Disclaimer text from original website:
This kaibunsho is information provided to me by an anonymous source. I have not altered this information in any way. Accordingly, despite the fact that it discusses Director Anno and other specific individuals and contains some expressions that can be judged as slanderous/malicious, I have decided to present the original text as is. I apologize if anyone’s feelings are hurt as a result of reading this composition. However, I hope that readers will also appreciate the fact that this type of information was even released on the internet.
This kaibunsho is a nearly 40KB text-only document written by a self-professed "[anime] industry dropout”. Judging from the period when it was disseminated on the net, it is thought to have been written between February 9 to 11. Although some information is incorrect (Anno did only the “settings” for Nadia? Also, Anno was not the director of the movie.), regardless of its veracity, it is of great interest, including the author’s undisguised malice towards Anno and Okada.
And the true scariness of otaku lies in their ability to read through even this kind of kaibunsho and then just forget about it and return to their usual fanaticism towards Eva. Yes, even kaibunsho are nothing more than objects for the avaricious consumption behavior of we otaku.
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Evangelion Kaibunsho Text
• Introduction
The cult anime named Evangelion. A forbidden anime about how a group led by morally/spiritually bankrupt individuals uses an autistic boy to wage pitched battles against incomprehensible creatures, and how through contact with the hearts of a mentally fragile, bandaged girl and an overly self-conscious, traumatized girl, that boy ultimately attains deliverance/salvation himself in the final episode. Some viewers became enraged, some despondent, some lost friends as a result of hysterical disputes, and some attained deliverance/salvation themselves. And even now, nearly a year after the finish of the TV airing, Evangelion continues to be an underground social phenomenon that provides endless topics of conversation.
And that calls for an Eva special feature. Director Anno has been elevated up to a stage that is out of our reach. But so far he has yet to make any straightforward comment to speak of, and instead just holds inscrutable conversations in safe places with people who will not hurt him. And even though we have already entered the countdown to the Eva movies, there is still no news or other accounts worthy of mention to be heard from the production side. Everyone involved restrains and feels restrained by each other, and is afraid to make any kind of comment on their own.
So, I would like to take this chance to talk about "events well-known behind the scenes, but which have not been revealed publicly," "matters that could not be revealed due to circumstances at the time, but for which the statutes have expired" and other rumors surrounding Anno and Gainax in an attempt to shatter this oppressive atmosphere just a bit and keep a single anime from ruining everyone's personal relationships and forums for making sound comments.
Author: Hiiro Yui
SECTION.01 • About the Evangelion TV airing
- Part 1: Before the TV airing
Nowadays the huge Eva boom has become a social phenomenon, but even now there are probably few people who know the truth that when Anno and Gainax first went around trying to sell "Evangelion" to the industry, no company would have anything to do with them. (laugh) This goes back nearly a year before the start of the TV airing.
If memory serves correctly, when the plan arose they made up to Ep6 (despite Anno apparently saying in Quick Japan magazine that they had "made up to Ep7 in advance") and sent out feelers in all directions, but were given the cold shoulder by every company. (laugh) Even Bandai snubbed them based on the past results of the huge failure of "Wings of Honneamise (Royal Space Force)". (laugh) They had connections with a TV Tokyo producer, but if you can't get sponsors it doesn't matter. So after wandering lost by the wayside for a bit, Kadokawa Shoten finally picked them up. But the truth is that even Kadokawa just barely picked them up, and flatly rejected their budget requests, saying that they only intended to budget the same level and not a yen more than other anime Kadokawa had sponsored in the past (Tenchi Muyo, etc.). This is a long-standing custom in the anime industry, and even now there are no sponsors that will increase the budget or take other measures even if that anime becomes a huge hit. In the first place, when making an anime you not only have to raise funds, but you also have to make preparations such as acquiring personnel from subcontracting anime studios at least 6 months to a year or more in advance, so it is difficult to quickly increase the number of staff even if you want to. Most subcontracting companies are involved with multiple anime and have packed schedules. About the best you can do on short notice is to get subcontracted South Korean staff. Indirectly, these circumstances would later become a noose tightening around Anno and Gainax's necks.
