There's an old saying that goes: you can see EVA anywhere except in a movie theater.
For example, on the anti-epidemic slogan at Nishitetsu Fukuoka Station in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan, you will see:
In a rental house in Gunma Prefecture, Japan, you will find:
During the Tanabata Festival in China, you will see:
Even on Taobao in China, you can see:
However, under the overwhelming surrounding and news about EVA, it is difficult to find news about the "new theatrical version of EVA". (But fortunately, it was finally finalized on March 8th)
Or even if it can be found, the official will either make up a reason to postpone it, or have a "legitimate reason" to postpone it due to the impact of the epidemic, in short, a thousand words are combined into one sentence: We are already doing it!
Although the old fans of EVA have long been accustomed to the gang of lepers "grunting" all day, have you ever wondered why EVA always postpones while making a fancy perimeter?
And today's article, I will take the past and present life of EVA as the core content, and talk about the creator of this classic god work -
Gainax
01
<h1>Ambitions that have nowhere to go</h1>
In the 1980s, the vast majority of Japanese who chose to enter the anime industry came with ideals and beliefs, and as for making money, it was just an add-on, and Hideaki Anno was no exception.
In 1981, under the leadership of Okada Doujio (the first president), Hideaki Anno, Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, Takami Akai, and Shinji Higuchi founded a company called "Daicon Film".
Although it was a new company with a lack of manpower and funds, Daicon Film had a big appetite because their first project was to produce an opening animated short for the 20th Japan Science Fiction Convention held in Osaka in 1981.
In this sci-fi short film, there will be robots, spaceships, deserts, monsters and other pictures, bringing together all the elements of the industry's popularity at that time, and Daicon Film's ambitions can also be seen.
Unfortunately, despite the ambitions of the short film, the quality of the final product was terrible.
So, in 1983, the reluctant Daicon Film produced a larger opening short for the 22nd Japan Science Fiction Convention, and continued the story of the previous time, adding elements such as Spider-Man, Cruiser, Alien, and Black Samurai, and won praise from the industry for better picture quality and better painting.
Thanks to the experience of planning these two short films, the members of Daicon Film have reclassified their responsibilities and changed the name of the company, which is the protagonist of this article, "Gainax".
Perhaps it is destined that Gainax will leave a strong mark in the industry, at the beginning of the establishment of Gainax, BANDAI (Bandai Co., Ltd., Japan) that made a fortune by model hand found this company and gave this group of newcomers full trust.
The work that Bandai asked Gainax to produce was the theatrical version of the anime "Wang Li Cosmic Army" that brought out internal injuries to G Society and almost shut down the company.
02
<h1>"Scattered is full of stars" Of Gainax</h1>
The reputation and rating of "Wang Li Cosmic Army" are good, not only has a high score of 8.5 on Douban, but also won Japan's "Nebula Award" in 1988 together with "Legend of galactic heroes", which can be said to be in the limelight.
However, behind the high quality, high level, and high connotation of Wang Li's cosmic army is the nonsense, or nonsense of The stunned youth of Guinax.
In order to make this animation, Gainax's group of big guys not only worked the plot, but also directly found Ryuichi Sakamoto in the soundtrack, a world-renowned musician who has scored many excellent movies such as The Last Emperor and Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence.
And for the sake of the meticulousness of the picture and the meticulousness of the plot, the production staff not only restored all the details about the rocket as much as possible, but also consulted NASA in the expertise of rocket launch.
In short, everything is for perfection, everything is for the production of a masterpiece.
So seeing this, you may have questions: doesn't the industry often compress funds, where does this group of people get money?
On this point, we have a father-son case in China that can be well explained.
It is said that after Wang Sicong expressed his idea of starting a business to his father, Wang Jianlin gave him five hundred million yuan to "practice his hands", and if all of them were lost, he would return to Wanda to work.
As the father of the gold lord of Gainax, Bandai, who is not bad for money, has approved a budget of 800 million yuan for them to produce animation, which can be said to have given full trust.
However, the ending is also known to everyone, "Wang Li Cosmic Army" failed to gain the love of the market for various reasons, and finally ended with a loss of 100 million yen.
