Overview (2)

Mini Bio (1)

Hideaki Anno was born on May 22, 1960 in Ube, Yamaguchi, Japan. He is known for his work on Shin Godzilla (2016), Evangelion Shin Gekijôban: Jo (2007) and The Wind Rises (2013). He has been married to Moyoco Anno since March 26, 2002.



Spouse (1)

Trade Mark (5)

Some of his characters often start off as being emotionally troubled and undergo a radical journey through crisis, developing as better people in the end.



Used his own depression to fuel the psychological themes and upsetting imagery in some of the anime he directed.



Creates animated TV shows and films that often deconstruct and satirise tropes present in earlier anime franchises.



Implements classical music in his anime, notably in Evangelion, during suspenseful or intense scenes.



Often designs and inserts nightmarish monsters into his work.



Trivia (13)

Is rumored to have made the film End of Evangelion (1997) and its incredibly symbolic, ambiguous finale as revenge against the fans of the television series "Neon Genesis Evangelion" (1995) who complained about the series's ending too much.



Anno, in the early 90s, went through a major and long bout of depression that lasted about four years. After some major soul searching and a new found self-appreciation, he chronicled his thoughts and revelations through the character of Shinji Ikari in Neon Genesis Evangelion, as well as many of the other characters. Evangelion is one of the single most personal stories told in anime. The ending of episodes 25 and 26 that take place in Shinji's mind, mirror Anno's thought process near the end of his depression. Many fans who watched the show for the action were very disappointed by the psychological ending and mailed Anno many death threats (a few of which flash across the screen in End of Evangelion) who maintained that he thought the ending was perfect. At an anime convention in America, he had an interpreter and a Q & A session in which one fan expressed their disappointment. Anno took the microphone and said in straight English "Too bad."



He is a vegetarian, like his characters Nadia and Rei Ayanami.





Got his start as an animator for the God Soldier on Hayao Miyazaki 's Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984). Running short on animators, the film's production studio posted an ad in the famous Japanese animation magazine Animage, announcing that they were in desperate need of more animators. Anno read the ad and headed down to the studio, where he met with Miyazaki and showed him some of his drawings. Impressed with Anno's work, Miyazaki hired him to draw some of the most complicated scenes near the end of the movie, and regarded his work highly.

In early 2006 he left Gainax to form his own studio, Khara.



Has an asteroid named after him. (9081 Hideakianno).





He has described himself as the "prodigal son" of Hayao Miyazaki

He does not like Disney.



He likes Tom & Jerry.





He is a fan of Gojira (1954).

Personal Quotes (11)

[on getting into the anime industry] If you want to get into anime, my best advice to you as a creator is to please have diverse interests in things besides animation. Look outward, first of all. Most anime makers are basically autistic. They have to try and reach out, and truly communicate with others. I would guess that the greatest thing anime has ever achieved is the fact that we're holding a dialogue right here and now.



[on his beliefs] Japanese spiritualism holds that there is kami (spirit) in everything, and that's closer to my own beliefs.



Once you hold the prejudice that you can't use anything but cels to represent characters, you've finally become a fetishist...





About Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water (1990): Actually, I felt sad when I watched Nadia, which I directed. I felt Nadia was too childish.



About Shinji Ikari, the Shin Seiki Evangelion (1995) protagonist: The reason why the main character is fourteen years is that he is no longer a child but not yet an adult. He lives alone, but is attached to others. In past centuries, he would soon celebrate his coming of age. Back then, life expectancy was fifty years, so people had to grow up in fourteen years. Considering 'age fourteen' as that in which an independence of mind starts manifesting, I found it proper to include this in my work.



About Uchû senkan Yamato (1974): Yamato used to be the best in the quality of the picture in those days, so it is very old. The young animation fans might not be satisfied with it since they have high appreciation as far as picture quality is concerned. But I want them to watch it at least once.

About Japanese animation's beautiful women: Japanese animation is an industry that is, for the most part, male, and as is quite evident, everything is made for their gratification. Further, it is more gratifying for us to draw this sort of character, rather than old grandmothers.



[about discovering Gainax selling off production materials from under him] I could have shrugged off the loan that never got repaid, but we were anxious to preserve the production materials we had poured blood, sweat, and tears into.



[about his falling out with his former colleagues at Gainax] I am disappointed, not as a manager at a company that lent them money, but as a friend from our university days. And my biggest disappointment is that I'll never be able to regain the relationship with them that I had in those days gone by.



[on why he didn't produce the Rebuild Evangelion films with his former colleagues at Gainax] There are a number of reasons for this. It would be hard to bring in a fresh vibe at the studio that made it in the past, there was another TV series being planned at Gainax at the time, and the younger generation of staff would continue to hold back on expressing themselves out of deference to me as their senior. But the biggest reason was so that I could control the production budget and ensure that the staff and employees could get the benefits and returns that they were owed."



[on Godzilla] Godzilla exists in a world of science fiction, not only of dreams and hopes, but he's a caricature of reality, a satire, a mirror image. Recently, Japan has also been careless in the way it has attempted to depict him