- Part 2: The truth behind the breakdown of Eva
The inside story from the start through the middle of the TV airing
Still, that Newtype magazine interview really cracked me up. Seeing a person with the brains of an art college dropout fling around symbolism without saying a word about structuralism was so idiotic as to be amusing. (laugh) Anno probably just thought that smug know-it-all exposition on the Sailor Moon cinema edition LD by Ikuhara (Ikuhara Kunihiko, a good friend of Anno's) was cool and copied it.
But back to our story. Immediately following the airing of the final TV episode, rumors appeared on internet bulletin boards and chat rooms that "Complaints flooded in from the PTA about Ep20 (Form of a Heart, Form of a Person), and because of that the last episodes had to be remade right before they aired which is why they turned out that way." Anno himself also replied in an interview that, "We completely ran out of time partway through...." However, the direct cause was not the PTA or a lack of time, but the more pressing issue of "budget".
As previously mentioned, Kadokawa Shoten picked up Gainax who were having a hard time because they could not find any takers for "Evangelion". Then, when the "Evangelion" airing started, anime fans were overwhelmed by the unexpected quality, and the show also evoked a tremendous response from anime magazines and related sectors. Of course, they had made up to episode 6 or 7 in advance, so these episodes were high quality. Anyway, it was about then that Bandai, which had previously snubbed Gainax, decided that Eva would be a "hit" and sidled up to them as if they had been friends all along. What a total scum of a company. (laugh) At the time the rights for toys, model kits and so on were held by Sega, which was one of the show's sponsors, but they ended up sharing these rights with Bandai, so for all practical purposes it was Bandai that put out the LMHG and other model kits, etc. Of course, this was a kind of setup for the merger between Sega and Bandai (Sega actually assimilated Bandai) that has gained a bit of press lately. More than a few people had wondered why model kits produced by Bandai had Sega copyright seals affixed to them, and that is why. (laugh) And those model kits and other novelties sold so well they literally flew off the shelves.
However, Gainax's Evangelion had created such a sensation that it became impossible to lower the tension partway through. This must have given Anno and the other Gainax members some mixed feelings. However, once the TV airing started at the pace of an episode per week there was no longer a moment to lose. Even though they had the episodes prerecorded before the TV airing, detailed adjustments had to be made and before they knew it the schedule had overtaken them. In the end, unable to take decisive action and skillfully lower the quality and budget in ways that would not be noticed, they just continued to muddle along as they had. This is Gainax's strength, and also possibly its weakness. There are a lot of Gainax staff who are still moved to tears when they hear Katsuragi Misato's lines repeated in those episode previews: "Next time as well, service, service!"* (laugh)
By the time they noticed... they were on Ep15 and were already scraping the bottom of the budget. (laugh) This is why they used a lot of mania [otaku] employees who didn't mind putting in free overtime. And then Anno and the rest of the Gainax management became terrified as they finally realized that the situation they feared most -- the question of whether they would be able to make all of the episodes through the end of the series in time -- was slowly but surely becoming a reality. Too late, you fools! (laugh)
* In addition to its “fan-service” connotations, "service (saabisu)" in Japanese is often used to mean "free/freebie", as in the "free overtime" mentioned in the following paragraph. This is why the author says Gainax staff still cry when they hear the word. (Additional note: The author implies in other comments that he was one of the mania [otaku] employees who performed a lot of “service” work and were then unceremoniously dumped.)
- Part 3: The truth behind the breakdown of Eva
The inside story from the middle through the final phases of the TV airing
Pressed for both budget and time, there were still 10 episodes left. Furthermore, TV Tokyo is well known as a company that does not think well of skipping a weekly anime for a special program or other. Even if for some unavoidable reason something else must be shown in that time slot, they make it a point to broadcast the show at a slightly earlier time or even early in the morning on that day out of sheer perverseness. Hell, they even aired the show over the New Year's holidays. (laugh) Had he pressed the point, Anno might have been able to get an extension, but it seems he was already resigned to the fact that even a two-week extension would not change anything. (laugh)
So, finally moving his heavy arse, Anno vastly restructured the production system. First, 75% or more of the production staff from Ep16 onward were outsourced South Korean staff. In terms of the animation as well, when reusing sequences other than bank sequences or for still shots, instead of using the film, these sequences were instead dubbed in at the end using a video deck. This is why character close-ups and other shots that seemed to jiggle increased partway through the series. They even mixed stupid photographs and other stuff into the mental image scenes. In the worst cases some scenes just showed a still screen that lasted for a minute or more. But no matter how much they struggled, they had already exceeded their budget and time limits. And then to top it all off were those last two episodes.
