10 Amazing TV Shows (With Terrible Lead Characters)

Ask any anime fan what amazing show has the worst protagonist, most of them will point straight to that most problematic of faves: Neon Genesis Evangelion and its frustrating hero, Shinji Ikari.

Originally pitched as a harsh, biting deconstruction of the giant robot genre of anime - particularly its laissez faire attitude towards child endangerment - it makes sense that the audience is not really meant to like Shinji.

He is, after all, a teenager in a show that remembers that teenagers, by and large, suck in real life. Especially when you pile on the kind of emotional baggage that this teenager in particular has going on.

However, Shinji does have an arc that stretches throughout the show, and we are meant to be satisfied with where he finds himself by the end of the story. Which makes his lack of any kind of agency and general refusal to actually contribute (hence the famous meme "get in the god damn robot, Shinji") all the more frustrating.

Add onto this a near constant attitude of "woe is me" when his issues aren't even in the same ballpark as what the other characters have going on, and you get a protagonist that frankly annoys more than anything else.