Thank you very, very much for this!! Amazing interview!!
I think the machine translation of the Russian is actually quite clear, but I did a quick English translation that may make some parts clearer for some people.
Quote:
-- The third part of the four-part "Evangelion: New Theatrical Edition" series will open in theaters on November 17. In contrast with the original film version, where the protagonist was unable to do anything, in the new work he fights desperately to save a girl. Is this a reflection of a change within yourself?
Anno: Hmmm. It's probably [just] the era. It's just, I think, that the way the audience perceives [it] has changed. I can't change my essential nature.
-- In a 2005 interview, you said: "Getting married, a non-otaku-like component has been added onto myself. I want to protect (my wife) with all my might. Always, from now on." Surely there is a side of you that has changed?
Anno: That's there, as far as that goes, but human beings do not change quickly.
-- In Eva, there was a criticism of those fans who turned away from reality and escaped to the work. Has that consciousness remained unchanged?
Anno: In the original Eva, there were many people who took something that I created as a source of amusement beyond those limits and made it into an object of dependence. I wanted to take responsibility for the fact that such people had been so "inflated." I wanted to bring the work back within the boundaries of entertainment. However, I have now withdrawn from dealing with it [or: from treating it thematically?]. Such people will not change no matter what I say. I now well understand that there is nothing I can do.
Tokusatsu as Culture
-- There are many people who have also become deeply absorbed in the new Eva. What do you think of yourself, as someone who creates works which produce dependence?
Anno: Nothing. I want the works to be successful, but an excessive response is not my responsibility. I myself am reflected in the works, but I am not creating the works by myself. I am completely distinct from the works. However, the new Eva fans are different in character from the old ones, though I can't specifically say what the difference is.
-- The production cost of the new works has been entirely financed by Studio Khara, without inviting contributions from outside investors. They are so-called "independently produced works." Why this type of approach?
Anno: If I accept investments from outsiders, then I face the limitation of having to make a cost-effective work. By using my own money, in all aspects I can take responsibility and do what I want. We have staff for distribution and advertisment as well, but ultimately I am responsible. I don't want to make excuses like, "the finished work was excellent but the advertising was poor."
-- You are the curator of the Tokusatsu Museum exhibit currently open at the Tokyo Museum of Conteporary Art. It seems you want to preserve tokusatsu as a culture for future generations, but does the existence of tokusatsu mean anything now that computer graphics have developed?
Anno: One of the early works to use CG, Jurassic Park, had a great impact, but I have not met with anything exceeding the sense of astonishment [Jurassic Park produced]. CG doesn't produce the feeling of presence where you are looking at something there without mediation. A minature is something that is actually there, so that even as an image on a screen it produces a feeling of presence. I think that human perception actuely grasps this difference. I hear that monster movies have been treated as crude and bizarre works ever since the days when they were made, but Japanese tokusatsu works have been highly regarded overseas. I think that, even more than anime, Japan should first of all be proud of Godzilla.
-- When I saw the independent film you made as a student, "The Return of Ultraman," I was surprised to find that you, playing an unmasked Ultraman, gradually started to seem like a genuine Ultraman. How were you able to do such a thing?
Anno: We attempted to evoke this feeling that "things impossible in actuality are really there" from multiple aspects, including camera angles, the creation of miniatures, and so on, and this fact connected [the film] to the reality of existence. Anime is just an image, so there is nothing actual. So, since in tokusatsu works at least the drama scenes are performed by real actors, by developing that - if you do it well, the tokusatsu scenes will also seem authentic. Even among tokusatsu films made decades ago there are successful examples of this.
I Want to Show Fear
-- In the film which is being screened at the Tokusatsu Museum exhibit, "The Giant God Warrior Appears in Tokyo," Tokyo is completely destroyed. In [your] other works, too, there are many scenes of destruction and explosion. Do you have an obsession with destruction?
Anno: When I was a child, whenever something around me would break I had a sensation like I was happy or this was fun. I don't think it's just me - very young children feel this way. There was a period of time when I felt it good to imagine Japan or the whole of modern society being destroyed. But, in becoming an adult, and thinking about it realistically - what would happen to the people living there? - I became unable to find pleasure in it. The images of March 11 were also a great shock. Even if I can enjoy it as a fantasy, I don't want to see the real thing.
-- It seems you have a desire to show images that will be traumatic for children.
