Does Anno have a successor?

[ChaddyManPrime]

I was thinking, if this is the end of Anno doing Eva related things, who's gonna take care of it after him? Has he handed the reigns over to someone already?

[FelipeFritschF]

I'd assume Nishigori or Tsurumaki are the most likely candidates amongst his protegés, but it's more likely he'll hand it off to people uninvolved with Eva. Some people have been floating around an Eva by Makoto Shinki, for instance. The full quote from the 2016 interview is:

For the future, he wishes Evangelion will become a cultural icon, one of the cornerstones of anime, much like Gundam, which has become an institution in and of itself. Like Gundam, where many creators can play around with the elements and create their own worlds, it is Anno's hope that Evangelion can also be set free, to be reconstructed and reinterpreted in many ways by many other artists.

This is also mentioned as being planne since 2000 in the 1.0 CRC: post/916956/Evangelion10-CRC-interviews/#916956

[Kendrix]

i kinda hope it wont happen, these sorts of things are just rarely ever good.

It works with other mecha franchises because the focus is the robots or politics/military tropes, but with EVA, the wow factor is just too tied up in this particular set of characters

[Konja7]

i kinda hope it wont happen, these sorts of things are just rarely ever good.

I hope a new Evangelion anime will happen in the future (Khara likely needs it), but it should mantain the characters.

It works with other mecha franchises because the focus is the robots or politics/military tropes, but with EVA, the wow factor is just too tied up in this particular set of characters

Yeah. The main attractive of Evangelion is their characters.

Even if a future anime of Evangelion happened (without Anno), they will need to use the characters.

[Arcadia's legacy]

I agree that the main draw of Eva is its characters, however, if it were up to me, a new series would, while still largely character focused, focus its attention on new characters. We've already seen our pilot's journeys twice now (three times if you count the manga), i personally would not mind if we had an entirely new cast in the limelight

[Zusuchan]

Anno won't do more Eva himself, but he has stated he'll quality-control future Eva works. As for who'd make the next Eva anime, I don't know.

[bogusman]

Characters in Eva are the main soul of this franchise.

Should it be made with completely new and different characters it would need a lot of time to build fan's interest, and an amazingly good designer and well planned.

Sadamoto's design of the original main characters are so amazing, that people so attached & the fanchise has difficulties and almost impossible to stray from it.
Such as Asuka in rebuild. They had a plan for mari to take over the roles/position but in the end they still cannot.

Or might as well rebrand Dual or Darling in the franxx with Eva label.

[GhostlyOcam]

I'd assume Nishigori or Tsurumaki are the most likely candidates amongst his protegés, but it's more likely he'll hand it off to people uninvolved with Eva.

I feel like Nishigori is also the franchise's current "secondary face" after Sadamoto, with how he's been providing nearly every official arts (e.g. poster, Shin-related merchs, theatrical phamplet, Newtype cover) aside from being Shin's chief AD. Shin itself has a notable number of younger core staffs and I can see that as Anno injecting "new blood" both into Khara and perhaps Eva itself, I'm sure at least some of them has their own ideas and takes of Eva lore. Believe it or not, judging from the social media reactions, a lot fans seems to clamor for a derived work with Ryoji Kaji Jr. as the protagonist so I think they're ready for a Shinji-less Eva spin-off.

Outside of Khara and Eva, I think Akira Amemiya is the one who understands Anno's brand of storytelling. His works for the SSSS.Project (SSSS.Gridman and SSSS.Dynazenon) are the closest as we get to Eva's spiritual sequels.

[Konja7]

I feel like Nishigori is also the franchise's current "secondary face" after Sadamoto, with how he's been providing nearly every official arts (e.g. poster, Shin-related merchs, theatrical phamplet, Newtype cover) aside from being Shin's chief AD. Shin itself has a notable number of younger core staffs and I can see that as Anno injecting "new blood" both into Khara and perhaps Eva itself, I'm sure at least some of them has their own ideas and takes of Eva lore. Believe it or not, judging from the social media reactions, a lot fans seems to clamor for a derived work with Ryoji Kaji Jr. as the protagonist so I think they're ready for a Shinji-less Eva spin-off.

Shinji is the main character, but he wouldn't be the character more difficult to replace, since he isn't so profitable in the merchandise aspect (OTOH, his Eva is the face of the franchise and extremely profitable).

It's Asuka, Rei and Kaworu (and even Mari) who are extremely profitable in the merchandise aspect. It would be pretty difficult to replace them.

