Creator of Neon Genesis Evangelion Discusses How Fandom Hate Made Him Feel

[Cicada 5]

Hideaki Anno, the creator of Evangelion, is an anime icon. He says he’s done with the series. With its fame and popularity came haters, who took him to a very dark place.

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Anno opened up about how he felt after reading an online thread in which commenters discussed how to kill him. The incident occurred when Evangelion was airing on TV over twenty years ago.


Anno has battled depression for years—a battle that he has been open about. It’s rare to see this kind of frankness in Japan about mental health. The topic, as Japan Today points out, has long been taboo. That is beginning to change.

“For me, I’m trying to work hard for society and people who love anime, but there was this thread on how to kill Hideaki Anno,” the anime creator told NHK. “They kept writing the absolute best ways to kill me, such as, I could be killed this way or that. When I saw this, I stopped caring about everything—like, making anime. I’d had enough. One time, I thought about jumping in front of a car. Another time, I thought about jumping from the company’s roof.” NHK asked what stopped him, and Anno replied, “Because that seemed painful. Dying is fine, really, but I didn’t like the idea of experiencing pain before death.”

It’s so easy to make flippant comments online. Those words, however, have meaning. And that meaning can impact people in a deep and profound way.

Online Hate Took Evangelion Creator Hideaki Anno To A Dark Place

Hideaki Anno, the creator of Evangelion, is an anime icon. He says he’s done with the series. With its fame and popularity came haters, who took him to a very dark place.

kotaku.com

 

[Gordon_4]

I recall it being said that a fair few of the hard copy threats he received are seen in End of Evangelion as part of its ending. I also remember hearing at the time it was a very bleak period of his life. This information is not new to fans of the series, and more importantly fans of the man himself. The depth of it though, is still shocking.

 

[happyninja42]

I recall it being said that a fair few of the hard copy threats he received are seen in End of Evangelion as part of its ending. I also remember hearing at the time it was a very bleak period of his life. This information is not new to fans of the series, and more importantly fans of the man himself. The depth of it though, is still shocking.

No, it's really not shocking, at all. People get WAY too obsessed with the entertainment they consume, and feel justified in the most horrific of behavior, on behalf of that obsession. I've lost count of the number of times, in various medias, that fans have harassed the creators and actors/etc in creative projects, to the point of driving them to mental instability, substance abuse to cope, suicidal thoughts(and actual suicide in some cases), and isolation from society for fear of further encounters. This is no different.

 

[BrawlMan]

No, it's really not shocking, at all. People get WAY too obsessed with the entertainment they consume, and feel justified in the most horrific of behavior, on behalf of that obsession. I've lost count of the number of times, in various medias, that fans have harassed the creators and actors/etc in creative projects, to the point of driving them to mental instability, substance abuse to cope, suicidal thoughts(and actual suicide in some cases), and isolation from society for fear of further encounters. This is no different.

Exactly why I don't go into deep with most fandoms nor take what the most vocals and obsessed say with a microscopic grain of .

 

[Samtemdo8]

Fans were toxic long before. The Internet just fully exposed it.

 

[Gordon_4]

No, it's really not shocking, at all. People get WAY too obsessed with the entertainment they consume, and feel justified in the most horrific of behavior, on behalf of that obsession. I've lost count of the number of times, in various medias, that fans have harassed the creators and actors/etc in creative projects, to the point of driving them to mental instability, substance abuse to cope, suicidal thoughts(and actual suicide in some cases), and isolation from society for fear of further encounters. This is no different.

Its not shocking now. It was shocking however, to me anyway, when I found out about it all when End of Evangelion came out in, let me check my notes, 1997. Although I don't think I saw it until around 2001. Media released way slower twenty years ago.

 

[happyninja42]

Its not shocking now. It was shocking however, to me anyway, when I found out about it all when End of Evangelion came out in, let me check my notes, 1997. Although I don't think I saw it until around 2001. Media released way slower twenty years ago.

*shrugs* I dunno, for me it wasn't a surprise. I'd worked in a comic shop for a couple years around that time, and saw how insane people were about the various things, like the X-Men reboot they did around that time, the prequel trilogy hype (which I just checked release date, 1999, it's so weird to think that was 2 years before 9/11. feels older somehow). I'd listened in on countless nerd arguments in the comic shop, and other various things.

