How would Evangelion be if Shinji wasn’t a coward?

[TheFireman]

Not nearly as good because the fact that he acts like an actual, prepubescent boy with fears and issues instead of like pretty much every other teenage protagonist in an Anime about teenagers fighting monsters/big bads - that fact is essential to the story and the show's themes.

"Get in the fucking Robot, Shinji" and the regular Waifu debates about which traumatised minor you'd like to fuck the most are the two reasons why I find the NGE fandom pretty much insufferable, because it portrays such an amazing lack of understanding of what the show is about, what story it's telling and which themes it portrays (and because the second point is just fucking gross either way).

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I like to assume that most the waifu debates are being done by minors or people who remember watching the show as a minor. It kinda backs up a lot of the shows themes if minors are completely missing the point of the show.

But realistically it's probably mostly weirdo adults.

 

[Deleted member 27246]

I like to assume that most the waifu debates are being done by minors or people who remember watching the show as a minor..

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Yeah that is what you'd like to assume.... but you probably know the truth...

But realistically it's probably mostly weirdo adults.

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I see you know the truth.

 

[Chaos2Frozen]

I feel like the Netflix-Devilman show is prety similiar to EVA in the way it tells it's story and how every character's actions has real consequences, no matter if those consequences go according to typical storytelling conventions or would lead to a fully fledged character arc, where you end up at a point where everything gets wrapped up in a neat little bow.

Which, of course, isn't surprising since the original Devilman was one of the inspirations for NGE. But since I never had any contact with Devilman those similiarities really surprised me.

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Ah I should mention what I mean is my admittedly highly specific taste in hard sci-fi setting with pseudo realistic military action involving mecha and gross monsters ^^

 

[Richter1887]

Like this

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Fuck it. I would watch a full series of this.

 

[AnansiThePersona]

I've wondered why some people are so gung-ho about Shinji being this boy who should be excited to pilot EVA. The robot that links into your brain to make you feel all the pain that it feels? The robot your father abandoned you to make? The robot that must fight terrifying monsters that are on the verge of extinguishing humanity? If I had been through everything Shinji has been through by End of Eva, I wouldn't wanna save the world either.

The mere fact that Shinji "gets in the fucking robot" in the first place should be APPLAUDED.

 

[_Pow_]

he's not a coward he's a child with PTSD

 

[zoukka]

It would be another boring mecha show.

 

[Dust]

Shinji was a fucking depressed 14 years old kid abandoned by everyone from his family.
He did well considering the "Get in the giant robot Shinji" bullshit thrown at him, and I suspect everyone here was Casanova at 14?

If anything I would consider Shinji one of more realistic mecha protagonist.

 

[BobZhn]

What like if Misato piloted Eva-01 instead of the son of Gendo ? It'll be exactly like Darling in the FranXX.

 

[Deleted member 6730]

Like every other mech anime?

 

[Keym]

The show would be hella boring and the world would still end.

 

[Liquid Plejades]

People hating on Shinji reminds me a lot of people hating AJ on The Sopranos.

"Omg why is he so annoying and a pussy"

I dunno. Maybe because he grows up in a dysfunctional family where the dad is a psychotic serial killing mob boss who comes home drunk every night after banging aome other woman, and constantly fights with his wife. Then he says shit like "how are you my son" when he's still a young kid. Also everytime he turns on the TV to play video games or watch a movie he sees his dad on the news being called a mob boss

Its always weird whenever a character is made realistic and not some cliche archetype that people can froth towards who gets all the waifus and succeeds with minor problems which are usually empty and filler. Makes people so infuriated.

 

[Moff]

I like to assume that most the waifu debates are being done by minors or people who remember watching the show as a minor. It kinda backs up a lot of the shows themes if minors are completely missing the point of the show.

But realistically it's probably mostly weirdo adults.

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I am probably one of the weirdos because I thought the sexualization of the women (minors included) was completely out of place.

What point did I miss?

 

[Cymbal Head]

What would Sherlock be like if Holmes wasnt a jerk?

Wha would Batman be like if Bruce Wayne wasn't afraid of bats as a kid?

What would Macbeth be like if Lady Macbeth was just a nice housewife?

 

[Deleted member 27246]

I am probably one of the weirdos because I thought the sexualization of the women (minors included) was completely out of place.

What point did I miss?

