Anime Artist Kazunori Mizuno allegedly dies of overwork

Kazunori Mizuno, a 52-year-old veteran artist and storyboard art director who has worked on a number of famous titles such as Bleach and Naruto, passed away on March 19.

News of the animator’s death. however, did not reach the public until his colleagues took to Twitter and posted news about his passing. While the official cause of death still remains a mystery, many believe that Mizuno died after karoushi,” or overworking in Japan.

Mizuno was among the top members of the industry and served diligently for 30 years. While many may not be familiar with Mizuno, they are certainly familiar with his incredible work on many famous anime titles such as Akira, Naruto Shippuden, Bleach, Yu Yu Hakusho, and many others.

According to a Twitter post by one of Mizuno’s colleagues, Kazuyoshi Yaginuma, Mizuno expressed feelings of discomfort and excused himself from working to take a break. Unfortunately, he passed away some time later while napping at the Pierrot animation studios in Tokyo.

A few of his colleagues mourned his death and offered a bit of insight on how he may have passed.

https://twitter.com/taiki_nishimura/status/845631895446564865?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.crunchyroll.com%2Fanime-news%2F2017%2F04%2F06-1%2Fnaruto-and-bleach-animator-kazunori-mizuno-passes-away

Check out some of Mizuno’s work in these videos below!

Source: NextShark, CrunchyRoll