The Meiji University-Affiliated Nakano and Hachioji Intermediate and High Schools (5)

Anno: I was basically the honor-student type up until junior high. I was always on student council, that sort of thing. I got into the best feeder schools in my area, up to high school. I swore that I wouldn't do any more studying once I passed my exams. I didn't like to study, so I studied only the areas and sentences that interested me, and that as little as possible. What good is algebra going to do me in real life, after all?

Kawakami: I can't imagine why we even study it.

Takehazama: There are lots of subjects like that.

Anno: Subjects you like are interesting whether you're studying or not. Sometimes I'd get a zero on a test, and sometimes a 99...

Izumi: You got zeroes? Me too.

Ichikawa: Don't sound so pleased with yourself.

All: (Laughter)

Anno: When I got a zero, the school not annoyed because they were supposed to be a feeder school. So I made sure not to get negative marks. When I got to high school, all I did was play mah jongg and make 8mm movies.
I spent all my high school years just goofing off. So naturally there were no universities I could get into, and at the time, Osaka College of Art had no entrance exams. Rather, I got in on my accomplishments. But I stopped going in my third year, and ended up getting expelled.

Ichikawa: Talk about your ups and downs.

Kawakami: I think it's terrific that you do what you want to do.

Sone: I'm envious.

Anno: That sort of thing comes with no small share of risk, though.

Kawakami: But the result is that now you're doing what you want to do...

Anno: Entrance exams didn't have a whole lot to do with it.

Kawakami: Studying isn't the only thing that matters, then?

Takehazama: I get the feeling it's not the sort of thing one can imitate.

Kawakami: I guess you really do have to think ahead.

Takehazama: You've got to lay down a baseline.

Anno: What it boils down to is, society only sees the numbers. When it comes to movies too, there's a need to apply either of two labels, either that it was interesting or that it wasn't. School grades are the same way, because Japan only has one evaluation method, that of negative test scoring. I think cumulative test scoring would be more interesting, personally. In the final analysis, the system is about how can you avoid making mistakes. The top score is set at 100 points. It's a game, and the object is to figure out how to minimize your mistakes and keep teachers from reducing your points. I'd say that the problem lies with this negative scoring system, but if asked, I'd also have to say that cumulative scoring wouldn't solve things either.

Kawakami: There are only 10 grades, after all.

Anno: There is no 11, no.

Kawakami: And no minus-1, either.

TomoshikiDo you suppose there's a zero?

Anno: Zero means, get out of our system. That's what it exists for. School is a template for the systems of society, with the only major difference being that one is mixed up with money, and the other one isn't. In school, it's the people who get good test scores that are made much of, but once you get out into the real world, it's the people who make money that count. "Modern 'Smart' High School Students"

Takehazama: What are your thoughts on high-school girls these days?

Anno: I think it's clear that they're a far cry from when I was in high school. They're smart. I get the feeling that they can see their own lives in an instant, by observing their parents and other grown-ups around them. And I'm enjoying that.

Kawakami: I heard something to the effect that as part of making anime, you meet and talk with lots of different people.

Anno: I think that's more or less what I said. Anime and manga are completely fictional picture worlds, and thus what happens in them is impossible in real life. Now, there are two approaches you can take. You can either make it look like a dream all the way to the end, where you bring it back to reality, or you can show reality all the way to the end, and finish up with a dream. A lot of anime starts out as a dream, and ends as a dream. This is no good, because it feels like you're using dreams as a retreat. And Japan is not such a tough place to live.
I can't help but wonder why people are withdrawing into dreams in a reasonably prosperous country. A lot of these people in particular are anime fans, and for a while I couldn't deal with that. I got fed up with Evangelion too, for that reason. I can't stand people who run away, who refuse to face reality. Surely you'll find something for yourself if you face reality head on. If nothing else, take a good look at your immediate surroundings. Don't turn away from unpleasantness. Have a look at it too. With this in mind, ultimately I want to show a little reality in my works. If nothing else, I don't feel any realism in something that has no reality mixed in with it. Thus, while my next production will be a girl's manga about a high-school girl, it's also partly real.
(End)

(From the April 30, 1998 edition of Mainichi Intermediate School News)