Evangelion Producer, Fullmetal Alchemist Anime Writer Manabu Ishikawa Passes Away
Over the weekend, DARLING in the FRANXX and EUREKA SEVEN AO setting researcher, Mitsuyasu Sakai, as well as Japanese talent agency Office PAC announced the passing of Manabu Ishikawa. Ishikawa was a prominent anime staff member that was affiliated with Tatsunoko Productions throughout his career and helped produce the original Neon Genesis Evangelion TV anime, the first two Rebuild films, Hellsing, wrote episodes of Fullmetal Alchemist, Love Hina and more.
プロデューサー／脚本家の石川学さんがお亡くなりになったと、昨日、連絡をいただきました。
一緒に仕事をしたのは数度きりなのですが、近年は僕の実写映画製作を応援してくれていました。
会うといつも快活に笑っておられたのが今も印象に残っていて、すごく悲しいです。
ご冥福をお祈りします。— 堺三保/Mitsuyasu Sakai (@Sakai_Sampo) June 2, 2023
脚本家 石川学さんのご逝去の報に接し、謹んで哀悼の意を表します。
映画「きみの声をとどけたい」では、上映イベントなどでご一緒させていただく機会も多く、キャストがお世話になりました。その後もNOAや一人ひとりの活動を応援してくださり、気にかけていただきました…ありがとうございました…。
— オフィスPAC【公式】 (@officepac_tw) June 3, 2023
Neither Tweet mentioned how Ishikawa passed.
Sakai wrote that he was happy to work with Ishikawa in Sakai’s latter live-action works, while Office PAC reminisced on the production of Your Voice -KIMIKOE-, which was written by Ishikawa and had talent supplied by Office PAC.
Ishikawa worked the production desk on Speed Racer X and Generator Gawl as well as being the writer for Mononoke and Transformers: Cybertron and the series composer for Yozakura Quartet ~Hana no Uta~ and Welcome to Irabu’s Office, making for a varied career in anime that spanned genres, formats and even jobs within productions. May he rest in peace.
Sources: Mitsuyasu Sakai on Twitter, Office PAC on Twitter
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Daryl Harding is a Senior Japan Correspondent for Crunchyroll News. He also runs a YouTube channel about Japan stuff called TheDoctorDazza, tweets at @DoctorDazza, and posts photos of his travels on Instagram.
