2003 Kodansha interviews: Hideaki Anno

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2003 Kodansha interviews: Hideaki Anno

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Postby gwern » Sun Sep 18, 2011 12:03 pm

introduction/background http://web.archive.org/web/20040617212134/http://kodansha.cplaza.ne.jp/gainax/anno/anno_1st/anno_1st_scene1.html
biography http://web.archive.org/web/20041119052623/http://kodansha.cplaza.ne.jp/gainax/anno/anno_profile.html

1. First interview
http://web.archive.org/web/20040617212148/http://kodansha.cplaza.ne.jp/gainax/anno/anno_1st/anno_1st_scene2.html (_Nadia_ & death discussion, another description of Japan as childish?)
http://web.archive.org/web/20040617212229/http://kodansha.cplaza.ne.jp/gainax/anno/anno_1st/anno_1st_scene3.html (anime bubble)
http://web.archive.org/web/20040617212255/http://kodansha.cplaza.ne.jp/gainax/anno/anno_1st/anno_1st_scene4.html
http://web.archive.org/web/20040617212304/http://kodansha.cplaza.ne.jp/gainax/anno/anno_1st/anno_1st_scene5.html

2. Second interview:
http://web.archive.org/web/20030812122940/http://kodansha.cplaza.ne.jp/gainax/anno_2nd_scene1.html
http://web.archive.org/web/20030812123007/http://kodansha.cplaza.ne.jp/gainax/anno_2nd_scene2.html
http://web.archive.org/web/20030812123736/http://kodansha.cplaza.ne.jp/gainax/anno_2nd_scene3.html
http://web.archive.org/web/20030812100727/http://kodansha.cplaza.ne.jp/gainax/anno_2nd_scene4.html

3. Third interview:
http://web.archive.org/web/20030812101127/http://kodansha.cplaza.ne.jp/gainax/anno_3rd_scene1.html (mention of _Evangelion 2_?)
http://web.archive.org/web/20030812101621/http://kodansha.cplaza.ne.jp/gainax/anno_3rd_scene2.html (remark that 'this [NGE] is interesting', parallel _Newtype_?)
http://web.archive.org/web/20030812101153/http://kodansha.cplaza.ne.jp/gainax/anno_3rd_scene3.html
http://web.archive.org/web/20030812102009/http://kodansha.cplaza.ne.jp/gainax/anno_3rd_scene4.html (marriage, food)

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Postby 1731298478 » Tue Sep 20, 2011 4:33 am

Here's an attempt at an excerpt from scene 3 of the third interview. There will surely be mistakes, so please forgive them. Corrections and suggestions are vastly appreciated. Thanks again, gwern, for recovering these interviews from the mists of time ^^

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「エヴァ」をやっていたときのテーマのようなものに「作品にプライドを持つ」っていうのがあったんです。それだけは頑張ろうと。褒めるにしてもけなすにしてもですね、そこで「エヴァ」という言葉を口に出した人が、世間で恥ずかしい思いをしない作品にしたいという想いですね。

Anno: Part of the "theme" of making Eva was, "having pride in the work." That was all I tried to do, regardless of if [people] praised or degraded it. So, I hoped to make a work that would not make people ashamed who uttered the word "Eva" in public.

たとえば職場で「昨日のエヴァンゲリオン、つまんなかったよね」という話をしていて、知らない人に「なにそれ」と訊かれて「今こういうアニメがある」と。それで教えられた人が「そんなアニメがあるのならちょっと観てみるか」と観たときに、そこでその人が気に入るか気に入らないかは別として「なんだ、あんな幼稚なものは」と思わないような作品にしたかったんです。やはり総じてアニメは基本的には子供っぽいというか、稚拙なものではあるんです。精神的に大人になっている人は観る必要を感じないと思いますから。と、いいながらも世間に対してせめて、一抹のプライドを持ちたいなと。2万人のアニメファンがこれで喜んでくれればいい、だけではなくベクトルを少しでも外に向けたいということだけなんですけど。しかし結果としては、最後はアニメファンに受ける方向にいってしまったので、結局自分もおたくだなと思いますが(笑)。

For example, at the work place [someone] says, "Last night's Evangelion was boring," and, being asked by someone who doesn't know about it, "What's that?", replies, "There's this anime on now." So, when the person who learns about it watches it [with the idea], "if there's an anime like that, maybe I'll try watching it a little," I wanted to make a work where, apart from whether they become interested in it or not, they wouldn't think that it was something childish. Of course, anime is fundamentally something childlike or childish. I don't think that people who are mentally adults feel a need to watch it. Even so, I wanted to have an ounce of pride before society. Instead of just wanting 20,000 anime fans to enjoy it, [I wanted] a vector aiming towards the outside, even if just by a little. However, the result was, in the end, that I went in a direction that was really popular among anime fans, so in the end I felt that I, too, was an otaku. (laughs)

しかし、制作者たちのプライドを感じる作品というものは、必ずしも多くはないですね。

- However, there aren't necessarily a lot of works in which creators take pride.

