Gendo Ikari

Lore & Background

Hideaki Anno, the Neon Genesis Evangelion anime series director and main screenwriter, took Gendo's name from a character in a failed Gainax studio project. For his bachelor name, he chose the word rokubungi (六文儀; lit. "sextant"); for his married name, he chose Ikari (碇; lit. "anchor"), to connect to the names of other characters in Neon Genesis Evangelion, inspired by nautical jargon and ships of the Imperial Japanese Navy. The character was designed by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, mangaka of the comic version of the series.

Gainax was influenced by the British television series UFO and modeled his relationship with Kozo Fuyutsuki on that between Commander Ed Straker and Colonel Alec Freeman from the classic series. In the early design stages, Gainax decided to portray Gendo as a "mysterious person in behavior and words", a staunch defender of the Instrumentality Project, expressive, tumultuous, akin to a twenty-first-century Dr. Victor Frankenstein. Over time, he would become obsessed with research, justifying any means to achieve his goal to the point of transforming his own body and becoming a digitized human being.

His goal, however, would be benevolent, in the belief he could realize a utopian dream capable of bringing true equality among people.

Reader's Guide

Fumihiko Tachiki voiced Gendo in the original series, in the later films, spin-offs, video games and the Rebuild of Evangelion saga. Tachiki found it difficult to empathize with or understand Evangelion and Gendo, and wondered "whether I hated or loved Gendo". Tachiki was confused during the recordings; he failed to frame Gendo's laconic phrases and intentions, and was forced to ask how to recite his lines and interpret a particular phrase. He stated, "Honestly, when I first started the television series, I'd only just been exposed to the story.

It turned out to be tough; I really agonized about how to make the character come across. During recording sessions for the original series and the 1997 feature films, he received support from the staff, and Hideaki Anno and the sound director coached and directed him. Tachiki encountered similar difficulties for the Rebuild of Evangelion saga, and in particular for the third installment, Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo (2012), which was dubbed almost twenty years after the original series.

However, Tachiki, while disconcerted by the futuristic setting and plot changes, was helped by his accumulated experience and greater maturity, due to which he acted more frankly and serenely than in the classic series. For the last installment of the saga, Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time (2021), Tachiki remained surprised by the script, having to go over his lines several times while looking at the still-incomplete drawings of the film.

Did You Know?

• Hideaki Anno described Gendo as a representation of his shadow, the dark, unconscious side of an individual's psyche.
• In early drafts, Gendo would have commanded Eva-06 in a psychological confrontation with Shinji, and in one version Shinji would have been the one to kill Gendo.