Hideaki Anno > Quotes

“God knows I'm not perfect, either. I've made tons of stupid mistakes, and later I regretted them. And I've done it over and over again, thousands of times; a cycle of hollow joy and vicious self-hatred. But even so, every time I learned something about myself
-Misato Katsuragi”
― Hideaki Anno, Groundwork of Evangelion Vol.1

“I musn't run away.”
― Hideaki Anno

“This is roughly the worldview for Neon Genesis Evangelion. This is a worldview drenched in a vision of pessimism. A worldview where the story starts only after any traces of optimism have been removed.
[...]
They say, "To live is to change." I started this production with the wish that once the production complete, the world, and the heroes would change. That was my "true" desire. I tried to include everything of myself in Neon Genesis Evangelion-myself, a broken man who could do nothing for four years. A man who ran away for four years, one who was simply not dead. Then one thought. "You can't run away," came to me, and I restarted this production. It is a production where my only thought was to burn my feelings into film. I know my behavior was thoughtless, troublesome, and arrogant. But I tried. I don't know what the result will be. That is because within me, the story is not yet finished. I don't know what will happen to Shinji, Misato or Rei. I don't know where life will take them. Because I don't know where life is taking the staff of the production. I feel that I am being irresponsible. But... But it's only natural that we should synchronize ourselves with the world within the production. I've taken on a risk: "It's just an imitation." And for now I can only write this explanation. But perhaps our "original" lies somewhere within there.”
― Hideaki Anno

“Are you afraid of other people? I know that by keeping others at a distance you avoid a betrayal of your trust, but you must endure the loneliness. Man can never completely erase this sadness, because all men are fundamentally alone. Pain is something man must carry in his heart, and since the heart feels pain so easily, some believe that life is pain.”
― Hideaki Anno, End of Evangelion

“Man fears the darkness, and so he scrapes away at the edges of it with fire. He creates life by diminishing the Darkness.”
― Hideaki Anno, End of Evangelion

“Those who hate themselves, cannot love or trust others.”
― Hideaki Anno, End of Evangelion

“What's wrong with running away from reality if it sucks?!”
― Hideaki Anno, End of Evangelion

“I wish that I could turn back time
cause now the guilt is all mine
can't live without
the trust from those you love
I know we can't forget the past
you can't forget love & pride
because of that, it's killing me inside
- Mike Wyzgowski (interpreted)”
― Hideaki Anno

“One cannot turn back the clock but one can move it forward.
(Gendo Ikari, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Ep. 22, 23:55)”
― Hideaki Anno, 新世紀エヴァンゲリオン　TVアニメーション設定資料集 2015edition [Neon Genesis Evangelion TV Animation settei shiryōshū 2015 edition]

“Who is this? This is me. Who am I? What am I? What am I? What am I? What am I?”
― Hideaki Anno, End of Evangelion

“It is my destiny to live forever, though my survival will bring final destruction to the human race. However, it is possible for me to be killed, and whether I live or die makes no great difference. In truth, death may be the only absolute freedom there is.”
― Hideaki Anno, End of Evangelion

“Childeren are much better at bringing out what they have imagined in their heads. İt's much more straightforward. They don't try to do a good job. İt's nice, isn't it ? Because it's pure, innocent. İt's a part of me that's been lost.”
― Hideaki Anno, End of Evangelion

“I'm often told that those who don't like themselves set high expectations for themselves, but ı think people who say that don't really understand how painful it is.”
― Hideaki Anno, End of Evangelion

“At school, your tests only have one right answer and you might get zero or half points if you put the wrong answer. But in what we call ''the real world'', things aren't so black and white, so you should think about things for yourself and express them in words or pictures. This is how you comminicate with people, with other people.”
― Hideaki Anno