Why Evangelion animators LOVE and HATE working with Hideaki Anno

Will you work for someone like Hideaki Anno?

About Hideaki Anno: The Final Challenge of Evangelion:
EVANGELION is coming to an end. NHK spent 4 years with exclusive access to director Hideaki Anno, documenting the creative process behind the final EVANGELION film. For the first time, the camera is allowed inside Anno's studio.

Director:
Aki Kubota

Cast:
Hideaki Anno
Hayao Miyazaki
Megumi Ogata

#HideakiAnno #NeonGenesisEvangelion #RetroCrush

About RetroCrush:
Exploring how anime went from subculture to global phenomenon, RetroCrush is a community built to dissect the Golden Era of Japanese animation from the different perspectives of pop culture, fandom, art, internet memes & more.

Connect with RetroCrush:

Hideaki Anno: The Final Challenge of Evangelion | RetroCrush

[RetroCrush]

Watch "Hideaki Anno: The Final Challenge of Evangelion" on our app:
Start your free 14-day trial here:

[superrazor]

Imagine what the animators must have felt when they really animated the end of evangelion

[Krystalmyth]

Real hardcore professionals. But all the talent doesn't entirely seem to be with just Hideaki Anno. The sheer effort and artistry being done by the studio is almost outrageous. It doesn't almost feel even. Why shouldn't the production team share more in this endeavor in the public eye? They are incredible, and deserve equal credit and fame.

[Dominicthedonkey]

The "We can finally relax." Is so bitter sweet.

[ghouldash]

Anno seems like a chill guy. Not sure if I'd work in the anime business though.

[hieioni]

Far as I have seen, Anno is a perfectionist. And it's good and not good to work with perfectionists. Good because they know what needs to be done and they have plans to carry out the tasks; they also know who is perfect for a certain task, like storyboarding or animating. Not good because they need things to be done in a certain way, no compromise (or at least very few instances of compromises), and that usually gets on people's nerves. It's also that Anno often thinks outside the box, as Miyazaki commented that he's an alien, and Japanese people always follow certain unspoken guidelines about how to do things.

All in all, I think working with Anno is an extraordinary experience. Sometimes you like it, sometimes you hate it, but it sucks you in anyway, because you are doing something you like, and you get to work on Evangelion. It's just how it is.

[spidey]

If Anno makes his staff work like crazy to make something perfect he’s making them better at their jobs and skills. They all are there for the end goal to make something awesome and he’s the skip of the ship.

I’m sure he has high demands but gives them enough creative freedom to be happy to stick with him.

I’m a self employed software engineer in corporate and one thing I know is that micro managing weirdo managers are the worst. He does seem like that if his staff praise him.

[marissagibson]

Hideaki Anno was director created Anime Evangelion and making ending Series!

[matasuki]

Retro Crush I know you're going to the US Theatrical premiere! I'm going for sure. Have a great time!

[oliver-shi]

holy fuck anno does not hold back god damn

[jessielorah]

excuse me. but in your website. Do you have Magical Princess Minky Momo between episode 1 to 63?

[hawkeyenextgen]

Evangelion, is ultimately triggering to me. As not only does it trigger my grief for my childhood friend, but also the social isolation of Quarantine, as well as my own adolescent trauma as well. Admittedly, I made the mistake of watching the End of Evangelion first before viewing the series, as much of the fandom said it to be a better ending than episodes 25 and 26. Big mistakes. EoE triggered me on such a monumental scale, that it gave me nightmares about the Third Impact. To make matters worse, I viewed it right after the suicide of my childhood friend, and right before the Pandemic hit the United States. As you can imagine, I became paranoid.

Shinji was a coping mechanism, for everything that was going on, as everything that had happened to me was in layman's terms, a "Psychological Domino effect", all of which I was forced to cope with during Quarantine with little to no therapy whatsoever, making it all the more difficult. During that time, I felt so sorry for Shinji, that I wanted to die for him, in the delusion I could sacrifice my happiness for him, feeling my fate was inescapable. Moreover, at one point in time, I was just like Shinji, that being during high school, wherein I was a "loser" and a target for those to belittle me.

I sought emotional refuge with the Evangelion fandom to cope with the events that have happened. They claimed that Evangelion was supposedly a cure for depression. I learned this during Lockdown, and of course, I was afraid of undergoing depression again, so I took their word for it; let Evangelion consume me in spite of how triggering it was to me, in the hopes I would no longer be alone, that being part of the fandom could help me feel like a part of a community in all the pandemical pandemonium. Little did I know that instead of a house of intellectuals, it would be a den of degenerates.

For over two years, I have been cyberbullied by the Evangelion fandom for my depression and trauma. It's the ultimate irony. A fandom, dedicated to praising a series that portrays the cost and trauma and depression, downplayed my own. Much like Anno after he worked on the series, I received hate speech and death threats, especially when I told them how much I related to Shinji and hated Evangelion because of how much it brought me pain. To add insult to injury, they turned my cry for help, titled "Message in a Bottle", into a copypasta to spite me. To make matters worse, they even created a rumor of me being a zoophile as well as a pedophile merely based on gossip surrounding my past, even blamed me for the suicide of my childhood friend. Never since High School have I felt so humiliated.

I hate myself because I hate Evangelion. I hate how I couldn't achieve the same absolution, the same self-love, the same closure, and the same resolution, and enlightenment as Shinji did in the original series, and I hate how I was made the outcast, and treated like one by the fandom in spite of my attempts to find acceptance.

In spite of the cyber bullying I’ve endured for over a year from the Evangelion fandom, I keep coming back to them, to try and stand up for myself. But it always ends in more emotional damage on my end. They keep saying my trauma and depression are “all in my head” and I’m afraid.

I just want to prove to them that my trauma and depression are real, and not fake like they accused me of, because if it’s real, then at least I know I can get better. I feel insecure about my own mentality. What if they’re right? What if my depression is fake and I never even knew? What if all my triggers are somehow wired in a way that they’re not even there? What if everything I had felt and experienced during Lockdown was a figment of my imagination and I really am clinically insane?

Thus, I often question if I am beyond salvation, whether my fate has been sealed, as I have witnessed much horror that shattered my soul.

I've been trying to contact Hideaki Anno since 2020, but heard nothing from him. I have this belief that if I seek his counsel, he might have the answers for me.

[sdjslkdjlsskldjslkdjsl]

The rebuilds debunked the notion of Anno as some sort of artist with something important to say. Talented guy in some particular ways with money and prestige that may outweigh what he did to earn it.