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Profile:
Anno Hideaki
Neon
Genesis Evangelion. Perhaps no other anime has caused
as many ripples and evoked as much controversy as this anime
had during the 1990s. Even now, years after its conclusion,
otaku still huddle together in bars, taking long drags
on cigarettes and engaging in heated debates and waxing philosophical.
Under muffled breath they discuss drinking games they once
played; everyone would take a shot of their liquor of choice
for every biblical reference made during the show. Most of
them didn't make it passed the second episode. Well, OK, perhaps
it didn't happen exactly like that, but there is no
doubt the show's director and brains behind the operation,
Anno Hideaki, has gotten inside everybody's head. What most
people don't know is that he has been doing it for years.
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The
two sides of Anno Hideaki
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May 22nd, 1960, Yamaguchi
Prefecture, Japan. That was Anno-san's official birth date
and place. It can be said, however, that his real birth
occurred when he was fourteen years old; this is when he witnessed
Space Battleship Yamato for the first time. The experience
carved itself in his mind, and the snowball that is his career
started rolling down the hill and gaining momentum. Four years
later he would enroll in the Filmmaking Department at the
Osaka College of Art. There he would meet one of the most
influential people in his life: Yamaga Hiroyuki. Both would
be responsible, years later, for the creation of the anime
company that spearheaded artistic innovation: Gainax. During
his college years Anno produced numerous short, 8mm films,
most of them either influenced by or parodying anime.
After graduation, Anno
and Yamaga traveled to Tokyo. There he gained employment as
an animation gopher for the pilot episode of Macross.
It's in 1984, however, that his career was given a huge shot
in the arm. It was during this year, at the age of twenty-four,
that he became key animator for two of the most popular anime
movies of the decade: Nausicaä
of the Valley of Wind and Macross:
Do You Remember Love?. Working alongside the great
Miyazaki Hayao proved
to be a life-altering experience; to this day he considers
the living legend his mentor. Miyazaki
wondered how his young protégé was able to get
any work done at all; his desk was a figurative disaster area,
covered from top to bottom with manga and reference material.
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Budget?
What's a budget?
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The next few years would
prove to be his busiest. He lent his animating prowess to
critical masterpieces Grave
of the Fireflies and Wings
of Honneamise. The latter was such a bold step for
fledgling Gainax and its staff of twenty-somethings. At the
time it was the most expensive anime movie ever produced,
and came to symbolize the financial lengths that the company
would go to to achieve success. He followed these triumphs
with animation work for Char's
Counterattack and flexed his considerable directorial
muscles in Gunbuster:
Aim for the Top! and the Nadia: The Secret of Blue
Water television series. It was at this time that he became
a household name in the anime industry.
In 1994, Anno Hideaki
started work on a Gainax production known as Neon
Genesis Evangelion. The response was both international
and overwhelming, to say the least. The last two episodes
were so controversial that Anno published an alternate ending
in the form of End
of Evangelion. So mentally exhausting was not only
the criticism but also the entire production process that
he took a sabbatical from anime and flirted with live-action
movies. His movie Love & Pop nevertheless showcased much
of the same directorial cues he made famous in his anime.
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A
budget isn't Gainax's style
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Lured back to the world
of cels and animation, Anno was given the director's chair once
again for Gainax's new series, His
and Her Circumstances. Just like him to show a flair
for the dramatic, he left much of the duties to deputy director
Tsurumaki Kazuya over a dispute concerning remaining faithful
to the manga. It should be fairly evident that Anno's creative
juices are too strong to be bound by restrictions. After completing
the risqué series Ebichu
the Housekeeping Hamster, he returned to live-action
with the innovative film Shiki-Jitsu. Perhaps someday he will
be given free reign to express himself artistically once again
and make a triumphant return to anime. Until that day comes,
Anno Hideaki can take comfort in the fact that he has had a
profound impact on anime matched only by few.
Production Credits
Anime Tenchou
Appleseed
Battle Royal High School
Crimson Wolf
Crystal Triangle
Dangaioh
Ebichu the Housekeeping
Hamster
Grave of the Fireflies
Gunbuster: Aim for the
Top!
Gunbuster II: Aim for the Top!
Here Comes Koume!
His and Her Circumstances
The Invention of Destruction in the Imaginary Machines
Macross
Macross: Do You Remember
Love?
Mahoromatic: Automatic
Maiden
Metal Skin Panic Madox-01
Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's
Counterattack
Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water
Nausicaä of the
Valley of Wind
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Neon Genesis Evangelion:
Death & Rebirth
Neon Genesis Evangelion:
End of Evangelion
Puchipuri Yushi
Re: Cutey Honey
Wings of Honneamise
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