NAGOYA--Hideaki Anno, the director of such notable works as the “Evangelion” series and “Shin Godzilla,” said he is exhausted after releasing movies for three straight years.

In a recent interview with The Asahi Shimbun in Nagoya, the venue of a Hideaki Anno Exhibition, the 63-year-old director of both live-action and animated films stressed he is not keen to direct anymore movies for the time being.

But he will be producing publications and organizing events for the “Space Battleship Yamato” 50th anniversary project. And he left open the possibility of eventually creating a new “Evangelion” movie.

Excerpts of the April 22 interview follow:

***

Question: You have breathed new life into such classics as “Godzilla” and “Ultraman.” What do you plan to do in the years to come?

Anno: I think I will be taking a break from moviemaking. I will be working on the “Yamato” project for the time being. Perhaps I am not interested now in directing films on my own.

I’ve had to release works in rapid succession, partly because my timetable was compressed by the novel coronavirus pandemic, so I am worn out both physically and mentally. I am not very tough of heart, so I feel chipped away every time I release a work. I have been chipped away for three consecutive years, and so very little, if any, is ever left of me.

Q: Hayao Miyazaki and Yoshiyuki Tomino of Gundam fame likely still have this burning creative urge in their 80s. What about yourself?

A: Oh, they really have a lot of energy. But I don’t think people of my generation will go that far. Nobody has as much energy as they do. For my own part, I may go as far if I have a chance to.

Q: Will that be live action or anime?

A: Live action really consumes you physically, so perhaps I will do anime if I am ever to work on something next time. You can work remotely without going to the studio these days, so it’s become easier to work in old age.

Q: The way anime is made has been changing, and there is remarkably more information content on the screen these days. What do you think about that?

A: Your staff workers wouldn’t come along with you if you stuck to the same old approach to moviemaking. And no new workers would be coming to you. It’s more efficient to adjust to the way front-line workers are making films. I think it’s OK to place priority on cost-effectiveness.

Q: Do you wish to use a new approach to create imagery that nobody has seen?

A: Perhaps things are not going that way. Young people of today don’t want novel things. I think they would rather continue to feel at ease with things they have already seen than to feel stressed by seeing what they have never seen.

Q: Are you content with that direction yourself?

A: What I am making is no longer in the mainstream, so I am content with working meagerly and humbly on the fringes. In the mainstream now are, for example, works based on original stories that appeared in Jump (the Shonen Jump weekly comic magazine).

Q: Do you have any plans for your “Evangelion” series, like making more sequels or assigning somebody else to make a film?

A: Well, there could be something of that sort. Assigning somebody else to make a film is probably also an option.

Everything is still open, or I might say, the higher the degree of freedom, the better it is for the works. Whether they will pay as a business or will be fun depends on their content. By no means am I saying that there will be no more works in the series.

Q: When I interviewed you in 1999, you said you were “looking for a place to die.” That was a time when you had completed the “Evangelion” TV series and its subsequent theatrical adaptations and were making “His and Her Circumstances,” a TV anime series. Do you still feel that way?

A: My thought hasn’t changed. I am married to my wife, and I wish to be with her for as long as possible. But when it comes to matters of artisanship, I always work with the thought that what I am making now could be my last.

Q: The Hideaki Anno Exhibition shows that your plentiful output is the product of immense input you have received since childhood. What input are you getting now?

A: As long as I am working, I cannot afford the time to gain input. A substitute comes from my real experiences and books. I said “books,” but I don’t read novels or things like that. Instead, I read practical books, such as on the economy, business management and architecture.

Cookbooks are also interesting. They let me learn about things that are common to all matters of artisanship. With cooking, in particular, people’s likings do differ. One and the same thing can be very mouthwatering to some but totally inedible to others.

That’s how things are with video works. Well, I’ve developed this habit of reading books partly because I’ve lost interest in imagery.

Q: It’s so shocking to hear you say that you have “lost interest in imagery.” Could you elaborate?

A: Watching video works made by others only gives me a collection of “don’ts.”

When I see how something doesn’t click, I think to myself: “What’s wrong with that? Oh, this one here.” When I see how something goes well, I say to myself, “But it’s not that I should be doing the same thing.” I’ve grown too old to be imitating others. I don’t think I still live in an age where I should be doing that.

***

Anno was also interviewed by reporters after he toured the Nagoya venue of the Hideaki Anno Exhibition.

Excerpts of the on-the-spot interview follow:

***

Question: What can you say about the Hideaki Anno Exhibition, which is on the last leg of its tour?

Anno: When I received an offer for organizing this exhibition, I thought it was perhaps a little too early to look back on my life, but I decided to accept the offer because I had no reason for turning it down.

I hope visitors will get a stimulus from this exhibition, which shows chronologically things that I’ve liked and things that I’ve made. In other words, I hope they take an interest in the way special effects are filmed and anime works are made, so that as many talented people as possible will enter our industry with ambitions to make fun things.

An exhibition on myself is certainly embarrassing, but I thought it would be well above the embarrassment if it allows me to return a favor to my staff workers and cast members.

What’s special about the Nagoya session is the way it shows more materials on “Yamato,” which is celebrating the 50th anniversary, and on “Shin Kamen Rider,” which we have finished filming.

The way I think about it now is, “It’s been so embarrassing, but it’s finally over.” I don’t think there will be a next (exhibition) any time soon.

I am so happy that it’s over. Oh no, it isn’t over yet.

***

Born in Ube, Yamaguchi Prefecture, in 1960, Hideaki Anno’s cinema works include: “Shin Godzilla” (2016; screenplay and chief director), “Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time” (2021; original story, screenplay, chief director and executive producer), “Shin Ultraman” (2022; planning and screenplay) and “Shin Kamen Rider” (2023; screenplay and director).

The Hideaki Anno Exhibition has toured across Japan, starting in Tokyo in 2021 and ending at its eighth venue in Nagoya (Kanayama Minami Building’s Art Museum Wing).

On display are models of special effects works that infatuated Anno in his childhood and a vast archive of his sketches and original anime drawings from his amateur years to present day.

Masks used during the filming of “Shin Kamen Rider” are also on show for the Nagoya session, which runs through June 23.