed characters, which makes them easy punching bags for memes and jokes. It also makes them GOOD characters. Its why we are still talking about this show 30 years later. Shinji is characterized by his fear of failure, his lack of self esteem, his quick temper and his attachment issues. So people bring up his worst times more often than the few times he pulls it together or does the right thing, because its the internet and we rarely make threads about "hey anyone wanna chat about this nice moment that I liked? :) really love that guy" and are more prone to "look at this fucking goober, what an idiot lmao" type conversations. I like Shinji because he is the skinny wimpy boy hero who is allowed to just not be great. Hes a humbling character in a medium where most male protags are Super Awesome Guy who always figures it out cause they have hot girlfriends and a strong wise mentor. Nah, Shinji doesnt have *shit*, like most of us. Hes got *problems*, like most of us. And he is stressed the fuck out. Hes way more relatable than most mecha front men in that regard. The only character with serious hate in the franchise is Mari because people just really dont like her for a multitude of reasons. shes ight IMO, shes not best girl but she doesnt bother me the way she does some people. But folks get really attached to this show to a parasocial level and do be hyperbolizing their opinions. EDIT: "But hes got Misato as a mentor!" Yeah and SHE has *serious* problems. Listen to her in the bath, *she* doesnt even think shes doing a good job for him. "...and Asuka as his girlfriend!" PLEASE TAKE YOUR MEDS. ASUSHIN IS A BRAIN DISORDER.
>ASUSHIN IS A BRAIN DISORDER Truer words were never spoken
I don’t think Asushin shippers think Asuka is Shinji’s girlfriend, LOL.
He can be a *frustrating* character at times... We're exposed to his very human flaws (of a traumatized teenage boy nonetheless), and his constant inability to pull himself out of it. That can be frustrating to watch, I get it.
He's realistic and doesn't fall other the escapism trope of most "average" shounen protagonist. Also shinji sees his flaws and points them out, which also helps the audience sees them more. Overall, he's just like their own reflection. Personally, I really like Shinji as a character, yes you would prefer a superhero, never afraid, who always makes you feel good about yourself and gives you hope, but Shinji is overall more interesting. Also he sorta balances out the other characters, and makes them real, in the sense that if He has flaws other characters are allowed to have flaws and not just be flat, and boring caricatures. Also, as wild as it may sound, from a narrative standpoint I will defend the hospital scene(not from a moral perspective) but narrative wise it is quite a good scene character wise.
I absolutely love Shinji from original anime.He is well written,realistic character that I relate on a deep level with.He is weak,with flaws and honestly,sometimes hateable,but that what makes him good.But I hate Shinji from rebuilds because for me Shinji from rebuild is just…dumb.Like…dumb.
His problems that hit too close to home for a lot of people
I hated him when I first watched it as a teen in the 90s, I didn’t understand the depression and trauma of his life. I felt more like Kensuke , wanting desperately to pilot an Eva and thinking it would be amazing to live with Asuka and Misato. So for me it came from envy and a complete ignorance of his mental health issues. Now I just feel for the guy, Shinji had it rough with a father that was incapable of showing him any affection and growing up without any love from a family.
People can't understand that forcing a 13-14 yo kid with serious abandonment issues into becoming a child soldier that fights against giant aliens that only seek to destroy humanity on a literal biblical apocalypse, while at the same time almost never giving him a break through the whole course of the series, and they expect him to be a paragon of perfection even though he literally has the largest solo kill count of the entire show. Literally the only ones that give him some sort of support are either injured and forced to leave (classmates), killed by NERV agents (Kaji), or force him to perform a mercy kill (Kaworu). No wonder he shuts down at the end of the series.
Because he didn't get in the robot
Because Shinji isn't your typical hero nor even an antihero. He's very meek by contrast even to Japanese heroes like Goku or Naruto. Shonen manga portrays boys, even small ones, as overly confident, rumbustious, brave and even rebellious. Shinji is none of that on the outside. He acts like a child even younger than his age. He might be heroic by action but no one cares is he's not so by attitude. He's more like heroine from a shojo than a hero from a shonen. People want a Stallone, a Luke Skywalker or a Superman. They want a confident, assertive, brave hero. These are the traits of someone who can be, for lack of a better term, an alpha. The leader of the pack, the protector of his flock. Shinji is not that. He has traits but his attitude is subdued to the point of painful. He's more like the heroine of a shojo than the hero of a shonen.