ま、僕にしても持ちたいという願望のようなものでしかないので、本当にそれで世間に通用しているのか、プライドを持てているかというとちょっと自信はないですけど。

Anno: Well, even for me wanting to have [pride] was nothing more than an aspiration; I'm a little uncertain that it really gained currency in society, or whether or not I take pride in it.

庵野さんご自身は、自分も体験して来たアニメ史に残る作品、「ヤマト」や「ガンダム」に「エヴァンゲリオン」は匹敵すると考えていらっしゃいます?

- Do you think that Evangelion compares with the classic works of anime that you yourself experienced, Yamato and Gundam?

いや、ぜんぜん。

Anno: No, not at all.

なんと。少なくとも肩は並べたと思っていらっしゃるのかと考えていました。では「ガンダム」を100とすると「エヴァンゲリオン」はどれくらいのものなのでしょう。

- Huh. I thought you would feel that it at least stands shoulder to shoulder [with those works]. So, if Gundam is a 100, what is Evangelion?

いや、それは数値化するもんじゃないですよ。

Anno: No, it's not a matter of converting it into numbers.

「ヤマト」や「ガンダム」とかに対する思い入れというか、超えたいという気持ちは僕の中で今、沈静化している気がします。一種、諦めみたいなものかと。「ヤマト」「ガンダム」にはこのままでは勝てないという思いですね。あれに勝てるだけの何かを手に入れてからではないと、あの時代の作品や人たちには勝てないと思うんです。これに関しては育った時代の状況という要素もあるので、それはしようがないことかもしれないですけど。現に僕ぐらいの世代で、「ヤマト」「ガンダム」に勝っている人はまだ現れていないですからね。

I feel that my strong emotion towards works like Yamato and Gundam, or the feeling that I wanted to surpass those works, has subsided within me. I wonder if this is a kind of resignation. I feel, as things stand, that I can't beat Yamato and Gundam. It has nothing to do, I think, with having something good enough to beat them; I can't beat the works and the people of that era. Also related to this are the circumstances of the era in which I grew up, so it's probably something I can't do anything about. Because, actually, there has yet to emerge anyone from my generation who has beaten Yamato and Gundam.

あくまでも僕自身の認識ですけど、自分がかつて「ヤマト」や「ガンダム」を観たときに受けたのと同じような衝撃を「エヴァ」から感じるかというと、まだ足りない気がします。今現在ということで比べれば、もしかしたら富野さんより僕のほうが面白い作品をつくれるかもしれないです。しかし「ガンダム」「イデオン(『伝説巨神イデオン』)」のときの富野さんにはまだまだ敵わないと思うんですよ。

This is absolutely my personal perspective, but, as to whether or not [people] felt the same impact from Eva as I recieved back when I saw Yamato and Gundam, I feel like Eva is still lacking. If we compare according to the current moment, then perhaps I am capable of creating more interesting works than [the current] Tomino-san. However, I feel I am far from being a match for the Tomino-san of the time of Gundam and Ideon.

僕が初めて観たロボットアニメは『鉄人28号』なんですけど、それが4歳の頃でした。それ以来子供のときから延々とロボットアニメを観続けて来た15年間という時間を経て、19歳のときに受けた衝撃が「ガンダム」だったんです。「あのロボットアニメが、こんなものにまでなっている!」という。この衝撃は自分では超えられないんじゃないか。「ファーストガンダム」第1話の衝撃はそれほどのものでした。Gアーマーが出てこなきゃいけないというような、それまでのロボットアニメの枷がまだまとわりついていながらも、ここから新しいものをやるんだというエネルギーがすごかったんですよ。それまでのロボットアニメが蓄積してきたテーゼに対するアンチテーゼや、カウンターが「ガンダム」にはものすごくあった。そこに感動したんです。それに較べれば「エヴァ」はまだまだ足りないですね。自分もエネルギーは最大限出してますけど、インパクトの度合いが違う気がします。

The first robot anime I saw was "Tetsujin #28", but that was around when I was four years old. From that point on, from the time I was a child, fifteen years went by where I watched robot anime endlessly, and the impact I felt when I was nineteen years old was [that of] Gundam. "Those robot anime... have become something like this!" For me, this impact can never be surpassed. The impact of the first episode of the first Gundam was that powerful. There was an energy like the G-armor having to come out [?] [in episode 24?], an energy like, even though the chains of robot anime up to this point were still wrapped around it, from here on out it was going to do something new. That energy was amazing. In Gundam, there was very much an anthithesis or a counter to the thesis that had been built up by robot anime up to that point. I was deeply affected by that. Compared with that, Eva is still a long ways off. Even though I produced as much energy as I could, I feel like it didn't have the same degree of impact.

