The official Code Geass Project Twitter account broke the news that Takahiro Kimura, the character designer and chief animation director for the Code Geass anime series has recently passed away on March 5 after battling the disease Amyloidosis. The animator was 58 at the time of his death.
Takahiro Kimura had also worked on numerous projects as a character designer and sometimes also as chief animation director, including Mobile Fighter G Gundam. The King of Braves GaoGaiGar, Blood + Mobile Suit Gunda; Hathaway’s Flash, and was also a guest character designer for Xenoblade Chronicles 2.
▍About Takahiro Kimura
Takahiro Kimura was born in 1964 in the Fukuoka prefecture, and also went under the pseudonym Araji Sugawara. He was an animator, illustrator, and character designer.
The animator fell in love with anime after watching Armored Trooper Votoms while attending university and wanted to enter the industry after watching the first episodes of Blue Comet SPT Layzner. He then went on to work at studio Anime R working on the same series while being uncredited.
Takahiro Kimura was instrumental in Code Geass’ production, as on top of doing the character design for the original anime, he also worked on the Code Geass: Nunnally in Wonderland OVA, and the cover art for the soundtracks, and was going to be part of the new anime series Code Geass: Z of the Recapture, as part of Sunrise’ 10-year plan for the series.
