Shinji Matou (間桐 慎二, Matō Shinji?) is the acting Master of Rider in the Fifth Holy Grail War of Fate/stay night. He is merely using the Servant of his adopted younger sister, Sakura Matou due to his inability to use magecraft. He has been a friend of Shirou Emiya for a number of years. He has an open crush on Rin Tohsaka, but she does not return his interest, much to his frustration.
Profile[]
Background[]
Due to the thinning of their bloodline, the Matou are no longer capable of producing heirs naturally capable of sorcery. This led Byakuya, the eldest son of Zouken Matou, to marry a woman with an "inheritor" sorcery trait, who later gave birth to his son, Shinji. Unfortunately, Shinji was incapable of sorcery. This did little to dissuade Shinji's determination to become the successor, the boy instead convincing himself that he was special for being born in a family of magi.
Shortly after, Sakura Tohsaka was adopted into the Matou family and introduced to Shinji as his new sister. At first he was against this because he didn't want 'outsiders' coming into his family but later grew to like and accept her, though due to his selfish, arrogant nature, he refused to show it and teased her instead. Not wanting his son to get involved in the affairs of the Matou magecraft, Byakuya sent him to study abroad when the Fourth Holy Grail War started. Because of that he does not know that his uncle Kariya participated and died, probably because Byakuya (who despised Kariya) chose to hide this fact from him. He also didn't tell him about the worm pit or the reasons why Sakura was adopted by the family.
The farce ended when Shinji accidentally found the worm pit, seeing as Sakura was being infested by Zouken's worms. This caused Byakuya to cut all ties with him due to no longer having to hide anything from him. Blaming Sakura for "ruining his dreams", he started mistreating her, treating her like an object to do with as he pleased. Sakura, in a mixture of pity and guilt, silently accepted Shinji's abuse, which he mistook for her submitting to him. After Byakuya's death, Shinji decided to "take possession" of Sakura and started sexually abusing her.
During middle school he met Shirou Emiya, who did menial tasks for people free of charge, and despite Shinji deriding him as an idiot from behind his back, he hung around with him until he was done. At the end of the day, Shinji laughed as if he was having a good time, and exclaimed, "You may be an idiot, but you sure do good work, at least!". They started an estranged friendship and frequently invited him over to his house to hang out.
A year before the events of Fate/stay night, after Shirou was injured in an accident, Sakura started getting close to him. Shinji disapproved of this, fearing that Sakura will start turning against him. When the Fifth Holy Grail War started, he was resigned to his situation, but after noticing that Sakura, who had just summoned Rider, did not want to fight, he persuaded Zouken into letting him enter the war by controlling Rider, all in an attempt to prove to Zouken that he was not useless and that he could be the Matou family heir instead of Sakura. His wish was to acquire the ability to utilize magecraft.
Appearance[]
Much like his father, Byakuya, Shinji has curly blue hair and gray blue eyes. Due to his hair style looking like a seaweed, he has been given the nickname WakameWP (ワカメ?).
During school, he wears the standard Homurahara uniform.
His casual clothing consists of a white and black jacket, a black shirt and blue jeans.
When he was young in the manga adaptations, his clothing consisted of a white shirt and suspenders. In the non-canon Carnival Phantasm his hair was messier and wore a red bowtie.
Personality[]
Shinji is arrogant and impulsive. Initially he considered himself to be special when he discovered the Matou were a clan of magi and began putting all of his heart and effort into becoming one himself, only to later find they were a fallen clan who no longer had magical power, and that Sakura was going to fullfil his lifelong dream. He also feels entitled to things that he believes both the world and his family denied him, and will do anything to get recompensated. Due to his arrogance and inferiority complex, he refuses to admit that Shirou and Sakura are the only ones that care for him and believes it must be pity instead.
Though he is selfish and has the bad habit of looking down on other people, he has some faintly redeeming qualities. He values rules (but he does not follow them himself), and he hates injustice (if he's not the one responsible). Due to the gap between his "ideal world" and the world he actually lives in, his personality has become warped, but when Shirou first made his acquaintance four years ago he was not nearly as bad as he is now.
It seems Shinji and Shirou's friendship was close, though Shinji often made fun of him, he socially assassinated anybody that took advantage of Shirou in the shadows. However, for a temperamental genius like Shinji, even a friend of many years is not safe from suddenly becoming his enemy for incomprehensible reasons. Basically, he's the kind of person that's reliable when he's on your side but ends up being really troublesome if he turns on you.
