In that sense it was a sort of cynical commentary on the genre, deconstructing many anime tropes but also showing how flawed it is to assume that someone with problems like Shinji has (depression, social anxiety, abandonment issue, paranoia, etc.) can be "fixed" by finding the right partner. But that subtlety was lost on the imitators, and we can trace a lot of the beta-males to other shows trying to catch the perceived market for Eva-like shows. ("Wow, Eva is so successful, maybe we should make our character more like Shinji!").
Writing a character whose main trait is just being awkward with the opposite sex is easier than writing a more realistic character that has dynamic relationships and personality.
Yeah, why do most anime and manga protagonists, especially when it comes to romance, are spineless and whiny, this guy probably being the quintessential example:
Hi everybody! I have been looking at posts on narcs and narc abuse on here and if has really helped me out a lot. I am currently struggling with my situation and need some advice/support.
I met a narc last year, everything seemed to good to be true. Love bombing, always texting calling and taking me on dates. Everything changed when someone warned me about him out in public in front of him and who he is. This caused a conflict with us and the love bombing seized.
he would tell me that everything is okay and i can come and talk. He would set a time limit on me and kick me out after that.
he would then text me like everything was fine and we hung out again and after that he completely ghosted me for one week. He came back and texted me a week later laughing about the ghosting and acting like nothing had happened.
he continued to text me ( not like in the beginning) make plans with me, then on the day of the plans he would just ghost me. One day he would act interested the next silence.
i contacted him a month later and he acted like nothing happened. He was on a vacation and sent me a picture of another woman ( someone he allegedly met on the trip) to strike a reaction but i never gave him one. After the trip he came to my place and was extremely rude, accusing me of going on dates with a bunch of men. The next day he accused me of being an alcoholic and that he wanted nothing to do with me but said well maybe we can be "friends" then ghosted me
i assumed at this point it was over and i would never hear from him again. He contacted me on the holiday a month later acting like everything was great. We ended up hanging out a month or so later and when we hung out it went well, i thought things were going in the right direction.
after we hung out.. silence. I would try to text him and if he replied it would be very short then he just stopped replying. He ghosted me for almost three months. I thought he was done this time and of course he popped up again like nothing happened. At this point i was getting sick of if so i questioned him as to why he dissapeared and always does this. Of course he had some sob story about a injury and family member dying of cancer. I felt pity for him and he gave me an apology.. so i took him back stupidly.
things seemed to be going smooth for a couple months, of course until his family member died and his injury got better he never contacted me and was distant. Menawhile, i was there for him during the difficult time for him. He lied to me about the funeral and never wanted to chat. I was chasing him and he would always claim nothing was wrong but when i said i thought he used me when he was down he could not handle it and would always tell me he didnt care and to go away. I would get so upset i would try texting him to work it out he would barelt respond and if he did he would not be nice about it.
we did hang out a couple times after that, he would ignore me after. One day i was like hey i think you are seeing someone else, and i was like well ixam seeing someone so no problem if you are he said " buy bye good luck with your new guy stop contacting me" i was devastated and tried to get into contact with him for weeks then i just gave up and accepted it was over. He ended up contacting me a month later acting like everything was fine. He wanted to go out and have drinks i told him i would. He and i both seemed to have a great time. He ends up ignoring me again. I kept texting him trying to figure out what was wrong. He kept saying everything was fine and i said ok can we hang out again? He said maybe i was like why? He just kept saying maybe …
our last conversation we had… i said what is wrong ? He said nothing is wrong everything is fine. I asked him why he keeps saying maybe. He said " maybe but i dont want to see you right now" i said why? He saix " im just not feeling it, if i wanted to date i would" i said why did you contact me less then a week ago wanting to go out? He said i didnt.. even though he did. So i said should i just move on or what? He said whatever you want to do. So i said that he was really confusing me and asked him if he had anything more to say before i move on? My messages were turning green so i panicked he blocked me and reacted irrationally. I said " omg did you block me? My messages are not going through. Even texted him on my work phone asking what was up. And called him twice ( please dont judge me i know it is pathetic i never was this type of girl before him) so he replied and said " Ok I'll block you now" then immedietly blocked me. He has never blocked me before since I have met him he will just ghost. Is this ths final discard aka " grand finale? Did i just push him too far?
this has upset me so much its hard to even function.
It might be part of the character, so he can develop later on in the series (but it’s rare sadly).
The author might just be lazy, so he copies a cliche.
Also, like you mentioned this problem is mainly associated with various harem shows. And the reason the main character behaves like that is quite simple actually (at least for me). He cannot choose or engage with any of the girls because if he were to pick one, then she would essentially "win" in a fandom, and the merchandise of the other characters would go down. So studios in these shows make sure that every character gets equal screen time and treatment etc. to ensure that they always sell.
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But also this guy:
I can't really give you a straight anwser, because it is highly dependent on the anime and character. But if i had to guess, it's prominency is because of a mix of number 1, 4 and 5.
Most anime viewers in Japan (and anime and manga producers care foremost about their domestic audience because foreign audience still make up only a very small percentage of their profits despite the anime and manga boom across the world) are the so called otaku and hikikomori, shy teens with socializing issues, so they relate to characters that act like they would. It’s sad to say but most Japanese fans of manga and anime would behave exactly like they do.
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Not only does Japan have the lowest sexual frequency in the entire world, it is also the only country where the percentage of people who are not happy with their sex life is higher than that of those who are. It's a mix of "Japanese people are simply just too shy to make moves" (which reflects the personalities of anime and manga characters) and "Japanese working culture is oppressive enough to leave little room for literally anything else".
The author might be drawing inspiration from his own experience with the opposite sex. See number 1 and number 2.
A few reasons.
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I mean hell even in the Sword Art Online series, despite the protagonist being canonically and openly in love with one girl and one girl alone, every single arc of the story has him paired up and getting in touch with a new female character so that the fandom can ship them and fall in love with a new “waifu” (and buy her merchandise).
Shinji Ikari himself was a special case, because he is a deconstruction of the harem anime protagonist archetype. He can't form a relationship with anyone, even if he wants to, because of how broken he is, how broken the "waifus" he meets are, who would normally be willing sex objects for his fantasies, and how flawed the world is in general. He starts with Rei. He cannot have a real relationship with her. She's not a kuudere, in a cutesy harem anime sense, but a soulless clone with many battle scars. And she's a clone of his mother, which puts him off. Then there's Asuka. She acts like a harem anime tsundere. But she has no sweeter side. She just acts superior and haughty because of her psychological scars. And she doesn’t become cuter and kinder as the story goes, she only gets crazier. Then there's Misato. Normally in anime, an older woman who drinks and acts sexy is hot, a teen boy's fantasy. And living with such a woman is a sexual fantasy. But Misato spirals into depression after losing Kaji and seeks to uncover the truth behind the SEELE conspiracy he was trying to unveil when he was murdered. No time to be the cute, fun 'bottle fairy' she was introduced as. This show is saying people exist for their own reasons, not for your (the viewer's) sexual fantasies. Then Kaworu's story is a breaking down of the yaoi idea that a boy who has no success with women will be uplifted by a Manic Pixie Dream Man. That realizing he was gay was the reason he had no luck.
