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Evangelion's Hideaki Anno: Creators Reach Their Peak Around Age 30

During the "Evangelion:30+; 30th Anniversary of Evangelion" festival on Saturday, franchise creator Hideaki Anno stated that creators reach their peak around 30 years old. Anno was in a Q&A session with Rebuild of Evangelion director Kazuya Tsurumaki and animator Mahiro Maeda, and voice actors Yuriko Yamaguchi and Miki Nagasawa, and a fan had submitted a question about what people should do or experience before they turn 30.

Anno said:

Noboru Ishiguro, Space Battleship Yamato anime's director, said, “Creators have a peak, and that peak is around 30 years old,” and I thought that's true. I worked on Aim for the Top! Gunbuster and Nadia - The Secret of Blue Water when I was around 30, and I pushed my peak as high as I could, worked hard until that age, and made the descent as gentle as possible.

And if you're lucky you'll see a small bump; that's a creator's life, I think. To avoid a sudden drop, it's important to see how high you can go before your 30s. The struggle for creative types are what you can develop by 30, so you should try your hand at many things by 30. It's all downhill from there.

That was true for Miya-san [Hayao Miyazaki] and Tomino-san [Yoshiyuki Tomino]. They both made their best works in their 30s. So, you should study all sorts of things while you're a student.

While Anno did not elaborate with examples of legendary director and Studio Ghibli founder Hayao Miyazaki and Mobile Suit Gundam creator Yoshiyuki Tomino's works, a cursory examination of both men's body of works at that age is impressive.

In his 30s, Miyazaki worked on several Tokyo Movie, Zuiyo, and Nippon Animation works such as Lupin III, Panda! Go, Panda!, Heidi - A Girl of the Alps, Future Boy Conan, and Anne of Green Gables, before directing his first feature film, Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro. (Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and his entire Studio Ghibli run came out after he turned 40.)

Tomino, in turn, created several science fiction series in his 30s: Muteki Chōjin Zambot 3, Muteki Kōjin Daitarn 3, the first Mobile Suit Gundam series, and Space Runaway Ideon.

Sources: Evangelion:30+; 30th Anniversary of Evangelion