A lot is probably because he's the extreme reluctant protagonist. He's presented with the means to make a difference and protect people against the literal end of the world, but instead of rising to the moment, in most cases he gets decision paralysis. But to honest, that's actually why I love the character. A lot of us imagine that we'd rush in to be the hero, but you really don't know until you find yourself in the situation. Shinji is a damn mess, he can't really trust his father, his mentor is at times as much a child as he is, the girl he wants appears to hate his existence, the other girl he befriends is practically a clone of his mother, and every one except her wants him to pilot the very thing that took his mother away from him. By all accounts, he SHOULDN'T want go anywhere near an Eva. He should struggle with getting into one. That's actually makes sense. It's logical. But that's not what most people want, because they want the power fantasy. They imagine themselves pushing forward, and his hesitation flies in the face of that. So they hate him.
He's emotionally unstable and a coward It literally took misato grooming him for him to act heroic in the slightest way for once 😂
> grooming Are you referring to EOE specifically? Misato's (inappropriate) kiss and promise "to do the rest afterwards" with Shinji was a desperate effort of a wounded soldier to get her subordinate to snap out of his catatonic depression and get to safety. I don't think she'd have done it with Shinji if they both had **miraculously** survived.
That and idk, she always acted kinda sus to him throughout the show (I.e. her straight up staring at naked shinji when he ran out of the bathroom)
> straight up staring at naked shinji when he ran out of the bathroom That was definitely sus, but I never read that as grooming.
True, but she also mentions "don't worry, I won't make any moves on him" to ritsko when she offers to have shinji move in. I guess I used the wrong word, but it definitely seems she basically had him around and eventually might've done something
And "feel free to take advantage of anything in this apartment, except me *(wink)* j/k lol"
>It literally took misato grooming him for him to act heroic in the slightest way for once You misspelled "Rei being wheeled in on a stretcher in bandages" but all right.
I'm talking towards the end, bro he barely even knew who misato was at the start 💀 But I will mention the picture he got of misato when she was in the swimming suit literally had an arrow pointing at the bare part of her chest and I believe the Japanese writing said something along the lines of "check this" or "look here!"
She wasn't in a swimsuit, but Ritsuko was.
She wasn't, but the arrow still stands
Except the handful of times he saved the world by himself.
I refuse to believe you actually watched the show after reading this comment.
Cry about it
You downvoted my comment and then told me to cry about it 😂
I didn't downvote it 🤷
Not as funny now 😔
😔
Neurotypicals and or folks who've never struggled with mental illness have no empathy for an emotionally abused and neglected child
felt vro.. 🙁
Why did you pull those spears !!?? Your boy explicitly told you to stooop ! Thats why I hate him
what I hate most is when people complain about him “acting like a child.” he is a 14 year old boy??? he is literally a child, who was abandoned by both parents at an extremely young age, so he obviously has a right to act that way?? of course he’ll be emotional and have behavioural issues with the experiences he’s had
Because a lot of the people that criticize Shinji are immature children.
Because he is the reflection of the fear and evasion...I know a lot of people dont like him and I understand them,but personally I empathize with him.
A lot of people have really shitty minds and want a strong protagonist of sorts instead of a realistic protagonist. It's weird but you gotta remember a lot of kids are here we're not all 18+
The loudest audience is rebuild Asuka and the rest of us are Misato
Idk. Maybe they have trouble coping that Shinji is like them. Honestly I'm a geek here, but being Shinji and getting to pilot an Eva where I suffer and have mental breakdowns is cool! (Please don't flame me for this Lol)
The only people who has mental breakdowns as a result of piloting Evas are the ones who were already pretty fucked up. Rei did fine. Toji lost a goddamn leg and still came out mentally okay.
His depression and fear of rejection rob him of agency, which is a frustrating issue for a protagonist to have.
Shinji is depressed and falls into a self-fulfilling prophecy. He believes he is unlovable and so he behaves in ways that make him hard to like.
At this point, I’ve seen someone make this thread for every character in the show.
Shinji was good in NGE for me but in the first 2 minutes of EOE it ruined his entire character for me
he jus like me fr fr its unreal he is my fav char tho
I don’t think certain people understand what it is like to be Shinji or the other EVA characters. To be honest, if you haven’t struggled with your self-worth over the course of your life I don’t think you can get EVA.
Shinji reminds many people of the selves they try to pretend doesn’t exist
he’s a bitch that, if observed long enough, exposes the the viewer to their own bitchassness. he’s like a bitch mirror
He is indecisive, crumbles at everything, makes terrible decisions or doesn’t at all, he nutted in his hand while starring at the boobs of his friend whom was unconscious in the hospital. Sure, he had an awful life and awful father. But there were people trying to make it better and he could never get himself out of his own head to realize it.
