Neon Genesis Evangelion director Hideaki Anno has said he doesn’t make content for overseas market and as such, westerners have to adapt to his work.
A new interview with Anno and Forbes Japan is making the rounds after comments made by the famed director, when responding to the massive surge in the global market for Japanese media like anime, manga, and more.
To put things into perspective, the global market for Japanese content has nearly tripled in the last decade, reaching 5.8 trillion yen in 2023 (roughly $371,756,743), surpassing even Japan’s semiconductor and steel industries. This hasn’t phased Anno, though, who apparently never thinks of the western market.
“The actual production process hasn’t changed that much, consciously speaking,” Anno said. “The environment might have changed, but I myself have never consciously made works with overseas audiences in mind. I can only make domestic works. Movie companies are quick to say ‘overseas,’ but I don’t aim for that myself.”
Anno said that his “basic stance” is to focus “first and foremost on what resonates domestically, on what people here find interesting.” To that, Anno said if people overseas find it interesting, “that’s a bonus.”
For a number of his works like Shin Evangelion: The Movie, Anno has acted as the original creator while handling production and even distribution and in-house promotion, just so “no one else could interfere” with his work. Anno said even with full control of his work, he “wasn’t thinking about overseas audiences.”
Later in the interview Anno talked up how it’s nearly impossible for him to produce work for overseas audiences because his thoughts are in Japanese and he can only manage simple greetings in English.
“Works created through Japanese thought are, after all, difficult to understand in any language other than Japanese,” he said. “Visual media has elements like visuals and music, so I think it has fewer language barriers compared to other fields.”
Anno had choice words for whether or not he or other Japanese creators can or should adapt their works to better suit western audiences.
“The dialogue is in Japanese, and it’s a drama about people driven by emotions born from Japanese thought. So, I believe it can be accepted overseas by those who understand that. But we can’t adapt it for them. I’m sorry, but we ask the audience to adapt to us,” Anno said.
The EVA creator compared the reaction to video games to anime and how audiences can interact with them, and even their creators.
“Games can still be made with interactivity in mind, but film is one-way. Viewers’ complaints don’t reach the creators. That’s just how it is,” Anno said. “So you have to trust the creators when they say, ‘This is interesting.’ That’s why I think it’s fine to stay domestic.”
Lastly, Anno even talked up the storied Studio Ghibli creator Hayao Miyazaki, and how he likely doesn’t think about western audiences at all, too.
“Studio Ghibli also creates domestically, and I don’t think Miyazaki-san gives overseas audiences a single thought,” he said. “That stuff can be handled later. I agree. Let the business people handle converting the work into a product and selling it.”
