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Hideaki Anno (庵野秀明 Anno Hideaki) (born 22 May 1960) is a Japanese director best known for his work on Neon Genesis Evangelion.
Anno was born in Ube, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan. Beginning as an animator in Japanese anime such as The Super Dimension Fortress Macross and designer under Hayao Miyazaki in Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind. Hideaki Anno was hired by the scrappy animation studio Gainax as an animation director for their first feature length film Wings of Honneamise and then became their premiere anime director helming the majority of works under Gainax's stable such as Gunbuster and Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water. He fell into a four-year depression following Nadia - the series was handed down to him from NHK as a remake of Hayao Miyazaki's Castle in the Sky, and he was given very little creative control.
During his next project, Neon Genesis Evangelion, he rejected the otaku lifestyle he was living, which he now perceives as extremely autistic. The story became increasingly dark and psychological as the series progressed, even though it was in a children's timeslot, because he felt that people should be exposed to the realities of life at as young an age as possible. By the end, and attempt at traditional narrative logical was abandoned, and the final two episodes take place inside the head of the main character.
After the ending of Neon Genesis Evangelion, Anno received numerous letters and emails from fans, both congratulating and criticizing the last two episodes. Among these were death threats and letters of disappointment from fans who thought Anno had ruined the series for them. In response, a project was launched to create a movie with a 'proper' ending for the series in 1997, eventually culminating in the controversial End of Evangelion.
He later directed a significant portion of His and Her Circumstances — the first Gainax work to be directly adapted from previously-written material — until disputes with both the show's sponsers and the original manga author ended with his departure, leaving the show in the hands of his protegé Kazuya Tsurumaki.
Since then, Anno has worked with Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli on several short animated films which were shown at the Ghibli Museum.
Anno has made forays into live-action films as well, first filming Love & Pop (1998), a Cinéma vérité-styled film about enjo kosai ("compensated dating", basically teenage prostitution) in Japan, of which a major portion was shot on miniature digital cameras with constantly shifting aspect ratios. His second live-action film was Shiki-Jitsu ('Ritual' or 'Ceremonial Day') which was shot on film in a more traditional 2.35:1 aspect ratio. This film is about a burnt out former anime director (played by popular indie director Shunji Iwai) who falls in love with a woman who cannot see reality. Like Love and Pop the film is experimental, but its a lot more polished in its presentation not going for the cinéma vérité grittyness of his first live action film.
Anno's third live-action film, released in the summer of 2004, was an adaptation of the comic book Cutie Honey. Later in 2004, Anno supervised but did not direct the three-part OVA, Re: Cutie Honey. The directors are actually Hiroyuki Imaishi #1, Takamichi Ito #2, and Masayuki #3.
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