Although budget issues were the main problem, Gainax had also quarreled constantly with TV Tokyo since before the TV airing over moral issues such as how the show would end and other details. These ranged from trivial points such as it being improper to show women's underwear in the hanging laundry, to major items such as the brutal scene at the end of Ep18 "The Choice of Life". It's kind of letting the cat out of the bag now, but the truth is that "Asuka dies from madness (she lives in the TV version)," "Shinji dissolves but reforms," and "Rei also dies" were already determined before the TV airing started, and Gainax had quarreled a number of times with the TV Tokyo producer and related parties over these plot devices. Furthermore, the ending was supposed to have been "The main characters die one after another, and the final battle is Ikari Shinji vs. Ikari Gendo," although there probably isn't any evidence left to support that now. (laugh) Well, except it seems that Hayashibara Megumi (voice actress for Ayanami Rei) said on a radio program something like: "I might end up fighting against Shinji." I also heard talk that "Misato and Ritsuko both die fighting each other, and Misato's death awakens Shinji(?)" Surprisingly, it seems the character who was the key to the climax was not Rei, but Misato. But then I guess it doesn't matter what is said now. (laugh)
Because of all this, notices went out in every direction that "The production side and TV Tokyo are quarreling over the ending, and the ending may be changed for the planned LD release, so be sure to also record the TV broadcast." (laugh) You often see people being interviewed say something like "I also recorded it on video and watched it even though I almost never do that." But in fact after hearing these rumors everyone did just that and recorded it on video. (laugh)
Anyway, back to the TV airing. When Ep20 aired, complaints poured in from the PTA. This infuriated TV Tokyo all the way up to the upper management, which made it impossible for Gainax to take any bold measures. Nowadays it's pretty much taken for granted that the only people who complain over every little thing in children's TV anime or manga are people like Kofuku-no-Kagaku* pulling a publicity stunt for their "evil book banning movement".... Still, at that point the TV Tokyo upper management issued the severe notice that "Any anime that is deluged with complaints from the PTA even once from now on will be cancelled regardless of the reason." The anime "Bakuretsu Hunters" and "Fushigi Yugi" were airing on the same channel at the time, and these also caught flak and received strict warnings even though they had not done anything. (laugh) That's why there were so many unnatural changes in the story contents from Ep20 onward.
So for these reasons, the Eva [TV] ending was made under conditions with Gainax's hands tied in terms of budget, time and content. Considering that the last two episodes were made under those conditions, Director Anno might even be viewed as amazing.... Nope, I just can't view him like that. (laugh) After all it was his own damn fault that things turned out that way. (laugh)
Given the circumstances, one might think that at least from partway through the TV series, maybe Anno really did mean it when he said that he "intended to make the ending that way." (ROTFL!) That’s why the people around him suggested so strongly that he "make it an OVA from the start.” But he just did it that way because he's an exhibitionist. (laugh)
* Kofuku-no-Kagaku: The Institute for Research in Human Happiness -- a Japanese religious organization known for its active proselytism and vocal moral(?) stances -- basically a vocal moral minority cult.
