A closer look
That stark, highly aggressive typography flashing across the screen in Neon Genesis Evangelion isn’t just an artistic masterpiece of psychological dread—it was a frantic financial lifesaver. Studio Gainax famously suffered from agonizing budget constraints, so director Hideaki Anno heavily utilized the heavy "Matisse EB" font, creating rapid-fire, text-only title cards to fill screen time without having to actually pay animators to draw anything. It ended up redefining the entire aesthetic of 90s anime.
