Dear Chibi,

The Hideaki Anno Exhibition was not initially on our radar, but we spotted a promo poster hanging from the ceiling while shopping at Osu Shotengai… and the rest was history XD. We reserved tickets on our phone and went to a nearby Lawson’s to pay and collect the tickets. I remember we did something similar for the Sailor Moon musicals back in 2014. Thankfully it was fairly straight-forward but.. what ever happened to e-tickets? XD

The day had arrived and Hubby in particular was super excited! Hubby is a big fan of Hideaki Anno’s works, in particular Gunbuster and Neon Genesis Evangelion.

Kanayama station

Kanayama Minami Building Museum Wing

The exhibition showcased a lot of his new and early works (and influences) as a director, producer and animator. It was so interesting seeing his original production materials, including notes, illustrations, sketches, storyboards and more.

Exploding bits. These were pretty impressive! I loved watching the animation come to life from the storyboards.

Now onto the second level!

The next floor mostly showcased Neon Genesis Evangelion, the Evangelion movies and his later works.

Gosh.. they built this.. just as reference material?! Hardcore…

It was actually pretty fun and fascinating, even for me. P-chan enjoyed watching all the animations and tokusatsu shown on the screens throughout the exhibition.

Oh! Oh! I was also super delighted to see SAILOR MOON have its own little space! I did not know Anno worked on the storyboards for Sailor Uranus and Neptune’s transformation sequence :O That is so cool! The animation sequence was originally longer too! Why did the anime have to cut it short XD.

Japan 2024: Nijo-jo Castle & Shinsen-en Garden Kyoto