「ヤマト」もそうです。本放送は14歳のときでした。あの頃は自分も中学2年にもなって親や友達から「まだアニメ観てるの」「いい年してマンガなんか観てないでいい加減卒業しなさい」と言われていました。まあそれもそうだなと思います。しかし中2の自分が、友達に話して恥ずかしくない番組が「ヤマト」だったんですよ。当時は誰も観てなかったのに、友達とかクラスの外の人にまで布教活動しましたね。「『猿の軍団』観てないで、こっち観ようよ」とか「『ハイジ』観てないで、こっち観ようよ」とか。ほとんど耳を傾けてくれる人はいなかったですけどね(笑)。あの頃、ジュブナイルのSFや戦記物が好きで、そういう自分の好きの部分も満たしてくれたマンガがあれだったんです。自分の趣味にバシッと来ました。中2の自分が観て恥ずかしくない、「やっぱりマンガ観てていいんだ」と確信させてくれる番組でした。「ヤマト」を中2のときに観ていなかったら、その後もうマンガを観ていなかったでしょうね。

Yamato is the same way. The original broadcast was when I was fourteen years old. At that time I was in the second year of junior high school, and was being told by my parents and friends, "You're still watching anime?" "At your age, you should stop looking at things like manga; cut it out and grow up." Well, I think they had a point. However, when I was in second year, Yamato was the show I was not ashamed of talking to my friends [about]. As no one watched it in those days, I would proselytize it to my friends and even to people outside my class. "Don't watch 'Army of the Apes,' watch this!" Or, "Don't watch 'Heidi,' watch this!" There was hardly anyone who listened. (laughs) At that time, I liked juvenile SF and military history, and there were manga that fufilled [my desire for] the things I liked. [Yamato] met my interests resoundingly. It was a program that I, in my second year, was not ebarrassed to watch, and which convinced me that, "as I thought, it's fine to read manga." If I hadn't seen Yamato in my second year, I would probably not have read manga any longer after that.

今でいえば「ハマる」っていうやつですね。「ヤマト」の音声を録音するために親に英語の勉強をしたいとウソついてテレビチューナー付きのカセットデッキを買ってもらいました。でも小遣いがなくてテープが120分のが数本しかなかったんですよ。だからとにかくローテーションでいくしかなくて、新しい回を録音する前に覚えてしまわなきゃいけなんですよ。毎日カセットを延々と聴いてセリフや音を覚えていました。今はだいぶ忘れてしまいましたけど、あの頃は「ヤマト」のセリフをほとんど空で言えましたね。本来は勉強に使わなきゃいけない記憶の容量を、そんなところに使ってしまっていましたね。

Nowadays you would say that I "fell into" [got deeply into] it. In order to record the audio from Yamato, I would borrow a TV tuner with a cassette deck from my parents, lying to them that I wanted to [use it to] study english. However, I had no pocket money, and no more than a few 120 minute tapes. So I had to just rotate them; I had to completely memorize [what I was recording over] before recording a new episode. Each week I would continually listen to the cassette, memorizing the sounds and dialogue. Now I have mostly forgotten it, but at that time I was almost entirely able to recite the dialogue of Yamato from memory. I used the memory capacity that one normally has to use for studying on this.

そういう体験の記憶が自分の中に入りこんじゃっているんですよ。「ヤマト」や「ガンダム」と違う面白さは「エヴァ」にもあるとは思うんですけど、自分自身の認識としては、かつて14歳のときに「ヤマト」を観た感動を超えるものは、自分にはつくれないんじゃないか。19歳のときに、子供の頃からずっとロボットアニメを観続けて来た自分が、「ガンダム」の第1話を観て受けた衝撃を、自分では越えられないんじゃないか。自分の中にある記憶に勝つことができるかというと、これがすごく難しい気がするんです。超えたいという願望はありますけど、一方では自分ではできないという諦めもあります。自分自身が変わったら、もしかすると別のアプローチが見つかるかもしれませんけど。

The memories of these personal experiences are ingrained within me. [?] I think the different appeals of Yamato and Gundam are also in Eva, but from my own perspective, I can't create something that exceeds the impression I felt seeing Yamato at the age of fourteen. I can't go beyond the impact I felt when I was nineteen and, having continually watched robot anime since the time I was a child, saw the first episode of Gundam. It seems extremely difficult to be capable of beating the memories inside of me. I have the desire to surpass them, but on the other hand, I am resigned to the fact that I can't do it. If I myself change, then maybe I can find a different approach.

