Anno and Gainax Interviews

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Anno and Gainax Interviews

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Postby Riki » Fri Nov 06, 2020 5:56 am

Hi there,
I am a Japanese translator. Lately I've been translating interviews with Anno san and other Gainax staff. So I thought you might enjoy reading:

Hideaki Anno of "Shin Godzilla" talks about "Live Action Movies and Anime"
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/rikki/hideaki-anno-shin-godzilla-talks-live-action-movies-anime

Hideaki Anno & Yoshiyuki Sadamoto Interview in January '95
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/rikki/hideaki-anno-yoshiyuki-sadamoto-interview-january-95

I've also translated behind the scenes footage from E of E.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jl8zF4QvfOE

If there's anything else you'd like me to do a translation, let me know here or on Twitter and consider leaving a tip on Buy me a coffee.

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Postby Blockio » Fri Nov 06, 2020 6:22 am

Always glad to have Japanese translators arounds, nice to have youn on board!
I can see why Gendo hired Misato to do the actual commanding. He tried it once and did an appalling job. ~ AWinters
Your point of view is horny, and biased. ~ glitz2hard
What about titty-ten? ~ Reichu
The movies function on their own terms. If people can't accept them on those terms, and keep expecting them to be NGE, then they probably should have realized a while ago that they weren't going to have a good time. ~ Words of wisdom courtesy of Reichu

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Re: Anno and Gainax Interviews

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Postby FelipeFritschF » Fri Nov 06, 2020 7:25 am

Hey there! Nice to see you here, I've already seen your work with AnnoCinema, very nice to have you here as well.

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Postby Zusuchan » Fri Nov 06, 2020 7:32 am

Thanks, Riki! These are quite interesting.

I'm especially intrigued by the 2004 interview, where Anno says he's more interested in making live-action films "nowadays". It's obviously been a long time since 2004, but considering he was already working on NTE back then, there's a possibility he's still more interested in live-action and might spend his post-Eva career working on those kinds of projects instead.

I really like the Sadamoto interview as well-Anno's pessimism really comes off there. I especially like how both of these interviews reveal how Anno hasn't changed as much as perhaps one would think during the years. He's not as blunt and harsh as he was before, but his views about animation haven't changed that much. I do love Anno's dedication to the artform, though-even though he'd rather be making live-action, he goes ahead and makes NTE just so to give a kickstart for new, great anime projects. (And to make a point too, of course.)

Getting subtitles for the EoE "Making of" is great, too.

I can't think of things I'd like to have a translation for right now, but don't worry, I'm sure there's going to be something.

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Re: Anno and Gainax Interviews

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Postby kuribo-04 » Fri Nov 06, 2020 11:36 am

Oh so you are behind the EoE video translation?

Thank you very much!

I'll try to think of something that could be translated. ;)

Edit:

Is this a thing?!

So I thought as one of the ways to make the viewer aware of their own reality would be to use a mirror. The footage of the audience part was the image of a mirror. When I made the VHS, I used a completely black screen. If the screen was black, it would reflect your face as you watched it.
Shinji: "Sooner or later I'll be betrayed... And they'll leave me. Still... I want to meet them again, because I believe my feelings at that time were real."
Ryuko: "I'm gonna knock ya on your asses!"
-Asuka: THINK IN GERMAN!!! -Shinji: Öh... Baumkuchen...
Hayashida: "As game developers, our work is special. All of us here can put smiles on very many people's faces with our work."
~('.'~) (~'.')~ Dancin Kirby

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Re: Anno and Gainax Interviews

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Postby Riki » Sat Nov 07, 2020 2:25 pm

Yes, that's me. I'm so glad people are enjoying it.
I translated another interview here:

Interview with Eva's Production Start in '95
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/rikki/monthly-newtype-april-95-interview-eva-production-start

Is this a thing?!

Yeah, basically he's saying that he uses a black screen as a mirror so you'd see your own face. Pretty cool idea, ne?

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Postby kuribo-04 » Sat Nov 07, 2020 4:25 pm

Oh nice another interview!

