Make sense of a character you can't figure out

I want to understand Shinji Ikari, Evangelion.

What I can't square: Everyone calls him a coward and I can't work out whether the show agrees with them or is showing me why they're wrong. The end of the series makes me think the show is on his side but nobody talks about it that way.
How far I've got: finished the series and the film, that's everything. Don't go past that.

This is analysis of the character as written, not a rewrite of them.

Start with what they want, in one sentence, and what they're afraid of, in one more. If those two things are in conflict, that conflict is probably the character, so say it plainly.

Then:
1. The case for them. The strongest honest reading of their behaviour, argued properly, pointing at specific things they do.
2. The case against. Same standard. Don't go easy because you argued the other side first.
3. Which one the text actually supports. How the story frames them: who gets to criticise them and whether they're proved right, what happens to them, and where the story asks me to look away from something.
4. The common fan reading you think is wrong, and why.

If the answer is that the work is genuinely divided about them, say so. Some characters are written to be argued about and that's a real answer, not a dodge.

Keep it under a page. I want an argument, not a character sheet.

What you get: Both cases argued properly, then a straight answer on which one the story is actually backing.