Anno Hideaki, the creator of
Neon Genesis Evangelion, tried to include everything of himself in his work. He has described himself, in his
Introduction to Evangelion, as
"a broken man who could do nothing for four years… one who was simply not dead." He said that
Eva was
"...a production where my only thought was to burn my feelings into film."
For Anno, whom at one point was sleeping at the GAINAX offices so he wouldn't kill himself, Eva was everything, and he describes it as such.
"Evangelion is my life and I have put everything I know into this work. This is my entire life. My life itself."
-Hideaki Anno (translation from 11/96 Newtype in Protoculture Addicts #43)