Hideaki Anno (Neon Genesis Evangelion)
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I'm pretty sure just about everyone here has at least heard of Neon Genesis Evangelion, the most controversial yet popular brainfucker anime of the 1990's. But little is known about Hideaki Anno, the man who produced Evangelion. Did you know, for example, that despite the thousands of otakus who love Evangelion, Hideaki himself hated it?
The story goes back to Hideaki's previous works. I won't go into much detail here. "Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise", which Hideaki poured all of his creative efforts into, was received extremely poorly, and was abandoned partway through. This caused Hideaki to become disillusioned with the masses, and after four years of depression following another work, he issued a challenge to the people.
This challenge was Neon Genesis Evangelion. It had all the generic, cliche elements of your average Japanese animation: one boy being surrounded by three beautiful girls, the "one enemy per episode" formula, the occasional "cool" lines, and a little love comedy here and there. There was absolutely nothing special, nothing that gave the work any "artistic" value. He was asking the people, "Are you satisfied with this kind of trash? Is this what you wanted?" In short, Evangelion was meant to be a failure from the very begining.
Yet contrary to Hideaki's expectations, the people loved Evangelion. The same audience that boo'ed his "real" works had fallen in love with what he considered trash. This is probably why, as the anime progresses, the mood gets darker and darker, culminating in the controversal final two episodes, which show only the mindscapes of the characters, and reveal the extent to which their minds are messed up. Fans hated this ending, and sent Hideaki numerous complaints and sometimes even death threats, forcing him to launch a new ending in "The End of Evangelion". It is really no wonder, really, that Hideaki hates Evangelion so.
It is ironic that Evangelion, which was meant to show the people how worthless "pretty characters" and cliche elements has propelled the Japanese anime industry to a new era of "moe". What is perhaps even more ironic is that one of the most beloved animes of all time, Evangelion, was in fact a failure in the eyes of the man who created it.
If this is already common knowledge, well, damn. But I'm guessing it's not, if only because I'd never heard of this before today, and through a very random source at that. So what do you think?
The story goes back to Hideaki's previous works. I won't go into much detail here. "Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise", which Hideaki poured all of his creative efforts into, was received extremely poorly, and was abandoned partway through. This caused Hideaki to become disillusioned with the masses, and after four years of depression following another work, he issued a challenge to the people.
This challenge was Neon Genesis Evangelion. It had all the generic, cliche elements of your average Japanese animation: one boy being surrounded by three beautiful girls, the "one enemy per episode" formula, the occasional "cool" lines, and a little love comedy here and there. There was absolutely nothing special, nothing that gave the work any "artistic" value. He was asking the people, "Are you satisfied with this kind of trash? Is this what you wanted?" In short, Evangelion was meant to be a failure from the very begining.
Yet contrary to Hideaki's expectations, the people loved Evangelion. The same audience that boo'ed his "real" works had fallen in love with what he considered trash. This is probably why, as the anime progresses, the mood gets darker and darker, culminating in the controversal final two episodes, which show only the mindscapes of the characters, and reveal the extent to which their minds are messed up. Fans hated this ending, and sent Hideaki numerous complaints and sometimes even death threats, forcing him to launch a new ending in "The End of Evangelion". It is really no wonder, really, that Hideaki hates Evangelion so.
It is ironic that Evangelion, which was meant to show the people how worthless "pretty characters" and cliche elements has propelled the Japanese anime industry to a new era of "moe". What is perhaps even more ironic is that one of the most beloved animes of all time, Evangelion, was in fact a failure in the eyes of the man who created it.
If this is already common knowledge, well, damn. But I'm guessing it's not, if only because I'd never heard of this before today, and through a very random source at that. So what do you think?