少なくとも今だともう「エヴァンゲリオン」みたいなものにはならないと思いますが。ああいうテンパッた切羽詰まったものには、ならないですむかもしれない。もうちょっと幸せなものがいいなあと思います。

I feel, at least for now, that it can no longer be something like Evangelion. Perhaps it can't be that sort of desperate and pressurized work. Something a little bit more pleasant would be good, I think.
Last edited by 1731298478 on Tue Sep 20, 2011 2:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Postby Xard » Tue Sep 20, 2011 8:03 am

lolanno

Eva is easily better than Gundam or Yamato :P

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Postby Azathoth » Tue Sep 20, 2011 2:41 pm

View Original PostAnno wrote:Of course, anime is fundamentally something childlike or childish.


lol

I wish Yotsuba C hadn't dropped his tripcode, I could have trolled that cunt off the fucking internet with this interview

I still really can't believe that Anno genuinely thinks Ideon is good
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Postby gwern » Tue Sep 20, 2011 2:47 pm

View Original PostAzathoth wrote:I still really can't believe that Anno genuinely thinks Ideon is good


Probably a long-standing sore point of yours... but I kind of agree with him. At the very least, it follows his little impact criteria; I remember watching the movie and even as Eva-hardened as I am, being quite impacted - 'did that kid really just get shot through the head onscreen in a '70s-style anime?!'

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Postby Xard » Wed Sep 21, 2011 8:42 am

View Original PostAzathoth wrote:I wish Yotsuba C hadn't dropped his tripcode, I could have trolled that cunt off the fucking internet with this interview.


Yotsuba C dropped his trip?

View Original PostAzathoth wrote:I still really can't believe that Anno genuinely thinks Ideon is good


yeah, it's one of those things that shakes you. Suffice to say that Anno's obsession with Tomino, glorification of Imperial Japan (battle of okinawa being one of his favourite films and all) and tokkusatsu makes his taste utterly baffling and alien to me.

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Postby BornIn1142 » Wed Sep 21, 2011 9:03 am

View Original Postgwern wrote:Probably a long-standing sore point of yours... but I kind of agree with him. At the very least, it follows his little impact criteria; I remember watching the movie and even as Eva-hardened as I am, being quite impacted - 'did that kid really just get shot through the head onscreen in a '70s-style anime?!'


Don't you think there's more to quality than blatant shock value?
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Postby gwern » Wed Sep 21, 2011 9:14 am

Of course, but shock quality has a quality all of its own. I wouldn't say Ideon was as good as, say, Grave of the Fireflies, but that was later, and treating war as futile horror makes a good counterpoint to the jingoism you often see in military SF. (I suspect that Ideon is a strong contrast to Yamato in this regard, but I have not watched it yet. Possibly the better contrast is to Gundam, which I haven't watched yet either.)

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Postby SaltyJoe » Wed Sep 21, 2011 9:26 am

Anno sure has some thick nostalgia googles.

Great find. I hope Number-kun won't feel overworked with all the translation requests, though.
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Postby Azathoth » Wed Sep 21, 2011 9:39 am

View Original PostXard wrote:Yotsuba C dropped his trip?


Forgot a pound sign and got it cracked, I think. There were several hilarious threads of parading his corpse around in mockery, so to speak. A pity, I'd have loved to see him self-destruct with more grandeur.

View Original PostXard wrote:yeah, it's one of those things that shakes you. Suffice to say that Anno's obsession with Tomino,


I mean, I do really like some of Tomino's stuff, and I can see why MSG is so highly respected and why it was such a big thing for the generation of creators immediately before Anno's, but Ideon, with the exception of Be Invoked, was just boring to me. And Be Invoked not being boring doesn't mean it was good, just lolwut...

View Original PostXard wrote:glorification of Imperial Japan (battle of okinawa being one of his favourite films and all)


Eh. Silly nostalgic nationalisms like this are common among mentally unstable people and/or artists.

