Evangelion Creator Hideaki Anno Foresees End of Anime
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IncendiaryLemon
Captain Karen
Anno has always come across as full of doom. If I didn't know any better, going off of other interviews and what not, I'd say he hates anime. He really dislikes Otaku and Otaku culture. He probably knows better than I but I'm not going to pay much attention to this, he's probably just wishfully thinking. I love Eva, but Anno has always come across as very pessimistic about Anime. I don't see it going anywhere any time soon. Also, insert tumbling down, tumbling down joke here.
ayase
State Alchemist
Anno, Oshii, Miyazaki... All the best anime is produced by people who hate anime. Or at least, they say it's anime they hate.IncendiaryLemon said:
Although being serious for a moment, I don't think he's necessarily wrong this time. Globalisation is a thing, and Japan seems to have been pretty protectionist so far but there's only so long that can go on for unfortunately, since corporations are only interested in cost cutting and not quality and third world workers won't unionise. It sounds like the Japanese workforce are already being shafted and pretty soon they won't be a workforce any more. What happens next, who knows.
IncendiaryLemon
Captain Karen
ayase said:
Yami
Thousand Master
Anno makes an interesting point, in that with long hours and little pay what incentive is there for anyone to get involved in the anime industry?
That being said, it's best to be skeptical about prophecies of doom. The Millennium Bug was much ado about nothing and the Mayan end of days has came and went. L'enfant terrible that is Jean-Luc Godard proclaimed the end of cinema back in 1967 and yet Michael Bay didn't arrive for another three decades.
That being said, it's best to be skeptical about prophecies of doom. The Millennium Bug was much ado about nothing and the Mayan end of days has came and went. L'enfant terrible that is Jean-Luc Godard proclaimed the end of cinema back in 1967 and yet Michael Bay didn't arrive for another three decades.
Yami said:
Having been a film studies nerd in a former life, I got a good chuckle out of that...
HdE
Comic Book Guy
The point about a career in anime equating to long hours spent working for peanuts is probably the most significant of Anno's comments.
Working in a creative industry myself, I know there's no shortage of people who'll try their hands at this kind of thing. The lifestyle and wages it affords tend not to be a huge concern for people until they realise JUST how difficult it can be.
But the thing is, business will always find a way to create product. In that respect, I don't see anime ever disappearing from the face of the earth. But it could be changed irrevocably by external factors such as Anno mentions. Look how different anime is now in terms of aesthetic and production techniques to the stuff we saw 20 years ago.
TL; DR - yes, he's doom-mongering, but it's not complete nonsense.
Working in a creative industry myself, I know there's no shortage of people who'll try their hands at this kind of thing. The lifestyle and wages it affords tend not to be a huge concern for people until they realise JUST how difficult it can be.
But the thing is, business will always find a way to create product. In that respect, I don't see anime ever disappearing from the face of the earth. But it could be changed irrevocably by external factors such as Anno mentions. Look how different anime is now in terms of aesthetic and production techniques to the stuff we saw 20 years ago.
TL; DR - yes, he's doom-mongering, but it's not complete nonsense.
ConanThe3rd
Railgun
That's a riot; Scientists have been trying to figure out when Anno's career died using the latest in carbon dating technology.
He's got a right cheek to speak of anything between the non appearance of 4.44 (and 3.33's dub which seems to be firmly his damn fault) and his duplicitous hate erection for the fandom that got him to where he was in the first place.
He's got a right cheek to speak of anything between the non appearance of 4.44 (and 3.33's dub which seems to be firmly his damn fault) and his duplicitous hate erection for the fandom that got him to where he was in the first place.
Animefreak17
Godhand
What a depressing thought
This is rich from one of the persons, if not THE person what have pissed off fans enough to be put off anime. 5 to 20 years aye? Well if it last as long as 20 I'll be dead before it is so no worries here besides he probably means that's how long it will be before 3.33 and 4.44 gets released. :lol: Anime was at this crossroad way back in the late 60's and early 70's and here it is healthy as ever regardless. I have no idea where he gets these ideas from. There are plenty of new talent coming into anime except it's going more towards gaming and visual novels and as long as there are manga ka there will be inspirations for anime. He just needs to pull his head out of his arse and look around more often. :roll:
Like Mohawk said, are we sure that his 5-20 year estimate isn't actually the estimated time-frame for the final Rebuild of Evangelion movie release?
I do think it's rather amusing how Anno goes on about how much he hates otaku culture when "Rei vs Asuka" is one of the longest running "Waifu Wars" still going on and a heck of a lot of the Rebuild marketing I've seen in Japan is heavily focused on attracting those otaku he claims to hate.
