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Noburo Ishiguro, 1938-2012


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?Imagine one person in America directed Star Wars, the original Battlestar Galactica, Planet of the Apes, Alien and Blade Runner — basically, all the big sci-fi hits except Star Trek. In Japan, that man existed, and his name was Noburo Ishiguro. He directed Super Dimensional Macross (which became the first part of Robotech), Space Battleship Yamato (called Star Blazers in the U.S.), the classics Super Dimension Century Orguss and Legend of the Galactic Heroes, and more. Basically, he had his hand in almost all the major sci-fi anime of the ’70s and early ’80s except Gundam — and he passed away yesterday at the age of 73.

Ishiguro’s work created a legion of sci-fi nerds both in Japan and in the West; indeed, two of his series, Yamato and Macross, defined anime for two generations of American kids and were instrumental in anime’s eventually popularity here. And even if he hadn’t done that, I’d still commemorate him here purely for Macross/Robotech, which remains one of the finest love stories of nerd-dom (don’t get me started on my rant, but it involves the fact that love is crazy, messy, and often dumb). Arigato, Ishiguro-san. Thanks to FirstoftheFallen for the tip. (Via Anime News Network)