Gendo Ikari

Gendō Ikari (碇 ゲンドウ, Ikari Gendō^?) is a fictional character belonging to the Neon Genesis Evangelion franchise. He is the commander of NERV and the father of the protagonist Shinji Ikari. He adopted the surname Ikari after marrying Yui Ikari, his maiden name being Gendō Rokubungi. When his wife died, he abandoned his son when he was just four years old and left him in the custody of a teacher. Some time later, he contacts him and orders him to pilot a humanoid robot called Evangelion-01, in order to protect the city of Tokyo-3 from creatures known as Angels, which threaten to destroy humanity.

Conception

Gendō is described as a brilliant scientist and politician who works diligently for his organization; however, he is an extremely withdrawn person and a cold and distant father towards his son, who has no qualms about using and discarding people to achieve his personal goals. Hideaki Anno, director and creator of the series, has said that:

"Gendō is the kind of person who can see and think about the well-being of an organization as an absolute thing. In other words, he would do anything to succeed. Take drastic and extreme measures, by fair or dirty means, by any possible or medium necessary method, to achieve its own purpose. In a way it's bad, he barely cares about Shinji."

Hideaki Anno

Appearances

Neon Genesis Evangelion

He is the commander of the military organization NERV and the prime mover behind its creation. He is the head of Project E and the father of Shinji Ikari, the pilot of Evangelion Unit 01.

He is recognizable by his classic gesture of joining his hands (always with white gloves) in front of his face.

He is a famous scientist, with a mysterious past, working in collaboration with the SEELE organization within a secret project called the Human Complementation Project.

He is very strict and authoritarian to the point of obsession, and his goal is to permanently eliminate the angels to avoid a Third Impact that would mark the end of human existence. This goal usually absorbs all of his daily life, which is demonstrated when he abandoned Shinji for work reasons and Shinji in turn never forgave him. Shinji believes that he is the cause of his mother's death.

In The End of Evangelion he tries to unite Adam's embryo with Rei's soul to form a "one God" but the pilot refuses and at the moment Third Impact dies, her head being devoured by an image of Rei III, taking the form of EVA-01.

In the manga, Gendo Ikari behaves differently than in the anime. He makes more appearances, following Kaji, talking to Asuka, saving Shinji from being killed, Shinji and Gendo's imagined showdown, in which Gendo appears to bleed to death, etc. In the manga he delves into the character's true motivations. In it, in addition, his powers are shown, such as the use of an & # 34; AT & # 34; Product of fusing his hand with Adam's embryo in the final stages of the story, something unprecedented in the anime and the movie: The End of Evangelion.