History TroubledProduction / NeonGenesisEvangelion

* The series ended in rushed fashion. Reportedly, Anno couldn't decide until the last minute what kind of format would the last two episodes have. Finally, after many rewrites and changes of script, Episode 25 and 26 aired, disconcerting and infuriating fans all around Japan due to their abstract and minimalist edition. The national shock was such that popular anthropologist Eiji Otsuka wrote a letter to the ''Yomiuri Shimbun'' newspaper complaining about the finale. It also gave out many urban legends that Gainax had lost its sponsors and were forced to produce the finale this way in order to save budget.

* Even after the series had finished its run, Gainax's shifty accounting practices ended up with the Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau pouncing on them for suspected tax evasion on the profits accrued from ''Evangelion''. At the end of the process, the company's CEO and chief accountant, Takashi Sawamura and Yoshikatsu Iwasaki, were arrested and jailed in 1999 for accounting fraud, having reportedly failed to pay at least 560 million yen in corporate taxes. Gainax employees like Yasuhiro Takeda have gone to say they don't actually fault Sawamura and Iwasaki, as the studio's economic troubles were so deep that their action was seen as basically JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope to try to ensure Gainax was never that close to collapse again.

* This trope also extended to the American side of the Pacific with ADV Films. Commentary for the English dub will often make reference to it being made on budget that consisted of a metaphorical shoestring and paperclip, involved renting out space to do recordings with substandard equipment, and had a good portion of the cast played by members of the production team besides the voice actors, among other things. According to Rei's voice actress Creator/AmandaWinnLee, Gainax foisted ADV their own translated scripts, only for Matt Greenfield to lobby them to let him produce their own scripts. A particular point in contention was "Children," which is what the EVA pilots were called in the singular, which the translators fought tooth-and-nail to convince Gainax to let them change it to [[TranslationCorrection the grammatically correct "Child."]] They weren't exactly in danger of going out of business, but it's still pretty amazing that the dub was as good as it was all things considered, though it also goes a lot of way to explain why it was as [[{{Narm}} uneven in places]] as it was.

Do we have another candidate for the ''Film/ApocalypseNow'' of anime?

* This trope also extended to the American side of the Pacific with ADV Films. Commentary for the English dub will often make reference to it being made on budget that consisted of a metaphorical shoestring and paperclip, involved renting out space to do recordings with substandard equipment, and had a good portion of the cast played by members of the production team besides the voice actors, among other things. According to Rei's voice actress Creator/AmandaWinnLee, foisted ADV their own translated scripts, only for Matt Greenfield to lobby them to let him produce their own scripts. A particular point in contention was "Children," which is what the EVA pilots were called in the singular, which the translators fought tooth-and-nail to convince Gainax to let them change it to [[TranslationCorrection the grammatically correct "Child."]] They weren't exactly in danger of going out of business, but it's still pretty amazing that the dub was as good as it was all things considered, though it also goes a lot of way to explain why it was as [[{{Narm}} uneven in places]] as it was.

* This trope also extended to the American side of the Pacific with ADV Films. Commentary for the English dub will often make reference to it being made on budget that consisted of a metaphorical shoestring and paperclip, involved renting out space to do recordings with substandard equipment, and had a good portion of the cast played by members of the production team besides the voice actors, among other things. They weren't exactly in danger of going out of business, but it's still pretty amazing that the dub was as good as it was all things considered, though it also goes a lot of way to explain why it was as [[{{Narm}} uneven in places]] as it was.