[EvaChero]

other than depicting what happened during the "time skip" where else could the franchise go? It's really all about Tokyo3 and the central characters with the world on their shoulders...the rest of the planet seemed pretty clue less.

[Kendrix]

Well, Madoka got a lot of spinoff mangas & games set between the first loop & the series...

[FelipeFritschF]

Shinji is the main character, but he wouldn't be the character more difficult to replace, since he isn't so profitable in the merchandise aspect (OTOH, his Eva is the face of the franchise and extremely profitable).

It's Asuka, Rei and Kaworu (and even Mari) who are extremely profitable in the merchandise aspect. It would be pretty difficult to replace them.

He's often used as an accessory to those characters, though. Shinji himself isn't unpopular at all, just not marketable per se. There's a difference. He still tops popularity polls himself, in fact he was at #3 I think in Newtype last month.

Occam is very correct about younger staff too. Even if you disagree at the direction Shin itself took, Anno is clearly attempting to be a visionary patron for the industry moving forward. Additionally, Khara is apparently going to still be the "house of Eva" so you can expect even full-on animated series to still have their involvement to some degree, even if the core of it is made in another studio. You could also have animators and other staff from other studios working at Khara's offices for Eva stuff. There's precedent for this.

[Kendrix]

He still tops popularity polls himself, in fact he was at #3 I think in Newtype last month.

3rd among boys or 3rd overall? Where can I find the complete results?
Figures that he'd get a popularity jump after the latest movie. He spends the first half being a sad woobie and the second trying hard to be respectable while still in very much in a state.

[Konja7]

He's often used as an accessory to those characters, though. Shinji himself isn't unpopular at all, just not marketable per se. There's a difference. He still tops popularity polls himself, in fact he was at #3 I think in Newtype last month.

Could you tell me where I can see the results of that poll?

I was looking for the last poll in the Newtype magazine, but I couldn't find it.

3rd among boys or 3rd overall? Where can I find the complete results?
Figures that he'd get a popularity jump after the latest movie. He spends the first half being a sad woobie and the second trying hard to be respectable while still in very much in a state.

It should be among boys.

Newtype is a magazine that makes a poll every month for favorite anime character (there is a poll for male characters and another for female characters). In these polls, it usually appear characters in a recent popular anime.

Consider that this poll is between the readers of the magazine. So, the demographic of the magazine also affect the results.

[Pluto]

Many Japanese youtube speculation videos mention that they would love to see a timeskip side story movie which I think would totally be doable without Anno as Shinji is not directly a part of a story. I myself would love to see the movie which would probably be titled: シンエヴァンゲリオン：空間の14年. I work pretty close to Khara studios so I was thinking of sending them a letter regarding this concept.

Another idea would be a reboot like gundam which would be more in line with Anno's stated intentions.

Now who will direct it? I have no idea. Probably someone famous

[GhostlyOcam]

↑Hidenori Matsubara actually tweeted something about that and what he said is pretty much "it ain't happening", although they seem aware people will definitely be curious about it.

Translation:
Matsubara's son: "Dad, when will you tell us about the missing 14 years?"
Matsubara's wife: "I like the backstory between Gendo, Yui, and Mari. I want Evangelion: Zero."
Matsubara: "Maybe we'll do that if Khara ran out of money."

tweet-body

— twitter-user (@username) date

[Konja7]

↑Hidenori Matsubara actually tweeted something about that and what he said is pretty much "it ain't happening", although they seem aware people will definitely be curious about it.

I guess Khara has ended what they want to say about the Rebuild continuity. Maybe a video game could still explain some things in the future.

[Kendrix]

I honestly don't WANT too much explained or further mucked up tbh.

I'd take a planned, natural end any day over something that goes on in a zombie-like manner until nobody is listening anymore.

[FelipeFritschF]

I work pretty close to Khara studios so I was thinking of sending them a letter regarding this concept. s

Your power humbles me.

I hadn't considered a full-on reboot either, but it makes sense. Huh.

[bogusman]

SPOILER: Show

↑Hidenori Matsubara actually tweeted something about that and what he said is pretty much "it ain't happening", although they seem aware people will definitely be curious about it.

Translation:
Matsubara's son: "Dad, when will you tell us about the missing 14 years?"
Matsubara's wife: "I like the backstory between Gendo, Yui, and Mari. I want Evangelion: Zero."
Matsubara: "Maybe we'll do that if Khara ran out of money."

tweet-body

— twitter-user (@username) date

Yeap, i thought of that too, when they need some injection of cash they'll gonna get back cash cowing Eva again, whatever the story gonna be.