 Both Neon
Genesis Evangelion and Revolutionary Girl Utena stretch the bounds of animated
storytelling with their swerves from reality into surrealism and their
troubled, driven protagonists. Both also have a common factor in Shinya
Hasegawa (right), who worked on both series. The person responsible for
this was Kunihiko Ikuhara (left), the creator of Utena. At a Sunday Otakon
panel, Ikuhara told the story about how both men had worked on the Sailor
Moon series and movie. Then Ikuhara introduced Hasegawa to Hideaki Anno,
who brought Hasegawa to Gainax for the project which became Evangelion.
Ikuhara was still directing Sailor Moon shows - and starting work on Utena
- while Hasegawa was an animation producer on Evangelion. "The preparation
for Utena was done in secret from Toei (Sailor Moon's backer) and Gainax,"
Ikuhara said. "Utena was made possible by the free use of the fax machines
at Toei and Gainax." |
 "I'm nervous,"
Hasegawa joked when Ikuhara spoke about his artistic talent. "He only praises
me like this if he's scheming something. I wonder if he's going to leave
me in Baltimore." Fans wanted to know about Hasegawa's Utena character
designs, and he admitted that he enjoys women with long hair - even if
he's not married to a woman like that." "Contrary to my hopes, she will
never grow out her hair," he said about the woman he married in May. "I
have always projected my wishful thinking onto my characters." Hasegawa
added that "I love all the female characters" in Utena. |
 Ikuhara had
a joke about developing Utena as a "regular show" in his response to the
sponsor-driven Sailor Moon: "I was worried that Utena would not go by without
having to use a magical baton, but it turned out okay," referring to the
Sailor Moon gimmicks that were turned into toys. Still, Ikuhara said at
the panel that his favorite Utena character was the monkey Chu-Chu, which
may be the series' best-selling toy. |
 Fans really
wanted to know the meaning of the growing surrealism during the Utena
series, especially the ending of the Utena movie. Ikuhara had some hints,
but said he didn't want to say what he really meant because that would
give a definitive ending to the series. One fan, mesmerized by the sights
of the Utena movie, openly asked Ikuhara if he was on acid when he thought
up that film. His rejoinder: "I was born this way." More seriously, Ikuhara
said that the look of the film and the sound of its music were born from
his student stage experiences in the 1970's. |
