Code Geass franchise’s official website has announced on Thursday that character designer Takahiro Kimura had died. He was 58.
The statement revealed that Kimura had passed away on Sunday, March 5, after battling Amyloidosis. His illness was revealed to the public in accordance to the family’s wishes.
Amyloidosis is a rare disease when proteins in a person’s body change or mutate, then turns into clumps of misshapen proteins that gather in a person’s organs and tissues, such as the heart, kidney, liver or lungs.
Takahiro Kimura is well-known by Japanese anime as the character designer and chief animation director of the highly popular sci-fi action franchise Code Geass, which started in October 2006 and expanded to several anime spinoffs and movies, as well as multiple original video animations, manga, light novel and video game adaptations.
Kimura also worked as character designer in several anime titles, like GUNxSWORD, GaoGaiGar: King of the Braves, Godannar, SD Gundam Force, Betterman, Ghastly Prince Enma Burning Up and Brigadoon.
He also contributed in several more anime titles, including City Hunter: The Motion Picture, Dirty Pair Flash, Snow White with the Red Hair, Variable Geo, Sengoku Basara – Samurai Kings and Valvrave the Liberator.
More recently, he had served as the character animation director for the Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway anime movie, which made its theatrical release in June 2021.
The staff members of the popular franchise paid tribute to the late character designer, saying “[Kimura] created many characters from his animation and illustrations… and created wonderful animated films that moved our hearts.”
