Hideaki Anno Quotes

"Asuka is a good character. I hadn't planned to put so much thought into her. The actor's feedback is very important in character creation, so Miyamura may have influenced the way Asuka turned out."

"If a woman says, "You're an idiot," in a gentle way, men will be melted just by that."

"People who are sadistic go for Rei for sure, with their sadistic desire. On the other hand, I think masochistic types go for Asuka. As for Misato, people who are her generation agewise but psychologically childish are inclined towards her."

"Anime fans have nothing to be certain about in their minds. That's why they look to anime for help. I can say that is because I am aware that I don't have anything in me..."

"I used the non-cellucciated parts, the storyboard drawings, on purpose. It's not that I couldn't make it in time or anything."

"The episodes 25 and 26 that aired on TV were a direct reflection of how I was feeling at that point in time, so I'm happy with them. I don't regret it."

"I think the mental problem arises when people are already satisfied with their lives. If you have to worry about the foods for tomorrow, you don't care how others think about you."

"I think it's funny because anime magazines usually says Misato as a "quality soldier". It makes me wonder what makes her look quality. If she was, I feel sorry for the soldier."

"In two episodes I came up with a word that would be the vertical axis of the story, the Human Instrumentality Project, but I hadn't decided what it would mean. I just liked how that kanji looks (laughs)."

"I made the main character 14 years old because he is more than a child, less than an adult."

"At first I thought it was going to be a simple robot anime. But if the story goes mainly in a school, it won't be the same as other robots anime. So I decided to make a protagonist with two identities: the school and the organization."

"I worked on Evangelion as a live performance. ... As I worked, I took in various opinions and analyzed my own psychology, and I thought, 'Oh, this is how it should be. I found the words afterwards."

"There are quite a few parts that I had to cut down on. After that (episode 21), there are almost no robots in the story. The reason is that there were no more people who could draw robots."

"I don't feel a need to see Shinji and the other characters any time soon. But that doesn't mean I don't want to see them ever again. There might come a time when I meet them again."

"Shinji and the other characters are not just a reflection of me; they include elements of the personalities of all the artists on the creative team."

"When the characters in Evangelion speak, they don't necessarily say what they mean."

"There's a gap between what people say in real life and what they truly mean. In animation, unless the characters are intentionally lying, they always say what they mean. I wanted to reverse that."

"For the rebuild series, I intended for the first movie to be similar to the TV series, the second would gradually change the story, and third and fourth would be totally different."

"I don't know what will become of Shinji or the other characters, or where they will go."

"My influence on other creators isn't something I think about when I'm working on a film."