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No, the weirdos he is talking about are the people who had discussions about who was the best waifu, Rei or Asuka (Who were both mentally broken young teenagers)

 

[Echo]

it'd ruin the whole thing

completely miss the point

 

[Moff]

No, the weirdos he is talking about are the people who had discussions about who was the best waifu, Rei or Asuka (Who were both mentally broken young teenagers)

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Yes I understand that. But he seemed to imply the sexualization of them in the show seved a higher purpose to make a point.
And not that I'd defend those creeps, but its hard to blame them when the show shamelessely sexualizes the girls all the time.

 

[Cymbal Head]

I don't think it was something he intended to do, but I also don't think it's too much of a stretch to think Gendo might have been happy that his son got to hang with several girls his age, live with an attractive woman, and have exciting robot fights.

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I know that if I wanted my son to have a good time, the first thing I'd do is create a hybrid clone thing out of his mother's remains so he could be friends with it.

 

[Liquidsnake]

I've wondered why some people are so gung-ho about Shinji being this boy who should be excited to pilot EVA. The robot that links into your brain to make you feel all the pain that it feels? The robot your father abandoned you to make? The robot that must fight terrifying monsters that are on the verge of extinguishing humanity? If I had been through everything Shinji has been through by End of Eva, I wouldn't wanna save the world either.

The mere fact that Shinji "gets in the fucking robot" in the first place should be APPLAUDED.

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Thank you. You get it.

 

[sibarraz]

 

[Fj0823]

Anno made Rebuild to show that a Shinji who actually tries will fuck up into infinity

My boy has 2 genocides under his belt.

Without this mindset, the show would be Darling In the Franxx, congrats, you're shit

 

[D65]

Good?

 

[D65]

Like this

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Like this haha

 

[Sanox]

Probably more like the episodes when Asuka is first introduced.

 

[oberjin]

I've wondered why some people are so gung-ho about Shinji being this boy who should be excited to pilot EVA. The robot that links into your brain to make you feel all the pain that it feels? The robot your father abandoned you to make? The robot that must fight terrifying monsters that are on the verge of extinguishing humanity? If I had been through everything Shinji has been through by End of Eva, I wouldn't wanna save the world either.

The mere fact that Shinji "gets in the fucking robot" in the first place should be APPLAUDED.

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And don't forget that Eva 01 contains the soul of his dead mother.

 

[AnansiThePersona]

And don't forget that Eva 01 contains the soul of his dead mother.

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I was gonna put that but I didn't think Shinji figured that out until the end of the series. Or he never did. Don't remember.

 

[Timbuktu]

Shinji was a fucking depressed 14 years old kid abandoned by everyone from his family.
He did well considering the "Get in the giant robot Shinji" bullshit thrown at him, and I suspect everyone here was Casanova at 14?

If anything I would consider Shinji one of more realistic mecha protagonist.

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That is fair. Toji went through a change when he was selected as well. I wish we got more of him, the show was quite different after he left.

 

[Deleted member 31092]

A. Shinji isn't a coward

B. It would be worse

C. Look at all the other animes that tried to spin on Eva but with more cheerful characters, no one has ever reached NGE's popularity levels.

 

[Hektor]

I'm ready for another one of those threads

 

[Tacitus]

 

[Pendas]

The show would be watchable.

 

[Rivenblade]

Lol. Yeah that is also the reason why all those figurines of Asuka and Rei in sexy christmas outfits freak me the fuck out.

(Yes that is a thing)

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The real question is...HOW DID YOU FIND OUT IT WAS A THING?

 

[sensui-tomo]

Isn't the whole "shinji's a pussy" argument basically toxic masculinity in a nutshell.

 

[Aiustis]

I mean, that comic about his dad being bro as hell is actually decent way of describing the show's dynamic. Shinji's dad thinks he can provide Shinji a great life with women and exciting robot battles. Shinji isn't afraid of those things-they're just not what he wants. He wants to not be depressed, he wants to feel loved, he wants to feel like he isn't making people's lives worse.

Like, if Shinji was able to enjoy the things he did, the show just wouldn't work. It'd be fundamentally different. It wouldn't have the whole meta commentary on depression. The back half of the show would be entirely different, the front half would also be pretty different.

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God man you made me realize that I like Shinji so much because I relate to him so well

 

[Megawarrior]

the show would just be another crappy 90's robot anime if he was boring.

 

[Deleted member 27246]

The real question is...HOW DID YOU FIND OUT IT WAS A THING?

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I was doing wholesome Christmas shopping for my dear grandma and stumbled upon these.

