A Journey Through an Internet Anime Rumor on Takeyuki Kanda

There is a rumor that’s spread about anime director Takeyuki Kanda’s sudden death in 1996 that has nothing to back it up. As best as I can tell, it remains unfounded and almost certainly false. The rumor is that he died in a car crash, but the only available information on Japanese sites doesn’t mention that at all. The oldest source I could find for that rumor was an uncited English Wikipedia article written by an account later banned for bad edits.

The only confirmed detail on Kanda’s death is that he suddenly passed away at the age of 52. That much, at a minimum, is confirmed by an official interview on the VOTOMS website with Ryosuke Takahashi that mentions Kanda’s passing, specifically in its third footnote.

I was (and still am) working on a separate, more fun article about a series of anime image albums, but I got sucked into this rabbit hole over the last few days. I figured I’d tell the story of how this unraveled, as well as share some thoughts on anime rumors in general.

Newtype August 2023: Ippei Gyoubu Interview on G-Witch’s Costume Designs

This is an interview of Ippei Gyoubu (Twitter) from Newtype's August 2023 issue, which was released close to the conclusion of the Witch from Mercury. The magazine did a feature of "composition" going into some of the main creative aspects of the show. 

While Gyoubu was most prominent as a mechanical designer for the show, mostly with the Jeturk House mobile suits, this interview goes into the costume and some other tech design he did. There's some interesting tidbits in how the team wanted to reflect the characters' personalities, as well as some choice comments regarding Guel.

Like last time, the English translation is by Windii (Twitter, Ko-fi). Thanks for her help with this, and consider commissioning her for JPN-ENG translations.

Toei Took Down My Youtube Channel

Not that it was ever a part of this blog anyways, but Toei issued three copyright strikes against my Youtube channel three days in a row, so now it's gone for good. I only used it for posting funny or cool short tokusatsu clips for a few years now, so I don't know why they decided to suddenly take it down when they were still running ads themselves on the clips. Regardless, it looks like it's unretrievable. 

If I ever start a different Youtube channel for something else I'll announce it, but for now I'm not gonna bother with setting up a new one.

The Importance of Big Cool Sci-Fi Stuff

I finished watching Turn A Gundam recently, and it’s already cemented itself as one of my favorite Gundam shows and anime in general. But one detail I appreciate is that, even with its Americana setting, it still works in some interesting, immense technological set pieces that give a great sense of scale to the show in the portions where it heads to outer space. To put it bluntly, I appreciate it when science fiction has what I like to call “Big Cool Sci-Fi Stuff,” both for the novelty but also realizing the unique potential the medium has to create a unique sense of wonder. 

Animedia February 2023: Mogmog Interview on G-Witch’s Character Designs

The February 2023 issue for Animedia features some illustrations and coverage for Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury. One of the pages features comments and an interview with Mogumo (Twitter, Pixiv), the original character designer for the show. 

The English translation is by Windii (Twitter, Ko-fi). Thanks for her help with this, and consider commissioning her for JPN-ENG translations.

Also, I've been gathering the character "Expression Test" sheets shared by the main G-Witch Twitter account and the post-episode sketches done by Mogumo on Twitter in a folder here.

G-Witch Episode 6 Thoughts

 Thoughts and impressions on G-Witch, Episode 6.

Following up the stakes set up from last time, this episode throws a whole lot of plot swerves amidst the build up to Elan’s duel against Suletta.

G-Witch Episode 5 Thoughts

Thoughts and impressions on G-Witch, Episode 5.

This time, the focus switches to Elan as we finally learn what his deal is, as well as more scheming from Prospera and fun moments with the main cast.