I’ve read in a translated interview (I’ll try to quote it in the future) that he suffered from Anxiety/Panic attacks in the past.He was nervous while on trains (I can’t imagine doing the research for Clannad).
You know I’ve suffered of this kind of anxiety in the past, and let me tell you it is not pleasant at all.
I like his positivism towards it, at least that’s what we see in his series. the “Keep on walking!” leitmotif.
As to his religious beliefs, he always struck me as something of a nebulous secular animist; somebody who doesn’t necessarily buy into prayer and miracles and all that, but who appreciates the order of nature as something mysterious and worthy of reverence. That said, a number of his works make direct reference to Buddhist doctrines (which wouldn’t be surprising, as Buddhism is the most popular religion in Japan–even an unbeliever would likely be saturated with knowledge of its tenets).
I certainly don’t think Angel Beats! counts as evidence that he’s some kind of gnostic misotheist, since it seems to take up the position that the question of whether or not a god exists is irrelevant and distracts us from our need to make our own peace through humility and kindness.
I think Maeda-sensei would probably agree with Don Henley saying, “There are no more new frontiers//We have got to make it here”; I think he considers the claim of a post-mortem paradise to be unimportant–what’s important is living life well.
I just watched the video and I guess my interpretation flew off too far. I recalled that butterflies symbolized the souls of the dead, and I ended up getting the impression that the character died in the end. Though the discussions here makes a lot of sense as well.
I might have to rewatch it in a different perspective haha.
I got the feeling while watching this that he took the prompt of hikikomori and wrote the song in a way that is probably very informed by how he is feeling right now. There was an authentic rawness - that was further emphasized by the art - to everything that made it not feel completely retrospective to me.
