I’ve learned that many, many people do not like passive protagonists. They are seen as weak-willed, indecisive, unpleasant to watch, and just plain too passive. There’s nothing I can do to stop people from feeling this way, but it makes me wonder why I, for example, like the passive protagonist whose life is changed by circumstances beyond his control.
The second most hated anime protagonist of all time is everyone’s favorite human male Evangelion pilot Ikari Shinji (thanks, Itou Makoto for taking the position of most hated). Shinji is a very passive protagonist who, while capable of taking action, only does so as a reaction to things happening around him. It’s not because he’s poorly written, or that he’s necessarily a surrogate for the viewer. Shinji is the way he is, and his passive nature is a direct result of the events in his life, as well as his inability to truly take action for himself.
I can’t fault Shinji for that. I can’t even fault him for never quite getting over it, just as I can’t really fault people for not liking Shinji’s character. But it makes me think of the sheer difference two lives can experience to the point that one person will connect to a character such as Shinji while the other will immediately reject him. And of course, one may turn into the other as we accumulate more experiences in our lives.
OGIUE MANIAX 
On my most recent rewatch of Evangelion, I found myself not being annoyed by Shinji all that much. I think I might have sympathized. Maybe the silly part of me that hopes he might actually act more quickly has finally given up. Though I’ve long thought of the show as being great in its ability to make me care about characters I don’t like.
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I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Shinji Ikari is the Thomas Covenant of anime.
For those who have no idea who that is then it’s only a google search away. For those that do…well you may feel I’m being a bit too harsh. I do not see Shinji as a passive protagonist but as an anti-hero in every sense of the word.
Shinji is not as despicable as Thomas Covenant but sometimes he came pretty damn close. Both characters went through some pretty terrible things to become who they are. One was raised with no mother and a soulless father who used everyone and everything around him including his own son. The other was a man who was diagnosed with leprosy and lost everything. Both were called on to save a world and they were too emotionally scarred to do or care about anything but their own pain.
However, to quote my great aunt, “Your past may explain why you turned out the way you are but it ‘s no excuse for your actions.
I’ll give some sympathy to Shinji because he was a teenage boy thrown into circumstances that would test adults twice his age.
That still didn’t stop me from wanting to reach through the screen and smack him a couple of times…
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