* A strike of good luck, however, happened when Anno was [[DrowningMySorrows drowning his sorrows]] with Toshimichi Otsuki, an exec from King Records who promised Anno to fund a new anime project for Gainax. Reinvigorated, Anno started writing what would become ''Evangelion'' from notes he had conceived for ''Uru in Blue'', among them the theme about "not running away", which carried the RealitySubtext of Anno trying to tackle his problems. Anno also wanted the concept of psychological examination in the anime, which was more relevant than ever (and which Gainax had already used in ''Anime/GunBuster''). Several formats were considered, like an anime film and an {{OVA}} series, before settling for a TV anime series. However, production would still take time to start, as Anno had expected ''Evangelion'' to be a StealthSequel to ''Nadia'', yet he was unable to secure the rights to do so and this idea had to be scrapped. Several other discussions about the plot caused production to run late, to the extent the first two episodes were finished only three months before they aired in TV.

* The show began while Gainax [[https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/feature/2018-03-02/the-indestructible-studio-gainax-part-iii/.128475 struggled financially]] from the the failure of ''Anime/RoyalSpaceForceTheWingsOfHonneamise'' and the complicated making of ''Anime/NadiaTheSecretOfBlueWater''. Hideaki Anno fell into a clinical depression following a CreatorBreakdown, to the point he would later describe himself as "a broken man who could do nothing for four years; a man who ran away for four years, one who was simply not dead." Due also to the bad state of the anime industry at the time, execs Toshio Okada and Takumi Akai argued that PC games were proving to be much more profitable than animation (not untrue, as Akai's ''VideoGame/PrincessMaker'' was being a major source of income for the company) and that Gainax should forget about anime altogether, which caused endless discussions in the studio and ultimately led those two names to depart.[[note]]Okada retired from animation, while Akai left to form his own video game studio.[[/note]] A planned sequel to ''Honneamise'', named ''Uru in Blue'' and designed in conjunction with Creator/MasamuneShirow and [[Anime/{{Macross}} Kazutaka Miyatake]], had to be cancelled due to lack of budget when they were right about to produce it, which only caused a mass exodus of workers that feared Gainax would imminently crumble.
* A strike of good luck, however, happened when Anno was [[DrowningMySorrows drowning his sorrows]] with Toshimichi Otsuki, an exec from King Records who promised Anno to fund a new anime project for Gainax. Reinvigorated by this, Anno started writing what would become ''Evangelion'' from notes he had conceived for ''Uru in Blue'', among them the theme about "not running away", which carried the RealitySubtext of Anno trying to tackle his problems, and the concept of psychological examination, which was more relevant than ever (and which Gainax had already used in ''Anime/GunBuster''). Several formats were considered, like an anime film and an {{OVA}} series, before settling for a TV anime series. However, production would still take time to start, as Anno had expected ''Evangelion'' to be a StealthSequel to ''Nadia'', yet he was unable to secure the rights to do so and this idea had to be abandoned. Several other discussions about the plot caused production to run late, to the extent the first two episodes were finished only three months before they aired in TV.
* After so much effort to find money and heart, the rest of the production was plagued again by a lack of time due to the project's complex nature. By episode 13, the series began to deviate from the original story, which was simplified heavily to meet the demands: the number of Angels was reduced to 17 instead of the original 28, the script became more brainy and less action-filled (in part due to Anno, who read a lot of books about psychology by this time and decided to share his views about it with the otaku population), and the ending was completely rewritten from scratch. Also, in a case of RealLifeWritesThePlot, a whole chunk of mostly finished script ended up being trashed because of a central plot point had a strong resemblance to the Aum Shinrikyo cult's terrorist attack on the Tokyo subway in March of the year. The result was that, by episode 16, people started becoming nervous in Gainax because the original plans had been already completely dismantled and they were still out of time. A lot of work was already being done by Creator/TatsunokoProduction, and some executives started fearing ''Evangelion'' would have to be cancelled.
* The anime's production issues spread to its many branches around this time. Editorials thought Sadamoto's ''Evangelion'' manga was too oudated to draw interest, while the companies in charge of the merchandising complained that the design of the EVA Units was too intrincate and difficult to make in the form of toys. To top it off, public outcry rose against the series due to Episode 18 cramming too much violence and Episode 20 showing the sounds of Misato and Kaji making love, all of which was deemed unfit for a show commonly watched by young people. Ironically, this had been completely deliberate, as Anno was of the opinion that violence and sex were elements of the real world that his young viewers had to see and know.
* The series ended in rushed fashion, as reportedly Anno couldn't decide until the very last minute what kind of format would the last two episodes have. Finally, after many rewrites and changes of script, Episode 25 and 26 aired, disconcerting and infuriating fans all around Japan due to their abstract and minimalist edition. The national shock was such that popular anthropologist Eiji Otsuka wrote a letter to the ''Yomiuri Shimbun'' newspaper complaining himself about the finale. It also gave out many urban legends that Gainax had lost its sponsors and were forced to produce the finale this way in order to save budget.
* Fan outrage against episodes 25 and 26 reached such a fever pitch that Gainax's offices were vandalized by an unknown party (one internal memo even wondered if it came from an obscure cult) and Anno himself faced ''death threats,'' one of which simply read [[MadnessMantra "Anno, I'll kill you" over and over again.]] Photos of these incidents were [[FreezeFrameBonus briefly seen]] in ''The End of Evangelion.''
* Even after the series had finished its run, Gainax's shifty accounting practices ended up in the Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau pouncing on them for suspected tax evasion on the massive profits accruing from ''Evangelion''. At the end of the process, the company's CEO and chief accountant, Takashi Sawamura and Yoshikatsu Iwasaki, were arrested and jailed in 1999 for accounting fraud, having reportedly failed to pay nothing less than 560 million yen in corporate taxes. Gainax employees like Yasuhiro Takeda have gone to say they don't actually fault Sawamura and Iwasaki, as the studio's economic troubles were so deep that their action was seen as basically JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope to try to ensure Gainax was never that close to collapse again.

