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Gosick Illustrator Hinata Takeda Passes Away

Author Kazuki Sakuraba announced on the official blog for her Gosick mystery novel series on Tuesday that illustrator Hinata Takeda passed away in January due to an unspecified illness. The June issue of Kadokawa's Dragon Age magazine is also reporting Takeda's passing on Tuesday.

Takeda is perhaps best known for illustrating Sakuraba's Gosick mystery novels, which inspired a 2011 television anime. Takeda drew the art for the first six volumes, as well as the first three volumes of the GosickS sequel series. She drew and wrote the Yaeka no Karte manga series, which ran from 2001 to 2003. She launched her Ikoku Meiro no Croisée (La croisée dans un labyrinthe étranger/Croisée in a Foreign Labyrinth) manga in 2007, and it also inspired a 2011 television anime.

In the blog, Sakuraba recalled her experience of working with Takeda, saying that it was her editor that brought Takeda to Sakuraba's attention after noticing the art of Takeda's Yaeka no Karte manga. Sakuraba remarked that, ever since she was first taken aback by the art Takeda submitted for the first volume of Gosick, she resolved to write the story in such a way that it would need to have Takeda's illustrations, but admitted that Takeda's illustrations easily surpassed her own work.

Sakuraba wrote that Takeda drew her last illustration for Gosick in 2011. The illustration was for the box art for the anime's Japanese DVD releases (seen above). She noted that Takeda had not been in the best of health even when drawing that illustration, but said that she completed it regardless.