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Anime continues the long march toward the mainstream, with both the Demon Slayer and Chainsaw Man films proving that there is a global appetite for what has been a relatively niche, underground medium outside of Japan. However, legendary Neon Genesis Evangelion creator Hideaki Anno has said that anime studios shouldn’t be focused on the rising global market. Instead, they should just keep making anime that appeals to the Japanese fanbase.

Speaking to Forbes Japan, Hideaki Anno talked about the recent explosion of international viewers for anime. However, he said that most directors he’s aware of haven’t made any “conscious” changes to the way they make anime. He acknowledged that the environment has changed a bit over the past few years and that production companies are keener to expand into the global market than he is. “I personally never made anything with the overseas audience in mind,” Evangelion creator Hideaki Anno said. “I can only make domestic stuff. Production companies are quick to say, ‘Think about the overseas market,’ but, personally, that’s not my goal.”

“My stance is simply – it first needs to be a work that will be well received and found interesting in Japan,” Anno continued. “But if by any chance people overseas also found it interesting, I’d be grateful for that.” He finished by admitting that he doesn’t want to change his work for non-Japanese-speaking viewers. “I’m sorry, but the audience will have to be the one to adapt.”

Because film and TV are less interactive than video games, which Japan has also been producing for an international market for decades, it is harder to accommodate a global audience when creating. “That’s why the audience has to trust the creators in what is interesting, and that’s why I think it’s completely fine to keep production domestic. Even Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki stick to domestic production, and I’m sure that they don’t even think about the overseas market.”

Each week, Popverse's resident anime expert Trent Cannon runs down the latest and, dare we say "greatest," in anime and manga in Popverse Jump. Some recent columns have included... 

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