* The English dub for the third ''Rebuild'' movie has suffered its own share of problems. Creator/{{Funimation}} had originally announced that that the dub would be released on DVD in February 2014, but Khara's dissatisfaction with the job they did led the company to re-record the entire thing and push back the release date to February 2, 2016.

* The anime's TroubledProduction spread to its many branches around this time. Editorials thought Sadamoto's ''Evangelion'' manga was too oudated to draw interest, while the companies in charge of the merchandising complained that the design of the EVA Units was too intrincate and difficult to make in the form of toys. To top it off, public outcry rose against the series due to Episode 18 cramming too much violence and Episode 20 showing the sounds of Misato and Kaji making love, all of which was deemed unfit for a show commonly watched by young people. Ironically, this had been completely deliberate, as Anno was of the opinion that violence and sex were elements of the real world that his young viewers had to see and know.

* The show began while Gainax [[https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/feature/2018-03-02/the-indestructible-studio-gainax-part-iii/.128475 struggled economically]] from the the failure of ''Anime/RoyalSpaceForceTheWingsOfHonneamise'' and the complicated making of ''Anime/NadiaTheSecretOfBlueWater''. Hideaki Anno fell into a clinical depression following a CreatorBreakdown, to the point he would later describe himself as "a broken man who could do nothing for four years; a man who ran away for four years, one who was simply not dead." Due also to the bad state of the anime industry at the time, execs Toshio Okada and Takumi Akai argued that PC games were proving to be much more profitable than animation (not untrue, as Akai's ''VideoGame/PrincessMaker'' was being a major source of income for the company) and that Gainax should forget about anime altogether, which caused endless discussions in the studio and ultimately led those two names to depart.[[note]]Okada retired from animation, while Akai left to form his own video game studio.[[/note]] A planned sequel to ''Honneamise'', named ''Uru in Blue'' and designed in conjunction with Creator/MasamuneShirow and [[Anime/{{Macross}} Kazutaka Miyatake]], had to be cancelled due to lack of budget when they were right about to produce it, which only caused a mass exodus of workers that feared Gainax would imminently crumble.

