Hideaki Anno Evangelion Director and Producer
Hideaki Anno (born May 22, 1960) is one of Japan’s leading animators who was born in Ube, in Yamaguchi Prefecture. He is famous around the world for being the creator of the Evangelion series and franchise that was a huge hit domestically and globally. In addition to animation he is also known for being an artist, film director, screenwriter, actor and producer. Currently, he is the founder and president of the production company Studio Khara, Inc.
Background and Start of Career
Anno had an interest in art and production from a very early age. In his early years as a highschooler, he was known for having a strong interest in creating art and short films for local Japanese Culture festivals. His formal career started while being a university student at the Osaka University of Arts. This is where he created anime series and films such as ‘The Super Dimension Fortress Macross’ and the ‘DAICON’ series. Her created short anime films together with fellow university students such as Yoshiyuki Sadamoto in which later he would start an animation studio.
Anno’s big break, was when he first received recognition for his work on Hayao Miyazaki’s 1984 film, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. Even though he was a young and new animator Hayao Mizayaki was impressed with Anno’s talent and was given the responsibility of drawing the animation for vital last scenes of the movie.
Soon after, Anno co-founded the animation production studio GAINAX in December 1984. He lead the studio in releasing in projects that would later become famous works such as ‘Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise’ (1987), Gunbuster (1988), and ‘Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water’ (1990–1991).
Production of Evangelion
Anno’s boost to fame was the work and creation of the globally influential anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995–1996). The development of the series started in 1993, when by chance Anno was drinking with Toshimichi Otsuki, a representative of King Records. Anno was given a time slot in which he could air “something, anything”. Anno borrowed scenarios and structure from his previous works and also incorporated inspiration from a variety of his favorite anime such as Space Battleship Yamato, Mobile Suit Gundam and Devilman and more. This was the start of the Evangelion franchise.
However during the production of the series, Anno battled a number of adversities. With tight deadlines, original scripts were abandoned and the ending changed just three months before official airing on tv. The total number of enemy Angels was changed to 17 instead of the originally planned 28 angels. Budget restrictions, scheduling issues and lack of resources within the GAINAX studio caused major setbacks and hurdles for Anno.
On top of these constraints, Anno himself was going through a period of clinical depression. This state was the reason behind many of the psychological elements portrayed within the series, characters and especially the ending of the series.
Evangelion was received with mixed praises and criticisms. Also creating a lot of controversy to this day. However, Evangelion is still regarded today as the catalyst of the Otaku culture in the world and has won a variety of awards such as the ‘Best Loved Series’ at the Anime Grand Prix 1996. The tv series, manga(/otapedia/anime/neon_genesis_evangelion/manga), film and related goods(/otapedia/anime/neon_genesis_evangelion/merch) of the Evangelion series has achieved record sales in both Japanese and international markets, selling over ¥150 billion by 2007.
Post Evangelion Career
After the production and success of Evangelion, continued with creating new TV anime series such as ‘His and Her Circumstances’ in 1998. Also, he directed live action films such as Love & Pop (1998) and Cutie Honey (2004). In addition he was an actor, created storyboards for an excessive amount of other projects. In September 2006, he was once again back on the Evangelion production team when GAINAX released a set of Evangelion movies, the Rebuild of Evangelion.
In May 2006, Anno founded Studio Khara, a separate studio to GAINAX and despite the ongoing releases of the Evangelion. In October 2007, Anno resigned from GAINAX while continuing with Evangelion works.
His most recent and well-known releases are Shin Godzilla (2016), and the 4th and last installment of the Evangelion Rebuild series, Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 (2020).
Animation Filmography
Here is a glimpse of Hideaki Anno’s extensive record and history in the production industry.
Director and Screenwriter
- Gunbuster (1988)
- Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water (1990–1991)
- Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995–1996)
- Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death & Rebirth (1997)
- The End of Evangelion (1997)
- Kare Kano (His and Her Circumstances) (1998)
- Love & Pop (1998)
- Shiki-Jitsu (2000)
- Anime Tenchou (2002)
- Ryusei-Kacho (2002)
- Submarine 707R (2003)
- Cutie Honey (2004)
- Re: Cutie Honey (2004)
- Gunbuster vs. Diebuster (2006)
- Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone (2007)
- Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance (2009)
- Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo (2012)
- Shin Godzilla (2016)
- Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 (2020)
- Shin Ultraman (2021)
Producer
- Madox-01 (1987)
- Re: Cutie Honey (2004)
- Rebuild of Evangelion (2007–2020)
- Kantoku shikkaku (Documentary) (2011)
- Giant God Warrior Appears in Tokyo (Short film) (2012)
- The Dragon Dentist (Short film) (2014)
- Hill Climb Girl (Short film) (2014)
- Carnage (Short film) (2014)
- 2mos Deposit, No Pets Allowed (2014) (Short film) (2014)
- Yamadeloid (Short film) (2015)
- Evangelion: Another Impact (Short film) (2015)
- Sex & Violence with Machspeed (Short film) (2015)
- Neon Genesis: Impacts (Short film) (2015)
- Cassette Girl (Short film) (2015)
- The Dragon Dentist (2017)