Anno Hideaki Newtype 20th Annivesary Interview
By The Eva Monkey on Sunday, June 12th, 2005
Newtype: What’s evolved in the world of animation these 20 last years?
Anno Hideaki: The first time I encountered Newtype, I was working for Gainax on the pilot film for Wings of Honneamise. I had the occasion to read it in the studio. In the beginning, I had a hard time determining the principal subject of the magazine, and I said myself that with a such a name it must be completely centered on Gundam [note: “Newtype” is a term from Gundam meaning people who have evolved beyond normal human beings]. At the time, animation had bad press and to have the word “anime” in the title of the magazine would not have been very successful. That must be the reason for choosing the name Newtype… even if it’s from the jargon of anime. In addition to anime, Newtype covered about a whole heap of other subjects, it was really difficult to see where they wanted the magazine to go.
Hideaki Anno appeared in Newtype three months later. Newtype published an article titled “Nanimator,” which covered the medium of anime in the Kansai region. (note : pun on Naniwa, old name of the area of Osaka and “animator”).
In fact everyone thinks that I am from Osaka, but it is a preconceived idea. I am from Yamaguchi, and just did my studies in Osaka… well, in fact I did not really study (laughs).
I appeared again in Newtype when the Evangelion phenomenon started to explode. Moreover, Evangelion made the cover of the tenth anniversary issue. At the time, marketing departments were all about a “Media Mix”. There was much adaptation of manga and anime elsewhere [note – I’m assuming he means video games, toys, etc]. I always thought that animation should have the principal place but not everyone agreed with me. With the first meeting at the time of the launching of the magazine Shônen Ace [note- which serialized the Eva manga], there was agreement between the editor in chief, Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, and me. It was one of the elements that created that relationship.”
After Evangelion, Hideaki Anno moved away from the world of animation. We asked him how he saw animation in the 20 next years.
Well. I think that the world of animation is cyclic and has not evolved much for 20 years. At the time, the large madness was around Zeta Gundam, and 20 years later, Gundam is in the news and very popular. With regard to Newtype, I will say that you do not have to be concerned. As long as there will be series of popular animation, the magazine will continue to exist. However, I think that the industry rests too much on large successes like Gundam, which you could call the “Old Type,” which is a little annoying with a magazine which is called Newtype. As I said earlier, the world of animation follows a regular cycle. The cover of the 10th anniversary issue was Evangelion, the cover of 20th is Gundam– thus it is logical that the cover of the 30th will again be Evangelion. You’d better reserve it as of now.
— translated by Babelfish and Otaprince from the French translation at Chu Project.