* The series ended in rushed fashion, as reportedly Anno couldn't decide until the very last minute what kind of format would the last two episodes have. Finally, after many rewrites and changes of script, Episode 24 and 25 aired, disconcerting and infuriating fans all around Japan due to their abstract and minimalist edition. The national shock was such that popular anthropologist Eiji Otsuka wrote a letter to the ''Yomiuri Shimbun'' newspaper complaining himself about the finale. It also gave out many urban legends that Gainax had lost its sponsors and were forced to produce the finale this way in order to save budget.
* Fan outrage against episodes 24 and 25 reached such a fever pitch that Gainax's offices were vandalized by an unknown party (one internal memo even wondered if it came from an obscure cult) and Anno himself faced ''death threats,'' one of which simply read [[MadnessMantra "Anno, I'll kill you" over and over again.]] Photos of these incidents were [[FreezeFrameBonus briefly seen]] in ''The End of Evangelion.''

* A strike of good luck, however, happened when Anno was [[DrowningMySorrows drowning his sorrows]] with Toshimichi Otsuki, an exec from King Records who promised Anno to fund a new anime project for Gainax. Reinvigorated by this, Anno started writing what would become ''Evangelion'' from notes he had conceived for ''Uru in Blue'', among them the theme about "not running away", which carried the RealitySubtext of Anno trying to tackle his problems, and the concept of psychological examination, which was more relevant than ever (and which Gainax had already used in ''Anime/GunBuster''). Several formats were considered, like an anime film and an {{OVA}} series, before settling for a TV anime series. However, production woul still take time to start, as Anno had expected ''Evangelion'' to be a StealthSequel to ''Nadia'', yet he was unable to secure the rights to do so and this idea had to be abandoned. Several other discussions about the plot caused production to run late, to the extent the first two episodes were finished only three months before they aired in TV.

* The series ended in rushed fashion, as reportedly Anno couldn't decide until the very last minute what kind of format would the last two episodes have. Finally, after many rewrites and changes of script, Episode 24 and 25 aired, disconcerting and infuriating fans all around Japan due to their abstract and minimalist edition. The national shock was such that popular antropologist Eiji Otsuka wrote a letter to the ''Yomiuri Shimbun'' newspaper complaining himself about the finale. It also gave out many urban legends that Gainax had lost its sponsors and were forced to produce the finale this way in order to save budget.

* The show began while Gainax [[https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/feature/2018-03-02/the-indestructible-studio-gainax-part-iii/.128475 struggled economically]] from the the failure of ''Anime/RoyalSpaceForceTheWingsOfHonneamise'' and the complicated making of ''Anime/NadiaTheSecretOfBlueWater''. Hideaki Anno fell into a clinical depression following a CreatorBreakdown, to the point he would later describe himself as "a broken man who could do nothing for four years; a man who ran away for four years, one who was simply not dead." Due also to the bad state of the anime industry at the time, execs Toshio Okada and Takumi Akai argued that PC games were proving to be much more profitable than animation (not untrue, as Akai's ''VideoGame/PrincessMaker'' was being a major source of income for the company) and that Gainax should forget about anime altogether, which caused endless discussions in the studio and ultimately led those two names to depart. A planned sequel to ''Honneamise'', named ''Uru in Blue'' and designed in conjunction with Creator/MasamuneShirow and [[Anime/{{Macross}} Kazutaka Miyatake]], had to be cancelled due to lack of budget when they were right about to produce it, which only caused a mass exodus of workers that feared Gainax would imminently crumble.

