Day 87: Hideaki Anno, Animator of Biblical Proportion
Day 87! It is the weekend and that means another art showcase. Today we are going to take a look at Hideaki Anno, specifically his masterful creation Neon Genesis Evangelion. I have been obsessed with this anime for years, especially the angels scattered throughout the series. Enough babbling, let’s jump into this art showcase of Hideaki Anno.
Hideaki Anno:
Hideaki Anno gained early recognition from the renowned Hayao Miyazaki after answering an ad to work on a Studio Ghibli film. In 1984 he co-founded the now famous Gainax Studios. His fame grew rapidly across Japan and quickly became the top animator at Gainax.
Anno struggled with depression while his fame continued to grow. He then ran into a couple of rough patches in his career after releasing a string of less than stellar animes. This led to his depression worsening.
In the early 90s, he received a time slot on television to create an anime of his choice. Anno had complete creative freedom and this led to the creation of Neon Genesis Evangelion.
Neon Genesis Evangelion:
Hideaki Anno implemented many of his inner feelings of depression into this series.
Evangelion has been interpreted as a deeply personal expression of Hideaki Anno’s own emotional struggles. During the production of the series, he became interested in mental illness and psychology. According to him, Rei is a schizophrenic character and she represents the unconscious of Shinji. Shinji has an Oedipus complex, and is characterized by a libido-destrudo conflict. Similarly, Ritsuko has an Electra complex, in which she loves Gendo, a sort of substitute of her father figure. Anno himself stated that the main character reflects his character, “both in conscious and unconscious part”, referring also to Kaworu as his Jungian shadow. It has even been suggested that Shinji’s entering into Unit-01 is a Freudian “return to the womb”, and that his struggle to be free of the Eva is his “rite of passage” into manhood. The series contains many references to philosophical and psychoanalytic concepts, such as the oral stage, introjection, oral personality, ambivalence, and the death drive, including some elements of the works of Sigmund Freud, Arthur Schopenhauer, Søren Kierkegaard and others.
Hideaki Anno also included many biblical allusions to the series which gave the show an extra tier of depth.
The “Angels” are a reference to the angels of God from the Old Testament, most of which bear the same names. In 1993, the Evangelion proposal presented the angels, including names and appearances. The most important angels are Adam and Lilith. The first Angel is named Adam, just as the biblical Adam is the first man created by God. The second Angel is named Lilith, a reference to the Jewish folklore in which Lilith is the first wife of Adam. Lilith is shown crucified and impaled with a spear named the “Lance of Longinus”, the same lance used to pierce the side of Jesus Christ during his crucifixion, according to the Gospel of Nicodemus. Eve or Eva comes from Adam’s rib; similarly, the Evangelions come from the Angel first identified as Adam. The goal of the Angels are to return to Adam and create the Third Impact which would destroy mankind, Kaworu Nagisa recognizes humanity as beings of Lilith and identifies them as Lilum. Several times throughout the series, the defeat of an Angel results in a Christian cross shaped explosion.
Now that you have a little bit of back story, let’s get into the art.
Final Thoughts:
I am excited to share my love of this show with all of you. I know anime isn’t for everyone but I feel like this one is special. After this, I will not be dedicating any other art showcases strictly to anime. I hope you enjoyed and like always, I will be back tomorrow with another post.
If you are interested in submitting art for it to be showcased email me at parker@daysofparker.com with your art and whatever social medias/websites you want me to include with it.
Art includes:
-dance
-music
-painting
-drawing
-digital
-video
-photography
-jewelry
-basically anything artsy
Sources:
Originally published at Days of Parker.
