

Even in the flashbacks of Episode 21, “The Birth of NERV,” Gendo is seen secondhand, and he never receives any introspective soliloquies like the rest of the cast do. Onscreen, he’s usually either reporting to the mysterious group SEELE or participating in some vague scheming and philosophizing with his confidant, Kozo Fuyutsuki. Viewers know as little about Gendo as his own son. If there’s one character Evangelion is determined to keep us from knowing, it’s Gendo - in a series filled with absent parents, the senior Ikari is the posterboy. The very nature of individuality makes it impossible for us to truly know others. AT Fields are the walls we erect around ourselves out of fear about how others perceive us. Initially these appear to just be used by the EVAs and the Angels, but the series reveals that, no, all life on Earth has an AT Field. The Hedgehog’s Dilemma is reinforced by AT (Absolute Terror) Fields. The closest the two come to bonding is a curt “good work” to Shinji from Gendo and then a visit to Yui’s grave.

In the present, Gendo summons Shinji only because he needs the boy to pilot EVA Unit 01. An image Evangelion returns to time and time again is of a toddler-aged Shinji at a train station, crying in confusion as his father leaves him. Shinji himself is a withdrawn, self-loathing depressive whose fear of rejection stems from the death of his mother, Yui, and Gendo’s subsequent abandonment of him. Gendo Ikari The Hedgehog’s Dilemma: Love And Pain IntertwinedĬentral to Evangelion’s themes is the Hedgehog’s Dilemma - the closer we get to other people, the more we risk hurting or being hurt by them.

And when you're done here, be sure to also check out our review of the movie and our Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time ending explained. Now that the Evangelion movie 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time is available on Amazon Prime, let's take a closer look at Gendo and his importance to the saga. And the relationship between protagonist Shinji Ikari and his estranged father, Gendo, is an absolute focal point to the series. With the remainder of mankind besieged by the monstrous Angels, the paramilitary NERV recruits children to pilot the EVA mechs and prevent a full-blown apocalypse.īut beneath this sci-fi setting, the series is actually an interrogation of human relationships. Neon Genesis Evangelion is set in a world where at the turn of the 21st century, the cataclysmic “Second Impact” annihilated Antarctica and half of humanity.