Anno: I want to convey to children the information that there are frightening things in the world. Today, these things are too much concealed from children, including [what is shown on] television. When I was a child my town was filled with frightening things. There was a darkness behind my house. The corpses of cats and dogs had been left abandoned. Even the adults were frightened - because I was around people who had experienced going to war.
Fascinating... I'd quote choice portions but it's all choice portions.
_________________ "NGE is like a perfectly improvised jazz piece. It builds on a standard and then plays off it from there, and its developments may occasionally recall what it's done before as a way of keeping the whole concatenated." -- Eva Yojimbo "...fairly often I post with the intent to offend..." -- NemZ, Token Misanthrope "To me watching anime is not just for killing time or entertainment, it is a life style, and a healthy one too." -- symbv "Mini-Misato is Misato, you fools. Near Third Impact made everyone on Earth 14. That pink haired one is Kihl." -- Chuckman
-- The production cost of the new works has been entirely financed by Studio Khara, without inviting contributions from outside investors. They are so-called "independently produced works." Why this type of approach?
Anno: If I accept investments from outsiders, then I face the limitation of having to make a cost-effective work. By using my own money, in all aspects I can take responsibility and do what I want. We have staff for distribution and advertisment as well, but ultimately I am responsible. I don't want to make excuses like, "the finished work was excellent but the advertising was poor."
So at this point they're completely free from outside interference? That should be quite fun. Amazing how it only took them two movies to get there.
_________________ "Hooray for other things!" -NAveryW
So at this point they're completely free from outside interference? That should be quite fun. Amazing how it only took them two movies to get there.
Well...2.xx blew 1.xx out of the world with sales. 19.7 million USD for 1.0's release. 2.xx was 40 million USD. And, third highest grossing Anime film for the year 2009. Though I am using my sources from wikipedia.
And as long as Anno & Co. deliver the goods creatively & commercially with the last two parts - at this point there's no reason to believe they won't- Anno will have a well off studio to create NEW NON-EVA works of his own if he chooses to do so!
Anno: One of the early works to use CG, Jurassic Park, had a great impact, but I have not met with anything exceeding the sense of astonishment [Jurassic Park produced]. CG doesn't produce the feeling of presence where you are looking at something there without mediation. A minature is something that is actually there, so that even as an image on a screen it produces a feeling of presence. I think that human perception actuely grasps this difference. I hear that monster movies have been treated as crude and bizarre works ever since the days when they were made, but Japanese tokusatsu works have been highly regarded overseas. I think that, even more than anime, Japan should first of all be proud of Godzilla.
As if I didnt have huge amounts of respect for the man before.....I am now just overwhelmed with a sense of amazement that he would say such a thing. As a Godzilla and tokusatsu fan myself I have even greater respect for the man now than before if thats even possible!
Anyone notice that Misato's ring tone in 2.0 sounds vaguely like King Ghidorah?
You were not the only one, good sir. But, this entire interview is rather interesting...and gives me the feeling 3.0 is going to turn everything on its head.
That was awesome. Hopefully it ends the weird idea that Anno completely changed just because he married. I didn't care for the advertising on the first two films, but had no idea he felt the same. Enough to pull up stakes, apparently.
That was awesome. Hopefully it ends the weird idea that Anno completely changed just because he married. I didn't care for the advertising on the first two films, but had no idea he felt the same. Enough to pull up stakes, apparently.
I'm not much aware of the advertising. And I don't see where Anno "pulled up stakes" for that particular reason. It sounds more like he just wanted ... something. Not sure where I'm going with this. Oh look and now I've dropped it off the e dg e o f t h e ...
_________________ "NGE is like a perfectly improvised jazz piece. It builds on a standard and then plays off it from there, and its developments may occasionally recall what it's done before as a way of keeping the whole concatenated." -- Eva Yojimbo "...fairly often I post with the intent to offend..." -- NemZ, Token Misanthrope "To me watching anime is not just for killing time or entertainment, it is a life style, and a healthy one too." -- symbv "Mini-Misato is Misato, you fools. Near Third Impact made everyone on Earth 14. That pink haired one is Kihl." -- Chuckman
In the original Eva, there were many people who took something that I created as a source of amusement beyond those limits and made it into an object of dependence. I wanted to take responsibility for the fact that such people had been so "inflated." I wanted to bring the work back within the boundaries of entertainment.
So basically this is the reason for Rebuild being more about popcorn entertainment than psychoanalysis? He's not interested in creating works that people will emotionally obsess over anymore? That's kind of lame. Many authors would kill for a work of theirs to be as emotionally resonant and as studied by the fans as Eva has proven to be.
