Hideaki Anno (庵野秀明) is a Japanese director that is most remembered for his work on Neon Genesis Evangelion.
Beginning as an animator in Japanese anime such as Super Dimension Fortress Macross and designer under Hayao Miyazaki in Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind. Hideaki Anno was hired by the scrappy animation studio Gainax as an animation director for their first feature length film Wings of Honneamise and then became their premiere anime director helming the majority of works under Gainax's stable such as Gunbuster, Nadia, and Neon Genesis Evangelion--during the production of which he became severely depressed. He later directed a significant portion of His and Her Circumstances —the first Gainax work to be directly adapted from previously-written material —until disputes with both the show's sponsers and the original manga author ended with his departure, leaving the show in the hands of his protegé Kazuya Tsurumaki.
Since then, Anno has worked with Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli on several short animated films which were shown at the Ghibli Museum.
Anno has made forays into live-action films as well, first helming Love & Pop (1998)--a cinema vérité-styled film about subsidized dating in Japan in which a major portion was shot on miniature digital cameras with constantly shifting aspect ratioss. His second live-action film was Shiki-Jitsu ('Ritual' or 'Ceremonial Day') which was shot on film in a more traditional 2.35:1 aspect ratio but may well contain as many or more abstract visuals or framing. His current project--a live-action adaptation of Go Nagai's popular manga character Cutie Honey--is currently in post-production. The preliminary trailer indicates it to be atypically mainstream for the controversial director.