 

[stroopwafel]

No, it's really not shocking, at all. People get WAY too obsessed with the entertainment they consume, and feel justified in the most horrific of behavior, on behalf of that obsession. I've lost count of the number of times, in various medias, that fans have harassed the creators and actors/etc in creative projects, to the point of driving them to mental instability, substance abuse to cope, suicidal thoughts(and actual suicide in some cases), and isolation from society for fear of further encounters. This is no different.

Fandom attracts lonely people who make it part of their identity. Any creative decision they won't like will be considered a personal insult. Besides some fringe nutcases they also provide free marketing and are probably the biggest advertisers among a demographic a company can hope for. So I guess it's a double edged sword.

As for Anno having been depressed doesn't surprise me. Evangelion seems made just for him to work through his issues. No surprise those themes resonated among his audience. Still, it's sad to see toxic fandom got to him so much.

 

[Gordon_4]

*shrugs* I dunno, for me it wasn't a surprise. I'd worked in a comic shop for a couple years around that time, and saw how insane people were about the various things, like the X-Men reboot they did around that time, the prequel trilogy hype (which I just checked release date, 1999, it's so weird to think that was 2 years before 9/11. feels older somehow). I'd listened in on countless nerd arguments in the comic shop, and other various things.

Yes but Evangelion wasn't something that had history or pedigree. That's why it was so weird to me back then.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

He says he's done with the series.

Uh huh.

 

[Gordon_4]

Uh huh.

I too find this to be a dubious statement. Mind, if they really wanted to milk the cow again, they could just do a direct manga adaptation since the OG anime and the manga are different in some very significant ways.

 

[twistedmic]

*shrugs* I dunno, for me it wasn't a surprise. I'd worked in a comic shop for a couple years around that time, and saw how insane people were about the various things, like the X-Men reboot they did around that time, the prequel trilogy hype (which I just checked release date, 1999, it's so weird to think that was 2 years before 9/11. feels older somehow). I'd listened in on countless nerd arguments in the comic shop, and other various things.

Based on your experience in the comic shop, would you say that the Simpsons character Comic Book Guy is a fairly accurate portrayal of comic shop owners/workers or is he more of an exaggerated or toned down example?

 

[happyninja42]

Based on your experience in the comic shop, would you say that the Simpsons character Comic Book Guy is a fairly accurate portrayal of comic shop owners/workers or is he more of an exaggerated or toned down example?

Eh, depending on the person, he's fairly accurate. I would say I didn't see people lose their shit like he did, as OFTEN as he did, but yeah, there were some comic book rants about ridiculous shit regularly enough for it to not be entirely inaccurate. Now, to be 100% clear, I don't watch the Simpsons, and haven't since...shit, I guess the early 90s? When it was only a few years old at most. So I don't have an extensive library of CBG references to compare. But when I do see people clip him in memes and YT videos to convey a point, it doesn't feel out of place to me. I've enough snippets of his character to get the gist, and yeah, it's pretty on point, if a bit exaggerated in places.

Most were cool, and the nerd rants would be good natured rants, but sometimes, yeah they would just go off about stuff. I still hear that when I go into my local shop from the staff, but it's way more laid back now. So there is a kernel of truth to Comic Book Guy, but ramped up for comedy, and becoming more archaic. Most of the time these days, it's people discussing stuff they enjoy, and sharing their love of a thing, far less of it is elitist, talking down to others for liking something "beneath them" or whatever. But it IS still there to some extent yes.

 

[meiam]

Ultimatly anything that get popular enough will attract people with serious mental health issue, it's inevitable, just a number games. Fandom isn't really the problem, just human (specifically crazy one). Literally any large enough gathering of people will end up with a few crazies, dwelling doesn't make any sense. There's nothing to learn from that, brain are complicated things and can go wrong in all kinds of ways.

 

[Saint of M]

Sometimes a fandom can get really toxic. Anyone who's seen Star Wars can relate to that. For crying out loud, the fan ripped into the 9 year old playing Anikin in Phantom Menace like he set a puppy on fire, killing any and all joy he had in acting. He was NINE! How many actors can you say were good at that age? The kids in a Rinckle in Time, the kid that played Newt in Aliens, and the little kid with glasses that was seemingly in everything like Stewart Little?

I can definitly see this happening in the anime world. I have seen quite a few of my fellow otaku take things a little too far.