News

Animator Akira Daikubara Passes Away at 94

The Anido animator's group has reported that the animator Akira Daikubara passed away from pneumonia and old age on June 17, 2012. Daikubara was 94 years old. He had entered a nursing home in 2008, and was hospitalized earlier this year due to pneumonia.

Daikubara was involved in the production of many early Nihon Dogasha and Toei Animation productions, including Hakujaden, Japan's first animated feature film in color, and Magic Boy, the first theatrically-released work of Japanese animation in North America. He was awarded the Special Prize at the 2006 Japan Media Arts Festival for his long-standing devotion to his work.

[Via Tadashi Sudo]