SECTION.02 • About Director Anno
Anno made some patronizing statement in Newtype magazine to the effect that “(Evangelion was) a message for anime otaku who tend to stay cooped up in their rooms.” In light of that and upon reflection of Anno’s past, I would like to take the liberty of evaluating his current comments and ideology. (laugh)
The [anime] industry chapter of Hideaki Anno’s otaku life starts with his expulsion from the Osaka University of Arts for ignoring his studies and pursuing a lifestyle that focused exclusively on otaku activities. Several of the people currently serving as key personnel at Gainax were among the friends expelled along with him at that time. Anno met Okada Toshio at the Osaka SF Convention (this story is told in detail later), and thereafter Anno piggybacked on Okada as he alternately joined and left General Products (Japan’s first specialty SF shop) and took various jobs such as genga sketch artist for the latter stages of Macross. After that, perhaps because his high-tension drawing was highly regarded, Anno was suddenly invited to work on Miyazaki Hayao’s cinematic anime “Nausicaa of the valley of the wind”. This is the scene where the kyojinhei (giant god warrior) breathes fire. According to interviews, Anno seems to have had various opinions concerning Miyazaki Hayao, Studio Ghibli and the current state of the anime industry at that time, but these all came about afterwards. (laugh) But one thing that can be said is that Miyazaki Hayao would have nothing to do with him after “Nausicaa”, and that he was out of luck until gaining a position at Gainax. Basically, he holds a grudge because “he was not treated fairly in consideration of his accomplishments.” (laugh)
After joining Gainax, Anno first participated as an animator for “Wings of Honneamise” under the silly title of “Special Effects Artist”. This cinematic anime excited a few people and then it was over. A few years later the anime “Nadia and the Secret of Blue Water” was announced by NHK. Anno was responsible for the setting, and even though he was in a position to instruct surrounding people, he meddled not only with the genga sketches but even the douga sketches, and caused the people actually doing the work a lot of grief. He was always saying, “You piss-poor artist! I’ll draw it!” which fostered a lot of resentment. That anime also appealed to some people and then it was over. And the cinema version was a complete failure. This was largely due to differences in the TV version production side and the cinema version production side, but they still won’t admit this, and blame it all on content tampering (revisions) by movie-related parties.
- Part 2: The identity of his first true love
And now we get to an interesting story. Anno said in some anime magazine that “Katsuragi Misato is modeled in part on my first love,” but do you know who he was talking about? It’s Hidaka Noriko, the voice actress for Jean in “Nadia and the Secret of Blue Water”. (laugh) When the TV version of “Nadia” launched, Anno confessed his feelings to Hidaka Noriko. This is a famous story in the industry. Apparently Anno told her that he “looked at her not as an object of adoration/longing, but as a serious love interest!” (ROTFL!) Apparently he was even seriously thinking of marriage.However, Hidaka Noriko refused him flatly, saying “I have no intention of marrying someone in the anime industry.” Wait, what? Don’t we know now that she was married to some anime-related producer at the time? (ROTFL!) But Anno would not give up, and told her, “Well, watch my next work, and then decide!” In other words Anno was proposing an affair to the already married Hidaka Noriko. (laugh) Anyway, Anno next work was “Evangelion”, so... Evangelion might be considered a work that embodies something of a stalker obsession. (laugh)
Of course, Anno also said something about Misato being “the image of Mitsuishi Kotono (voice actress for Katsuragi Misato)”, but that was after the fact. After all, he said that after the voice actors/actresses had been decided. Still, “Portray her in the image of a rough and unmannerly woman. So just be your usual self, Mitsuishi-san (laugh)” is quite the statement. A lot of staff who heard Anno say that wanted to say that her [Mitsuishi Kotono] fans are scary, but even more than that, “what about you [Anno-san]?” (laugh)
Of course I’m not saying this just to protect the honor of Hidaka Noriko and Mitsuishi Kotono, but for the record neither one of them resembles a person like Katsuragi Misato in the least. (laugh) All the drama between Misato and Shinji is not Anno’s “reminiscences of his first love” but rather his “pleasant fantasy life with those women”. I guess this is about the extent of an anime otaku’s fantasies, but aren’t the women spending a little too much time on a loser? (laugh) Reality wasn’t that pleasant, was it Anno-san? (ROTFL!)
- Part 3: His dissatisfaction with anime fans, and the hidden intent behind it
And now we get to Anno’s human nature. (laugh) As soon as the TV airing ended, Anno suddenly started making a fuss, but that was just an excuse like his “Anime fans and so on” pretext. He appears to hate anime fans (admonishing them about their reclusiveness?), but what about himself?
