So I’m not sure what he has against Otakus, other than telling them to go touch grass. And yet, Anno himself is claimed to be an Otaku, so that may seem a bit hypocritical of him to criticize.

And I don’t know a lot about his background, the cause of his depression, and some other things that make him tick. So my knowledge about him is pretty limited. Then again, I haven’t done some research on him.

For what it's worth, here's a Reddit thread I found that discusses this topic. It seems that Anno doesn't hate otaku; he just dislikes certain aspects of the subculture.

https://www.reddit.com/r/evangelion/comments/27o2fu/to_everyone_who_thinks_hideaki_anno_hates_otaku/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

Yeah, that's a topic that is often misrepresented in a lot of directions, and Anno himself talks about it in ways that suggest a degree of hyperbole

Yeah I haven't seen all the interviews and stuff, but from what I have seen I kinda got the vibe that he was being self-deprecating/ironic when he said the stuff he's so famously said about otaku and otaku culture. He's criticizing it not despite the fact that he's an otaku, but because he's an otaku, and thus knows very well just how embarrassing and cringe otaku can be.

So kinda the same vibes as this image ->

Pretty much, yeah. Also see the whole "fucking weebs" meme, same thing on the other side of the pond pretty much.

And that's not meant to discount the idea that Anno genuinely had/has gripes with Otaku culture, I'd find it extremely dubious if he hadn't, but especially at the time, going off of a few interviews with the staff he worked with a lot, his m/o seems to have been to overstate his cases quite a bit, hyperbole that was evidently caught by his colleagues when they were all having a laugh over the comments with a beer in hand (that's something that I know was the case in at least one interview), but then subsequently got lost in translation and quoted out of context.

Also, I saw this post on Tumblr where it mentions that Anno “Dislikes Western civilization”, and that he “doesn’t put much trust in Western civilization.” What does he have against the people in the west?

C.T.1290 wrote:Also, I saw this post on Tumblr where it mentions that Anno “Dislikes Western civilization”, and that he “doesn’t put much trust in Western civilization.” What does he have against the people in the west?

Some entertaining threads:

thread/21202/Nerv-the-JSSDF-and-Annos-nationalism/
thread/13872/Japanese-Nationalism-in-NGE/20/

First topic has a fair amount of quotations, including the one about western civilization and its context.

Axx°N N. wrote:[
Some entertaining threads:

thread/21202/Nerv-the-JSSDF-and-Annos-nationalism/
thread/13872/Japanese-Nationalism-in-NGE/20/

First topic has a fair amount of quotations, including the one about western civilization and its context.

So, basically, Anno thinks we’re the bad guys, right?

I mean, that seems like a bit of an oversimplification of what evidence has been presented and a bit of a jump in conclusion, but I guess I can see how you'd arrive at that impression. I wouldn't exactly say I'd agree with the assessment, but I'll admit I also can't say I know Anno well enough at to say anything certain either.

I'll say though that I don't really get the impression that he hates all westerners as people, and the way I interpreted what meant by "Western Civilization" was that he was more so referring to the governments of bigger western countries(such as the US for example) as entities, and more importantly their geopolitical relations to Japan. Course I am biased and maybe I am giving him more benefit of the doubt than he necessarily deserves because I have a lot of respect for him, but idk. I don't feel like it benefits anyone to be so quick to make a judgement call based off so little.

C.T.1290 wrote:Also, I saw this post on Tumblr where it mentions that Anno “Dislikes Western civilization”, and that he “doesn’t put much trust in Western civilization.” What does he have against the people in the west?

Take any claim like that coming from Tumblr with an even bigger grain of salt than you wuld coming from anywhere else. Eva tumblr, far as I can tell, is pretty much dominated by some 2-3 nutcases with weird removed from reality takes, and a lot of free time they're willing to pour into believable sounding, but entirely made up evidence for them.

I don't know the exact contents of the post, but I'd say it's very likely that it was meant in the same spirit as when one of us complains about Hollywood/any other American large budget franchise production lacking vision and not saying much of anything.

MsenjaKagami wrote:I'll say though that I don't really get the impression that he hates all westerners as people, and the way I interpreted what meant by "Western Civilization" was that he was more so referring to the governments of bigger western countries(such as the US for example) as entities, and more importantly their geopolitical relations to Japan.

Yeah I mean, I know several westerners (academics and otherwise) who hold Anno's exact same views on the west. Difference is that them expressing their critiques of imperialism doesn't instantly trigger the accusation of being a Japanese nationalist.

I don't think of Anno's views (expressed in his works or otherwise) as being particularly uncommon, nor even the most visible among his peers. Oshii's works are rife with those sentiments.