I have a bone to pick with all the fools on the internet who can't come up with a good reason to dislike Shinji.
"He's weak."
"He's whiny."
"He's stupid."
"He's useless."
I love Shinji. Do you want to know why I love Shinji? Because he was never meant to play a hero. Shinji is simply a love deprived kid thrown into something that really shouldn't be any of his business. His Dad treats him like crap, and everyone else expects so much out of him when, before he even got into an EVA, they couldn't have cared less about his existence. Shinji makes foolish decisions. He's scared. But he's a 14 year old boy for God's sake! All he ever wanted was some attention from others like any other person in the world craves for. He was devoid of that his whole life! Instead he has to shoulder the burden of saving the damn planet from beings he doesn't even understand while operating an entity he understands even less. This kid is still trying to find himself, and for some reason people expect him to be some magnificent hero straight out of a shounen anime! He's not meant to be that way. If every protagonist was fricken Naruto, anime would get pretty damn boring PRETTY DAMN FAST. </rant>
---
Scan:
Minitokyo.net