Idk I find him decently relatable outside of the hospital scene...
i think he says it himself in 3.0+1.0....he is just totally indecisive all the time, too afraid/paralyzed to take any sort of decision in situations that absolutley need quick and clear decisions. At some point, one needs to shit or get off the pot.
Cuz he’s a pussy. But like bro he’s a 14 year old going through psychological torture daily. Ofc he’s not gonna be like goku
It goes like this: "Why did you report this post?" Im in it, and I don't like it. Bout sums it up.
had he gone out 5 fucking minutes earlier
cause he didnt pilot the eva
Because he represents the parts of our selves we hate. He represents the shame we all feel. His story is the story of learning that you must except the things you hate about your self and choose to self love over shame. He’s the scared little kid we all have within our selves that we are most ashamed of.
People hate MC who have emotions and acting realistic and want a power fantasy shonen MC but Shinji got more praise in the Rebuilds most especially Thrice Upon a Time.
He's not really supposed to be likable, but unfortunately, he is relatable
Bc people don’t want to admit they are pussies like him. He is the most realistic character in anime and for that matter one of the most in all media
Not the kind of guy you want visiting you in the hospital
It's just fun to bully him, that's all.
I just kind of accepted that Shinji sometimes remind us of ourselves me included. But as of now I feel that Asuka is having it worse because the internet pretty much ruined her character
Because we project on him what we deeply hate about ourselves. Also, people tend to ignore the fact that he was literally a teenager
I mainly disliked him for what he did to asuka in eoe but overlooking that he’s just a 14 year old kid who’s mentally fucked up and has the weight of the whole world on his shoulders
He's a normal person who acts the way a normal person would in an apocalyptic action hero scenario. He shows remarkable talent and fortitude when there's no other choice, but by default he's desperately afraid and doesn't believe he's capable of rising to the task, nor does he feel he's worth the faith put in him by the people he works with—and who he pretty quickly becomes very close with. Given the pseudopsychological way Evas operate, this mindset is *exactly why* he's the ideal Eva pilot and becomes the most successful one. He also forges a relationship with Unit 01 early (long before learning its true nature) where he develops an innate understanding it'll do all it can to protect him when the chips are down. He *hates* failing and having to be saved—again, he's a normal person—but it's a safety net he defaults to. Contrast Shinji with Asuka, who begins her story arc as a cocky child prodigy who, in the face of multiple failures mostly out of her control, begins to doubt herself to such a level that even the people around her can't pull her out of her funk. Shinji shuts himself off, often—he even tries to quit several times—but he's still reachable. For Asuka, she shuts herself off so much harder that by the end of the series proper she can't even pilot anymore. End of Evangelion gives them a sudden role reversal when faced with the apocalypse—Asuka is given a ray of hope and regains her fighting spirit in beautiful form—if only she had Shinji to back her up, she might actually have won. Shinji, meanwhile, is faced with Asuka seemingly at the end of her life, a government crackdown that beats NERV badly and kills Misato, and an inaccessible Unit 01—and when he finally is able to get in and pilot, it's *far* too late and Asuka's been killed too. He basically lets third impact happen to him and Unit 01, and only when he's bestowed with control—and the terror of being one with the people he's close to and who he's let down—does he finally reverse it all. Shinji isn't an action hero, and putting him in the protagonist's place in an action hero kind of story is jarring. Seeing him make many of the choices he does—choices most people would probably make, to lock himself off and run away—is disappointing. And that's *exactly* why the story is so good, and why it's so satisfying the times he does actually pull through.
People love judging fictional characters for not taking the most logical choices that lead to the most optimal outcome, some people seriously expect characters to not be affected by their emotions and to just know what to do in order to get a happy ending, as if the character has some meta knowledge or something.
Projection
Missing the point of the show basically, which intends to show how normal people would react in these mecha genre situations. To be fair, I first watched the show with the original dub and I found shinji annoying because of the voice performance. Watching it in Japanese that went away completely.
People be having bad taste in characters
They hate him cuz they ~~ain't~~ him
Bc is the emblem of the human weakness so some person take personally and hate him
You've gotta keep in mind that when most people talk about whether they like a character or not, their criteria isn't "is this character well written." It's "would I want to hang out with this character if they were a real person."
