Ikari Gendou, 48 years old. He is the commander of NERV and the father of Ikari Shinji. 10 years ago, his son Ikari Shinji ran away from him, blaming him to cause his own wife's death. Later, he sent his son to Tokyo-1 and left his son to a teacher. Ikari Gendou is a very secretive and cruel man. He works for a secret organization called SEELE and he helps them to process the Human Complementary Program and Project-E. Although he looks faithful to SEELE, he works secretly against SEELE's will. All he wants to do is prevent the Third Impact occurred by Angels. He treats Ayanami Rei like his own daughter but treat his son like a stranger.

Ikari Gendou's surname before marrying Shinji's Mother is Rokubungi. He met his wife, Ikari Yui in University of Kyoto and married her after she graduated. He is introduced by his wife to work for a secret organization called SEELE which means "Soul" in German and becomes the Head of Human Artificial Evolution Laboratory. Maybe this is his intention to marry Yui. He and his wife worked on Project-E (the project of development Evangelions) after the Second Impact occurred. In an accident of Project-E, his wife Ikari Yui was killed. After that, he takes charge of everything and continues with the Human Complementary Program and Project-E.