

I would say he had at least dipped his toes into anime with the Nier Automata anime.
Also this:
“The work I was most inspired by is Neon Genesis Evangelion. I thank you for praising NieR: Automata’s story, but actually it’s pretty much just a retelling of Evangelion”
-Yoko Taro in 2024
Counterpoint: They are not commercial products, and there is nothing stopping groups from just abandoning series mid-season. For example, Komi Can’t Communicate got a sub that translated all her written text in place and then just dropped it after a couple of episodes.
I’ve seen two arguments during that time.
as fan subs, those are entirely done voluntarily and the people behind it owe nothing to the community
they shouldn’t have started the series if they weren’t committed to completing the season. Other groups sat out on the series because of that.