* After so much effort to find money and heart, the rest of the production was plagued again by a lack of time due to the project's complex nature. By episode 13, the series began to deviate from the original story, which was simplified heavily to meet the demands: the number of Angels was reduced to 17 instead of the original 28, the script became more brainy and less action-filled (in part due to Anno, who read a lot of books about psychology by this time and decided to share his views about it with the otaku population), and the ending was completely rewritten from scratch. Also, in a case of RealLifeWritesThePlot, a whole chunk of mostly finished script ended up being trashed because of a central plot point had a strong resemblance to the Aum Shinrikyo cult's terrorist attack on the Tokyo subway in March of the year. The result was that, by episode 16, people started becoming nervous in Gainax because the original plans had been completely dismantled and they were still out of time. A lot of work was already being done by Creator/TatsunokoProduction, and some executives started fearing ''Evangelion'' would have to be cancelled.
* The anime's TroubledProduction spread to its many branches around this time. Editorials thought Sadamoto's ''Evangelion'' manga was too oudated to draw interest, while the companies in charge of the merchandising complained that the design of the EVA Units was too intrincate and difficult to make in the form of toys. To top it off, public outcry rose against the series due to Episode 18 cramming too much violence and Episode 20 showing the sounds of Misato and Kaji making love, all of which was deemed unfit for a show commonly watched by young people. Iironically, this had been completely deliberate, as Anno was of the opinion that violence and sex were elements of the real world that his young viewers had to see and know.

* Even after the series had finished its run, Gainax's shifty accounting practices ended up in the Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau pouncing on them for suspected tax evasion on the massive profits accruing from ''Evangelion''. At the end of the process, the company's CEO and chief accountant, Takashi Sawamura and Yoshikatsu Iwasaki, were arrested and jailed in 1999 for accounting fraud, having reportedly failed to pay nothing less than 560 million yen in corporate taxes. Gainax employees like Yasuhiro Takeda have gone to say they don't actually fault Sawamura and Iwasaki, as the studio's economic troubles were so deep that their action was basically JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope to try to ensure Gainax was never that close to collapse again.

* Production was initially neat, as several elements used in this project had been originally conceived for the anime and were already outlined (most notably, the climactic fight between Asuka and the EVA Series), but for a change, Gainax started running against the clock due to Anno's usual shenanigans. Ultimately, Anno opted to divide the film in two parts so he could gain time: under his orders, Kazuya Tsurumaki crammed all the produced story in a movie, filled it up with a quick recap of the entire anime series, and released it as the first part, named ''Evangelion: Death & Rebirth''. The rest of the story would be produced by Anno himself, now with his hands free, and later released under the name of ''The End of Evangelion''.

* The show began while Gainax struggled economically from the the failure of ''Anime/RoyalSpaceForceTheWingsOfHonneamise'' and the complicated making of ''Anime/NadiaTheSecretOfBlueWater''. Hideaki Anno fell into a clinical depression following a CreatorBreakdown, to the point he would later describe himself as "a broken man who could do nothing for four years; a man who ran away for four years, one who was simply not dead." Due also to the bad state of the anime industry at the time, execs Toshio Okada and Takumi Akai argued that PC games were proving to be much more profitable than animation (not untrue, as Akai's ''VideoGame/PrincessMaker'' was being a major source of income for the company) and that Gainax should forget about anime altogether, which caused endless discussions in the studio and ultimately led those two names to depart. A planned sequel to ''Honneamise'', named ''Uru in Blue'' and designed in conjunction with Creator/MasamuneShirow and [[Anime/{{Macross}} Kazutaka Miyatake]], had to be cancelled due to lack of budget when they were right about to produce it, which only caused a mass exodus of workers that feared Gainax would imminently crumble.

* The anime's TroubledProduction spread to its many branches around this time. Editorials thought Sadamoto's ''Evangelion'' manga was too oudated to draw interest, while the companies in charge of the merchandising complained that the design of the EVA Units was too intrincate and difficult to make in the form of toys. To top it off, public outcry rose against the series due to Episode 18 cramming too much violence and Episode 20 showing the sounds of Misato and Kaji making love, all of which was deemed unfit for a show commonly watched by young people. Ironically, this had been completely deliberate, as Anno was of the opinion that violence and sex were elements of the real world that his young viewers had to see and know.