Oh well, good thing he didn't have this mentality from the start, or this site might not even exist.
And the original Eva was just a "source of amusement" to him, really? Not an outlet or downright self-therapy? I kind of doubt that.
So basically this is the reason for Rebuild being more about popcorn entertainment than psychoanalysis? He's not interested in creating works that people will emotionally obsess over anymore? That's kind of lame. Many authors would kill for a work of theirs to be as emotionally resonant and as studied by the fans as Eva has proven to be.
It kind of reminds me of how Maurice Sendak kept saying he didn't get why people loved Where the Wild Things Are so much. You just think that maybe they're playing love games with fame. Just get over it and embrace it already.
Also, I don't think you should get to say your movie is just meant to be amusement when you have it end like he did. And maybe it was a bit conceited for him to think he could get the otakus to change their ways because of his show. It's kind of a self defeating mechanism. You inject meaning into the show, but moreover, it's the show that ends up being discussed. Because saying "go outside" would be more direct than hiding it under psychobabble and crazy characters that are fun to pick apart.
_________________ Why do they even want the Loc-Nar? All it does is melt you.
And the original Eva was just a "source of amusement" to him, really? Not an outlet or downright self-therapy? I kind of doubt that.
I think he's just trying to distance himself from that, because I'm almost certain he's admitted it before. Maybe he's really bothered about how people were so dependent on NGE that making it seem like he wasn't invested in it himself could change that.
Also, loads of respect for the guy now. The "Japan should be super proud of Godzilla" thing is awesome.
So basically this is the reason for Rebuild being more about popcorn entertainment than psychoanalysis?
Either that, or his definition of "entertainment" isn't "hating otakus." He can be entertaining and still have room for some intellectual material. (Specifically, I'm thinking of Anno's involvement with His & Her Circumstances.)
Especially when taken with 3.0's piano teaser, this might be Anno promising to be more optimistic in his story-telling, rather than bashing his viewers with a sense of emotional ambiguity. But the techniques used to portray such an optimistic story can still be well thought and intellectual.
_________________ Phyre Rusty Jazz Forced Perspective Contributor "I believe in what I want to believe. You believe in what You want to believe. So when someone wants to believe in something, no one will know what to believe! Believe it or not..." FreakyFilm's deviantART "When I came to play the Hideaki Anno" - Gorô Miyazaki's comments as translated by Google
So at this point they're completely free from outside interference? That should be quite fun. Amazing how it only took them two movies to get there.
If I understand correctly, they were free from outside interference from the beginning. The interview is saying that they've always been independently financed. That is, the initial investment has been made independently (apparently by Anno). That doesn't mean that they can't bring in advertising partners, etc., later. However, those partners wouldn't have the authority of initial investors.
Here are a couple of other comments relating to that. One is a comment from an interview Anno did with Toshio Suzuki about a year and a half ago (around 26:15 here). The "[---]" was something Anno said I couldn't identify.
Suzuki: You made [the new] Eva with your own money?
Anno: Yeah.
Suzuki: Incredible.
Anno: 100 percent [---]. It is a risk, but also an opportunity for return.
There was also a comment Tsurumaki made in the CRC interviews implying something similar:
Anno-san is the original creator, the scriptwriter, the chief director, substantially the producer、the sponsor, the head of the production studio, and he also overlooks distribution and advertising; it's an awe-inspiring situation.
If I understand correctly, they were free from outside interference from the beginning. The interview is saying that they've always been independently financed. That is, the initial investment has been made independently (apparently by Anno). That doesn't mean that they can't bring in advertising partners, etc., later. However, those partners wouldn't have the authority of initial investors.
Here are a couple of other comments relating to that. One is a comment from an interview Anno did with Toshio Suzuki about a year and a half ago (around 26:15 here). The "[---]" was something Anno said I couldn't identify.
There was also a comment Tsurumaki made in the CRC interviews implying something similar:
Thanks. That's quite interesting. I always thought the reason for so much recycling in 1.0 was because they sold it to investors as a low-risk quick cashgrab to get the project off the ground. Only then with the success of 1.0 decided to exercise more freedom in 2.0. Now I guess the real reason for the recycling is Anno's relatively shallow pockets at the time.
_________________ "Hooray for other things!" -NAveryW
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Fascinating... I'd quote choice portions but it's 