And yeah the idea is awesome, but I was not aware of the VHS version being like this?
Shinji: "Sooner or later I'll be betrayed... And they'll leave me. Still... I want to meet them again, because I believe my feelings at that time were real."
Ryuko: "I'm gonna knock ya on your asses!"
-Asuka: THINK IN GERMAN!!! -Shinji: Öh... Baumkuchen...
Hayashida: "As game developers, our work is special. All of us here can put smiles on very many people's faces with our work."
~('.'~) (~'.')~ Dancin Kirby

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Postby BusterMachine4 » Sat Nov 07, 2020 5:33 pm

View Original Postkuribo-04 wrote:And yeah the idea is awesome, but I was not aware of the VHS version being like this?

Yeah, I’m not sure if it’s true. The wiki describes the differences between the VHS version and the regular version, and that black screen he described wasn’t one of them.

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Re: Anno and Gainax Interviews

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Postby Riki » Sun Nov 08, 2020 7:21 am

My apologies. My translation was confusing. I edited the part. Thank you for pointing out. I appreciate it!
I think what he meant was not completely black but very dark screen like I added in the article.

https://www.buymeacoffee.com/rikki/hideaki-anno-shin-godzilla-talks-live-action-movies-anime

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Postby kuribo-04 » Sun Nov 08, 2020 5:39 pm

No problem!
Now I get it. Thanks!
Shinji: "Sooner or later I'll be betrayed... And they'll leave me. Still... I want to meet them again, because I believe my feelings at that time were real."
Ryuko: "I'm gonna knock ya on your asses!"
-Asuka: THINK IN GERMAN!!! -Shinji: Öh... Baumkuchen...
Hayashida: "As game developers, our work is special. All of us here can put smiles on very many people's faces with our work."
~('.'~) (~'.')~ Dancin Kirby

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Postby Velorex » Wed Nov 11, 2020 8:07 pm

Great job mate!
"the master of a cruel angel's hypothesis"

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Postby robersora » Tue Nov 17, 2020 4:34 am

Thanks a lot, I really appreciate the work you've put in and making this stuff available to non-Japanese speaking fans! You did a great job translating, a lot of Anno's interviews are translated rather poorly, which made reading them a chore and opened the door for some misunderstandings. I *think* I saw this EoE documentary somewhere already... But the translation was horrid. Might misremember tho. Either way, your translations are wonderful, a joy to read. I gave you some money, and I hope everyone who read them follows my lead, lol.
For whenever the 3.33/Shin Complete Collections get released, I wanna hire you to translate any arising interviews : )
Thanks in advance!

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Sadamoto:
Come to think of it, why did you decide to make your upcoming new work a robot thing? I only remember asking why, and I don't think I was convinced at the time.
Anno:
As a commercial product (laughs). No, seriously. I thought the best way for me to get my original project through would be to make a robot, space, or beautiful young girl one. Because I thought these categories would have the best product value. It's easy for sponsors to pay for it.


I really feel that, lol. I always loved Eva *despite* the robots not because of them.

So I thought as one of the ways to make the viewer aware of their own reality would be to use a mirror. The footage of the audience in the theatre part was the image of a mirror. I used a sort of very dark screen(*1) when I release it on VHS, LD and DVD. If the screen was black, it would reflect your face as you watched it.

This idea is so cool, and inspired... You gotta love him.


However, I also feel that anime is moving into a closed world. I don't want to be be satisfied with where I am and want to make our anime something we can be proud of to the world. People say that TV anime is cheap, but compared to other TV shows, it's made on a budget that's about as high as a samurai drama. It means anime is a valuable product. I would like anime to get positioned closer to the center of the economy. It's hard to be the king of entertainment , though (laughs).

This reminds me of Digi's masterpiece "We've accepted mediocrity" the end-all-be-all desperate plea for Anime as a whole to at least try to be less of a shitshow, lol.


I didn't like to see people were overly obsessed in fiction at the time. It was scary, because they were too much addicted to fiction which was created by others. I wanted them to accept their own reality a little bit anyway and have a relative perspective on their own scale.