Character Material reveals that he is not as haughty as he looks like in the visual novel. After getting involved in the Holy Grail War he becomes overconfident and willing to lash at others with his new power. As shown in the universes when he survives the war, he's back to his more tolerant yet arrogant old self and begrudgingly gives up his pursuit of magecraft after seeing the dangers of it. No fundamental changes in his personality after his near death experience but since a great burden was lifted off his back especially his obsession with sorcery, he will be able to enjoy life as a fussy, loudmouthed, smarter-than-average, troublesome person.
Since Sakura eats at the Emiya home, he'd rather eat at some Italian restaurant and flirt with girls than eat in his own home.
Role[]
Fate/stay night[]
Shinji is very popular as the vice-captain of the Archery Dojo despite his personality.
Near the beginning of the 5th Holy Grail War, Shinji acquires Sakura's Servant, Rider, and becomes a temporary Master. He is initially depicted as an evil and deceptive character, but as the story moves along his character begins to show cowardly and even pathetic qualities.
Fate[]
- Shinji in the Fate/stay night anime
1/2
| « Ugh, shut up! An older brother can do whatever he likes with his sister! Don't poke your nose into our family affairs! » |
| (Shinji talking with Rin about Sakura - Fate, Day 5) |
Shinji tries to partner with Shirou, but Shirou declines the offer. Shinji later finds out that Shirou has already partnered with Tohsaka and gets angered, trying in vain to turn Shirou and Rin against one another. When he persists in his attempt to partner with Rin, she punches him in the face and tells him she trusts Shirou more than she would ever trust Shinji.
He later tricks Shirou into coming to school, to trap him there as he forces Rider to activate her Blood Fort Andromeda. Shirou is able to hold on and tries to reason with Shinji, but he does not listen and orders Rider to kill him. Rider's blade is unable to deal Shirou a killing blow, so she kicks him out of the window. Shirou calls out to Saber and the two servants fight. Shirou defeats Shinji, forcing him to call off Blood Fort. Shirou and Saber travel through town trying to find Shinji and Rider but are unsuccessful at first. After finding them, Rider and Saber start fighting and in the end Saber is forced to unleash her Noble Phantasm, Excalibur, to defeat Rider. After losing Rider and his Book of False Attendant is burned, Shinji escapes the building, only to be murdered by Illya and Berserker.
Unlimited Blade Works[]
| « Why are you so calm!? We can't obtain the Holy Grail without Tohsaka, right!? Damn, everything's ruined because of you! » |
| (Shinji before Gilgamesh implants Illya's heart on him - Unlimited Blade Works, Interlude 15-3) |
In the Unlimited Blade Works route, he loses Rider when she is killed by Souichirou Kuzuki. Shinji's failure and loss of Rider results in him approaching Kirei Kotomine, who lends him Gilgamesh as a Servant. Some details of his past are revealed, like the fact he hates his father, Byakuya, for hiding the truth about the real heir of the Matou family and that he hates his own mother (whose corpse is revealed to be at the worms storage) for giving birth to him without Magic Circuits. Gilgamesh quickly notices that Shinji has no idea about the Grail and realizes that he thinks it is just a game. He takes advantage of it and manipulates Shinji into killing Illya.
After Lancer kills Kirei, Shinji tries to rape Rin (in the visual novel, he also tries to make her partner with him, despite Rin's warnings that he is just being used by Gilgamesh) only to be pricked in the arm by Lancer's Gáe Bolg. He escapes and has a mental breakdown in which he imagines himself ripping off the arms of everyone. Gilgamesh appears and ignoring Shinji's protests, implants Illya's heart inside of him in order to use him as a new vessel for the Holy Grail. It results in him being forced to endure a mass of flesh growing from his body. He is rescued by Rin and is eventually hospitalized. According to Shirou, Shinji returns to his more tolerable old self, thus getting along with Sakura again.
Heaven's Feel[]
| « Hey, say something! You don't want to fight, right? You said you didn't want to be a Master, so that's why I took over in your place! Why are you pretending to be a good girl now....!? » |
| (Shinji to Sakura, after losing the Book of False Attendant - Heaven's Feel, Day 9) |
In Heaven's Feel, his past and his torn relationship with Sakura is expanded. After losing Rider in a fight against Saber, Zouken comments that Shinji is much more worthless and pathetic than Byakuya. This infuriates him and in an attempt to show Zouken that he can be the heir instead of Sakura, he becomes more manipulative, frustrated and violent towards Sakura.
