Hideaki Anno Told Evangelion Voice Actor Secrets She Says She’ll Take To Her Grave

Thought we know everything about Evangelion? We don’t, it seems! During a recent press conference for the Blu-ray release of Evangelion 3.333, voice actor Maaya Sakamoto said that creator Hideaki Anno told her secrets about the character she plays, Mari Illustrious Makinami.

Mari Illustrious Makinami, of course, is an Eva pilot in the Rebuild of Evangelion series. She’s a somewhat mysterious, yet talented pilot. The character made her debut in 2009’s Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance, with Sakamoto handling her Japanese voice duties. (Sakamoto has also voiced a whole slew of characters and has a truly impressive resume.)

“I don’t know to what extent I can say what I heard [about Mari] from Anno,” said Sakamoto (via website Movie Walker Press). “There is a lot that’s never been said to anyone.”

We already know a fair bit of trivia about the character. For example, her name is from the Japanese World War II destroyer Makinami and the British aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious. (Interestingly, her first name was revealed in the Nintendo DS game Petit Eva: Evangelion @ Game.) But I don’t think Sakamoto was told more trivia. These secrets the creator told her must be even deeper.

“If I don’t get permission from him, I definitely won’t say,” she continued. “No way, no way, no way!”

Whatever could this info be? Seriously!

“Honestly, I feel like a truly frightening thing has been handed over to me.”

Wowzers. Now I’m really curious! But it doesn’t sound like we’ll ever find out—at least not from Sakamoto–who said, “I will take [those secrets] to my grave.”

I feel like Evangelion untold secrets don’t stop at Mari.

Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time was released this spring in theaters in Japan, where it was a smash hit. An updated version with new cuts hit theaters earlier this month.