{"id":56025,"date":"2026-01-22T23:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=56025"},"modified":"2026-01-22T16:56:37","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T07:56:37","slug":"hideaki-anno-was-the-only-one-who-understood-me-evangelion-and-danganronpa-actress-talks-about-her-struggles-in-the-voice-acting-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/hideaki-anno-was-the-only-one-who-understood-me-evangelion-and-danganronpa-actress-talks-about-her-struggles-in-the-voice-acting-business\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cHideaki Anno was the only one who understood me.\u201d Evangelion and Danganronpa actress talks about her struggles in the voice acting business\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Megumi Ogata, a Japanese voice actress and singer famous for her roles as Shinji Ikari in Neon Genesis Evangelion<\/strong> and Nagito Komaeda in Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair<\/strong>, was recently interviewed for SHIBUYA ANIME BASE<\/a>, looking back on her yearly special concert held in December 2025. In the interview, the voice actress talked about her struggles performing the role of Shinji in Neon Genesis Evangelion, and the deep bond she shares with anime director Hideaki Anno.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ever since her debut as Minamino Shuichi in YuYu Hakusho, Ogata\u2019s most recognizable and iconic roles have been those of teenage boys. However, being in the industry for almost 40 years now, Ogata says she\u2019s gone through a lot of hardship trying to maintain that \u201cedgy 14-year-old soul\u201d for such a long time. \u201cI\u2019m not a particularly skilled or talented actress, so in order to keep being able to play roles of 14-year-olds, I can never let go of my own feelings of being 14 years old,\u201d she comments. \u201cFor a long time, I\u2019ve always thought that I\u2019d become worthless unless I continued to bear those feelings [\u2026] I was sure nobody would understand me, and I also thought that if I don\u2019t continue [doing roles of teenage boys], there wouldn\u2019t be a place for me in the voice acting world, so I tried real hard to maintain that.\u201d However, she mentions that one of the few who reached out to her and understood her struggles was Evangelion director Hideaki Anno.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Neon<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After recording the scene in which Shinji goes on to save Rei Ayanami, Ogata burned out and dropped on the floor, unable to stand up. In that moment, Anno rushed into the studio and sat next to Ogata, grabbing her hand and telling her: \u201cThank you for always holding on to the feelings of a 14-year-old. It was thanks to you never letting go of those feelings that we were able to create Evangelion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnno was the only one who recognized my struggles. He made me realize I was really glad to have been able to come this far as a voice actress,\u201d Ogata recalls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reminiscing on her work with the director, Ogata explains that the (sometimes chaotic) recording sessions and the overall production of Evangelion were thanks to Anno pouring his soul into creating the anime. \u201cBoth then and now, director Anno has always cherished a live performance kind of approach to his work. At the time, Evangelion was a like a live performance to everyone who participated in its creation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related articles:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neon Genesis Evangelion director Hideaki Anno doesn\u2019t believe creating for the global market is the way to go. \u201cI\u2019m sorry, but the audience will have to be the one to adapt\u201d<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Evangelion and Danganronpa voice actress Megumi Ogata talks about her bond with anime director Hideaki Anno. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":56027,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8],"tags":[73,17,66],"class_list":["post-56025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-now-gaming","tag-anime","tag-japan-related-news","tag-non-gaming-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"\n\u201cHideaki Anno was the only one who understood me.\u201d Evangelion and Danganronpa actress talks about her struggles in the voice acting business\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Evangelion and Danganronpa voice actress Megumi Ogata talks about her bond with anime director Hideaki Anno.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/hideaki-anno-was-the-only-one-who-understood-me-evangelion-and-danganronpa-actress-talks-about-her-struggles-in-the-voice-acting-business\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u201cHideaki Anno was the only one who understood me.\u201d Evangelion and Danganronpa actress talks about her struggles in the voice acting business\u00a0 - 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