My Hero Academia and Afro Samurai art director has died

Key recommendations

• Award-winning art director Shigemi Ikeda, known for My Hero Academia and Afro Samurai, has died at the age of 69.
• His work on Afro Samurai: Resurrection earned him a Primetime Emmy Award in 2009, a rarity for anime.
• Ikeda's remarkable career spanned numerous iconic anime titles, establishing a lasting legacy in the industry.

Shigemi Ikeda, the award-winning art director behind several huge anime titles such as My Hero Academia and Afro samuraiit is confirmed that he has died. The artist was 69 years old at the time of his death. He died on October 13, but his death was not confirmed until closer to the end of the month on October 26. The funeral was held only for his close family members.

The death was reported by Studio GONZO, the studio behind it Hellsing, Welcome to NHKand many others. GONZO confirmed that Ikeda had indeed died via his X (formerly Twitter) account in late October. Ikeda was an award-winning art director and even held an Emmy Award for his work on anime.

An Emmy Award-winning art director

Shigemi Ikeda's greatest work

Shigemi Ikeda has been the art director behind a huge number of anime, but the one he will probably be most remembered for is Afro samurai. Ikeda worked with Studio GONZO on the film Afro Samurai: The Resurrection in 2009. Ikeda won the Primetime Emmy Award for “Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation” for his work on the title.

Very few anime have ever won an Emmy (which is why it caused such a stir when Blue-eyed samurai won in 2023), so it was a huge achievement for Ikeda to win. Other animation works that have also won the same award include huge titles such as The Simpsons, Adventure Time, Love, Death and Robots, and Futurama. Almost every title nominated for this award and therefore winner is from Western studios. Afro Samurai: Resurrection stood above the rest, however, and Ikeda managed to take home the award in 2009.

Art direction by Shigemi Ikeda

A stunning resume

while Afro Samurai: The Resurrection may be the work that earned Shigemi Ikeda a Primetime Emmy Award, it was far from his only work and probably not even his most famous. Working with multiple studios over the years, Ikeda has built an incredible resume as an art director on dozens of anime. They ranged from single-season projects to huge titles that lasted season after season.

AnimeNewsNetwork reports that Ikeda's incredible career as an art director includes:

… the first
Afro samurai
anime series,
Bastard!!
,
Bokurano
,
Gantz
,
Gasaraki
,
Inuyasha
,
War of the Libraries
,
Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's counterattack
,
Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ
— and much later
Gundam
including projects
Mobile Suit Gundam Seed
,
Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin
,
Mobile Suit Gundam UC
and recently
Mobile Suit Gundam Seed FREEDOM
movie –
Phantom – The Animation
,
planets
,
Starship Troopers
,
Macross Delta
,
Fantastic Doll
,
Boogiepop and others
all seven seasons of
My Hero Academia
anime, all four seasons and movies of
supreme lord
anime, the first two seasons of
The man with one punch
anime,
My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU
both seasons of
The Promised Neverland
,
Yashahime: The Semi-Demon Princess
,
Ryvius Infinite
,
Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2040
,
Bubblegum crisis
and many others.

While Shigemi Ikeda may be gone, his legacy will live on forever. With such a huge list of anime to his name, some of which are famous around the world, his work will continue to be enjoyed for years to come. As with any great artist, Ikeda will live on forever through the art he left behind, and many anime would not be what they are without his talent.

Source: AnimeNewsNetwork