Hideaki Anno

Anno Hideaki (Japanese: Anno Hideaki/Anno Hideaki, Romanized: Anno Hideaki, May 22, 1960 -) is a Japanese animator, director, and the representative director and president of Khara Co., Ltd. Born in Ube City, Yamaguchi Prefecture. As an animator, he is famous for his mechanical and explosive special effects drawings. As a director, he has made achievements in both animation and live-action films. His most famous works are the 1995 animated series "Neon Genesis Evangelion" and the 2016 special photo film "Shin Godzilla". Blood type is type A. His wife is cartoonist Yume Yoko Anno. Anno produced some amateur works when he was a student. After dropping out of the Imaging Planning Department (now Imaging Department) of the Art Department of Osaka University of the Arts, he entered the animation industry. During his period as a freelance original animator, he participated in the production of "Macross", "Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind" (1984) and other works, and respected Ichiro Itano and Hayao Miyazaki as his teachers. Later, he joined GAINAX due to the production of GAINAX's founding work "Wang Li's Space Army" (1987). His painting performance in "The King of Space Force" was highly praised, and Anno also claimed that this was the highest peak of his painting. He made his debut as an animation director in 1988 and successively directed "Over the Top" and "Natya", establishing a firm foothold in the industry. After a period of depression, he released "Neon Genesis Evangelion" in 1995, which received unprecedented response and became his most famous masterpiece. Anno then turned to live action and directed three films, but without any breakthrough. Khara founded Khara in 2006 and produced the animated film series "Evangelion: The New Movie", which has seen box-office increases. Afterwards, three live-action tokusatsu movies were released: "New Godzilla", "New Ultraman" (2022, not directed), and "New Kamen Rider" (2023). In his early years, he was fascinated by animation and special photography works. Influenced by this, Anno's works are always full of tributes to his favorite works in the past. His style blends postmodernism with a broad depiction of the thoughts and emotions of his characters, often using outside-the-box scenes to represent the mental deconstruction of these characters.