The embarrassing fact is that Anno loves buying all sorts of hentai Sailor Moon doujinshi, and amuses himself by arranging UFO catcher [crane game] dolls in his house. (ROTFL!) This is something that everybody knows, even though no one will say it out loud. Anno may work in the industry, but just like other anime industry bigwigs he is still just an anime otaku. Enough so that even at his age he still secretly frequents cosplay and image clubs in Shinjuku and Shibuya. Such youth! (ROTFL!) Isn’t it funny that this type of person has the nerve to speak condescendingly to anime fans and tell them not to stay cooped up in their rooms? Or does he mean to say that going to image clubs is okay because it is not staying “cooped up”? (ROTFL!) And no matter how much he disses anime fans, isn’t he able to keep food on his table because those very same anime fans buy books, LDs and other goods? Why is he saying stuff like that all of the sudden now? Why does someone who hates people that do nothing but watch anime fritter away his own life to enter this industry? ..... Well, I guess this is enough Anno-bashing, but if we leave it at that then it is little different from the level of people who just like to make a fuss, so let me add a little analysis. (laugh)
Looking just at Eva-related areas we can see the following sequence of events. Anno began making “Evangelion” with a spirit and enthusiasm worthy of the Gainax name, which had been highly regarded by certain maniac otaku for some time. When “Evangelion” started airing it received a tremendous response, and Anno and the rest were convinced that their direction was correct. However, possibly due to their usual spirit of service (aim to please), they were unable to stop creating a quality unsuited to a TV series and just continued as is, ultimately becoming cornered in terms of budget, content and time until they were unable to avoid that type of ending. Stringing tantalizing mystery onto mystery like that in an attempt to keep viewers interested to the very end is also undoubtedly an example of their first-rate “service”. (laugh)
It was probably around that time that Anno came to hate anime fans. In other words it was probably something like, “The ending turned out that way because we kept trying to meet the excessive expectations of anime fans. We were crushed by anime fan expectations; ruined by anime-crazed bastards cooped up in their rooms. So anime fandom is unhealthy. Don’t just sit and watch thus stuff -- go out [into the real world]. That ending was an admonition to all of you who expect too much, and as such was a fitting ending.” Somehow, somewhere, things had been switched around so that “It wasn’t us who ruined Eva, but the fault of anime fans who expected too much.” But wasn’t it Anno and Gianax themselves who broke the budget trying to meet expectations in the first place? And now it’s the fault of people who expected something? (sour laugh) If you look at things this way, you gain an understanding of all the grudge-like (laugh) comments Anno keeps making about anime fans here and there. No matter how friendly a manner in which you view his words and behavior, it just ends up sounding like he’s spouting symbolic excuses or other drivel. (laugh) You can read his words with all your might in an attempt to understand them, but you will just end up becoming infected by his insanity, so don’t. (ROTFL!) > From a person who reads Anno’s words
- Part 4: Just the whining of a otaku with no sense of professionalism?
But still, Anno-san, isn’t this what they call “unjust resentment” in the world at large? (ROTFL!) Just because you tried with all your might but were unable to live up to expectations and wound up with that horrible ending, how does that make it the fault of anime fans with expectations? (sour laugh) The anime industry has to be just about the only place where statements like that would be tolerated.
Let’s paraphrase what you are saying using the example of a restaurant. We get a napkin, water, a knife and fork, soup and hors d’oeuvres, but the main dish turns out to be raw garbage. But this is because the customers held such excessive expectations that the budget and time had all been used up by the hors d’oeuvres. So you would be gravely mistaken to always expect that the main dish will be served. And besides, you people shouldn’t eat out all the time, and should cook for yourselves, and so on... Normally if a cook said something like that he’d be killed, right? (laugh)
Those people who are even now at this moment still talking about Eva and defending it with all their might are nothing more than self-styled gourmets who sit in their little in-groups in front of the raw garbage piled up on the table and talk with the cook, saying stuff like, “This sort of thing happens/It’s to be expected.” (ROTFL!) Dear me, I certainly wouldn’t want to become the type of person who would eat even garbage just to pretend I know something, now would I? (sour laugh)
But it looks like there is no shortage of people willing to get paid and become famous for writing magazine articles on the subject. Isn’t that right? Okada-san? Takekuma-san? Otsuki Kenji-san? (ROTFL!)