I do think it's rather amusing how Anno goes on about how much he hates otaku culture when "Rei vs Asuka" is one of the longest running "Waifu Wars" still going on and a heck of a lot of the Rebuild marketing I've seen in Japan is heavily focused on attracting those otaku he claims to hate.
ayase
State Alchemist
The feeling I get from Anno's relationship with otaku culture is that just when he thought he was out it dragged him back in.
Whether it started out with that intention or not, Evangelion ended up as a scathing indictment of otaku, but coming from a man who had not only been one himself but had also been one of otakudom's loudest cheerleaders along with the rest of Gainax. I think it's very likely that being depressed as he was, Anno hated himself and transferred that hatred onto the otaku lifestyle in general - The fact that Eva then became massively popular among the very people it was critical of (often, as Yowada-san says, for all the wrong reasons and because people weren't looking any deeper than the surface) must have been incredibly strange.
Suddenly there Anno is, rolling in the cash of the people he wanted to reach and make understand the things he believed (rightly or wrongly) his depression had made him understand about the way they all lived while in fact, what a lot of them have done is taken that work and used it to reinforce that same behaviour he'd grown to hate. What his thought process was at this point we can only speculate, but I like to imagine it involved him finally throwing his hands in the air and shouting "f*ck it" and dialling up the merchandisers and giving them the go-ahead to make Eva dakimakura.
I really don't mind being hated though and won't attack Anno for the things he's said, because I probably share his hypocrisy to some extent - I do kind of hate myself but I keep on living the life because it's still what I enjoy, even with that knowledge there.
Whether it started out with that intention or not, Evangelion ended up as a scathing indictment of otaku, but coming from a man who had not only been one himself but had also been one of otakudom's loudest cheerleaders along with the rest of Gainax. I think it's very likely that being depressed as he was, Anno hated himself and transferred that hatred onto the otaku lifestyle in general - The fact that Eva then became massively popular among the very people it was critical of (often, as Yowada-san says, for all the wrong reasons and because people weren't looking any deeper than the surface) must have been incredibly strange.
Suddenly there Anno is, rolling in the cash of the people he wanted to reach and make understand the things he believed (rightly or wrongly) his depression had made him understand about the way they all lived while in fact, what a lot of them have done is taken that work and used it to reinforce that same behaviour he'd grown to hate. What his thought process was at this point we can only speculate, but I like to imagine it involved him finally throwing his hands in the air and shouting "f*ck it" and dialling up the merchandisers and giving them the go-ahead to make Eva dakimakura.
I really don't mind being hated though and won't attack Anno for the things he's said, because I probably share his hypocrisy to some extent - I do kind of hate myself but I keep on living the life because it's still what I enjoy, even with that knowledge there.
ConanThe3rd
Railgun
I'd be remiss if I didn't think of Spec Ops: The Line (Spoilers and scenes of Wartime Violence) in terms of Anno's abhorrent behaviour and self loathing.
"[Are Otaku truly out of your control]? None of this would've happened if you'd just stopped. But on you marched. And for what?"
Or to put it more simply, "You enjoy all the "Killing", Anno, That's why".
He's a duplicitous little cretin who signs off on the thing he hates. To live this life is its own punishment.
He is a Rimmer.
"[Are Otaku truly out of your control]? None of this would've happened if you'd just stopped. But on you marched. And for what?"
Or to put it more simply, "You enjoy all the "Killing", Anno, That's why".
He's a duplicitous little cretin who signs off on the thing he hates. To live this life is its own punishment.
He is a Rimmer.
ayase
State Alchemist
You know Conan, it's funny. You are the one of the last people I would have expected to be bothered by Anno's attitude.
Yes, he's part of something he clearly has ambivalent feelings about. But as far as I can see the only thing that really upsets people is the fact he states his mind without caring if he offends people. Which is something both you and I are quite familiar with.
Yes, he's part of something he clearly has ambivalent feelings about. But as far as I can see the only thing that really upsets people is the fact he states his mind without caring if he offends people. Which is something both you and I are quite familiar with.
ConanThe3rd
Railgun
In his shoes, I would not have created Rebuild. I would have walked away and probably started something else. You are the man that made Evangelion. You love Ultraman. You could probably walk into Tsuburaya Productions HQ and be given cart blanché on Ultraman tomorrow.
Instead you walk into a dying Ghibli and just become a crotchty old man with Miyazki (Whom I also take a very dim view of regardless of his tallents.).
Hell, if he was just stright up done he could just tap out gracefully.
But, Instead of Growing Up, he decided to Grow Old.
And damn him for it.
Instead you walk into a dying Ghibli and just become a crotchty old man with Miyazki (Whom I also take a very dim view of regardless of his tallents.).
Hell, if he was just stright up done he could just tap out gracefully.
But, Instead of Growing Up, he decided to Grow Old.
And damn him for it.