"Anno's Vision"

[Dartz]

Gainax will be Gainax. As long as people will pay to watch, they will make it available. I for one hope they get the licensing sorted out as soon as possible, so it doesn't end up like EoE.

I#'d happily buy the boxed set when the series is finsihed. There's no way I'd bother torrenting a few gigabytes of movie anyway. I'd want it in decent quality, and I have a data transfer limit...

[AchtungAffen]

Gainax will be Gainax. But this is Khara... is this Gainax too? I'd say: probably.

[Dartz]

Gainax will be Gainax. But this is Khara... is this Gainax too? I'd say: probably.

You can take the staff out of Gainax, but you can't take the Gainax out of staff...

[cat42]

All I have to say you all (for now) is that I find your lack of faith disturbing...

[BobBQ]

But Anno teaches us that faith is a childish escape fantasy and that we have to outgrow it!

[1731298478]

A few comments on some of the differences between the original message (link here or here) and the circulating translation (many thanks, and apologies, to whoever originally provided it!). Apologies if these comments have been made elsewhere. Lines from the circulating translation are in brackets.

「エヴァンゲリオン」という映像作品は、様々な願いで作られています。
("Many different desires are motivating us to create the new "Evangelion" film.")

Unless I am badly mistaken, the Japanese line does not refer to the new films, but to the "Evangelion" franchise generally. Literally, something like "The visual works [entitled] 'Evangelion' are [or were] created according to a variety of desires." The desires which follow are not just the desires which motivate the new films, but the desires which have motivated Evangelion generally.

疲弊しつつある日本のアニメーションを、未来へとつなげたいという願い。
("The desire to connect today's exhausted Japanese animation [industry] to the future.")

A very slight difference: not yet "exhausted" but "becoming exhausted," "wearing out." It is phrased so that it could have been a desire both then and now.

蔓延する閉塞感を打破したいという願い。
("The desire to fight the continuing trend of stagnation in anime.)

I'm not sure this line is about anime as such. Here Anno uses the term 閉塞 (heisoku), which has a special meaning for him in his writings. Some more information about Anno's usage of the term is here. So, I think the translation is simply, "The desire to destroy the growing 'feeling of blockage.'" (Cf., for example, the translation of the Refrain of Evangelion booklet: "Director Anno previously made a comment that he wanted to 'break down the blockage' in his TV anime making.")

現実世界で生きていく心の強さを持ち続けたい、という願い。
("The desire to support the strength of heart that exists in the world.")

I think 生きていく心の強さ here means "the strength of heart needed to keep on living." So, "the desire to preserve the strength of heart needed to go on living in the real world."

今一度、これらの願いを具現化したいという願い。
("Finally, the desire to have these wishes be realized.")

今一度 is "once again." "Once again, the desire to realize these desires." It seems like, for a period, he lost the desire to realize the other desires, but not the unrealized desires themselves.

そのために今、我々が出来るベストな方法がエヴァンゲリオン再映画化でした。
("For these purposes, we used the best methods available to us to make another Evangelion film.")

I think the "best method" here refers to the creation of the new films themselves; i.e., "For the sake of these [desires], the best method available to us was to make another film version of Evangelion. [lit. to convert Evangelion into films again]."

本来アニメーションを支えるファン層であるべき中高生のアニメ離れが加速していく中、彼らに向けた作品が必要だと感じます。
("To support the fans that support animation, we felt that a work that would appeal to middle and high school-aged men, who quickly grow away from Anime, was necessary.")

In line with Otsuki's comments, I think this reads as follows: "With what should be the original fan base that supports animation - middle and high-school students - abandoning anime at a faster and faster rate, we feel that a work oriented towards them is necessary."

曖昧な孤独に耐え他者に触れるのが怖くても一緒にいたいと思う、覚悟の話です。
("It is a story of fear, where someone who must face indefinite solitude fears reaching out to others, but still wants to try.")

