Animator/Director Shoichi Masuo Passes Away at 57

[Mr. Analog]

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2017-07-26/animator-director-shoichi-masuo-passes-away-at-57/.119332

Studio Khara announced on Wednesday that animator and director Shoichi Masuo passed away on Monday at 11:36 a.m. while under medical care for an unspecified illness. He was 57. His close relatives will hold a private wake and funeral service.

Masuo is a noted key animator who specialized in mechanical and effects animation. He started out as an animator in Studio Giants, working on such anime as Sengoku Majin Goshōgun. He was the Assistant Animation Director for the 1984 anime film The Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love?, where he met future Gainax co-founder Hideaki Anno on the film's key animation staff. After working on Project A-Ko in 1986 as a key animator and mecha animation director, he moved to Gainax, where he worked as assistant director for Royal Space Force - The Wings of Honn?amise, and as key animator, technical director, and mechanical designer for such anime as Gunbuster, Otaku no Video, Nadia - The Secret of Blue Water, Neon Genesis Evangelion, His and Her Circumstances, and Gunbuster 2: Diebuster. He also worked on anime outside of Gainax, such as Akira and Giant Robo. He is credited for mecha design for The Irresponsible Captain Tylor, and was the animation supervisor and mechanical director for the 6 Angels film.

He will be missed