Most of the people who interview Anno in magazines are just publicity seekers like Takekuma Kentarou -- bastards who listen eagerly to what Anno has to say and then talk about symbolism or views on human nature within the established context -- discussion for the sake of discussion. It’s just like what Taku Hachiro [note: uber-otaku] did when he interviewed Jouyuu [note: senior Aum Shinrikyou cult member and spokesman] in “SPA!” [note: weekly scandal rag] when Aum was creating such a fuss. (sour laugh) At this rate the readers are never going to get the truth they desire. Oh, but maybe the publishers don’t desire that. (laugh)
Well, of course Anno won’t even give an interview to anyone who would dig in and fire off pointed questions in rapid succession. Newtype magazine had even planned something like a “dialog between readers and Anno,” but that project got folded fast. (laugh) After all, that would be taboo, because our precious Director Anno might end up getting stabbed and killed. (laugh)
- Part 5: Conclusion -- A child should not venture forth into society (laugh)
Ultimately, the person known as Anno Hideaki is probably just someone who is extremely skilled as an animator when assigned to special effects, but for whom unwisely climbing the ranks at Gainax until reaching the rank of anime director was probably a tragedy. According to interviews he said something to the effect that he “became interested in various psychological aspects and inner worlds,” and it is probably because he became a director this time that those bad and dangerous areas of his came gushing out all at once. (laugh)
And now his head is filled with a twisted grudge against anime fans, and he thinks only of how he can provoke them. It must be said that there are still doubts as to whether he will mend his ways and create something decent for the upcoming cinema version. (laugh)
Just please, Anno-san, don’t go starting any self-enlightenment seminars or anything. (ROTFL!)
SECTION.03 • About the Mitaka poster incident
- Part 1: Mitaka citizens shocked! The June 3 disturbance!
So what exactly happened on that day in Mitaka City? (ROTFL!)
On June 3, 1996, the south exit of JR Mitaka Station was enveloped in a bizarre feverish enthusiasm. A number of truly suspicious-looking characters stood around individually or in pairs in some places, while in other locations groups of ten or more people clustered as if waiting for something. Mitaka City residents passing by them also sensed some abnormal atmosphere. “I wonder if they’re handing out another anime pencil board or something. Even so, there sure are a lot of them this time.” (laugh) Then shortly after Noon, some of the people waiting noticed a group forming about 100 meters from the south exit.
“There! They’re giving them out over there!!” (laugh)
As soon as they heard that call, the mass of people assembled around the area all leapt at once into a starting dash -- a horde of otaku all running with fierce intensity. In the place they were headed stood a few men and women from Mitaka City, handing out plastic bags like it was some kind of festival day. And the otaku horde bore down on that spot in a mad rush.
“Do you have a ticket?”
“No, I don’t.”
“What about you?”
“No.”
Apparently they initially had tried to distribute tickets and then hand out one pencil board per person, but they were rushed by so many people at once that things got confusing and the tickets turned into worthless scraps of paper. In the end, some rascals even started taking 3 or 4 bags.
“Hey, hey -- one per person. Any more and we start confiscating!”
In those plastic bags were the infamous Mitaka City Water Department Ayanami Rei pencil boards. These pencil boards had a phrase about cherishing droplets of nature, and a picture of Ayanami Rei in a kimono locking back over her shoulder on the banks of a river. The plastic bags also contained soap, bath salts, a flyer with a really doujin-esque image calling for the conservation of water, and other items.
Information about the pencil boards had made the rounds of the bulletin boards and chat rooms since the previous day, and a multitude of otaku from Tokyo and surrounding prefectures had gathered at Mitaka Station. Mitaka City had done things like this a number of times before, but the pandemonium this time was incredible, and the main road where the pencil boards were being given out was completely filled with people. Even people from nearby shopping districts wondered what the unusual disturbance was and many of them came to see for themselves.
The otaku horde sent shivers up the spines of the local residents, and then there were some people who did not leave with just that. A number of otaku made no signs of leaving even as dusk neared. That’s right, now they were aiming for the posters that had the same image as the pencil boards that had just been handed out. The information flowing on the net said that these posters were to be handed out on June 4. So these otaku came fully prepared to spend the night. (laugh) However, Mitaka City was considerate enough to distribute tickets the day before and ultimately made them leave. That was a terrifying day for Mitaka City residents, but the disturbance was still not over.
