Famed ‘Gundam’ Animator Kunihiro Abe Passes Away

Famed animator of many of Sunrise’s Mobile Suit Gundam anime projects, Kunihiro Abe has passed away at the age of 50. His wife and daughter announced Abe’s passing on their Twitter accounts, and the anime industry is definitely mourning this loss.

Abe’s daughter shared one of the late Gundam animator’s illustrations, and noted that she knew her father loved to draw and could not live as anything other than an animator.

Kunihiro Abe’s mechanical animation work can be seen on many of the shows in the Mobile Suit Gundam franchise such as Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory, 0083: The Afterglow of Zeon, Gundam Wing, Gundam Seed, Zeta Gundam: A New Translation, Gundam Seed C.E.73: Stargazer, Gundam 00, Gundam UC, Gundam Build Fighters, Gundam: Reconguista in G and Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans.

Outside of the Mobile Suit Gundam franchise, Abe’s work can be seen in such series as Bubblegum Crisis, Dangaioh, Vampire Princess Miyu, Dragon Century, Megazone 23 Part III, Sol Bianca and Record of Lodoss War: Chronicles of the Heroic Knight among numerous other credits.

It’s a huge loss for the animation world, and according to Anime News Network, others in the industry responded with their own Abe memories. Fellow animator Kou Matsuo recounted when the two of them worked together on Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam: A New Translation. Director of the film Yoshiyuki Tomino asked Abe to animate Amuro parachuting with a dynamic swaying in the wind. But it turns out Tomino only asked for such a thing because he did not expect anyone to be able to accomplish such a feat.

If you wanted to see some of Abe’s work in action, one available series is Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans. You can find it available for streaming on Crunchyroll, and the series as is described as such:

“The Earth Sphere had lost its previous governing structure, and a new world was created under new systems of government. While a temporary peace had arrived, the seeds of a new conflict were being sown in the Mars Sphere, far away from Earth.“

Iron-Blooded Orphans was so well received that fans are ecstatic to learn that the series will be getting a sequel project of some sort after the official Twitter account shared an image of the series’ main Gundam with asking for fans to wait on an announcement.