Case 4: Ikari Shinji

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Personally, I don't care too much for NGE. It was a good anime, I own the TV series, I've seen the movies, and after all of that, I'm just not that impressed. The way some people talk about this series makes me really feel like I missed something, and I probably did, but I'm just not interested enough to get lectured on what NGE really shows.

How can you have a tortured anime and manga characters page without at least one person from the cast of Evangelion?! I would say Shinji and Asuka are probably the best cantidates. But I would go with Shinji in the end, because he thinks no one likes him, he hates himself, he almost killed one of his few friends, he DID kill his only REAL friend in episode 24, and perhaps worst of all, he never really catches on that Rei is drawn to him too, in a bizzare kind of way. He frequently has emotional breakdowns, gets sucked into strange alternate universes where his worst memories and feelings are brought out, he is forced to pilot a giant robot that is essentially symbolic for PURE EVIL!!!! His dad hates him, his mom is for the most part dead ( if you haven't seen it, I won't bother explaining cause it's complicated). He thinks his legal gardian only takes care of him because she has to, he is forced to live with Asuka, who treats EVERYONE like dirt, especially Shinji, and he looks and talks like a girl!!!!! I think there is maybe one truly happy moment in the whole show, but it certainly is fleeting. For God's sake, put Shinji on your torutured characters page.

And thus, here is Shinji's page. Now, I really have to agree with a lot of points Longinus0 made about Shinji, and since it was put very nicely in this email, I decided just to use his/her words (note to Longinus0: if you want to make changes, just let me know). Sure, call me lazy, but I admit I have a bias against the series.

Now here's my point of view (please don't hate me -- this is just the opinion I'm entitled to): it's Shinji's personality that makes his life suck. Oh yes, there are many times where the situation is completely out of his control, but couldn't he have just slapped Asuka once during the TV series? No, because he is too defensive. He'd do anything just to make sure he can go back to his room later and listen to music. About Shinji and his father...well, I love how my friend put it: (to Shinji Ikari in the first episode of EVANGELION) "Kid, you're making this a lot harder than it has to be. Just get in the robot, step on your dad, then go fight the monster." I guess what I'm trying to say here is that Shinji put himself in a torturous situation, and he doesn't do much to try and fight against it. It's one thing to try and grab the whip that is beating you and another thing to freely give the whip openings to hit. But all in all, Shinji is a horribly tortured character, and deserves to be on this page, even if he always askes for it.