Tag: obits
March 15, 2021 · 6 comments
Yasuo Otsuka (1931-2021)
The animator Yasuo Otsuka’s death today at the age of 89 was announced by Toshio Suzuki, the former president of Studio Ghibli. That felt only fitting, for while Otsuka had no credits on Studio Ghibli’s films, he was fundamental to the anime leading up to them over more than two decades, from Lupin to Chie […]
March 14, 2021 · 3 comments
Amy Howard Wilson (1955-2021)
It was the day of the big university oral examination, and the unnamed student was understandably flustered when the phone rang. When she picked up, there was a deep, sonorous voice at the other end, a woman she had never met but who still somehow sounded familiar. She introduced herself as Amy Howard Wilson, the […]
July 6, 2020 · 0 comments
Nobuhiko Obayashi & Hanagatami
By Jasper Sharp. Hanagatami (2017) has to be among the most important Japanese films of the last 20 years. This sweeping, emotive and flamboyant tale of love and friendship among a group of six college-age teenagers whose lives are about to be changed irrevocably by WW2 is an undisputable masterpiece for Nobuhiko Obayashi, a filmmaker […]
April 7, 2020 · 0 comments
Jay Benedict (1951-2020)
Jay Benedict, who died on Saturday from coronavirus complications, was not a well-known name, but a well-known voice in anime. As one of the few American actors resident in London in the 1980s and 1990s, he was called up on multiple occasions to provide voices on “midlantic” dubs. Most notably for viewers of a certain […]
March 27, 2020 · 0 comments
Sankichiro Kusube (1938-2020)
Sankichiro Kusube, who died of liver cancer on the 20th March, did not lend his name to many anime productions, even though he worked on dozens. A high-ranking producer at A-Pro, and then at its successor studio Shin Ei, he used to say that the production credits should belong to the people who were actually, […]