Hideaki Anno is a household figure in the anime community owing to his mind-bending works like Neon Genesis Evangelion. This man has never shied away from messing with viewers’ heads; his stories peel back layer upon layer of the human experience while sometimes seeming to irk the fandom as well.

He has the ability to push us to think and question the way we view even the things we love, like anime. Even when it comes to Shonen Jump viewers that can’t get enough of current titles like One Piece, Anno recently had some hot takes about today’s anime preferences.

Anno suggests that we are all sitting back with the familiar, flashy stories rather than wanting “something they have never seen before.” It’s definitely a bold assertion, and it had fans of Shonen Jump titles like One Piece wondering about the creative optimism of anime. So, what Anno’s actually getting at,...