View Original PostXard wrote:and tokkusatsu makes his taste utterly baffling and alien to me.


Agreed...although I do have an irl friend who is a ridiculously hardcore tokusatsu fan, who is still baffling to me but not quite alien
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Postby Xard » Wed Sep 21, 2011 1:45 pm

View Original PostAzathoth wrote:Forgot a pound sign and got it cracked, I think. There were several hilarious threads of parading his corpse around in mockery, so to speak. A pity, I'd have loved to see him self-destruct with more grandeur.


So he was starting to lose it in major way or something already (more than uusal)?

View Original PostAzathoth wrote:I mean, I do really like some of Tomino's stuff, and I can see why MSG is so highly respected and why it was such a big thing for the generation of creators immediately before Anno's, but Ideon, with the exception of Be Invoked, was just boring to me. And Be Invoked not being boring doesn't mean it was good, just lolwut...


Don't get me wrong MSG is really something, but Ideon is terrible series and Anno has his nostalgia glasses on in general.


View Original PostAzathoth wrote:Eh. Silly nostalgic nationalisms like this are common among mentally unstable people and/or artists.


it's still creepy and somewhat annoying with the so-called otaku generation and its creators. I was discussing this with Nick on sunday, heh

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Postby Azathoth » Wed Sep 21, 2011 2:55 pm

View Original PostXard wrote:So he was starting to lose it in major way or something already (more than uusal)?


Not as far as I noticed, but come on, guy like that can only go for so long without collapsing into a glorious train wreck

View Original PostXard wrote:it's still creepy and somewhat annoying with the so-called otaku generation and its creators. I was discussing this with Nick on sunday, heh


:shrug: maybe listening to so much black metal has inured me to people whose works I like and respect having hilariously stupid opinions about the world as a whole. Anno's bawwwfest "poor us, stripped of masculinity and adulthood by evil Amerikkka" doesn't seem like much when compared to, say, the guy from Peste Noire:

some wacky French bastard wrote:The Internet is what has drawn Black Metal to the masses, a new age where everything is accessible to all types of fools at any time of the day, a new era where misanthropes gather at online communities wanting to make as many friends as possible. The occult, underground and elitist movement which the BLACK LEGIONS embodied is no longer possible: some idiot will inevitably put demo tapes on the Internet... [...] When I hear how these people managed to ruin the sound of my songs by putting them on myspace or youtube, I think I'd rather die than be the composer of those songs. If I were some random guy who'd find out about PESTE NOIRE through the sound files found on the Internet, I'd have a good laugh and I'd stop listening to the music immediately. ON BEHALF OF MY BAND, I DEMAND THAT ALL INDIVIDUALS WHO CREATED PESTE NOIRE MYSPACE PAGES DELETE THESE PAGES IMMEDIATELY; MY MUSIC IS NOT MEANT TO BE LISTENED TO ON A COMPUTER.


emphasis his.
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Postby Tarnsman » Wed Sep 21, 2011 5:26 pm

View Original PostXard wrote:glorification of Imperial Japan (battle of okinawa being one of his favourite films and all)

Is that the film that basically blames America for killing everyone on Okinawa and portrays the Japanese army as glorious saints that can do no wrong?
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Postby soul.assassin » Thu Sep 22, 2011 12:23 am

View Original PostTarnsman wrote:Is that the film that basically blames America for killing everyone on Okinawa and portrays the Japanese army as glorious saints that can do no wrong?


I wonder if he has read Robert Leckie's book on that invasion (I doubt about it, given his presumably nationalist tendencies. OT: there's Anno but there are no US military personnel or foreigners in Higuchi's ethnocentric disaster movie Japan Sinks), but I know that Anno once said that he wasn't happy about the current state of post-war Japanese society in which he thought men born after the war weren't good enough.

Ah, he likes being different, playing the role of the eccentric, from his alleged vegetarianism to some other odd interests whatever Xard has already mentioned.

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Postby BornIn1142 » Thu Sep 22, 2011 4:56 am

I'm not sure I would put vegetarianism on quite the same level of eyebrow-raising. :chinscratch:
"I'm afraid you can't create tragedy out of abnormal psychology." - Andrew Sarris.

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Postby 1731298478 » Mon Nov 14, 2011 8:02 pm

I'm a bit surprised by the comments made about Ideon in this thread! Especially considering how large an influence Ideon is upon Eva, it's surprising that Eva fans would dislike it. I suppose this is because Eva is a broader anime than its influences, and capable of attracting more diverse audiences who enjoy different aspects of it. (Or maybe it's because what Tsurumaki said - that it has more "gaps"?) Or else, maybe it's because Eva is a bridge between earlier and anime and modern anime, so that even anime fans today who have no taste for the work of earlier directors can enjoy Eva.

