Evangelion: Innocence

Evangelion:Innocence.

Gendou Ikari

Just look at this guy. He hides behind dark glasses, looking sinister; he is shrouded by secrecy and conspiracy; the characteristics of a typical villain. And in a sense he is a villian, especially to his son, Shinji. Viewers are made to hate the Commander just as Shinji does, but if you take a step back from the emotion of the show, you will see Gendou is as human as you or I. He has hopes, fears, and emotions like the rest of us. He just deals with them in a different way.

The most obvious statement made about Gendou is how he abandoned Shinji when he was only a small child. The truth of this, of course, is that Shinji ran away after witnessing his mother being taken into Evangelion Unit 01. But this is not always the most obvious information provided. The reason why Gendou acts so coldly towards his son (imo) is because he has already dealt with the fact that his only child had rejected him. I'm not a parent myself, but if I ran away from my father, I would expect him to act just as coldly towards me if we were ever to meet again. Remember he is human, and feels the same pain we do. This is just his way of dealing with it.

The Commander is stern and serious, and takes his position at Nerv very seriously. He is indeed working towards the Third Impact and the Instrumentality of Man, and although it may not seem acceptable at first, it is actually the means to attaining a higher level of existance: humanity will evolve as one perfect being, instead of a race of doomed individuals. It is described as artificial evolution, and Gendou believes it is a necessary step. His alterior motive for the E project was to be reunited with Yui again, after she was taken into Eva Unit 01. Ikari's version of Instrumentality differs from that of Seele, although they appear to work towards the same thing. His scenario is described as the "constructive" instrumentality, where the human race merges together, to not only fill the void of the mind, but to be judged on the overall human achievement instead of individual sin at heaven's gates. So Instrumentality could effectively be translated as Human Complementation, as our ego-borderlines are dissolved into LCL, and we fill and complete each other to become fundamentally whole. But that's just instrumentality at a glance.

The sympathetic side of Gendou revealed in the series is in his relationship with Rei Ayanami. She is treated like his daughter, as she is a replacement of both his estranged son and deceased wife. On many occaisions, he has made a personal effort to save her life, the most memorable is the incident when he scarred his hands on that super heated hatch to Unit 00's entry plug. Rei keeps his broken glasses, and gave Ikari her respect and trust. What is quite remarkable is the fact she acts almost normal around him. This is another reason why Shinji hates Gendou: because he was replaced by Rei. It is interesting to note here that when Yui was pregnant with Shinji, she asked Gendou if he had decided on the baby's name, and he answered, "If it's a boy, Shinji, if it's a girl, I'll name the baby Rei."

Gendou's history is briefly mentioned, and is told from the point of view of Professor Fuyutsuki. His former name was Gendou Rokubungi (rokubungi is the Japanese word for sextant). He was a mysterious figure from the beginning. He accompanied the Katsuragi research team to Antarctica, and returned a day before Second Impact occured with all of the expedition's findings. Ikari was also involved with covering up the true causes of this event. Shortly after, he married Yui Ikari and changed his name. It is tradition in Japan to take the wife's surname if her family is of higher social status. Yui was an extremely talented university student in the field of biological sciences, and was believed to be involved somehow with Seele. Fuyutsuki believes this is the only reason for Ikari's affections, but the couple shared in the same dreams for the future. And who knows, judging from the way Ikari mourns for her, it might have actually been love. Why else would a man and his wife have a child?

Another apparent reason to hate Ikari is the way he treated the Akagi women. Both Naoko and Ritsuko were sleeping with the Commander, even though he was still mourning for his wife. Maybe he did this to keep them working for him, as they were responsible for the creation and usage of the Magi supercomputer. Or maybe sometimes things just get... nasty... alone in that Geofront ^_~ But honestly, I can't provide an explanation for this, maybe he just gave into his human instincts, being male and all... (no offense guys!) Can anyone else provide a reason here?? The one thing that is apparent here is that Ikari did not love these women, which is illustrated by his lack of respect for them (ie. calling Naoko an old hag; and sending Ritsuko to be interrogated by Seele).

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[Ikari Gendou]

The commander of the secret agency NERV. His old surname was Rokubungi (PY: it means sextant). He changed his name after he married Ikari Yui, whom he knew since student years. He became the president of the Research Institue for Artificial Evolution, which was actually a front cover for the works of "E Project". After Yui died, he busied himself with "Adam Project" and "Human Complementation Project". He got the support from SEELE, and managed to realise things like the construction of EVA. However, his "honeymoon" with SEELE lasted only until the elimination of the last Angel. Afterwards, their differences in objectives became apparent and it developed into violent military clashes.

Birthday April 29. Bloodtype A. Age 48