Hideaki Anno is a recognized for his creation of the famous anime series Evangelion. He’s also credited for his talent in reviving multiple long-standing Japanese pop culture icons.
Hideaki Anno was born in Ube, Japan with a passion for pop fiction throughout his childhood, without much care for his schooling. However, he was pushed into the Osaka University of Arts where he found his calling. Although he later dropped out he still created the connections in the industry that would launch him into his later career.
He was noticed by Hayao Miyazaki and was chosen to work on the film Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984) and animated the climactic scene of the film. In 1984 he founded the studio Gainax with a few of his friends culminating in their first film Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise (1987) which ended in a major financial loss for the new studio. A series of movie failures followed which seemed to mark the end of the studio
Then, his next creation was his most famous, Neon Genesis Evangelion. An anime focused on a gundam and a deeply tragic main hero with a genre bending ending which quickly captivated audiences. The protagonist of the story, Shinji Ikari, was inspired by Anno himself, a mirror of his fears and personal struggles.
Anno grew from this success expanding the studio into other genres and pivoting into new spaces with television and movies. Then came his work on the “Shin Trilogy”. His childhood connection to popular culture icons inspired him to create a series of films inspired by bringing his childhood icons into a new era. The first of these films being Shin Godzilla (2016).
Shin Godzilla adapted the original Godzilla film not into another Kaiju action fight but into the style and story reminiscent of the original intention. The film included the tension and atmosphere of the first film but set in a modern era. The film brought fresh air into the genre and returned the film to it’s original intention of portraying Japanese fears and cultural anxieties into a larger than life movie.
Anno’s work on the Shin Trilogy cemented his role in Japanese pop-culture history and created a new legacy and footing for Godzilla into a new era of film making.
Leave a Reply