Spoiler

I was browsing for Evangelion merch on a site, (searching for a Unit 03/13th Angel figurine) and some questionable Rei and Asuka figures were also shown. Also swimsuit shit if you're interested :P

 

[deepFlaw]

I will never understand people who watch Evangelion and think this is a problem.

You've missed the point so hard you flew off into the whining about a fictional charactwr's depression and lack of masculinity zone.

The real question is...HOW DID YOU FIND OUT IT WAS A THING?

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...have you never gone on a site with anime merch ever?

You don't really have to go looking to see what else is being sold.

 

[DrForester]

I know one common point of comparison is RahXephon, but I've never found time to actually go through the series.

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I don't remember anything about RahXephon except that after seeing it, I joked how it was "Evangelion, if the characters had social skills".

 

[apocat]

It would be your typical generic mecha anime. It wouldn't even be remembered today, let alone a success in the first place.

 

[janoGX]

Isn't Manga Shinji like this?

 

[Rivenblade]

...have you never gone on a site with anime merch ever?

You don't really have to go looking to see what else is being sold.

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No, I haven't. That's probably why I've never seen this stuff. I'm glad I haven't. @_@

 

[MechaX]

Eh, EVA wouldn't be EVA if Shinji was different. You got other kind of super robot shows (some of which are admittedly, arguably better than EVA) that somewhat has a more heroic lead, so just watch those. Or, you can just read the manga; the manga actually fleshes out Shinji's upbringing a hell of a lot more than the series, so it's way easier to see how he turned out the way he did.

With that said, I understand where Shinji is coming from most times and I do sympathize with him.

Now do I relate with him? Maybe with his sense of pessimism and cynicism as a teen, but that's about it (and 95% of what he does in EoE crosses the "sympathetic" threshold straight into "come the fuck on kid" territory).

 

[DrForester]

The real question is...HOW DID YOU FIND OUT IT WAS A THING?

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There's something like a billion different Asuka and Rei figure sets in various costumes. From maid outfits, to bunny outfits, to wedding dresses.

 

[Rivenblade]

Eh, EVA wouldn't be EVA if Shinji was different. You got other kind of super robot shows (some of which are admittedly, arguably better than EVA) that somewhat has a more heroic lead, so just watch those. Or, you can just read the manga; the manga actually fleshes out Shinji's upbringing a hell of a lot more than the series, so it's way easier to see how he turned out the way he did.

With that said, I understand where Shinji is coming from most times and I do sympathize with him.

Now do I relate with him? Maybe with his sense of pessimism and cynicism as a teen, but that's about it (and 95% of what he does in EoE crosses the "sympathetic" threshold straight into "come the fuck on kid" territory).

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Okay, so, serious question after seeing how people feel about Gendo in this thread...why do people use Gendo avatars? :)

 

[Rivenblade]

There's something like a billion different Asuka and Rei figure sets in various costumes. From maid outfits, to bunny outfits, to wedding dresses.

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[Deleted member 31092]

Isn't the whole "shinji's a pussy" argument basically toxic masculinity in a nutshell.

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The funny thing about Eva is that if you genderswap all the pilots they get a lot more "cool"

Shinji is the shy girl that saves everyone in the most desperate time
Asuka is the hot blooded cool dude with a sweet heart
Rei is the silent, extremely capable "genius"

It's casual but it's fascinating to see

 

[indigo blue]

I've wondered why some people are so gung-ho about Shinji being this boy who should be excited to pilot EVA. The robot that links into your brain to make you feel all the pain that it feels? The robot your father abandoned you to make? The robot that must fight terrifying monsters that are on the verge of extinguishing humanity? If I had been through everything Shinji has been through by End of Eva, I wouldn't wanna save the world either.

The mere fact that Shinji "gets in the fucking robot" in the first place should be APPLAUDED.

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Exactly this. I swear anime has kind of skewed our perception on protags.. especially in relation to their age. He is one of the more realistic 14-year-old protagonists and his reactions to a lot of the situations he's presented with are completely understandable. I would have been traumatized the first time they "drown" you in LCL.

Not every protag can be like Violet Evergarden. She's like 14 but she looks and acts at least 25.

 

[Spine Crawler]

Sadly not many shows out there that does it. The closest show I could find that capture that feeling of Eva but with a more likeable Shinji is Sidonia

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The vision of escaflowne

 

[Deleted member 31092]

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Maybe you don't know it, but it's Eva that started the massive merchandising production trend. One of the NGE's producers always brags about how he and Eva transformed Akiabara in the anime heaven it's today.

 

[Dead Guy]

Like this

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Lmao