Toshio Okada discusses Gunbuster, Eva, and Honneamise

yeah, all the full frontal nudity and boobs in ep 2 would make any man cry

The personal biography confuses me a little. There seems to be some Javascript running which after a few seconds redirects to the homepage (very annoying), and it's not clear who it's by. Is it written by Anno? It sure reads like it.

Also people, when making claims, remember to source them. I see a lot of what seem to be claims based on _The Notenki Memoirs_ here, but little citation...

For whatever it's worth:

Sailor Star Dust wrote:

NHK screwed Gainax over with Nadia, maybe somebody else has more details on the how/why.

--is most likely something Hiroyuki Yamaga said at one of his Fanime 2010 panels, based on how I seemingly posted that information from memory. (NaveryW can confirm or deny since he was there with me.)

Takeda disagrees in TNM. He seems to think Gainax was the one who screwed up. I believed I quoted the relevant sections in another thread at you, SSD...

Here's a bit more about Okada's "snow" comment.

At some point following the conclusion of the Eva TV series, two separate projects were announced or rumored: a remake of the last two episodes, which would be released on laserdisc; and and an all-new theatrical film. (According to Yuichiro Oguro, they were both announced in April 1996). In interviews following the end of the series, Anno mentions both these projects, and talks about the remake of the last two episodes as a separate project from the film.

Recently I found a more detailed explanation of this given in an interview archived on johakyu. The interview is from a now-defunct online magazine called "SF Online" and features Yoshiyuki Sadamoto and Hiroki Sato. I have translated the following excerpt to the best of my ability, but I am not sure I properly understood the second-last paragraph, where question marks have been added. Please forgive mistakes in the translation. Any suggestions regarding improvements would be much appreciated.

Quote:

貞本 スタッフが、作りながら(作品を)愛してたよね。劇場版は、ほんとはオリジナルのキャラクターだけ使ってぜんぜん違う話の企画があったんだけど。 Sadamoto: The staff loved (the work) while they were making it. The film version was really planned to be a completely different story that would only use the characters from the original. 佐藤 ＴＶシリーズを見てない人にも楽しめるという、本当はそういう予定だったんですけれど、さすがにスタッフから疲れた宣言が出てまして、もうできねえよと。じゃあ劇場版は弐拾伍、弐拾六話のリメイクということで、残ってる本来の脚本どおりにやろうと。で、本来の劇場版はぽしゃった形になってる。 Sato: We really had planned it so that people who hadn't seen the TV series would be able to enjoy it as well, but the staff said that they were worn out, and we didn't think we would be able to do it any more. Well, since the film [became] a remake of episodes 25 and 26, we decided to do it along the lines of the left over original script. But the original film collapsed. 貞本 そう。へこたれちゃった。ぼくは最初の予定の劇場版が見たかったんですけどね。 Sadamoto: Right. [The staff] were worn out. I wanted to see the originally planned film. 佐藤 どちらかというとさっきのＳＦの話に戻るわけですけれど、そのぽしゃったほうの企画では、巨大ロボットのいる世界というのをまじめに作りたかったのですよ。デザインチームとしては、そういうアイディアを組み立てていったもう一方の側の、まあいうたら『ハードゲリオン』(笑)みたいなねえ。 Sato: If I was to say which [direction it was heading in], it would have been a return to the earlier science-fiction [oriented] story. In the plan which fell apart, we wanted to seriously create a world in which giant robots would exist. The design team constructed this idea, which would have been another side of - well, if I had to say, something like a "hard-gelion" (laughing). 貞本 だけど、ＴＶシリーズを延々とやってきて、もう全員息切れしてるじゃないですか。いまからこの大変なのをたった一年で作れっていうのぉ？　って、庵野さんも含めて全員がへこたれちゃってて。 Sadamoto: But, having worked endlessly on the TV series, the staff had already run out of steam. "You're telling us to keep up this brutal work for merely one more year?" The entire staff was worn out, Anno-san included. 佐藤 庵野さんは半年のリハビリ後に、もう一回ビデオ版をスタートさせて、スケジュール的にはアレして何とかなりますということで、だから最初にテレビが終わった段階では、発表しましたけれどオリジナル長編も考えてたんですよ。 Sato: After Anno-san rehabilitated for half a year, he had work on the video version start up again. Since doing that worked out scheduling-wise, we had announced it around when the TV series had first ended, but we were also thinking about an original film. [???] 貞本 『エヴァ』って夏の世界じゃないですか、それが美術が一変して、冬の世界にいきなり雪山の、ミサトとかもコート着て出てくる予定で、かっこいいじゃんとかとか思って、ぼくは内心ちょっとはりきってたんだけど。それがリメイクってことになって、なーんだ、ぼくの仕事ないじゃん、って。 Sadamoto: Eva takes place in a "summer world." It was planned that [the film] would completely change the art style, so that suddenly snow-covered mountains, and Misato and the others wearing coats, would appear in a "winter world." Thinking that would be very cool, I was a little bit excited inside. That became the remake [instead], and [it was then like,] "What? There's no job for me?"

Very interesting as usual, Numbers-kun. Your translations are often so useful.

And yet again, Olivier Hague has been vindicated! From http://eva.onegeek.org/pipermail/oldeva/2001-April/039702.html :

Quote:

But did they ever state that there would be no more Eva? After all, they intended to make the Summer 97 movie an original story, independently from the alternate ending (first supposed to be released on video only)... And there are still some Gainax members who would like to make (or at least, to see ^^) that one. It was supposed to take place in snowy landscapes (instead of the "endless summer" setting), to have new characters, and overall a more realistic touch (some of the Gainax members called it "a sort of Hard-gelion" ^^). Who knows?... In a few years, maybe?...

Which matches up perfectly with your Sato translation:

Quote:

...well, if I had to say, something like a "hard-gelion" (laughing).

Also good to see more evidence of Okada's reliability.

I think this will help with interpreting the old interviews - the apparent equivocation was always confusing, but now that I know what Anno was talking about, perhaps some things will fall into place.

Also, what does http://www.style.fm/as/05_column/animesama60.shtml actually say? (It's the usual half-understandable nonsense in Google Translate, unfortunately.)