Anyway, here's an attempt at translating another excerpt from the interview. Corrections and suggestions are highly appreciated; please forgive mistakes!! This is scene four of the first interview.

Thank you very much to symbv for the corrections!!

---

そもそもメインのものとはどういうものなのでしょう。

-- What did it originally mean, I wonder, for something to be mainstream?

メイン。なんだろう。どっしりとしてきちんと構えているようなものですよね。むしろそれがあるからみんなが安心して違うことができるような。

Anno: Mainstream. What did it mean? Something like, something massive and perfectly planned out. Something like, when it's there, you can safely do other things.

'60年代以降はカウンターカルチャーしかなかったと思うんですよ。なにかがあってそれに反発して、結局その反発したものに対するまた反発。この繰り返しでしかなかった。今はその反発すべきものすらなくなっているので、創作行為はリサイクルとコピーコラージュみたいなものでしかなくなってしまった。今つくられているものはコピーペーストによるものだけですよね。これはもうしようがないと思っていますけど。人ひとりが持っているポテンシャルがここまで低くなって、こんなに情報だけ増えた今では、コピーペーストぐらいしか出てこないんでしょうね。

I think, since the 1960s, there has been nothing but counterculture. Something was there, and you react against it; in the end you react again, against the [initial] reaction. It was just this cycle of repetition. Now, there is nothing left to react against, so creative activity has been reduced to nothing but recycled, "copy-collage" type works. The works created today are only made by "copying and pasting." I think there is no choice left but to do this. Today, when the potential of each individual has been lowered to this extent, and only the amount of information has increased, there is more or less nothing but copying and pasting.

いつかはこうした状況も、今の日本の社会的な状況も含めて、変わっていくとは思うんですけどね。今ミサイルが東京に一発落ちたら、もうアニメをつくるどころじゃなくなるでしょう。「こんな非常時に美少女のアニメなんかつくっている場合か!」と(笑)。でも今のところ世の中にはミサイルが東京に落ちたニュースより、毎週美少女のアニメを見たいという人がまだまだいるわけですから。

I do believe that someday this situation, along with the situation of contemporary Japanese society, will change, but... If a single missile just now fell on Tokyo, it would no longer be the time and the place to create anime. "Are you making bishojo anime at a time of emergency like this!?" (laughs) However, in contemporary society, there would still be far more people who would rather watch bishojo anime than news reports about the missile that fell on Tokyo.

ヨーロッパで漫画を描く人は絵を専門的に勉強した人が多く絵柄などは全然違いますが、おたく精神だけは日本のものと変わらないですね。漫画を描いて日本の漫画雑誌の新人賞にはるばる投稿してくるような人まで現われています。おたくは国境を越えやすいですね。

-- Among people who draw manga in Europe, there are many who have studied drawing professionally, and there are great differences in visual designs and so on. However, the otaku mentality is no different [there] than it is in Japan. You even see people doing things like drawing manga and applying for prizes for newcomers from Japanese manga magazines. Otaku easily cross national boundaries.

おたくはもう万国共通だと感じます。ヨーロッパでも韓国でも台湾でも香港でもアメリカでも、おたくは本当に変わらないですね。これはすごいと思います。おたくに対して非難めいたことをいっているようですけど、否定してるわけじゃないんですよ。単に一歩ひいて見たらこうなんだってことを自覚しようといっているだけです。自覚して現状を認識した上で確信犯的にやっている分にはまったくいいと思うんですよ。ただ社会と断絶してまでのめり込むのはいかがなものかと感じるだけで。僕も社会の素晴らしさなんてわかりませんからね。だから「おたく的なものをやめてもっと社会的になろうよ」とまで呼びかける気はないんですよ。ただ、世界にはほかに面白いものは沢山あるし、拒絶することはないと思うだけです。

Anno: I feel that otaku have already become common to all countries. In Europe, in Korea, in Taiwan, in Hong Kong, in America, otaku really do not change. I think that this is amazing. I say critical things towards otaku, but I don't reject them. I only say that we should take a step back and be self-conscious about these things. I think it's perfectly fine so long as you act with an awareness of what you are doing, self-conscious and cognizant of the current situation. I'm just not sure it's a good thing to reach the point where you cut yourself off from society. I don't understand the greatness of society, either. So I have no intention of going so far as to call for people to give up otaku-like things and become more suited to society. Only, I think there are many other interesting things in the world, and we don't have to reject them.

