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St. Seiya/Versailles/Yu-Gi-Oh! Designer Shingo Araki Passes Away (Updated)
posted on by Jennifer Sherman
The French magazine AnimeLand and producer Seiji Okuda reported via graphic designer Maiko Kissaka that character designer and animation director Shingo Araki passed away on Wednesday. He was 72.
Known for his work on the Saint Seiya fantasy adventure anime adaptations, Araki also worked on The Rose of Versailles, Gegege no Kitarō, Ashita no Joe, and Yu-Gi-Oh! anime. Araki was an animator for the 1980s American animation productions Inspector Gadget, Mighty Orbots, The Adventures of the American Rabbit and G.I. Joe: The Movie.
Araki often collaborated with character desinger Michi Himeno. They worked on Saint Seiya, The Rose of Versailles, Gegege no Kitarō, Ashita no Joe, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and other anime together. The pair founded the Araki Productions anime studio in 1975.
Sources: Maiko Kissaka, AnimeLand
Update: The Yomiuri Shimbun and Sports Nippon newspapers report that Araki passed away in a Tokyo hospital on December 1 at 1:21 a.m. due to acute circulatory failure.
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