Ask John: Why Are Anime Guys Shy?

Question:
[The following are separate but similar questions from two different readers.]
I was just wondering why in some anime series like Tenchi Muyo and Evangelion the main male characters is so embarrassed about his sexual feelings?

In Evangelion, what’s going on between Shinji and, well, everyone? I haven’t seen too much of the show, but in the part of the series I have seen, I can’t tell who he’s going for: Rei, Asuka, or Kaoru.

Answer:
Part of the point of Evangelion is that Shinji himself doesn’t know who he’s attracted to. This is actually one of the crucial, most fundamental elements of Evangelion, and unfortunately a point that many Western fans don’t comprehend because Evangelion is addressed to and has a significant relation to specifically Japanese viewers. Contemporary Japanese teen culture has been traditionally characterized by a degree of de facto sexual segregation that’s usually only hinted at in anime. Because so much pressure is placed on Japanese children to study and prepare for school entrance exams, it’s common for Japanese teens to be alienated from and almost totally ignorant of social conventions regarding the opposite sex. Examples of this appear in anime most commonly in the presentation of groups of guys hanging out together and girls spending time in groups of other girls more so than mixed gatherings, and the occasional “How To Sex” manuals that appear in anime to explain the “dos and don’ts” of dating and sex.

Series featuring shy or introverted male characters, or shows that feature boys that are afraid of women, such as Evangelion, Hanaukyo Maid Tai, Tenchi Muyo, and Love Hina, are intended to represent this stereotypical Japanese teenager who is awkward and uncomfortable because of his natural attraction to the opposite sex, but afraid of his ignorance. In Tenchi Muyo, the girls seem to have little trouble in expressing their emotions and attraction toward Tenchi, possibly because they are aliens, but the native Japanese Tenchi Masaki is shy and timid around the girls. Likewise in Love Hina, the girls all show no inhibitions around each other, but are disturbed, confused and awkward around the male Keitaro. Likewise Keitaro is insecure and unsure of how to act around the Hinata-sou girls.

Evangelion addresses this social segregation by making Shinji an “everyman” representative of contemporary Japanese youth culture- alienated, self-conscious, insecure, and suffering a sense of lack of identity. One of the main points of Evangelion was to show young Japanese boys that this fear and uncertainty was normal and a natural part of adolescence. In fact, the main point of Evangelion itself is to address the fear of alienation and loneliness and validate it as natural and even necessary for survival. Not only Shinji, but every major character in Evangelion suffers from some sort of alienation. Shinji has lost his mother, hates his father, and is afraid of commitment to anyone else. Asuka both hates and loves her mother, and partially blames her loss on herself. Misato tries to replace her lost father with a string of lovers. Ritsuko replaces her mother figure with computers. Maaya suffers an unrequited love for Ritsuko. Gendo is alienated from his son and wife. Rei cherishes her familiarity with Gendo, but that relationship is one based on pride rather than affection. The entire Seele network seeks to eliminate loneliness and isolation through the Human Instrumentality Project by uniting all life into a single entity.

The conclusion of the Evangelion TV series, original TV episodes 25 & 26, explains that isolation is individuality. Alienation isn’t what causes lack of identity; alienation is what identifies the individual as different from someone else. Alienation, in fact, creates identity. Shinji is confused about who he loves because he’s afraid to choose one person and thus distance himself from the people he didn’t choose. He pilots the Unit 01 because he believes that as long as he does so he will be recognized as “pilot of Unit 01 Shinji Ikari.” He fears that if he isn’t “pilot of Unit 01 Shinji” he won’t be recognized at all, and won’t be anyone at all. Evangelion tries to show Shinji, and Japanese teenagers, that only by making choices and decisions does individual will develop. As long as one tries to be everything for everyone, one is, in fact, nothing. As long as Shinji is the Unit 01 pilot he isn’t “Shinji,” he is just “Unit 01 pilot.” It is at the end of the Evangelion TV series, when Shinji begins to comprehend a life devoted to himself or one person, when he and the other characters realize that their solitude isn’t a curse but actually the source of their strength and willpower, that he is congratulated for his progress and maturation from a “spineless” cipher child to an adult with the ability to make decisions for himself and recognition of himself as a viable, worthwhile individual person.