けど、おたく外の人からおたくを非難されると腹が立ちますね。「うるさいバカ」と思います。なにもわかってない癖にと(笑)。実際わかってないような人が本当にいっぱいいますからね。そういう人たちにアレコレいわれるまでもなく、そんなことはわかってるんですよ。今更って感じがします。でもそういったほうがまだマシで、完全に的外れなことが多いですけど。理解しようともしていない人が偉そうにおたくについて語ってたりしていると、本当に頭が悪い人だなと思います。

However, I take offense when otaku are criticized by non-otaku. Stupid idiots, I think, [criticizing] though you don't understand anything (laughs). There are truly many people who don't seem to really understand. I know these things without being lectured to by these people. It's like, why now? But saying those things is still better. There are many who completely missed the mark. When people don't even try to understand speak about otaku as though they were far above them, I think: what stupid people.

庵野さんは近年、アニメからは離れている印象が強いと感じますが、それはもしかすると現在のアニメーションのお客さんに望まれているものをつくっていくのが嫌になってしまった、ということが理由の一つではないかと想像しています。これは正しいでしょうか。

-- I have a stong impression that you have separated yourself from anime in recent years. I imagined that perhaps one reason for this was that you grew sick of making the things that fans of contemporary anime want. Was this the case?

純粋にサービスとして考えれば、ストレートにお客さんが欲しがっているものをつくることがいいんでしょうけど。欲しいものと違う別のサービスを提供してみるのも、またサービスじゃないかとも思います。難しいですね。嫌になったというよりも、あきらめたことのほうが近いと思います。

Anno: If we think [of anime] purely in terms of service, then it's probably fine to straightforwardly make what the customers want. I think that offering services other than those desired [by the customers] is still service. It's difficult. I think it's less that I got sick of it, than that I gave up [became resigned].

狭い意味でのアニメファンというものは変わらないんですね。その人たちの意識は生涯変わらないのかもしれないというあきらめですね。やはり画一化です。その人が生きている限り、同じものしか好きじゃないんです。変化を求めないんですね。同じ快楽を延々と求めたいんです。ほかにも面白いものがあるからそっちはどうかな、といっても興味がいかないんですよ。それは、本当に大きなお世話なんです。僕も食べ物に関しては好き嫌いが激しいので、人のことをとやかくいえませんが(笑)。「肉はほんとに美味しいから食べたほうがいいですよ」といわれますけど、食べないですね。肉は食べ物に見えないんです。だから、すみませんと(笑)。うまいんだろうなとは思いますけど食べる気にはならない。やっこで充分です。数万円の肉より250円の冷奴のほうを、僕は食べたいと思ってしまうんですね。そういうことがあるのであまりいえないというか、まったく僕もおたくなわけで(笑)。

Anime fans, in a narrow sense, do not change. I resigned myself to the fact that their understanding would probably not change in my lifetime. Of course, they are conforming to a single standard. As long as they are alive, they only like the same things. They're not looking for change. They endlessly seek the same pleasures. Even if you say that other interesting things exist, they can't be bothered. It's something they didn't ask for and don't care for. I have my own extreme likes and dislikes in regard to food, so I can't be finding all these faults with other people (laughs). I've been told, "you should eat meat, because it's really delicious," but I don't eat it. Meat doesn't seem like food [to me]. So, I'm sorry (laughs). I'm sure it's delicious, but I have no intention of eating it. I'm fine with yakko [tofu]. I would rather eat 250 yen hiyayakko than meat which cost tens of thousands of yen. Because of this I can't really say anything. Or should I say: I, too, am truly an otaku (laughs).
Last edited by 1731298478 on Sun Nov 20, 2011 4:10 am, edited 2 times in total.

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Postby gwern » Mon Nov 14, 2011 8:34 pm

(Things are becoming clearer.)

Anno: If we think [of anime] purely in terms of service, then it's probably fine to straightforwardly make what the customers want. I think that offering services other than those desired [by the customers] is still service. It's difficult. I think it's less that I got sick of it, than that I gave up [became resigned].


Anno really talks a lot about service, doesn't he? No 'poison' this time, though.

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Postby symbv » Mon Nov 14, 2011 8:35 pm

^ Thanks 1731298478! It is interesting to know that Anno is in fact a vegetarian.