*sweats in obsessive Eva fan for close to 15 years now*

I'm interested in making live-action films nowadays. Also, while animation is made by creating pictures based on images that exist in the mind, live-action is made with materials that exist in the real world, outside the mind.

Such an interesting way to look at it!
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Postby Riki » Wed Nov 18, 2020 12:39 pm

Ich danke Ihnen vielmals! lol
I'm so glad to hear you enjoy my translation. I'm looking forward to the new movie as well. It's so exciting.
Just in case you haven't read it, I added an another interview on my page:

https://www.buymeacoffee.com/rikki/the-world-neon-genesis-evangelion
Last edited by Riki on Thu Nov 19, 2020 3:31 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Postby kuribo-04 » Wed Nov 18, 2020 3:42 pm

This has to be the highest rate of new interviews in a long time.
Shinji: "Sooner or later I'll be betrayed... And they'll leave me. Still... I want to meet them again, because I believe my feelings at that time were real."
Ryuko: "I'm gonna knock ya on your asses!"
-Asuka: THINK IN GERMAN!!! -Shinji: Öh... Baumkuchen...
Hayashida: "As game developers, our work is special. All of us here can put smiles on very many people's faces with our work."
~('.'~) (~'.')~ Dancin Kirby

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Postby Riki » Tue Nov 24, 2020 8:09 am

Hi,
I'd like to tell you that I have added a new translation of Anno Interview here:

https://www.buymeacoffee.com/rikki/special-interview-celebrate-made-movie

In this interview he's talking about Misato which I found interesting.
I also found interesting that the final episodes were done that way on purpose.

I hope you enjoy it, too. :wink:

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Postby Berserker » Tue Nov 24, 2020 11:33 am

Hey, i just wanna say you're doing an awesome work. These have and will always come in handy.
Anno wrote:she(Misato) is partially similar to me in the real world

Is there a single character in NGE that he can't relate to?
EvaGeeks at its finest: discussing whether or not a 14 yo girl has breast implants and how they should look. ~Shamsiel-kun
Sometimes I secretly think the reason I'm an A/S shipper is because I want Rei for myself. ~Chuckman
Eew, penis and testicles, gross! ~Reichu
My dude, "cross, crucifix, troubles, back, rood, buttock" sounds a lot closer to classic Evangelion than just one stray buttock roaming around in the film. ~FreakyFilmFan4ever

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Postby Zusuchan » Tue Nov 24, 2020 12:19 pm

This latest interview has to take the cake for the most interesting Anno interview I've read. So much interesting stuff here...

Edit: All the talk about live performances is quite interesting and shows Anno's interest in more out-there stuff very well, his reasons for making Shinji et al 14 years old are also interesting (and not really what I expected-that would have been some more insight into their more precarious mental states and self-searching), HIP meaning nothing at first shows that a large part of Eva was still improvised, his comments about animation being obviously fictional and not being afraid to bring attention to that perhaps show some insight into his later interest in live-action which interacts with the absolute real world...I disagree with his views on mental health issues only rising for well-off people. I think plenty of people get mental health problems due to the constant worrying of whether they're getting enough money and the harshness of the job market/so forth. Though the idea that the people who are more relatively well-off financially tend to have more psychical problems does perhaps have some merit to it. I'd say maybe that's because the emptiness of the current normal life and the fucked-upness of the world in general become a bit easier to take notice of, though that could just be my problem. His statement about anime fans and their lives' emptiness is something else I don't entirely agree with-then again that seems to mostly come out of his personal disappointment with his life and habits this far and I'm not familiar with Japan's society. I do know about hikikomoris and NEETs and their relatively growing amount in Japan and I do think there are plenty of self-destructive anime fans out there.


Anno just saying that NERV is full of amateurs and that Ritsuko is the only decent strategist there is kind of funny, heh.

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Postby Riki » Fri Dec 04, 2020 8:45 am

Thank you guys! I'm so glad you liked it! :D
It's always enjoyable for me to translate Anno's interviews.

