Hideaki Anno

Biography: Hideaki Anno is the director of the ever popular Neon Genesis Evangelion series. He has worked on many other Studio Gainax anime including His and Her Circumstances in 1998 and Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi in 2002.

Hideaki Anno began his remarkable career as an animator for the anime series The Super Dimension Fortress Macross in 1982. However, his big chance came when he was 24 years old and got to work with legendary film director Hayao Miyazaki in 1984 on the film Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. After his success with Nausicaä, Anno became the co-founder of Studio Gainax in December of 1984. He worked as an animation director for their first feature-length film, Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise. After his 1987 debut at Gainax, Anno went on to do popular works such as Gunbuster and Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water. In 1991, Anno enter a four-year period of depression. In 1993, Anno began the planning stages of what would become his mostHideaki Anno is the director of the ever popular Neon Genesis Evangelion series. He has worked on many other Studio Gainax anime including His and Her Circumstances in 1998 and Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi in 2002.

Hideaki Anno began his remarkable career as an animator for the anime series The Super Dimension Fortress Macross in 1982. However, his big chance came when he was 24 years old and got to work with legendary film director Hayao Miyazaki in 1984 on the film Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.

After his success with Nausicaä, Anno became the co-founder of Studio Gainax in December of 1984. He worked as an animation director for their first feature-length film, Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise. After his 1987 debut at Gainax, Anno went on to do popular works such as Gunbuster and Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water. In 1991, Anno enter a four-year period of depression.
In 1993, Anno began the planning stages of what would become his most successful TV series. Finally in 1995, Anno started his most famous and well-known project to date - Shin Seiki Evangelion, or Neon Genesis Evangelion. Lasting until March 1996, the series detailed his feelings during and after his depression, becoming a pseudo-autobiography of his last four years. Additionally, the series returned to an older of drawing and used cal music to convey an epic feel.

After what many felt was a sub par ending to a series, Anno received numerous hate mail and even death threats. In 1997, he directed the controversial film The End of Evangelion.

A year later, Anno co-directed the anime His and Her Circumstances. This became the first anime Gainax adapted from a manga. The manga-ka, Masami Tsuda, disliked the adaptation and Anno left the project, causing it to be completed by Kazuya Tsurumaki. Since then, Anno went on to work with Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli on several short anime films, which have since been shown at the Ghibli Museum.

Hideaki Anno has also directed numerous live-action films, beginning with Love & Pop in 1998 and followed by Shiki-Jitsu (Ritual Day) in 2000. Anno's third live-action film, released in the summer of 2004, was a live-action adaptation of Cutie Honey.
In 2000, Anno played Miyu Miyu, a cat in the insanely popular OVA Fooly Cooly. In 2002, Anno worked on and made a cameo in the final episode of Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi.

In 2004, Anno took interest in the Danish puppet film Strings, and released a Japanese version on April 28, 2007 entitled Strings: Ai to Kizuna no Tabiji (Strings: Journey of Love and the Ties that Bind).

In September of 2006, Newtype Japan announced that a new Evangelion project was in the works. On September 9, 2006, Gainax’s official website confirmed that four new Evangelion movies, dubbed Rebuild of Evangelion, are indeed being worked on. The first three movies will be an alternate retelling of the TV series, and the fourth movie will be a completely new conclusion to the story. Hideaki Anno will write the scenario for the first movie and will be the general director and manager for the entire project. The first movie will be released in the summer of 2007, while the second will come out in January 2008. The last two will be shown together in the summer of 2008.… Expand