39 Facts About Gendo Ikari

Gendo Ikari is a fictional character from the Neon Genesis Evangelion franchise, created by Gainax.

Gendo is grief-stricken by the sudden death of his wife Yui, and abandons his son Shinji Ikari to devote himself to a plan named Human Instrumentality Project.

Years later, Gendo Ikari asks Shinji to pilot a giant mecha named Evangelion; his pragmatic, cold, and calculating attitude leads him to use any means to achieve his personal goals.

Gendo Ikari appears in the franchise's animated feature films and related media, video games, the original net animation Petit Eva: Evangelion@School, the Rebuild of Evangelion films, and the manga adaptation by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto.

Critics have negatively received Gendo Ikari, describing him as one of the meanest characters and one of the nastiest parents in Japanese animation history.

Gendo Ikari's typical pose with hands clasped at mouth level has become popular, and has been homaged in other anime and manga.

Gendo Ikari was influenced by the personal experiences of staff members, including that of Hideaki Anno, whose father injured his left leg with a power saw in a youthful accident, forcing him to wear a prosthesis.

Tachiki found it difficult to empathize with or understand Evangelion and Gendo Ikari, and wondered "whether I hated or loved Gendo Ikari".

Gendo Ikari, originally named Gendo Rokubungi, is presented at the beginning of the series as a cold man head of the special agency Nerv, deputy to the annihilation of the Angels.

Gendo Ikari's parents are never named in the series, and no details are given about his childhood and adolescence.

Gendo Ikari's past is explored in the twenty-first episode of the series.

In 1999, when he is thirty-two years old, Gendo Ikari is arrested and designates Professor Kozo Fuyutsuki, a lecturer at Kyoto University, as his guarantor.

The professor does not approve Gendo Ikari's actions, suspecting ulterior motives on his part.

Gendo Ikari takes him to a bunker below the Laboratory, the headquarters of an organization known as Gehirn, and invites him to collaborate "to build the new history of mankind".

Gendo Ikari's character remains virtually identical to that in the anime, summoning Shinji to pilot Evangelion Unit-01.

Gendo Ikari speaks to his son, revealing his lonely childhood in which he was fond of the piano and not very sociable until he met his future wife.

Maeda, considering the eyes as the mirror of an individual's mind, wanted Gendo Ikari to have no human perspective and projected Anno onto Gendo Ikari during production, wondering what Anno's childhood had been like.

Gendo Ikari feels no remorse; his attitude arouses the ire of his son, who tries to punch him.

Gendo Ikari saves Shinji during an attack by the Japanese Self-Defense Forces, telling him he was jealous of him since birth because he suddenly became the center of his wife's attention and affection.

Gendo Ikari is a mysterious, emotionally closed, austere, determined, calculating, ruthless, and unscrupulous man.

Gendo Ikari is confident in his war strategies; to implement them he often takes the place of the United Nations as if he considered it his right, not hesitating to use Shinji and Ayanami.

Ritsuko realizes Gendo Ikari is using her, saying that from the beginning the man never had any real expectations for her.

Gendo Ikari is indifferent to his son's life but shows an attachment to Rei, to whom he is closer and more intimate.

Gendo Ikari constantly devotes himself to the Instrumentality Project following his wife's sudden death, trying at all costs to meet her again.

Gendo Ikari disappoints his son's expectations during the battle against the Angel Bardiel, in which he has the Evangelion 03 unit destroyed without remorse, wounding and mutilating its pilot Toji Suzuhara, Shinji's friend.

Gendo Ikari's path has its climax during Instrumentality, in which he meets Yui again and asks his son's forgiveness just before dying.

Gendo Ikari has been interpreted as a reflection of Shinji and as a representation of paternalism.

Gendo Ikari's egocentricity has been associated by Japanese psychiatrist Koji Mizobe with a narcissistic personality disorder.

Gendo Ikari has been compared to Satan, Go Nagai's Devilman antagonist; unlike Seele, who follows a plan based on faith in the Dead Sea Scrolls, Gendo wants to become a God himself, like a fallen angel who rebels against God.

Gendo Ikari was ranked in several surveys of the most-attractive anime characters in different categories, as well as in a Goo Ranking survey in which he was elected the third-most-hated father in Japanese animation.

Gendo Ikari's character has elicited negative opinions from critics and animation fans.

Gendo Ikari was meant to be a strong father who should have a positive influence on Shinji so that he could grow to be more confident and adult-like.

Kotaku's Richard Eisenbeis appreciated the developments and insights into Gendo Ikari's past introduced in Sadamoto's manga version, which he said are clearer and more interesting than the original series.

Thrillist's Kambole Campbell described the emotional openness of Gendo Ikari and the other characters as "moving", while IndieWire lauded the fact the father-son dynamic is a central part of the story, culminating in "some of the most emotionally raw moments Evangelion has ever put on screen".

Gendo Ikari has been used to produce merchandising items, such as sunglasses and eyeglasses, collectible models, shirts, and culinary products.

In 2015, Gendo Ikari was used along with other characters from the series for features on the 500 Type Eva, a high-speed train dedicated to Evangelion.

Famous people, including Minoru Takashita, president of the AnimeJapan company; Takashi Kawamura, mayor of Nagoya; and economist Takkaki Mitsuhashi, who founded a Cosplay Party for the 2010 Japanese House of Councillors election, have paid homage to Gendo Ikari by cosplaying as him.

Gendo Ikari has inspired the pose of a character that appears in the opening sequence of the video game Evil Factory, developed by Neople.

Fans have renamed his characteristic pose, with his hands joined at face height, the "Gendo Ikari pose", which has been copied, homaged, and parodied in other animated series, such as Taizo Haisegawa in Gintama, which is voiced by Fumihiko Tachiki, Voltron: Legendary Defender, by Stella in Rose Guns Days, by Nifuji Hirotaka in Wotakoi: Love Is Hard for Otaku, and by Hayato in an official crossover episode between Evangelion and Shinkansen Henkei Robo Shinkalion.