I also enjoy the translation of Okada Toshio Seminar, where he talks about his thoughts about an anime such as Evangelion.
Okada Toshio, also known as OTAKING, is a co-founder and former president of the production company Gainax. He met Anno Hideaki when they were in college and worked together on independent anime and live-action special effects films.

I made a subtitle files for his 3 videos, The "Summer Eva Special" for a deeper understanding of the creator Anno Hideaki, from YouTube.
Also I translated the blog articles that related to the video on my buy me a coffee site.

I hope you enjoy it when you have some time! cause it's rather long one!

1.
【YouTube video Title】
OTAKING explains "Neon Genesis EVANGELION" OP Animation

【Blog Title】
Anno Hideaki's video theme is "the essence of what we see in the destruction".

【Contents】
His explanation of the opening of the TV version of Evangelion. How has Hideaki Anno incorporated a number of respectful animations into his work?

https://www.buymeacoffee.com/rikki/the-theme-hideaki-anno-video-essence-see

2.
【YouTube video Title】
OTAKING explains "Hideyuki Anno Style"

【Blog Title】
What is the meaning behind the unique cuttings in Eva?

【Contents】
An in-depth comparison of Evangelion and Shin Godzilla and how the Anno Hideaki style, known as the Evangelion style, was perfected. What is "style" in the world of expression?

https://www.buymeacoffee.com/rikki/kari

3.
【YouTube video Title】
OTAKING talks about "EVANGELION:3.0"

【Blog Title】
Toshio Okada cleared up the questions of "Rebuild of Evangelion: 3.0"

【Contents】
Impressions from Toshio Okada of Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo. A new perspective is revealed by focusing on the famous supporting character Kozo Fuyutsuki. And what will the new film "Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time" look like? Enjoy the predictions of 8 years ago.

https://www.buymeacoffee.com/rikki/toshio-okada-interprets-question-rebuild-evangelion-3-0

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Postby JoelcrNeto » Fri Dec 04, 2020 12:01 pm

About Toshio Okada impression...
The scene where Fuyutsuki and Shinji play Japanese chess is synonymous with the scene where father and son play catch. In other words, it implies that Fuyutsuki and Shinji have a father-son relationship. Fuyutsuki is Shinji's biological father and therefore he has a picture of Yui, which even Gendo doesn't have anymore. This is also why Gendo is cold towards Shinji.

Is an interesting analogy, but at the same time is crazy to think Shinji may not be son of Gendo. I hope it's not confirm :bigeyes:

Thank you for the translations!
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Re: Anno and Gainax Interviews

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Postby Zusuchan » Sun Dec 06, 2020 4:50 am

I wouldn't put too much into Okada's sayings-Anno had a dislike with Gainax for a reason. What Okada says in his "explanation" of Q is especially illogical, since it shouldn't take a lot of thought to decipher what he says is wrong. The idea that a large portion-if not the overwhelming majority-of NTE's plot is due to Gendo wanting to resurrect Yui so he can ask her whose son Shinji is is such an inane idea I wonder how Okada even came up with it. There is precisely zero evidence for his theory. Fuyutsuki has a talk with Shinji because he's getting fed up with Gendo's actions and thinks Shinji deserves to know some truths, including what's up with Rei. Not because Shinji's his son. Gendo being cold towards Shinji due to him being his son is also false, since Gendo was cold to Shinji in NGE/EoE as well. There's not even evidence that Gendo does want to resurrect Yui in NTE in any way. The only thing that he says that could be true is Misato dying. In short, don't trust anything that Okada says. Even the other interview in which he attempts to explain NGE's visual language boils down to him giving examples of it and saying "Anno wanted to create an unique visual language". I don't think he really understands Anno and his works half as much as he says he does, or otherwise we'd be getting up some actual insight from him.

I don't mean this in a bad way, Riki, since the translation is still good, but Okada isn't the most trustworthy person out there and neither does he have particularly deep things to say about NGE/EoE, so whatever he does have to say about them that goes beyond nuggets of production history isn't something interesting.


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