Neon Genesis Evangelion is widely heralded as an important and ground breaking anime. The moody
and controversial mecha series would go on to make Studio Gainax and Anno
Hideaki world famous in anime circles. That Eva changed the landscape of
anime is undeniable, but the way it changed anime and how it did it may be
different than what many people believe. For a review and rundown of the
series go here.
Throughout the 90's being an otaku in Japan held severe negative connotations following a series of high profile crimes that the media tied in some ways to otaku culture. Studio Gainax had been a leader in the otaku world since their debut in the early 80's under the name Daicon Films. In the late 80's they went on to produce seminal works Gunbuster and Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise. The first president of Gainax, Okada Toshio, created the iconic mocumentary Otaku no Video, cementing the concept of otaku for future generations and earning himself the title otaking. Troubles found him being accused of mismanaging company finances and he was forced out of Gainax in 1992, since then he has gone on to lecture at universities regarding otaku culture and is respected for his experience and knowledge.
Anno, also one of the founding members of Daicon Films, found success directing the TV series Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water in 1991/1992 but suffered from severe depression following the show. It is speculated that this was partly due to his ideas regarding creative control for the series, which was hugely successful. The series, commissioned by NHK, was based on a concept by Miyazaki Hayao and surprised the industry by successfully and intentionally appealing to a broad audience. The series while, immensely successful, left Gainax in financial ruins with the company’s future in question.
Gainax had been involved in projects outside of animation since early on and learned the benefit of expanding creative output when it came to profitability. A note worthy early successful non-anime venture was the pioneering galge Princess Maker. The original game, released in 1991, helped them to overcome the financial difficulties they experienced due to their work on Nadia. From almost the beginning Gainax was also involved in the garage kit model market. These extra ventures paved the way for the peripheral goods marketing that Evangelion would become infamous for.
Anno took the frustrations from his work on Nadia and his own psychological issues and penned the original idea for Evangelion. Begun in 1995 the series initially aired during daytime broadcast hours, but over the course of its initial run it was shifted to a over night time slot. The shift was due to the increasingly darker and mature subject matter of the show, which forced TV Tokyo to make this change. Inexplicably the popularity of the show surged following its shift to the over night time slot. Anno stated he wanted to bring realism and reality to a younger audience to prepare them for harsh realities of life but ultimately his vision was deemed inappropriate for younger viewers. He stated that part of his attempt with Evangelion was to hurt otaku culture and the problems he saw within it while at the same time reviving it, breathing new life into it. The series is seen as a milestone in a new resurgence of otaku, especially outside of Japan and is considered a keystone anime series' for otaku culture, along with the Gundam franchise and Space Battleship Yamato.
The series' popularity spawned a vast array of character goods and related merchandise, ranging from cheap trinkets to high end special collection items. Variety and depth to make George Lucas proud. Merchandizing was not new to anime before Evangelion but it became synonymous with specifically targeting otaku collector’s weaknesses and releasing a variety of limited edition items, sometimes questionably so. Many people saw this as nothing more than a way to obscenely profit from the shows popularity. But it worked and continues to work 20 years later.
More important than its success at peripheral goods sales was the surge in popularity following its shift to airing over night. The anime industry took notice and decided that more series could be made specifically tailored for late night viewing. Series' that would be less restricted in what content they showed. The fear that the audience wouldn't be there was dismissed due to both Evangelion's success and another series from 1996, Those Who Hunt Elves, both of which has substantial viewer ratings. Airing during the night time slots came at a price though. TV stations, due to limited advertising abilities, would sell as much of their overnight time slots to companies to run infomercials. Allowing the stations to make more money than just selling commercial space in normal programming. Due to the typical low viewership selling ads would bring in little to no money for the TV stations. Since they doubted the ability of an anime airing in those same time slots to be able to increase advertising money, they decided to charge the companies providing the anime in the same way they would for infomercials. This in turn caused many production companies to look at alternative ways to profit from the anime, as broadcasting fee's were now added to the cost of the over all production. In a pessimistic viewpoint over night anime can be considered nothing more than an infomercial for the related peripheral goods, merchandise and original source material.
In these two ways, that are almost directly linked, Evangelion set the course for the current trend in anime. A large portion of anime is now produced specifically to broadcast in the overnight time slots and in order to make the anime profitable peripheral goods and other merchandizing techniques are used. In order to guarantee successful return on investment, many of the anime produced for late night broadcast are based on current or recent products that showed high levels of popularity. Most notably, anime based on popular light novels and video games. While Anno was successful in revolutionizing the world of the otaku it has come at a cost that he himself may very well regret. While otaku are more open about their hobbies the industry, changing top target them heavily, has all but shut out originality and experimentation in the process of guaranteeing profitability.