A few things that seem issues with the translation:


おたくはもう万国共通だと感じます。ヨーロッパでも韓国でも台湾でも香港でもアメリカでも、おたくは本当に変わらないですね。これはすごいと思います。おたくに対して非難めいたことをいっているようですけど、否定してるわけじゃないんですよ。単に一歩ひいて見たらこうなんだってことを自覚しようといっているだけです。自覚して現状を認識した上で確信犯的にやっている分にはまったくいいと思うんですよ。ただ社会と断絶してまでのめり込むのはいかがなものかと感じるだけで。僕も社会の素晴らしさなんてわかりませんからね。だから「おたく的なものをやめてもっと社会的になろうよ」とまで呼びかける気はないんですよ。ただ、世界にはほかに面白いものは沢山あるし、拒絶することはないと思うだけです。

Anno: I feel that Otaku have already become common to all countries. In Europe, in Korea, in Taiwan, in Hong Kong, in America, Otaku really do not change. I think that this is amazing. I say critical things towards Otaku, but I don't reject them. I only say that we should take a step back and be self-conscious about these things. I think it's perfectly fine so long as you act with the awareness that you are committing a crime, self-conscious and cognizant of the current situation. I'm just not sure it's a good thing to reach the point where you cut yourself off from society. I don't understand the greatness of society, either. So I have no intention of going so far as to call for people to give up Otaku-like things and become more suited to society. Only, I think there are many other interesting things in the world, and we don't have to reject them.


確信犯的に is used so often in modern Japanese that it must not be translated literally. It is now used to mean in general "doing it while you know it should not be done" "doing it knowingly". One example it is used is: A friend and I ordered two different types of beer and he told me that beer A tasted great so I should take it and he would take beer B. Later I learned that in fact he wanted to drink beer B all along. In this case I will call his action 確信犯的に, and this has nothing to do with committing a crime :wink: Originally the word has quite different meaning and it means Crime of Conscience, but now this meaning is only used in very restricted situation.

けど、おたく外の人からおたくを非難されると腹が立ちますね。「うるさいバカ」と思います。なにもわかってない癖にと(笑)。実際わかってないような人が本当にいっぱいいますからね。そういう人たちにアレコレいわれるまでもなく、そんなことはわかってるんですよ。今更って感じがします。でもそういったほうがまだマシで、完全に的外れなことが多いですけど。理解しようともしていない人が偉そうにおたくについて語ってたりしていると、本当に頭が悪い人だなと思います。

However, I take offense when Otaku are criticized by non-Otaku. Stupid idiots, I think, [criticizing] though you don't understand anything (laughs). There are truly many people who don't seem to really understand. I know these things without being lectured to by these people. It's like, they are too late. However, [their lectures?] are really still filled with things that completely miss the mark. When people who don't understand, no matter how they try, speak about Otaku as though they were far above them, I think: what stupid people.


A few things:


まだマシで means "is still fine" "is still better".

My translation would be:
でもそういったほうがまだマシで、完全に的外れなことが多いですけど。
But saying those things are still better. There are many who completely missed the mark.



理解しようともしていない人 means people who do not even try to understand. It cannot be translated as " people who don't understand, no matter how they try".


For 今更, I guess it can be translated to "too late", though I think I would prefer "why now?". This is not an issue. It is more preference thing :)
I never thought I would come back to Evangelion after EoE,
But I discovered Re-Take (or it found me?) and
now here I am.
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Postby 1731298478 » Mon Nov 14, 2011 8:50 pm

Thank you very, very much for the corrections, symbv!! m___m
I added them to the original post.

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Postby Azathoth » Mon Nov 14, 2011 8:55 pm

View Original Post1731298478 wrote:I think, since the 1960s, there has been nothing but counterculture.


As if every shift in the perspective of a society doesn't come about in response to the failure of a previous perspective of that society? Jesus, life would be pretty easy if we were all to pretend that every ideology created prior to the 60s just sprang up divinely inspired out of nowhere. lol Anno and his rose colored glasses

View Original Post1731298478 wrote:I feel that otaku have already become common to all countries. In Europe, in Korea, in Taiwan, in Hong Kong, in America, otaku really do not change. I think that this is amazing. I say critical things towards otaku, but I don't reject them. I only say that we should take a step back and be self-conscious about these things. I think it's perfectly fine so long as you act with an awareness of what you are doing, self-conscious and cognizant of the current situation. I'm just not sure it's a good thing to reach the point where you cut yourself off from society. I don't understand the greatness of society, either. So I have no intention of going so far as to call for people to give up otaku-like things and become more suited to society. Only, I think there are many other interesting things in the world, and we don't have to reject them.


This is pretty well said, though.

Anno y u so derp but not derp enough
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