The Japanese says "a story of resolution" or "a story of determination" (覚悟の話) rather than "a story of fear."

At the very end, Anno writes in reference to the original statement -

2006 09/28 晴れの日に、鎌倉にて

"September 28, 2006,
In Kamakura, on a clear day."

[Warren Peace]

Thanks so much for the update! This statement (and interviews) have been used by those looking to both prop up and condemn Rebuild (okay, mostly by those looking to condemn). This process shows how precarious it is for us English-speakers to do that -- the very Japanese terms on display (like "heisoku") should make us all think twice when we think we've figured out the new films' grand design. As always, we're lucky to have folks like Numbers-kun who can show us the cave wall's shadows...

[Blue Monday]

Numbers-kun...

[driftking18594]

But Anno teaches us that faith is a childish escape fantasy and that we have to outgrow it!

Alright, who's gonna suggest NGE to Richard Dawkins?

[Alaska Slim]

^What, just so that he can be repulsed by the LOL!Biology? Or how about the concept that we can get humanity to last foreverz?

@numbers: Thanks man. B) By the way, symbv's back.

[tomfrom994]

1. I think that his initial vision was partially realized, and that he may have a new vision that we might see in the next two movies.
2. I've doubted the man, but I'm always proved wrong in the end. I currently hold the belief that all of the experiments he's done in the medium of entertainment have served a specific purpose, as he can film a movie with $5 cameras and make it good, and he can end a successful franchise without giving details as to "what's actually happening" and make it good. Basically, he could take an idea, be it arbitrary or not, and stick it in a film or TV show, and he'd know how to make it fit without fucking up the whole thing. Take the ending of 2.0 as an example; it was an idea that Anno thought was stupid. And damn it all if he didn't make that scene legendary the instant people saw it.
3. Yes. I'm 100% sure.

[gwern]

My problem isnt that Anno isn't being original my problem is that he's pulling a Lucas in the sense of redistrbuting a new movie again to make more money already ie. Rebuild of Evangelion 1.25 You are (not) alone

I feel it's worth noting that the parallels run much deeper than that: Lucas was an indie filmmaker who struck it big when he happened to make his famous work as part of a corporate gambit to experiment with bankrolling particular non-mainstream directors, despite some respected successful previous works, and then personally bankrolled the sequels to maintain control and profit the most as a way of building a new artistic & indie studio which could make the works he wanted.

This applies almost exactly to Anno: his indie films were at General Products and Gainax and then Gunbuster and Nadia, Honneamise was a big giant's experiment just like American Graffiti which led to a second followup project like Star Wars, which made him rich and enabled him to personally fund the Rebuild movies in their entirety (as we now know from the 2.0 CRC and some other materials), which led to conservative filmmaking to avoid risk (Lucas dumbed down Return of the Jedi to cope with the financial fallout from his wife's divorce, and Anno did 1.0 so boringly to avoid losing everything), and what was the reason to make Rebuild? Establishing Khara, which is to Anno what Skywalker Ranch was to Lucas.

Of course, we know how the Lucas story ends. It ends with the studio becoming just another cog in the machine and the abandonment of youthful dreams, a number of works of varying quality churned out, some flashes of excellence which recall the originals (Indiana Jones?), some serious disappointments and betrayals (prequels...), and, decades down the line, a very large corporate transaction (Disney buying Star Wars).

[JoeD80]

Honneamise was a big giant's experiment

Honneamise was Gainax's first official project.

and Anno did 1.0 so boringly

uh...?

[gwern]

Honneamise was Gainax's first official project.

...which was funded & owned, lock stock and barrel, by another corporation and only existed because that corporate giant (you might have heard of them before) decided to take a chance and give these unknowns one of the largest animation budgets ever.

uh...?

1.0 was so boring and repetitive of the TV series that I had to write the New York Times to correct their assertion that it actually incorporated a bunch of TV footage.