Insufficient Direction: Hideaki Anno X Moyoco Anno

Insufficient Direction: Hideaki Anno X Moyoco Anno

Long before Hideaki Anno married Moyoco Anno, he was known as the creator of one of the most popular animated works of all time—Neon Genesis Evangelion. But little was known about the author’s personal life. Along came comic artist Moyoco Anno…then came love, then came marriage and then came a comic about how they changed each other’s lives….Hopefully for the better.

Biographical Notes:

Tokyo native Moyoco Anno was born March 26, 1971. Known as one of the major names in Japanese women’s comics, she is equally known for her iconic fashion designs and as a fashion writer. Her manga and books have attained considerable popularity among young women in Japan. Though she primarily writes manga for women, her most popular title in the west is Sugar Sugar Rune, which was targeted at primary school-aged girls.

In a recent Japanese poll, she was voted the eighth most popular manga artist among females and thirteen in the general category. Most of her works have been adapted for film or TV, including SAKURAN, Hataraki-Man, and Sugar Sugar Rune. In 2005, Anno’s Sugar Sugar Rune won the comic artist the prestigious Kodansha Comics Award.

Title Notes:

An In-Depth and Personal Look at Two of Japanese-Pop Culture’s Biggest Names: If Moyoco Anno wasn’t a big enough name on her own with hits like Sugar Sugar Rune and Sakuran, her husband may have created the most popular Japanese anime of all time. Hideaki Anno is the director of Neon Genesis Evangelion. The multi-million DVD seller in both the US and Japan was a regular program on the Cartoon Network leading to the network eventually launching an anime block called Toonami in the early 00’s.

His Evangelion films are distributed theatrically globally by Warner Bros, each averaging $39 million in US box office sales (tops for any Japanese animated movie). Moyoco details her husband’s life as a director, while detailing how he evolved from a sci-fi obsessed nerd to an international curator of Japanese pop culture.

A Proven Seller and an Award-Winning Talent: Few manga artists are as respected globally as Moyoco Anno. As guest of honor at New York ComicCon 2012, she was interviewed by PW, MTV, and Giant Robot placing her on a pop culture tier few Japanese creators have ever achieved.

More details on Moyoco Anno:

Moyoco Anno’s Twitter Page

More works by Moyoco Anno