Childhood and early education The son of Fumiko and Takuya Anno, Anno was born in
Ube, Yamaguchi; he attended Wakō Kindergarten, Unoshima Municipal Elementary School, Fujiyama Municipal Junior High School, and Yamaguchi Prefectural Ube High School where he was noted for his interest in artwork and making short films for
Japanese Cultural Festivals. Wrapped up in producing the
DAICON III and IV Opening Animations with his fellow students, and busy making self-financed films, Anno stopped paying his tuition, eventually getting expelled from Osaka University of Arts. and valued his work highly. Anno went on to become one of the co-founders of
Gainax in December 1984. However, Anno fell into a four-year depression following
Nadia — the series was handed down to him from
NHK from an original concept by Hayao Miyazaki (upon which
Castle in the Sky also is partly based) and he was given little creative control. In 1994, the minor planet
9081 Hideakianno was named after him by his old friend
Akimasa Nakamura.
Neon Genesis Evangelion Anno's next project was the anime television series
Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995–1996). The series is set in a post-apocalyptic futurist version of Tokyo and follows humanity's struggle to survive against an onslaught of giant monsters known as
Angels. He considers
Evangelion a continuation of
Nausicaä, done in his own way. Anno's history of
clinical depression was the main source for the emphasis on the psychological aspects of its characters, as he wrote down on paper several of the trials and tribulations of his condition. For this and other reasons (although perhaps by design as well),
Evangelions plot became more introspective as the series progressed, despite being broadcast in a children's television timeslot. Anno felt that people should be exposed to the realities of life at as young an age as possible, and by the end of the series all attempts at traditional narrative logic were abandoned, as the final two episodes use an abstract atmosphere to explore the human psyche. The show did not garner high ratings in Japan at its initial time slot, but after being moved to a later, more adult-oriented venue, it gained considerable popularity. Timing constraints at Gainax also forced Anno to replace the planned ending of
Evangelion with two episodes set in the main characters' minds. In 1997, Gainax launched a project to re-adapt
Evangelions scrapped ending into a feature-length film. Budgeting issues left the film unfinished, and the completed 27 minutes of animation were included as the second act of
Evangelion: Death and Rebirth. Eventually, the project culminated in
The End of Evangelion, a three-act film that served as a finale to
Neon Genesis Evangelion. In September 1999, Anno appeared on the NHK TV-documentary "Welcome Back for an Extracurricular Lesson, Senpai!", answering some
Evangelion-related questions, including the origin of the name
Evangelion, and teaching children about animation production.
Subsequent work (October 30, 2014) After
Evangelion, Anno directed the 1998 anime series
Kareshi Kanojo no Jijō (
Kare Kano for short, also known in English as
His and Her Circumstances), the first
Gainax television series to be directly adapted from previously written material. During the production of
Kare Kano, Anno became frustrated with the restrictions placed on the show by
TV Tokyo after the
Pokémon seizure incident and has rarely directed television anime since then. The director has also made forays into live-action films, beginning with
Love & Pop (1998), a
cinéma vérité-style film about
enjo kosai ("compensated dating", a form of teenage prostitution) in Japan, of which a major portion was shot on miniature digital cameras with constantly shifting
aspect ratios. He won Best New Director Award at 1998
Yokohama Film Festival for the film.
Asumi Miwa who played the lead role won Best New Talent award. He and his friend
Masayuki also directed the documentary "GAMERA1999" which documented the production of
Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris. His second live-action film,
Shiki-Jitsu (2000) (
"Ritual Day" or
"Ceremonial Day"), is the story of a burnt-out former animation director (played by popular
indie director
Shunji Iwai) who falls in love with a woman disconnected from reality. Though an experimental work like
Love & Pop, this film was shot using the more traditional
2.35:1 aspect ratio and has a generally more polished presentation, eschewing the
cinéma vérité grittiness of Anno's first live-action film. This movie earned him Best Artistic Contribution Award at
Tokyo International Film Festival and very positive reviews. Anno's third
live-action film was
Cutie Honey, based on
Go Nagai's
1973 manga and anime series. Released in the summer of 2004, this lighthearted fantasy/superhero film was a stark contrast to his earlier, more realist live-action works. Later in 2004, Anno supervised but did not direct the three-part OVA,
Re: Cutie Honey, which was respectively directed by
Hiroyuki Imaishi (part 1),
Takamichi Itō (part 2), and Masayuki (part 3). Also released in 2004 was the movie , in which Anno makes several acting cameos: as the student in the front row of the "Home Room!" skit sitting next to Hataru, in "Who's the Director?" as an animator who feels he is being overworked, and finally in "Singles Picnic" he is among the men awaiting females who never come. On August 1, 2006, Hideaki Anno's official website was updated with job listings for key animators and production staff at a company he founded,
Studio Khara. In September 2006, Anno's departure from Gainax was reported in the October edition of the Japanese animation magazine
Newtype. On September 9, 2006, Gainax's official website confirmed that
Rebuild of Evangelion was in the works. The first three movies would be an alternate retelling of the TV series (including many new scenes, settings, backgrounds, characters), and the fourth movie would be a completely new conclusion to the story. Kazuya Tsurumaki and Masayuki would direct the movies while Yoshiyuki Sadamoto would provide character designs and Ikuto Yamashita would provide mechanical designs. Shinji Higuchi would provide storyboards for the first movie. The first was launched in Summer 2007, and the second and third were planned to be launched in 2008, however, the second installment was released by itself on June 27, 2009. The third movie was to be released simultaneously with the fourth; instead, the third movie was released on November 17, 2012, and the release date for the fourth movie in Japan was announced to be June 27, 2020. On February 17, 2007, Anno published an official statement on the Japanese Yahoo Portal for the films regarding his personal involvement and goals in their production. In October 2007, Hideaki Anno resigned from Gainax. In 2012, Anno was the curator of an exhibit entitled
Tokusatsu- Special Effects Museum-Craftsmanship of Showa and Heisei Eras Seen Through Miniatures, held at the
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, featuring actual props and suits from many of Japan's
tokusatsu films and TV shows. Anno also produced a short live-action film for the exhibit, entitled
A Giant Warrior Descends on Tokyo, featuring the Giant Warrior-God from Studio Ghibli's animated film
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. He has gone on to work with
Hayao Miyazaki and
Studio Ghibli on several short films which have been shown at the
Ghibli Museum. He also voiced the main character
Jiro Horikoshi in Miyazaki's 2013 feature film
The Wind Rises. He also designed the
Space Battleship Yamato 2199 sci-fi anime television series opening sequence. In 2014, Anno and Studio Khara launched
Japan Animator Expo, a series of
original net animations made by various directors. In March 2015, it was announced that Anno would team up with close friend and Gainax cofounder
Shinji Higuchi to write and codirect
Shin Godzilla, the 2016 reboot of
Toho's
Godzilla franchise. Anno wrote and directed
Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time (2021), launched in March 2021, after being rescheduled twice due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. He stated that Shinji's story was completed, but mentioned that he had more ideas set in
Evangelion world. ==Depictions==