He later tries to take Sakura back home by force only to be stopped by Shirou. The next day, the ill Sakura wants to walk to school with Shirou, but he declines. Shinji takes advantage of this and kidnaps Sakura with the help of Rider, because he has another new Book of False Attendant. He orders Shirou to go to school without Saber if he wants Sakura back. When Shirou arrives to school, he is forced to reinforce himself in order to fight Rider alone. Rider is fairly weakened and starts disobeying Shinji's orders. After Shinji orders Rider to kill Shirou, the hostage Sakura screams and Shinji's Book of False Attendant is burned again. At that moment, Rider becomes more powerful and it is revealed that Sakura is the principal Master of Rider, who was summoned several days prior to the start of the 5th Holy Grail War. However, under pressure from Shinji and the desire not to fight either Shirou or Rin, Sakura yielded her Master's right to him, although Sakura retains her original Command Mantra.
With Shinji losing two of Sakura's Command Spells and without his Book of False Attendant, he has no control over Rider. Shinji has a breakdown and orders Sakura to help him kill Shirou and Rin, to which Sakura declines.
Shinji remembers how his father and sister hid the truth about the heir of the Matou family from him for seven years, which resulted in his father becoming harsh and causing Shinji to hate Sakura. Soon after, Shinji has an ultimate mental breakdown and blames Shirou and Sakura for his disgraces, deciding that he will break Sakura on his own. Shinji pours a substance on Sakura that causes her to go haywire before fleeing the school.
Sakura arrives in the Matou house in order to find Zouken and to force him into ending her life. However, Shinji appears and tries to rape Sakura again, blackmailing her into staying with him by telling Shirou about her history of being raped by him for the last three years. This ultimately causes Sakura to kill Shinji, and after realizing she is "The Shadow", Sakura becomes Dark Sakura.
It is eventually revealed that Shinji's actions in the whole route were orchestrated by Zouken in order to further his schemes for Sakura, and that he was being manipulated the whole time.
After the war, the Holy Church covered Shinji's death as a casualty of the Holy Grail War.
Fate/stay night Manga[]
| « Why did it have to be you, Emiya?! If I had been born with a Magic Circuit instead of you, you'd be nothing more than another insect to crush underfoot! It's not fair! Why are you the one to get everything I want?! » |
| (Shinji during his confrontation with Shirou - Fate/Stay Night Manga, Chapter 27) |
In the Fate/stay night manga adaptation, (which follows the Fate and Unlimited Blade Works scenarios), his background is different, as he and Sakura were raised by Byakuya instead of Zouken (who doesn't appear). Also, Kirei was the one who convinced him to enter the Holy Grail War. He's more open with Shirou and though he is still physically and verbally abusive towards Sakura, he never rapes her. When the Holy Grail War starts, Shinji tries to make Shirou partner with him, but gets angry after discovering that he's already allied with Rin. He becomes more paranoid and easy to anger, causing Ayako to warn him that he is on the verge of being expelled from the club. In response, he orders Rider to attack Ayako and to use Bloodfort Andromeda to kill everyone at school.
Shinji is stopped by Shirou, who tries to warn him that using magecraft isn't a game like he thinks. Shinji refuses to listen to him and admits he's jealous of Shirou. After Rider is defeated by Saber, Shinji falls from a building, despite Shirou's attempts to save him. However Sakura, who was watching the whole fight from afar, uses her last Command Spell to make Rider save his life. Shinji is surprised by her action, because he thought she hated him for abusing her for the last three years and that she just saved him for being Shirou's friend. However, Sakura shows that she still cares about him and both walk home together.
He is later hospitalized and after a talk with Ayako he realizes he's been forgiven for all his misdeeds and apologizes to Sakura for his abuse. Shinji is hospitalized until the end of the Holy Grail War. He's last seen getting along with Sakura and Shirou and confesses to the latter that he's given up on magic.
Fate/hollow ataraxia[]
| « ....I don't wanna. I'm tired. I'm a terrible person. I'm definitely a Matou. My grandfather, father and my father's little brother were all suited to sulking like this too. » |
| (Shinji complaining to Shirou - Fate/hollow ataraxia) |
In Fate/hollow ataraxia, Shinji is alive alongside Zouken, his appearances being for comic relief. After the Holy Grail War ended, Sakura became more assertive and assumed control of the Matou household, much to Zouken and Shinji's chagrin. Now that they don't have to compete for the Holy Grail anymore, he's more affable with Shirou and Sakura and is back to his arrogant yet tolerable old self. He's also resigned about being a failure and finally understands that being a magus isn't fun and games like he thought.
