- Oct 11, 2020
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Oh no no, it's much funnier than that. Let me explain [Sry for tangent, mods pls forgive];He was also dealing with some serious shit and a major bout of depression when he made the original NGE, so I imagine he has some complicated feelings about it.
The character 'Ayanami Rei' was built from the ground up by Hideaki Anno to be a 'criticism' of the soft spoken, gentle, submissive, feminine characters that 'otakus' love in anime & manga but taken to the extreme. He intended for her to be regarded as disgusting, repulsive & off-putting to the 'otakus'/fandom he so thoroughly hated............................ instead Ayanami Rei was so incredibly beloved that she alone sold more merch than every other NGE character combined by an extreme margin. She became the 'golden girl' of Evangelion and was not just accepted but quickly lauded as the greatest waifu of all time. Hideaki Anno is on record saying that he considers Ayanami Rei as a character & her popularity, to be a horrendous sign of Japan's profound weakness/refusal to grow/inability to move past WWII (?). When he was told that Misato was more popular overseas, he said something along the lines of he wasn't expecting that but it shows the Japanese cannot accept older/stronger/more proactive women. Something like that.
'Complicated feelings'? I'm 100% positive he deeply hates us & his work but especially Ayanami Rei, Lol. To be fair, Anno was Hayao Miyazaki's kouhai and Miyazaki is extremely savage, even to his own son. It kind of makes sense that Anno has that disappointed/hostile asian father attitude toward the fans of his work.