Getta Spark

Legendary manga artist Ken Ishikawa, perhaps most famed as the co-creator of Getta Robo, has passed away at 58. Although Go Nagai usually gets the credit among Western anime fans, at the time he was so busy on his other projects that he asked Ishikawa to oversee the main mechanical and character design for the series. Ishikawa is also well known in Japan for creating comic book adaptations of many of Nagai's works.

Translated from the blog of Haruka Takachiho, creator of "Dirty Pair" and "Crusher Joe" and co-founder of the famed Studio Nue:

2006/11/16 (Thu)

I awoke at six this morning. The roads were wet with rain. The air was cold. After eating my breakfast, I went to my study to check my mail. Yab-san mailed me saying "I can't confirm if it's true or not, but on the net they're saying Ken Ishikawa passed away. Do you know anything?" Of course, I didn't. But I checked into it right away. For some reason it felt believable.

At eight I telephoned Go Nagai. I got his answering machine, so I left a message with the details and asking for a call back. He returned my call at 9. Ishikawa really had passed away. He died at the hospital at 10:00 PM the night before. Nagai told me what he knew: Ishikawa had just finished a round at a Kofu golf course, taken a bath, and collapsed at the table when having drinks with his friends shortly thereafter. He was rushed to the hopsital, but he couldn't be revived.

Just after two in the afternoon, I recieved another call from Go with more details. Ishikawa hadn't collapsed at his seat. He'd in fact barely had anything to drink, and went to karaoke afterwards. He sang a song, then returned to the sofa, whereupon he crumpled face-first to the floor.

The karaoke staff had rescuscitation gear and they called an ambulance, but Ishikawa was already in full cardiac arrest. The hospital wasn't able to determine any cause. He didn't have any blocked arteries, aneurisms, or angina. It was an unexplained sudden death. As it had happened without any warning, the hospital ruled it a case of acute cardiac failure.

After finishing the call, I was left speechelss. All I could do was sigh. All I could think to say was "it's such a shame." And even now, I can't think of anything else. It really is a shame.

Comments

[Daryl Surat]

God damn it. The opposition to the moe onslaught weakens even further. Whomever shall I look to for my tales of crazy monsters being bloodily hacked to pieces by axes now?!

Better buy one of those super expensive diecast Black Getters now as a charm to help ward off maids. Actually, super robot toys are probably a bit too effective, seeing as how they ward off not only maids, but all ladies.

[Matt Alt]

Too true. Everyone knows Ladies Love Cool Kaiju instead.

But on a serious note, as a wiser man than I put it, "we're bound to outlive the generation of creators whose toys we admire, and we're just now starting to realize it."

[Philip Tan-Gatue]

Ken Ishikawa was a great illustrator and definitely had a unique personal stamp on the Getter Robo manga. May he rest in peace.

GETTER SHINE!

[Magengar-Z]

He will be sadly missed.
May he rest in Peace, and his work Live On.