[EVA] Evangelion Kaibunsho

[M]

> Anno had already been at Gainax (then called Daicon Film) for three  
> years prior to NAUSICAA;

I thought that was Okada's General Production, and even after  
"joining" Gainax, Anno actually drifted in and out of the company,  
doing piece work here and there for a number of years before finally  
getting serious with Nadia (read: Hidaka Noriko) and then Eva.


> three years after NAUSICAA, Miyazaki would enthusiastically praise  
> Gainax in KINEMA JUMPO; a year before the "Kaibunsho," Anno would  
> call Miyazaki his mentor; a year afterwards, Miyazaki and Anno  
> would take their famous North African air journey together; several  
> years later Miyazaki would give the reception speech at Anno's  
> wedding. As you know, Anno directed one of the short anime films  
> shown at the Ghibli Museum. The affection and respect Miyazaki has  
> for Anno regardless of their different artistic approach is one of  
> the most touching stories in anime--and unlike what this fellow  
> says above, it's true.

There was a falling-out period after NAUSICAA, and then a later  
reconciliation.  The early Anno was an extremely talented animator  
with tons of *unrealized* potential in other areas as well --  
basically a lazy genius who thought he was deserving simply for being  
a genius rather than the work he actually did.  From what I have  
heard, this attitude combined with a lack of ambition (until Hidaka  
Noriko made him serious about something) were at least partially the  
cause of the temporary falling-out.


> I hate to sound like a mom in elementary school, but it's hard to  
> avoid the whiff of jealousy coming off this document <snip>  
> Needless to say, the greatest success for EVANGELION, both artistic  
> and financial, lay in the months and years ahead of this "Kaibunsho."

Yep, and that is why I did not bother to translate some of the parts  
in the second half, because they were just negative and speculative  
rants about what D&R and EoE might be like.  In that sense, context  
is everything, which is why I included the background timeline so  
that we can see the current events and state of Japanese Eva fandom  
around the time the Kaibunsho appeared.


> I feel that I need to spend time in the near future to respond to  
> this article in detail.

Yeah, I knew it would create controversy, but it is a significant  
chapter in Eva "cult" history, which is why I did it.  The only thing  
I wrote was the basic intro and background on the front page with the  
kanji characters at the top, and everything else including the  
disclaimer text (WARNING) is translated directly from the original  
website, so you can see that even back then it was subject to  
controversy.

"M"