"Anno intended Rei to be creepy"

I always always always see people casually referring to this idea that "Anno intended Rei to be really creepy and off-putting but those perverted fanboys didn't care and started popping boners for her anyway." I've even heard people say this in real life!

I've never found any source for that statement, whether it be a quote from Anno in an interview, or something he said in a book (or on an internet forum) or anything like that. So either I just haven't been looking nearly hard enough or this is a fan myth (similar to the oft-cited claim that Akira Toriyama had intended to end Dragon Ball with the Freeza saga, but his mean ol' editors made him continue the series).

If any of you know where this comes from, please point me in the right direction, as I'd seriously like to see what Anno actually said about it (if anything at all).

I doubt he's ever said "creepy", though if you do a search for "rei creepy" on the forums you'll see quite a few people think she, or aspects of her, or versions of her, are kind of creepy. So you may find something where he says he wanted Rei to be a certain way, it just so happens some people find that kind of creepy.

As for fanboy reactions, Anno says a few things about that here:
http://wiki.evageeks.org/Statements_by_Evangelion_Staff#Hideaki_Anno:_.22Let.27s_Die_Together.22.2C_Atlantic_Magazine.2C_May_2007
and
http://wiki.evageeks.org/Statements_by_Evangelion_Staff#Hideaki_Anno.27s_Roundtable_Discussion specifically at the end:

Quote:

When told that the American audience favors Misato ... ANNO: I'm surprised. In Japan, the overwhelming favorite is Rei . They can't handle strong women such as Misato and Asuka .

He never said it. But, come on her mannerisms are definitely off-putting. She would come off as creepy to some people, I think so as well. But, just calling her creppy just lessens her as a character, like calling Asuka a bitch, or Shinji a wimp.

While I agree she was probably intended to be creepy and off-putting, there is just NO FUCKING WAY he never intended people to masturbate to her, given that the whole show is an exercise in baiting otaku and pulling the rug out from under them. Rei is perfect for this.

As others have already said, I wouldn't say Rei was suppose to be creepy, but she certainly wasn't suppose to be the moe icon she became. Unfortunately for Anno, most people apparently can't see the forest for the trees.

But that's fine. It's kind of nice being one of the very few people who actually get her.

When you limit yourself on what you see from Rei in school, she appears to be a beautiful polite and withdrawn girl who, when she gets older, becomes excellent marriage material.

That argument was dumb anyways.

For my two cents: Rei is creepy. But given the way she was delivered through the show, her creepiness factor was not overbearing at all, and was frankly downplayed. Think about it; without even exaggerating her characteristics, she could have easily been portrayed as a much, much creepier character than she was, had the focus only been on her creepiness. However, the series got us quite familiar with her character pretty early on, and familiarity tends to negate creepiness.

Rei was a monotone character built for one purpose. It just so happens she was running around defending the Earth in the meantime. She is what you call a plot device. If she was creepy, I'm going to point towards the blanks that are meant to house her soul.

If Rei really is simply a plot device, she's a damn well-crafted plot device.

Rei is only not creepy if everything Rei that isn't Rei 2 is completely ignored.

Rei 2 is there to get you to lower your guard. Then all of a sudden there's this flashing bug-eyed thing rushing the screen, and a creepy leering kid, and a tentacle rapist Angel with the same creepy leer who sprouts Rei parts (some hideously deformed) and screams and giggles using her voice, and inanely-grinning sorta-sentient tanked clones that take manic glee in their own destruction, and a third iteration with all the enthusiasm toward life and physical integrity of a zombie, and...