Megumi Ogata is a Japanese actress and singer from the Greater Tokyo Area. As a singer, she goes by the name em:óu. She attended Tokai University, but left because of her lack of interest. She is best known for voicing Shinji Ikari in Neon Genesis Evangelion, Yugi Mutou and Dark Yugi in the Toei version of Yu-Gi-Oh!, Makoto Naegi and Nagito Komaeda in the Danganronpa series, Kurama in YuYu Hakusho, Sailor Uranus in the Sailor Moon series, Hanako and Tsukasa in Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun and Yukito Tsukishiro/Yue in Cardcaptor Sakura.
Ogata in 2014
Shinji Ikari is a fictional character from the Neon Genesis Evangelion franchise created by Gainax. He is the franchise's poster boy and protagonist. In the anime series of the same name, Shinji is a boy abandoned by his estranged father Gendo after the mysterious death of his mother Yui. Years later, Gendo asks him to pilot a mecha called Evangelion Unit-01 to protect the city of Tokyo-3 from Angels, creatures which threaten to destroy humanity. Shinji appears in the franchise's feature films and related media, video games, the manga Petit Eva: Evangelion@School, the Rebuild of Evangelion films, and the manga adaptation by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto.
Shinji Ikari with his Eva-01 (in the background) as a child (left), as a pilot (center) and as a student (right)
Original sketch of Shinji by Sadamoto, altered for the anime series
"[Shinji] shrinks from human contact. And he tries to live in a closed world where his behavior dooms him, and he has abandoned the attempt to understand himself. ... Both [Shinji and Misato] are extremely afraid of being hurt. Both are unsuitable-lacking the positive attitude-for what people call heroes of an adventure". – Hideaki Anno
Shinji-decorated taxi in Sapporo