Japanese media outlet GameBiz recently published an interview with Hiroaki Inoue, an anime producer and a prominent figure in Japan’s science-fiction scene. A former vice-president of Gainax and current representative director of production company Oniro, Inoue is known for producing many classic anime, including Satoshi Kon’s Perfect Blue and Katsuhiro Otomo’s Memories anthology.
In the interview, Inoue talked at length about his days working in the anime industry, from kicking off his career at Tezuka Productions, to the early days of Gainax and its climb to success. Aside from other industry tidbits, Inoue also mentioned that, at one point, Gainax was presented with the chance to make an animated adaptation of Akira, though it never ended up coming to fruition.
Gainax was created by a group of university students, and its beginnings were rather shaky, especially because most of its members had no prior experience making anime. Inoue’s role upon joining the team was pretty much that of a “teacher,” he explained. Being the one with the most experience in the industry, he acted as a bridge between the otaku world and the corporate world, oversaw financial reports, and even managed to score “an unprecedented contract” with Bandai in the group’s early days.
Throughout his work at Gainax, he also managed to form various relationships with other people in the industry. Inoue specifically mentions his encounter with Akira author Katsuhiro Otomo, who at one point personally came to visit Gainax with a rather interesting offer.
“Actually, there were ongoing talks about Gainax working on an adaptation of Akira. It was a proposal Okada (Toshio) and Yamaga (Hiroyuki) cheekily rejected. This is just my guess, but I think they rejected it because they figured that Yamaga would lose his position if Otomo got involved,” Inoue said.
The animated adaptation of Akira was later picked up by Tokyo Movie Shinsha and released in 1988, earning the status of an anime cult classic. With Akira being such an influential film, it would be difficult to imagine what the anime landscape would have looked like without its cultural impact. But on the other hand, it would be quite interesting to see what an Akira anime would look like helmed by Hideaki Anno, Yamaga, and other Gainax veterans.
