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Creature Designer Yasushi Nirasawa Passes Away
posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda
The official Twitter account of creature designer, modeler, and illustrator Yasushi Nirasawa announced on Friday that he had passed away due to kidney failure on Tuesday. He was 52.
Nirasawa started out as an assistant of illustrator Makoto Kobayashi, and debuted in the Hobby Japan Extra magazine in 1987 with a remodeled kit of the Kobayashi-designed Marasai mobile suit. He then served as the miniature effects assistant chief in the OAV adaptation of Kobayashi's Dragon's Heaven manga in 1988. Since then, he designed creatures for such anime as Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, Guilstein, Hells, Bleach the Movie: Memories of Nobody, Zetman, and Iron Man: Rise of Technovore.
Nirasawa also did design and modeling work on television series and films such as Garo, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, and multiple Heisei-era Kamen Rider series such as Kamen Rider Blade, Kamen Rider Kabuto, and Kamen Rider Decade. He also drew manga such as Phantom Core and Punishmenter Sodo, and did illustration work on books such as Ryūta to Aoi Bara. He also published books containing compilations of his work.
Kobayashi, as well as director and Garo creator Keita Amemiya, and director Osamu Kobayashi have already expressed their condolences.
[Via Hachima Kikō]
