I'm not pissed, that was just a totally crazy name, where did it come from?
Sanity is a completely subjective term, if you ask me we're all insane in one way or another. But just because you read something doesn't mean it's true. And just because I can't call up Anno on the phone and say "hey, are you sane?" doesn't mean that our knowledge about him is equal.
The way I understand it, Anno was
very deeply depressed, and Evangelion was indeed his means of rehabilitation. However, I wouldn't consider depression a form of insanity (well, it is, but no more a form of insanity than the average person has, which would be considered being normal) and so I'm very skeptical that there was clinical insanity involved.
And furthermore, I quite dislike the notion that is commonly expressed about weird things and insanity. Just because someone makes something really far-out and crazy does
not mean that they were insane or on drugs or anything of that sort. Sure, things like insanity and drugs can cause some amazingly weird stuff, but there's no threshold of weirdness that insanity can cross that isn't easily crossable for any average far-out artist. So if Anno went insane or not, he didn't *have* to be, and so I'd need a lot of evidence to the contrary to beleive that he was.
As for Kare Kano and all the other stuff he did... it's pretty clear that Anno isn't insane right now, he has a wife and is still working on stuff.
As for understanding Evangelion, that's your own gig, man. If you want info from the experts, just go to
www.animenation.com, their Evangelion forum is filled with a lot of the brightest Eva fans. Other than that, watching the series more times is never a bad idea if you want to understand it. It's somewhat like Furi Kuri, only several episodes longer and thus much harder to watch over and over again.