Gainax was also forced to take over due to a contract that was in debt, and this pressure also brought back the G Society, which had originally decided to dissolve.
Therefore, with the idea of "repaying debts", another cross-era masterpiece of the 80s, "Leaping to the Peak", was born.
However, although the leap peak was applauded and sold, because the production of this animation consumed a considerable amount of financial resources of G Society, its operating deficit still failed to improve.
And in order to compromise the market, "Leap to the Peak" not only failed to achieve perfection and exquisite restoration, but instead took the royal and mainstream road.
The production staff integrated the most popular "beautiful girl + gun + huge robot" in the industry into the work;
In terms of human design, Haruhiko Mikimoto, who exploded because of "Timeless Fortress";
The theme song found Noriko Sakai, who had not yet broken out the "drug scandal" at this time;
And made a variety of milk shake and dew point shots on the screen, and mixed with the elements of blood, hard work, struggle and other elements that the otaku culture prefers, it can be said that these are not the original intentions of the members of the G Society.
It is also with the successive appearance of works such as "Wang Li Cosmic Army" and "Leap to the Peak", that the contradictions between the members of the G Society, who have different views on the business philosophy, market grasp and production schedule, have become more and more large, and have led to the departure of the members one after another.
The first person who did not resist the pressure was Okada Doujio, who was the president. (Some degree of back pot)
In 1992, Akiji Murahama, Maeda Maeda, Hiroshi Yamaguchi and other key members also chose to leave the company, and in the same year, gonzo was established.
In 2006, Hideaki Anno, the absolute head of the G-club, led elite members including Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, Kazuya Tsurumaki, Yuki Mosasa, and Akishi Hiramatsu to quit gainax and founded Khara in the same year.
In 2011, rising star Yoyuki Imaishi, along with the company's backbone Kazuya Umamoto and Masahiko Otsuka, also chose to leave the G Society and declare independence, and founded trigger, which is also known as trigger society.
At this point, Gainax, the former ace company, basically has only an empty shell, and only a few old members and newcomers are still supporting the company's operation, but they no longer have the ability to fight with other big-name companies in the industry.
However, at this point, a new problem arises, that is, GAINAX has created the most popular and popular work in Japanese history.
This work is so popular and so profitable, why does the G Society still say that it is not well managed?
And as can be seen in my introduction, the members of the G Society have long been conflicted, why did they still get together to do Evangelion?
And listen to me in detail
03
<h1>EVA: Open for three years, open for thirty years</h1>
As for the work of EVA itself, I will not introduce it too much, because the work that has been enshrined does not need to be evaluated by anyone in future generations, and the glory it has created alone is enough to explain the greatness of this work.
Therefore, what I want to introduce is not EVA itself, but the stories behind EVA;
The most important thing in making animation is "people", so I will start with the specific people as a starting point.
The time goes back to 1995, when a recent graduate named Yoyuki Imaishi joined GAINAX, and his first animation to work on was Evangelion.
Since he is a newcomer, Yoshiyuki Imaishi is not affected by the infighting and contradictions of the high-level, and can participate in the production of animation with one mind.
The inspiration for Evangelion was provided by Hideaki Anno, so he naturally became the supervisor of the anime.
In addition to the fact that the human design is still Sadamoto Yoshiyuki and the music is still Theoshi Shiro, Hideaki Anno also relied on "connections" to bring in people such as Hiroshi Yamaguchi and Shinji Higuchi, who had left the G Society.
As I mentioned earlier, the members of the G Society have been arguing about the issue of funding, production time, input and output, and so on, which involve "money".
Therefore, in order to solve the pressure of funds, EVA producer Junlun Yue used his fame, strength, and support of his own Gainax company as a base, led the establishment of the "EVA Production Committee" (in fact, it was not called this name at the time, but it was called so for convenience), and attracted a large wave of investors, such as music production companies, model production companies and many other investors to raise EVA production funds.
By the way, this system of raising funds has long taken shape in the industry, but because it is carried forward by EVA and gradually finalized after the EVA burst, we will take it as the starting point of the system.