Throughout the 90's being an otaku in Japan held severe negative connotations following a series of high profile crimes that the media tied in some ways to otaku culture. Studio Gainax had been a leader in the otaku world since their debut in the early 80's under the name Daicon Films. In the late 80's they went on to produce seminal works Gunbuster and Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise. The first president of Gainax, Okada Toshio, created the iconic mocumentary Otaku no Video, cementing the concept of otaku for future generations and earning himself the title otaking. Troubles found him being accused of mismanaging company finances and he was forced out of Gainax in 1992, since then he has gone on to lecture at universities regarding otaku culture and is respected for his experience and knowledge.
Anno, also one of the founding members of Daicon Films, found success directing the TV series Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water in 1991/1992 but suffered from severe depression following the show. It is speculated that this was partly due to his ideas regarding creative control for the series, which was hugely successful. The series, commissioned by NHK, was based on a concept by Miyazaki Hayao and surprised the industry by successfully and intentionally appealing to a broad audience. The series while, immensely successful, left Gainax in financial ruins with the company’s future in question.
Gainax had been involved in projects outside of animation since early on and learned the benefit of expanding creative output when it came to profitability. A note worthy early successful non-anime venture was the pioneering galge Princess Maker. The original game, released in 1991, helped them to overcome the financial difficulties they experienced due to their work on Nadia. From almost the beginning Gainax was also involved in the garage kit model market. These extra ventures paved the way for the peripheral goods marketing that Evangelion would become infamous for.
Anno took the frustrations from his work on Nadia and his own psychological issues and penned the original idea for Evangelion. Begun in 1995 the series initially aired during daytime broadcast hours, but over the course of its initial run it was shifted to a over night time slot. The shift was due to the increasingly darker and mature subject matter of the show, which forced TV Tokyo to make this change. Inexplicably the popularity of the show surged following its shift to the over night time slot. Anno stated he wanted to bring realism and reality to a younger audience to prepare them for harsh realities of life but ultimately his vision was deemed inappropriate for younger viewers. He stated that part of his attempt with Evangelion was to hurt otaku culture and the problems he saw within it while at the same time reviving it, breathing new life into it. The series is seen as a milestone in a new resurgence of otaku, especially outside of Japan and is considered a keystone anime series' for otaku culture, along with the Gundam franchise and Space Battleship Yamato.
The series' popularity spawned a vast array of character goods and related merchandise, ranging from cheap trinkets to high end special collection items. Variety and depth to make George Lucas proud. Merchandizing was not new to anime before Evangelion but it became synonymous with specifically targeting otaku collector’s weaknesses and releasing a variety of limited edition items, sometimes questionably so. Many people saw this as nothing more than a way to obscenely profit from the shows popularity. But it worked and continues to work 20 years later.
More important than its success at peripheral goods sales was the surge in popularity following its shift to airing over night. The anime industry took notice and decided that more series could be made specifically tailored for late night viewing. Series' that would be less restricted in what content they showed. The fear that the audience wouldn't be there was dismissed due to both Evangelion's success and another series from 1996, Those Who Hunt Elves, both of which has substantial viewer ratings. Airing during the night time slots came at a price though. TV stations, due to limited advertising abilities, would sell as much of their overnight time slots to companies to run infomercials. Allowing the stations to make more money than just selling commercial space in normal programming. Due to the typical low viewership selling ads would bring in little to no money for the TV stations. Since they doubted the ability of an anime airing in those same time slots to be able to increase advertising money, they decided to charge the companies providing the anime in the same way they would for infomercials. This in turn caused many production companies to look at alternative ways to profit from the anime, as broadcasting fee's were now added to the cost of the over all production. In a pessimistic viewpoint over night anime can be considered nothing more than an infomercial for the related peripheral goods, merchandise and original source material.
In these two ways, that are almost directly linked, Evangelion set the course for the current trend in anime. A large portion of anime is now produced specifically to broadcast in the overnight time slots and in order to make the anime profitable peripheral goods and other merchandizing techniques are used. In order to guarantee successful return on investment, many of the anime produced for late night broadcast are based on current or recent products that showed high levels of popularity. Most notably, anime based on popular light novels and video games. While Anno was successful in revolutionizing the world of the otaku it has come at a cost that he himself may very well regret. While otaku are more open about their hobbies the industry, changing top target them heavily, has all but shut out originality and experimentation in the process of guaranteeing profitability.
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