The creator of the series reveals because Evangelion’s success can never be repeated

30 years ago, an anime has changed everything. ‘Neon Genesis Evangelion’ He broke into Japanese television in 1995 as a whirlwind of mecha action, existential anguish and symbolism that we are still trying to decipher. What many did not know – and this is still surprising today – is that His creator, Hideaki year, did so to shake a stagnant industry… and in the process, it was faced.

Because Evangelion will no longer happen

In an interview saved in 1996, shortly after the initial impact of Evangelion, the year did not go with the Rodei: “The creators have told the same story for ten years. And the spectators seemed satisfied. But this had no future.” With that lapidary phrase, the director explained why he decided to launch an emotional and narrative bomb in the form of an eva-01.

Long before Evangelion became a phenomenonYear he was a young man obsessed with the anime. He grew up seeing classics like Space Battleship Yamato y Gundam mobile dressseries that combined science fiction and human drama with an extraordinary technical detail. From those roots his passion for animation and his desire to say something deeper than a battle between the robots.

His first steps as an animator has given them ‘Super dimensional Macross’ fortress’A series that has broken molds by mixing praisters, romance and personal conflicts. However, although he promised a new rebirth of souls, the industry was not ready. In the 80s, with about 50 series a year on television, Studies preferred to go to insuranceBetting on known formulas: robot that sell toys, successful sleeves adaptations or new consolidated franchise deliveries.

Year did not adapt to that mold

After crossing Nausicaä del Valle del Vientoby Haya Miyazaki, confused GavaxAn independent study born from the Fandom, with people like Yoshiyuki Sadamoto and Hiroyuki Yamaga. Your first project, Honnêamise’s wingsIt was a commercial failure … but over the years it has become a work of worship.

Then he would arrive GunbusterAn ova that began as a student comedy of Wicks and ended up transforming into an epic and emotional drama. There he began to see what he was able to do the year: Use classic anime codes to bring them to dark, adults and unexpected places.

The mirror of a broken mind

When Evangelion has finally arrived, Year he didn’t want to tell another story of heroes in robots. I wanted to talk about himself. He says it without filters in that 1996 interview: “Shinji reflects my personality, both consciously and unconsciously … when I did evangelion I discovered what kind of person I am. I recognized that I am an idiot.”

That level of vulnerability had never been seen in an anime of this type. The anguish of Shinji, the emotional disconnection of Rei, the trauma of Asuka … All those characters were not only “deep”, they were real reflections of the wound. Evangelion thus became a series that Not only did he make you think, but he forced you to hear.

And this, of course, has changed the anime forever.

A first and after in the history of the anime

There would have been jewels like Revolutionary girl Utena or Cowboy Bebop If Evangelion hadn’t shown that the public wanted more than actions and laughter? It is difficult to imagine it. Evangelion was a watershed: proof that complex, adult and profoundly personal stories could be told to the maximum program of the public.

But there is something else: Year did not pretend that Evangelion had “meaning”. Years later I would say that the series alone “It seems deep” And that in reality it was a way to face one’s depression. That honesty is what makes it unique. There was no marketing strategy or a winning formula. There was only need, pain … and a brutal need to express itself.

Can a phenomenon like Evangelion repeated?

Today, with over 100 preview souls every year and platforms that digitize everything, the panorama is radically different. Everything has a place. Everything finds its audience. But according to the same words of the year, this can be a trap: “The spectators seem satisfied and there is no sense of urgency.”

What Evangelion had and that today is scarce is that urgency. That need to break, risk, worry. Not because they were different, but because there was no other way to get what they had inside.

Perhaps the following evangelion will no longer be spectacular or more “strange”. Maybe it will simply be more honest. Because that was Evangelion in the end: a series that looked inside when everyone else looked out.