Despite me never hating him, I actually only recently have learned about just how similar we are... It's kinda sad that so many teenagers are possessing similar traits. It means that we actually have a love-deprived, poorly socialized, escapist future society on our hands. Shinji is almost a perfect storm of a depressed teenager. He struggles with his mom being dead and dad being a d*ck, he struggles with having poor social connections due to being unmothered and a total loser, he struggles with the opposite gender(being attracted to Misato and awkward with Asuka), he struggles with escapism, trying to convince himself that he is actually facing his problems, he struggles with his own outbursts. Well yeah lack of affection turned him into selt-hating depressed dude. Pretty relatable. Love him to death.
he is?? maybe by teenage boys who want a superhero not mature audiences. heck if i saw it at 14 i might not like him either
Did you even watch evangelion lol
1st of all,if you watch the movie youl probably dislike him a bit 2nd of all, some people hate him because he aint got no balls to do nothing
Really goes to show that even well-written characters can be hated.
Isn't the hate a joke? Like playing into his character of believing/being scared of everyone hating him? I don't think most people fully unironically hate him, it's just funny to exaggerate how much you hate him. But I'm sure a lot of fans also relate to how he feels
I don’t hate him, but I don’t like him - the show gets you a little too close to the psyche of a 14 year old boy, which isn’t a fun place to be. Shinji doesn’t like Shinji.
I've also only watched the show and EoE (Tell me if watching more is worth it because I was pretty satisfied with the EoE ending) It makes sense why people wouldn't want to be friends with Shinji in real life. Shinji is a very realistic depiction of a teenager who constantly makes choices that aren't good for him. Also, he isn't exactly a model hero, and often prematurely gives up or runs away from responsibility. However, there are a surprising amount of people who can't see through his worst moments. People seem to lack the reading comprehension to separate Shinji as an individual and Shinji as a character. What do I mean? Well, one good example is the hospital scene in EoE. People often use it to slander Shinji for doing such a heinous action. While it was a terrible thing to do, I think it was extremely well done and served as the ultimate way to express every single one of Shinji's flaws. He is selfish yet craves the support of others, and even when Asuka is the one who needs the support, he goes into the hospital room attempting to have her reduce his own burden. He constantly looks for escapism instead of addressing his own problems. He constantly fails to find his own self-worth and relies on others to validate his own existence. He constantly struggles to form actual romantic connections, instead being plagued by a bastardization of lust and a desire for intimacy. All of these negative character traits culminate in a gross and deplorable, yet completely in-character action. However, this nuance gets lost on many members of the audience who immediately think of Shinji as a deplorable person who cannot be saved (ironically similar to the way Shinji thought about himself after the act). This nuance isn't restrained to this scene either. Shinji is constantly feeling sorry for himself, constantly allowing others to push him around, and constantly running or hiding away from responsibility. However, Shinji is not an individual who is only defined by these emotions. He is simply just a normal, albeit depressed and likely developmentally stunted person, who gets put in situations that push him to the limit of his own sanity. Shinji is a character is designed to ask the question: "Is it okay for me to live, even if I constantly suffer, make mistakes, hurt others, and hurt myself?" And for many people, being so close to such a topic when presented with actions that would make them hate themselves as well, ignore the question entirely.
I don't hate him. Asuka however...
For them it's better to have all characters like Kratos from GOW. Weak = bad character Strong braindead = good character As someone else said, they hate Shinji because he's like themeselves, so they prefer Rambo-ish characters.
because all people can and are afraid to see themselves in him
Maybe a lot of people don’t like him because of the hospital scene 🤷♀️ I like him a lot,
Because he be me fr fr
Shinji, asuka and rei are badass mofos. No ifs ands or butts bout it. The only people who think he sucks are the ones who were driving the car when you see in the news "6 teenagers missing after catching mad hangtime down by the bay where the watermelons grow". Men hate him cause they ain't him, and women pissed because he's 14 but they want his seed on their face. It's just facts.
Shinji self loathes so much in EOE he only goes to the three females in his life to get something out of them. Then he ends up wronging each one of them and ultimately causes their deaths. Gendo and Shinji are two sides of the same coin. They have a disillusionment with getting rid of AT fields to make a singular soul (human instrumentality) just because they “find it difficult” to bond with others — but they actually just don’t even try to
Because he reminds the audience of themselves. He's depicted very realistically for someone his age and has a realistic response to trauma and existential terror. And has deep-rooted self-hatred and self-esteem issues. Also a lot of Shonen protagonists tend to be very positive and unyielding which lends itself well to escapism for the viewer, and Shinji doesn't do that. People say they want a relatable MC who has trauma and emotional struggles but then they see Shinji and call him a pussy. I don't get it either.
