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| “ | Gendo: When Shinji is near me, all I ever do is cause him pain. I thought it was better when I did nothing at all. Yui: Were you afraid of Shinji? |
„ |
| ~ Gendo Ikari's last moments before he dies. |
| “ | The human being forget things to survive, but there are certain things that should not be forgotten. | „ |
| ~ Gendo Ikari. |
Gendo Ikari is the main antagonist of the Sci-Fi anime franchise Neon Genesis Evangelion. He is the father of Shinji Ikari and the leading commander of NERV. In the franchise, he is commonly depicted as a stoic man who is willing to make the sacrifices to complete whatever goals he may have. That includes protecting Earth from a group of aliens, whom are dubbed as Angels. Gendo holds an intimidating appearance and personality as he is always serious in any moment he is in and never expressing any other emotion. As it turns out, Gendo is a member of SEELE, an misanthropic organization who seeks to start human instrumentality, an event where humanity is killed and merged into one secular being. But Gendo holds alternate motives where he would want to resurrect his dead wife through instrumentality.
In the original English dub, he is voiced by Tristan MacAvery and John Swasey in the Directors Cut. In the Netflix's dub, he is voiced by Ray Chase. In all Japanese dubs, Fumihiko Tachiki voices him.
What Makes Him Base-Breaking?[]
What Do People Like About Him?[]
- Gendo is a very complex villain with a tragic story of suffering from extreme self-loathing with the idea of not deserving happiness from others. The only person he ever loved was his wife, Yui Ikari, but after her death when it came to experimenting the Evangelions, shattered much of Gendo's humanity and increased his self-loathing. He then abandons his son because he didn't view himself to be a good parental figure to him and felt Shinji reminds him too much of his wife. In later years as a commander of NERV, he plans on causing human instrumentality to resurrect his wife.
- His goal of wanting to resurrect his wife makes his story compelling and a bit relatable.
- His skills as commander of NERV is pretty cool.
- Gendo's pose has reached iconic status to the point of being reference in other media and became a meme.
- Gendo receives a tragic end to his story where he admits to the spirits of Kaworu, Rei, and Yui, that he does not deserve any form of happiness including from Shinji after all he has done in his life. After Yui death, he closed off all of his connections by isolating himself. He expresses regret for not taking his responsibilities as a father and realizes that him and Shinji are not so different. He then allows Unit-O1 to kill him right before he asks forgiveness from Shinji despite knowing his son will never forgive him.
What Do People Hate About Him?[]
- Gendo's treatment of his son has caused him to be a very controversial character within the fanbase with many finding his reasons inexcusable. The fact he refuses to raise Shinji because he reminds him of his dead wife and not viewing himself as a good parent led many detractors see him as a pathetic man, who refuses to take responsibility. Due to abandoning his son, Shinji develop similar mental problems and self-loathing issues, he even selected Shinji to pilot Unit-01 while showing little reaction to his son's problems. Shinji's mental issues would've been prevented had Gendo taken his responsibilities as a parent more seriously.
- The hate for him was so extreme that many label him as "the worst father in all of fiction".
- His stoic personality made some view him lacking humanity as Gendo holds no reaction to anything around him including the suffering of others. With this in mind, makes him sound to be pretty cruel of a person.
- Some detractors don't like his relationship with Rei as not only its evidence on how neglectful he is towards Shinji but also finding the relationship creepy. She is the only person he express any emotions towards and led everyone to believe that he is her guardian but in actuality, she is a clone of his wife. This twist brings a more dark idea of Gendo as a person and led some people to dislike him even more.
- While at that, he was planning to use Rei in his attempt of resurrecting Yui by having her merge with Lilith to create human instrumentality.
External Links[]
- Gendo Ikari on the Evangelion Wiki
- Gendo Ikari on the Villains Wiki
- Gendo Ikari on the Inconsistently Heinous Wiki
- Gendo Ikari on the Magnificent Baddie Wiki