Tag: obits

September 25, 2021 · 0 comments

Eiichi Yamamoto, who died earlier this month, bore witness to crucial moments in anime history. As a young man, he was one of the talents behind the scenes at Ryuichi Yokoyama’s Otogi Pro studio, an experiment by a manga artist dabbling in the world of animation. But Yamamoto was the brains of the outfit, and […]

August 20, 2021 · 0 comments

Shinichi “Sonny” Chiba, who died yesterday from COVID-derived pneumonia, was one of Japan’s foremost action stars, with an influence extending way beyond his native country.

August 18, 2021 · 0 comments

Masami Suda, who died of cancer on 1st August, had a career that spanned everything from the sci-fi of Space Knight Tekkaman to the basketball action of Slam Dunk. “I didn’t go into animation because I loved it, but because I really wanted to draw, I aspired to become a graphic designer,” he once admitted […]

August 15, 2021 · 2 comments

Fred Ladd, who died on 3rd August at the age of 94, met anime in 1963, when he was phoned by a New York company asking if there was potential in a foreign TV cartoon. The company was NBC Enterprises, a small outfit that rather hoped people would confuse it with the better known NBC […]

June 14, 2021 · 0 comments

Asei Kobayashi, who died on 30th May from a heart attack, was an unlikely candidate for musical composer, or actor, or game-show champion…. Pushed by his parents into studying to be a doctor, he transferred without telling them to the department of economics at Keio University, where his classmates included another future composer, Isao Tomita. […]