The next morning, when Mitaka City Water Department employees arrived for work, they found that the posters that had been posted inside the City Hall had been stolen. At first they thought that the failure of the alarms to go off meant a professional job (laugh), but it seems that some enterprising otaku had impersonated Mitaka City employees, entered the offices from the back exit early that morning, and made off with the posters. In addition, from that day onward Mitaka City Hall was deluged with phone calls asking if they had any Ayanami Rei pencil boards and posters left to the extent that it interfered with regular operations. The posters had also been posted at Mitaka Station on the 3rd, but these were already gone by the time the otaku horde left that afternoon.
So that is a summary of the series of disturbances involving the Ayanami Rei pencil boards (and posters) distributed by Mitaka City Hall. One other type of pencil board and poster (Ayanami in school uniform?) had actually been distributed before this, but it seems there was little disturbance at that time, probably because that information did not get around so much.
- Part 2: Mitaka City -- What is this mysterious municipality?
The municipality of Mitaka City, Tokyo, which became famous as a result of this Evangelion Ayanami Rei pencil board and poster disturbance, has actually been well known in certain circles for many years as a rather questionable group.
[The remainder of this section and the next few sections are a rant about how the upper echelons of certain Mitaka City offices have been infiltrated by otaku, causing the city to commission and distribute various anime related items at rather exorbitant taxpayer expense (i.e. US$100,000 for 2-300 pencil boards or posters). These schemes are coordinated and the information is disseminated over FLIP-NET -- a local bulletin board service populated by manga authors/artists, doujin artists and various hard-core otaku types who live around Mitaka]
- Part 3: FLIP-NET -- A breeding ground for nuisance groups
[The rant continues...]
- Part 4: Fundamental questions/doubts
[...and continues :P]
SECTION.04 • About Okada Toshio
- Part 1: An SF otaku meets an anime otaku
[Talks about Okada Toshio and Anno’s early history (Osaka roots, DAICON event OP animations, etc.) -- To be translated later when I get the time and/or inclination]
- Part 2: Setting up a company, betrayal, and now
[Talks about the companies set up by Okada (General Products and Gainax), the financial failure of “Wings of Honneamise”, differences in direction between Okada (SF otaku) and Anno/Yamaga (anime otaku), and Okada’s subsequent betrayal and expulsion from Gainax -- To be translated later when I get the time and/or inclination]
SECTION.05• On the new movie release slated for this spring
This has also been leaked behind the scenes for quite some time, but there will be a recap of the TV series + ending (this is the scheduled spring release) and an original cinema version.
From around the middle of the Eva TV airing, rumors started spreading all over the place and not just from industry sources that, “It seems that a completely original movie version will be released in the summer of next year.” And it looks like the TV recap was decided on during the second half of the TV airing -- probably around the time when they were forced to admit that they would not be able to air a decent ending. (laugh)
[Continues with disgruntlement over the lack of info on the upcoming movies and IMO rather useless speculation about the current production state of the movies and what they will be like. Not translated because it is essentially all speculative ranting.]
SECTION.06 • A few grievances
[Rant bemoaning the current state of the anime industry and fans that too easily shell out good money for crappy products, thus keeping studios from having to work to create decent products. (Remember, the author is an anime industry dropout.) Not translated because IMO it doesn’t contain anything useful.]
SECTION.07 • Conclusion
Thank you so much for reading this lengthy discourse all the way to its end. What? You’re not an anime otaku so it wasn’t at all interesting? You knew about Evangelion, but you completely skipped over the parts in the middle? Fine. No problem. (laugh) After all it might not be a very interesting subject to unconcerned persons, and there are many parts that really shouldn’t be shown to the masses anyway. (sour laugh)
<snip>
And don’t go showing this to any industry people! (laugh) They’ll just say stuff like, “Lies!” or “Baseless fabrications!” And well they should. After all they aren’t the type of people to leave embarrassing evidence laying around forever. (laugh) And it pains me as a lone and insignificant industry dropout, but there is little I can do to foil their elaborate maneuvers. (bitter laugh)
Whether you believe it or not is ultimately up to you. All that I want people to understand is that “The anime industry is a much more despicable world than outsiders think.” (laugh)
<snip>
Thank you, Gainax
Goodbye, Anno
And to all the otakki, congratulations!
Well, if we’re still alive, let’s meet again somewhere!!
Final version created in February 1997 by Hiiro Yui