Quote Originally Posted by Recaiden View Post
Something could knock the emo out of Shinji?
It is not that hard. Shinji is not actually that emo - just a kid with a passive personality in a series that delights in crushing him every time it looks like it looks like something in his life might be going up or he starts beng happy. Dude has absurd amounts of Resonance, it seems.

Difference is that in Super Robot Wars, he was not, in fact, completely surrounded by manipulative *****. And Bright reminded this to him with a slap and a speech as is his style.

Not too much after, Shinji was playing the same field as the rest of your guys - who, for the record, in that game include people like Kouji Kabuto (the pilot of Mazinger) or Ryoma from Getter. Shinji is, more or less, a Simon who never had a Kamina that believed in him.