When someone mentions Naruto and Bleach, you know that these two titles are almost like household names if you are a fan of anime and manga. First started out as manga series, their popularity grew as each had their own anime adaptations, animated movies, OVAs, stage plays, and so on.
It was to find out a month later that Kazunori Mizuno, a veteran animator passed away a month ago. The cause of his death was linked to karoushi or overworking. He was 52 years old.
Mizuno passed away on March 19. The news of his passing only went public a month later when his officemates in the Naruto and Bleach projects broke the news on Twitter.
52歳の演出さんの、3月19日に急死された水野和則さん、スタジオで作業中「一時間だけ仮眠取る」って言われてそのまま亡くなられたんだそうです。
— 柳沼和良 (@yaginuma_san) April 6, 2017
Karoushi is described as stress induced stroke and heart attacks. According to reports, the animator decided to take a nap inside the offices of Studio Pierrot and silently died in his sleep.
Aside from the mentioned anime adaptations, Mizuno was also a storyboard artist for Zoids Genesis and Yu Yu Hakusho. Mizuno will also be remembered as an individual who have done so much for the anime industry and hope that his work will be an inspiration for future animators. He will be missed.
One of Mizuno’s popular works is also doing the storyboards for Cardcaptor Sakura Movie 2: The Sealed Card. Set just months after the 70th episode, a new kind of danger arises in the town of Tomoeda as new special Clow Card emerges. Sakura Kinomoto wasn’t able to properly say her feelings to Syaoran Li and assumed that maybe he has already moved on. She had to deal with two predicaments: finding a way to tell her feelings to Syaoran and retrieving the Sakura Cards as they are slowly been taken away from this mysterious “Void Card.”
This is considered as the ending for the Card Captor Sakura anime franchise and still considered as a fan favorite even until this day. A new sequel to the manga called Card Captor Sakura – Clear Card Arc was released last year with an anime adaptation slated to premiere in 2018. Card Captor Sakura is considered one of the most popular mahou shoujo manga and anime franchise created by the all-girls manga group CLAMP.
May you rest in peace, good sir. The anime industry has lost a great man and we will never forget your great contributions in bringing these anime series to life.