Japanese media reported today that anime industry icon Yuji Nunokawa passed away suddenly on December 25 at the age of 75.

Nunokawa is best known as a producer who founded Studio Pierrot and helped establish many initiatives that helped the anime industry evolve, including the powerful The Association of Japanese Animations collective.

Yuji Nunokawa was born on February 11, 1947, in Sakata City in Yamanashi prefecture. As a child of tailors, he grew up loving drawing. On the recommendation of the advisor of the art club he was part of in high school, Nunokawa went to Tokyo to study at the Nippon Design Welfare College, where he graduated in 1967.

Nunokawa started in the anime industry in a company that was a subcontractor for TCJ, which is now Eiken, as a colorist. His first animator gig was for Space Boy Soran and then key animator on Robotan. As a freelancer in the industry, he worked on many productions for Mushi Productions and Tsuburaya Enterprises.

During the crash of Mushi Productions, he was asked to become a founding staff member to the anime studio Soeisha, which is now known as Bandai Namco Filmworks, or Sunrise. Declining the offer, thanks to an offer from Hiroshi Sasagawa, he became a staff member at Tatsunoko Production in 1971 working as a character designer. It was there that Nunokawa became a director on the Time Bokan! series.

Nunokawa left Tatsunoko Production in 1978 after the death of the founder, Tatsuo Yoshida, with animation directors Mitsuo Kaminashi and Hiroko Tokita and formed a collective in an apartment in Kichijoji. This collective grew to include animation directors Toriumi Hisayuki and Masami Anno and became Studio Pierrot, of which Nunokawa became the president. Its core belief was to create animator-focused anime with decent production scheduling.

During his time as president of Pierrot, Nunokawa helped produce many hits, including the original Urusei Yatsura anime, Naruto, Yu Yu Hakusho, Tokyo Mew Mew, GTO, Bleach, Kimagure Orange Road and was the lead on Creamy Mami among countless other anime series.

In 2012, Nunokawa became chairman and representative director of Pierrot, moving on from president and producing duties, eventually becoming Supreme Advisor to the board

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