However, because after all, it is crossing the river by feeling the stones, Whether it is Ōtsuki Junlun, other members of the G Society, and even the representatives of those companies in the production committee, they do not have much experience, so that there are many gaps in the legal level, or "gray areas", which lays the groundwork for the subsequent fragmentation of EVA copyright.
However, these are all later words, and due to the impact of the Miyazaki Incident and the bursting of Japan's bubble economy, the worldview and values of young Japanese people in the 1990s have been severely impacted.
Not only have they lost the motivation to move forward in life, but they are also full of confusion about their lives and futures, not knowing what they are pursuing, and not knowing where they and the country should go.
It was at this time that Evangelion came into their sights.
With its unique story structure, the introduction of a large number of religious symbols, psychoanalytic psychological depictions, and the deliberate close-to-reality characters, this work instantly exploded throughout Japan.
It not only saved the Japanese industry that was on the verge of collapse in one fell swoop, but also changed many people's views on anime and otaku, and became a milestone in the history of Japanese animation.
However, with the popularity of the animation itself, the problems it brings have also followed.
First, due to the "production committee" mentioned earlier, Bandai, as a toy manufacturer, has obtained the distribution rights (exclusivity) of model handmade, etc., and king record has also obtained the copyright related to music.
Therefore, in the case that the handmade and music could not be touched, the G Society was forced to make a game of the same name to make a profit, and even drew a fan book to subsidize the income. (The big head was taken by someone else)
Second, at the beginning of 1995, the policy of Nippon Television was that if the anime wanted to be released, it must have the original work, otherwise it would not be broadcast, and EVA was completely original, so Hideaki Anno let Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, who was the character setting, serialize the manga in manga magazines at the beginning of the production.
And since the manga was created to cope with policy, whether it was Yoshiyuki Sadamoto or Hideaki Anno, they were not careful enough from the beginning.
But later, with the popularity of EVA, the manga itself became a feast, so it was competed for by several magazines.
And under the influence of the concept of excellence, the progress of the serialization is too slow, the progress of the series is too slow, and the too complicated copyright relationship has also become the epitome of the fragmentation of the EVA copyright in the future.
Third, for the sake of the "production committee" mentioned earlier, as mentioned above, the production committee is a system of crossing the river by feeling the stones, so there are many gray areas in the legal form.
Prior to EVA, the copyright holder of animation was generally an animation production company.
Even if there are big financiers, all the relationships and distribution ratios of their copyrights are fixed through a plan and a series of investment agreements, so the ownership of copyright is relatively clear.
However, the copyright issue of EVA is somewhat confusing due to the turmoil of the production committee.
Hideaki Anno feels that he is the supervisor of animation, he is still the elder and executive of the G Society, he is the greatest, he should have absolute control over EVA, or at least the big head should be here.
Other executives of the G Society believe that EVA is the product of the efforts of all members, and the company has also contributed a lot to EVA, and its copyright should belong to The Corporation of Gainax, not to Hideaki Anno, a natural person.
The model producers (Bandai) and the music producers (king record) on the production committee also expressed dissatisfaction with their claims.
Because on the plan signed at the beginning of the investment, the rights they have have been clearly written in black and white, even if they fight a lawsuit, they will have the upper hand.
In order to better understand the copyright dispute here, I would like to add some expertise on the law.
I mentioned the term "gray area" earlier, which has something to do with Japan's Copyright Law.
According to an encyclopedia's interpretation, although the Japanese copyright law recognizes that the original owner of the copyright belongs to the author himself;
However, article 15 of it adds that if the original author is an employee, and his or her job is to create, and the work is published in the name of the employer, then the copyright should belong to the employer;
Moreover, the Japanese Copyright Law stipulates that copyright can be partially transferred, either partially or in full;
Oral works (assignments) can also be copyrighted.
Although I am not a legal professional, if I stand in the position of a creator, I think that this kind of copyright provision is partially unreasonable in our country of civil law, China.