Now that he's about to graduate, he is making plans to leave the Matou household and live his own life. Zouken isn't too happy about this and compares him to Kariya for leaving the house. He also wants Sakura to find her own path as well, but due to his arrogance he won't admit it. He's also prone to break the 4th wall, calling Shirou a hero and complaining that Sakura has more scenes than him.
Rider describes Perseus, the slayer of Medusa, as a Shinji who succeeded.
Fate/tiger colosseum series[]
Like in Fate/hollow ataraxia, Shinji's appearances are for comic relief and he has been reduced to a gag character.
In Shinji's route, he uses the Grail to wish for all the girls to fall in love with him and to be respected like a god. After fighting Shirou and Kotomine, he sees Sakura and Rider approaching him and tries to give them orders. However they reveal that his wish somehow has been cancelled and everyone has returned to normal. Horrified, Shinji tries to escape from them to no avail. In the end Sakura and Rider catch him and proceed to punish him, much to his horror.
Carnival Phantasm[]
| « Sakura! Stop going to Emiya's place! You're my sister, so I'm the only one you listen to! » |
| (Shinji abusing Sakura - Carnival Phantasm, Episode 6) |
In Carnival Phantasm, Shinji has been reduced to a gag character, often bullied by the cast, with the exception of Sakura.
He's one of the protagonists of Episode 6, Type-Moon Serial TV Novel Sakura, parodying a soap opera in which he mistreats Sakura until Rider tries to put a stop to it. In the end he's purified thanks to Caster's Rule Breaker, but Sakura isn't happy about it, because he was so awful it made her look better in comparison.
Today's Menu for Emiya Family[]
| « Gratin, huh? I don't particularly like it though.... » |
| (Shinji about to eat Sakura's dish - Today's Menu for Emiya Family, Episode 5) |
Shinji makes minor cameos in Today's Menu for Emiya Family, but he finally makes an appearance in Episode 5, Bamboo Shoots Gratin. Sakura cooks the aforementioned dish for him after learning it from Shirou. Much to her delight, Shinji likes the gratin and doesn't leave any leftovers. In the anime he's shown in his room afterwards, thinking about the bamboo shoots; while in the manga he's wondering why would Sakura fuss after him so much.
Koha-Ace[]
- Main article: Major MatouShinji appears as Major Matou (間桐少佐, Matō-shōsa?) during the Strange Tales of the Imperial Holy Grail, acting as the Master of Berserker.
Other appearances[]
| « That’s not how things should be, right? It’s wrong. If Sakura’s more suited to be the heir than me — me, the one who’s blood related, the one who studied the Matou magecraft this hard — then I should get some sort of compensation too! Which means — I should be able to do whatever I want with her, right? That’s why Sakura apologizes to me, right?! » |
| (Shinji's breakdown inside Dark Sakura - Heaven's Feel Lost Butterfly Drama CD) |
He was briefly mentioned by Byakuya in the original Fate/Zero novel, his only child was sent overseas in the name of studying.
Shinji Matou in the Fate/EXTRA world is a different person but they share the same name. Shinji in the real world is a child but his digital avatar is based on this Shinji.
In Type-Moon's April Fools' Day 2008, he is a referee in the T Moon Fighting Spirit (Tムーン 闘魂, T Mūn Tōkon?). He was knocked out by both Dynamite Rin and Great Luvia powerful drop kicks. The referee had always been an unreasonable judge, and karma may take a while to manifest but it always does in the end. While being carried away to a hospital, he stated that he had a feeling this might happen.
In Type-Moon's April Fools' Day 2009, moon.cinemas.jp is a fake movie theater site listing a number of parody films. He was featured in the animated film Papillon Shin-chan ~I call for sleepiness! Spicy shaggy Kingdom~ (パピヨンしんちゃん〜眠気を呼ぶ！激辛モジャモジャ王国〜, Papiyon Shin-chan ~Nemuke wo Yobu! Gekikara Mojamoja Ōkoku~?), a parody film of Crayon Shin-chanWP.
In Type-Moon's April Fools' Day 2010, Tmitter is a fake online social networking, a parody of TwitterWP. His online user account is @Shinji_tm41.
In the Heaven's Feel II: Lost Butterfly drama CD, he's trapped in a dark room and tells the spectator about his past and his estranged relationships with Sakura and Shirou. As the story progresses, it's shown he's quite not right in the head and is deluded into thinking he won the Grail War. At the end it's revealed he was dead all along and his spirit was absorbed by Dark Sakura. Shinji has lost his mind completely, and is tormented by his worst memories and fears forever, blaming Sakura for everything that went wrong in his life.
In the first chapter of the Fate/strange Fake manga, he is mentioned alongside his parents and Makiri.
Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA☆ILLYA 3rei!![]
Shinji is later revived by Julian who imputed Shinji's personality into a doll where Shinji became a loyal soldier to the Ainsworth family; he was given the Assassin Class Card. He kills Sakura using the Noble Phantasm, Zabaniya: Dead Heartbeat Melody when she attempted to fight him using the Archer Class Card. After being defeated by Shirou Emiya, Shinji later remembered everything and began to regret his actions. Being tired from everything, Shinji implored Shirou to end his life. As Shirou killed Shinji, Shinji told his killer to never forget the feeling of killing someone, because of how Shirou will need to continue to kill people in order to save Miyu. Shinji's last words were that he will pass on and wait in hell for Shirou, though Shirou replied, to the soulless doll, that he may not be able to go there.
Abilities[]
Shinji, like Shirou, is unskilled in magic, but unlike the latter, Shinji does not have any particular abilities aside from some archery skills. His mother had a Carrier Sorcery Trait like the Fraga family, but the pathogen is nothing special like the Fraga's ability to use a Noble Phantasm. According to Zouken, she was just the daughter of "a random third-rate magus." While the Matou mage bloodline has died out, they still contain hereditary traces of Magic Circuits. However, though Shinji still has latent Magic Circuits, they cannot be accessed due to being "closed off" and would require the magical equivalent a nuclear fusion reactor to be implanted in him to open. This can be achieved with Illya's heart, as the core of a nascent Holy Grail, in can be used to forcibly open Shinji's atrophied Magic Circuits in order to use him as a new vessel for the Holy Grail.
Because Shinji is not Rider's true Master, he must use an item created by combining the Matou family Crest Worms with a command spell of Rider's true Master known as the Book of the False Attendant. The book, which acts as a provisionary command spell, allows Shinji to control Rider and, due to Shinji's incompetence, was made twice by Rider's original Master. Because it is not a true command spell, it burns if it is used beyond its limits or if Rider is destroyed, but a new book can be created using another of the true Master's command spells, but the true Master must retain at least one command or else the the Servant cannot be bound to the book. In the Fate scenario and the anime, while the book seemingly allowed for Shinji to use a form of magecraft that fired shadows at his opponents, the shadows were weak, and even an incompetent Shirou using a reinforced broom was able to cut them away.
Assassin Class Card[]
He was the user of the Assassin Class Card before being defeated by Shirou Emiya. Even though he didn't know how to use it properly, he displayed some skill in its usage, both in Include and Install, being able to create a tentacle monster. But like the Shinji of Fate/EXTRA he was careless in terms of detail, as he allowed Shirou to deduce that the formed monster was a decoy going off of what he said, "My arm still moves even if you cut it off"
Against Sora's Team[]
Shinji joins Xehanort's team, especially characters such as Malty, Clovis, Yuto, Severin, Yanagisawa, Kurow, Kizami, and other villains to abandon his own brother which makes Hiyorimi, Lelouch, Naofumi, Class 3-E, Thor, Suzaku, Kallen, Rokuro, and other Heroes upset especially Isurugi, George, Battler, Rolo, Kuroki Rio, Satoshi Hojo, Lukius, Satoshi Mochida, Hikaru Akatsuki, Yoshiki, and other heroes as good brother hates Shinji because of his behavior towards his younger step sister even though he is half a half, but he treats Sakura like a slave, especially Class 3-E, knowing that he is friends with the Wave Army, and the residents of the Kunugigaoka main building who like to do evil to Class 3-E so that Itsuki Kawasumi, and Ren Amaki is his natural enemy because his behavior like Hidemasa, Malty, and Motoyasu is even worse than Motoyasu especially he tried to hurt and even tried to kill Rishia so Itsuki shot at Shinji face beforehand, especially Benio, Velvet, and other heroes as younger brothers or younger sisters who have older brothers or older sisters who are similar to them, especially Shinji's behavior, especially Shinji's behavior, which is similar to Yuto, makes Benio a bit annoyed about his past, especially Byakuya, and Zouken quite surprised that Benio, and Yuto are Just like Shinji, and Sakura even though they are siblings but Benio was the one who kicked Shinji in the face which was done to Yuto's face so that Zouken, and Byakuya were surprised that Benio was the other side of Sakura who apparently was fed up especially Zouken, and Byakuya saw Yuto's actions look like Shinji who has gone too far, so Zouken is not wrong in not giving the inheritance to Shinji because his behavior is like Yuto, especially Rokuro thinks that if he is Yuto, Rokuro sometimes wants to finish him off, which is what he did to Yuto.