Danica Davidson
June 7, 2023 
Sometimes famous people get recognized in public, and it appears that happened to Evangelion creator Hideaki Anno. A clerk working for the Eneos gas station chain in Japan saw a man he thought looked like Anno getting gas for his car. Then, when the man paid and signed his receipt, he signed it as Hideaki Anno.
The clerk, who seems to be a fan, got so excited he shared the receipt online. And while he may have meant it as sharing his joy, it wasn’t seen that way by many people on the internet. That’s because the receipt shared a lot of personal information, including Anno’s type of credit card and the last four digits of it. And the clerk informed Twitter of what Anno’s car looks like.
It got to be such a big deal that the company Eneos put out a statement, apologizing that this happened and vowing this sort of behavior won’t be repeated. The clerk, after first defending what he did by saying it really was the one and only Anno, ended up deleting his account (or someone else deleted it for him).
Some Japanese responses to the incident online include:
“This is why we need more personal information security education.”
“I understand feeling excited but you just can’t do that.”
“I know how the guy feels, but he really needs to quit after this.”
“Sounds like the clerk was Itsuki Takeuchi from Initial D.”
Anno has worked on many projects over the years, but he is best known for his Evangelion series. GKIDS gave this description for Neon Genesis Evangelion:
“Since its 1995 premiere in Japan, the story of teenager Shinji Ikari has emerged as one of the most iconic titles in animation history and a global pop culture phenomenon.
A formative title in the animation canon, NEON GENESIS EVANGELION demonstrated the ability of animation to tell stories of philosophy, and intellectual and emotional characters, unlike anything that had been seen before in animation on a global scale.”
Source: SoraNews24
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Danica Davidson is the author of the bestselling Manga Art for Beginners with artist Melanie Westin, plus its sequel, Manga Art for Everyone, and the first-of-its-kind manga chalk book Chalk Art Manga, both illustrated by professional Japanese mangaka Rena Saiya. Check out her other comics and books at www.danicadavidson.com.
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