This kind of "partial unreasonableness" in my opinion is probably the legal root cause of the EVA copyright dispute. (PS: However, this is only a personal opinion, and the topic has not been conclusive, welcome to actively discuss.) ）
Therefore, under the multi-party scuffle between the executives of the G Society, Hideaki Anno, Bandai, King Record, and even the magazines serialized in TV stations and EVA, under the pressure of Hideaki Anno, and the premise that there is a "gray area", members of all sides have made certain concessions.
External companies, led by Bandai and King Record, have taken their own share of the "right to use" (the right to produce), and can continue to produce the surrounding area, but only enjoy the benefits, and do not own the work itself.
G-society executives reached an "oral settlement" with Hideaki Anno, although the specific content is not clear, but according to the subsequent performance of Hideaki Anno, he should have obtained part of the copyright of EVA and put the issue on hold for the time being.
Later, Hideaki Anno, who had broken away from the G Society and founded Khara, finally reached a settlement with the G Society in 2014 after a series of interviews, war of words, and legal disputes.
The copyright of EVA was also transferred to Khara, where the leper was located, and the copyright dispute of EVA also came to an end.
04
<h1>The broken thoughts of the leper</h1>
Looking at the entire history of the EVA copyright dispute, we can see that this dispute is: a copyright dispute event caused by the introduction of the emerging system, intensified by the contradictions of the original members, bound by human feelings, and amplified by legal loopholes and gray areas.
Although it is a vicious event in itself, this case still gives posterity a lot of reference significance, and the system of the production committee has gradually matured under the polishing of countless animators, supporting the later Japanese industry.
However, it is a pity that all this has little to do with the G Society, with the copyright dispute of EVA, as well as the contradictions and departures of executives, the development momentum of the G Society in recent years has become weaker and weaker, not only in terms of output and quality, but also often by some strange news.
Either the company has officially entered the tomato farming industry, or the president has been accused of "molesting young girls", in short, it has nothing to do with the old business of making animation, which is really powerless to complain.
After Hideaki Anno finished producing EVA, his thinking also fell into contradictions and entanglements.
On the one hand, forced by the reality and market pressure, he must do everything possible to squeeze out the value of EVA, through the peripheral, joint name, authorization of all kinds of fancy goods, to make the company as far as possible to survive, so that they can obtain money and status.
(PS: Note that the EVA joint names on the market are not necessarily Khara's, because Khara or Hideaki Anno made certain concessions during the copyright dispute.) ）
But on the other hand, he is always grumpy about his choice to do EVA, and always hangs on the industry's pills. (EVA itself is innocent, but it has become the beginning of the system of the system of the commission and subsequent contradictions)
As shown in the figure, the animation industry market in 2013 totaled 1,491.3 billion yuan, but the distribution of benefits belonging to animation studios was only 183.4 billion yuan, only 12%.
The animation market is constantly expanding, production is increasing, but the production cost is not increasing, but falling, and animators are struggling to feed themselves, constantly being tortured by the high pressure of work.
From the perspective of an outsider, or from the perspective of a bystander, the biggest problem in the Japanese industry is its business model (how to distribute the cake) and the output model (how to produce the cake).
Without undergoing structural changes, the situation of "industry development painters regressing" is difficult to reverse. (Structural transformation is more difficult to achieve, and ten thousand words cannot write a complete solution, so I will not talk about it here)
Therefore, the industry pill in Anno Hideaki's mouth is not that the Japanese animation industry wants GG, but that animation production companies and animators will one day be unable to withstand the high pressure and eventually give up their original ideals and beliefs.
In Hideaki Anno's view, really good animation is a work like Miyazaki's "in a carefree creative environment", rather than being made with the pressure of business.
But having said that, in fact, Hideaki Anno did not choose to follow the path of Miyazaki, and he is still facing the pressure of fans or business, and continues to do EVA with a very reluctant (always grunting) attitude.
Maybe everyone has their own opinion, but I think it's more of a helplessness forced by reality.
Or if I leave the question to you, if there is a magic that allows you to travel back 26 years, that is, back to the industry of 1995, which is full of ideals and beliefs, how would you choose?