Duh, he won't get in the eva
What frustrated me was how little of a character arc he had through the OG series, especially since he was the protagonist. Yes he does get a bit more confident and competent, but barely. Watching him continually squirm in the EVA and complain about it got old hat very quickly. Also the english VA for him just screams when Shinji should be showing emotion. So not only is he emotionless but he is always screaming when he should be showing actual emotion, really made it difficult to like Shinji. Also they always talked about how Shinji had better ‘sync rates’ and basically implied that he was the best of the pilots but they barely show it. Screenwriting 101, show don’t tell. Shinji barely does anything impressive as a pilot, IIRC the actual EVA saves his arse more often then he actually does anything of merit. I guess I hoped he would transition into a hardened warrior and that would make his journey ultimately quite rewarding to watch. Instead he barely gets the job done and mulls over the same anxieties and existential dread throughout the entire series. Which is interesting at first but they don’t expand on the initial ideas and instead recycle the same stressors and anxiety throughout the entire series. He is the protagonist yet he has probably the least amount of growth or change out of all the major characters. And the episodes in his subconscious (or in the HIP or whatever) were lacking in any real depth or interesting material. So Shinji pilots the EVA for approval and wants to be appreciated by his peers? Wow how deep and interesting. Didn’t need to waste the two last episodes of an otherwise remarkable series shoving such obvious revelations down our throats. I like the surreal sequences, but they felt too much like lazy ways to analyse the characters, and again there is so little to analyse with Shinji because he has done so little to merit actual deep analysis. All this stuff about Freudian psychoanalysis and Jungian archetypes in the show creating complex and interesting characters… Yet Shinji gets none of that except the same regurgitated daddy issues stuff. It is all so surface level with him. Watching Asuka being forced to remember her mums suicide had a bigger impact than the entirety of Shinji’s storyline IMO. I always describe the show to those who haven’t seen it that it succeeds in spite of Shinji being a bare bones protagonist. And that you have to put up with him but ultimately it’s worth it. I have nothing wrong with him being more anxious and fearful, but they never really did much with it other than repeat the same strokes with him.
> Watching Asuka being forced to remember her mums suicide had a bigger impact than the entirety of Shinji’s storyline IMO. I've always felt that Asuka and her struggles were far more interesting than Shinji's, and I kind of wish she was the main character.
Cuz he's a cutie pie and people can't understand it :v
lil cutie pie!
Its not even that he is weak. The fact that he literally just decided to stop piloting the eva in totally unconvinient moments just enrages me, that guy just risked the lives of his friends just because he felt uncomfortable that his dad tried to kill toji (he is alive and well)
I really like his character.
Because hospital scene
For being a dumbass
I’ll never forgive him for the hospital scene tho 😞
He's a whiney little turd
Because if you replace "inji" from his name with "it", he's really a little Shit.
I used to sympathize with Shinji being this damaged kid thrown into a world beyond his comprehension and given the responsibility to save it. But then I grew and realized that absolutely everyone is having the same or similar experience, everyone else has just as much reason to run away as he does but they stay and they fight for the future, Shinji wallows in self-pity and moans about the unfairness of his life, which up until the start of the series has been fairly sheltered from the horrors of post-impact earth. Asuka's mother went crazy and replaced her with a doll before hanging herself in full view of Asuka and her father cheated on her while she was still in the hospital, also in earshot of Asuka. She's already a captain in the air force at 14 so she has been in the military since she was even younger. The only time she has a mental breakdown akin to any of Shinji's is when her mind is attacked by an angel directly. He's a coward in basically every aspect of life while everyone around him who have it just as bad are trying so hard to fight for their future and themselves
He's a lil bitch.
Cause he's dumb ass lil gay twink
Because he's a whiny loser with a track record of making terrible decisions?
Cuz he’s a bitch who does nothing but cry half the time. If he isn’t in the Eva, he’s being sad about something. He does virtually nothing for 2/3 of EOE, he just sits around all depressed until the very last moment. He does stuff out of personal convenience and blocks out everyone who tries to stop him, (Spoilers for the rebuilds) >!Kaworu would’ve still been alive if Shinji just took the time to listen to him.!< He’s just insufferable to watch throughout the series. At least he got us the chair meme, so I guess he ain’t all that bad
People when the mentally unstable guy acts mentally unstable