Tag Archives: gun x sword

Farewell to One of Anime’s Great Character Designers: RIP Kimura Takahiro

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I normally don’t write about the death of anime and manga figures that often, preferring to save it for people I feel have influenced me in major ways. But here we are again with animator and character designer Kimura Takahiro, who passed away on March 5 from amyloidosis. He was 58.

Kimura worked on series like Gaogaigar, Betterman, Godannar!!, Brigadoon: Marin & Melan, , Gun x Sword, and Code Geass. As far as character designers go, he is one of my favorite ever. His style is distinct, and he would give his designs a real attractiveness and charisma. Are they drawn pretty horny? Certainly, but somehow that aesthetic feels both very grounded in the 90s but also timeless. His art touched so many of the series I love, and I still consider Aoi Anna from Godannar a Top 10 fave among female characters.

I never got to meet Kimura in person, and I think about this because of the fact that he was a guest at Sakura Con in 2006 and Anime NYC 2019. In both cases, circumstances made it impossible for me to see him, and now I wish I could have figured something out. 

I found out the news of Kimura’s death thanks to a tweet from his wife, the artist RICCA—I guess this is how I learned the guy was married. Also, Kimura apparently loved to search his own name, and RICCA mentions that he’s probably watching from heaven and loving the attention.

And here’s a message from the director of Gaogaigar, Yonetani Yoshitomo, recalling the cosplay wedding party Kimura had back in the day. Apparently, Yonetani and Kimura not only sat next to each other at work, but also lived right next door from each other.

Thank you, Kimura Takahiro. You were one of my heroes.

Super Robot Wars 30 and the Two Chizurus

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I love the way the Super Robot Wars series combines plots together, and one example is the “connection” between the two Chizurus featured in Super Robot Wars 30.

One of the anime series in Super Robot Wars 30 is the 2000s-era anime Gun x Sword, and among the cast is a veteran robot crew called El Dora Team, who are portrayed as old-fashioned relics of a bygone era who find the spirit to fight again instead of sitting on the sidelines and waxing nostalgic. They’re essentially meant to be 1970s robot anime characters (with a bit of Mexican and spaghetti-Western flair) thrust into a modern context.

One of those 70s elements is they once had a female teammate named Chizuru, possibly as a nod to Nanbara Chizuru, the girl member from Super Electromagnetic Robo Combattler V. However, both Gun x Sword and Combattler V are in Super Robot Wars 30, and the setting is such that El Dora Team are still the old timers and the Battle Team are the upstarts. As a result, they flipped the script and made the Combattler V Chizuru the younger one who reminds the grandpas about their dearly departed friend.

This swapping of ages and influences is a clever maneuver to allow both sets of characters to retain their identities and physical ages within the story. But it also reminds me of someone: Elvis Presley.

Elvis famously wore flashy jumpsuits with collars and sometimes capes, and there’s speculation that he didn’t do it out of the blue. Growing up, he was a big fan of the Fawcett superhero Captain Marvel Jr., and the similarities between the character and Elvis has led to fans of both wondering if Elvis took elements of his famous aesthetic from the comic character. The story doesn’t end there, though.

Over the years, DC had acquired the license to the Captain Marvel (aka Shazam) characters. In one of their many later reboots, they placed Captain Marvel Jr. into their setting as a modern teenager, so rather than being a child of the 1930s, he was now a product of the 1990s. But in a similar twist to how the two Chizurus are connected in SRW30, it was now Captain Marvel Jr. who was the Elvis fan.

It’s a funny kind of geekery that I appreciate, and it reminds me why it’s fun to be a fan.