Obits 9
Fred Patten 1940-2018
Fred Patten, who died yesterday aged 77, was one of the foundational pillars not only of anime fandom in America, but of American anime fandom’s sense of its own history. Graduating with a Masters in Library Science in 1963, Fred was already active in American science fiction fandom when he entered the job market. For […]
Isao Takahata 1935-2018
To many people, Isao Takahata will be remembered as the man who directed Grave of the Fireflies, the saddest Japanese animation ever made. Yet his work brims with the joy of life, from Heidi frolicking in the Alps with Peter in Takahata’s landmark 1974 series, to a gang of mischievous children calling “Li’l Bamboo!” to […]
Norio Shioyama 1940-2017
Norio Shioyama, who died with his wife Tokiko in a house fire yesterday, was first and foremost an illustrator, dragged unceremoniously into the anime world by the staffing demands of the industry’s boom-time. He was born in Kumamoto, the third of seven children of a sugar wholesaler, and passed his early years in the firm […]
Seijun Suzuki 1923-2017
The legendary director Seijun Suzuki, who died on 13th February, is best known in the West for such quirky, idiosyncratic works as Youth of the Beast, Kanto Wanderer and Tokyo Drifter. These 1960s B-movie genre pictures playfully riffed on the “borderless action” mash-ups of gangster films, youth movies, musicals and westerns fostered by the Nikkatsu […]
Bruce Lewis 1965-2016
Helen McCarthy remembers “Bruce the Psychic Guy” Bruce Lewis, who died today, was best known as a comics creator and voice actor. He was also a conundrum: a devout Christian with Loki’s own instinct for mischief, a stern critic and a giving and forgiving soul, a proud American and a monarchist far to the right […]