Art Director Shigemi Ikeda Passes Away

Art director Shigemi Ikeda (池田繁美) passed away on October 13, 2024, according to a post made by his family on his X (formerly Twitter) account on October 26. He was 69 years old.

Shigemi Ikeda was born on November 5, 1954, in Shinjuku, Tokyo. He joined the industry in the mid-1970s as a background artist at studio Ad Cosmo. He later worked at Group TAC and then Studio Uni, the latter of which is where he debuted as an art director on the 1981 Toei Animation series Beast King GoLion.

He worked at Studio Uni until 1986 when he founded his own art studio, Atelier Musa, which he served as president and CEO of until his death. During his nearly 4 decades as the head of Atelier Musa, Ikeda presided over a myriad of high-profile works as art director. He was a frequent collaborator of the Gundam franchise beginning with Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam (1985) in which he was the background artist for the series’ ending theme. He was later the art director for several iterations of the franchise: Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s Counterattack (1988), Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team (1996), Turn A Gundam (2000), Mobile Suit Gundam SEED (2002-2024, including the recent film), Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn (2010), and Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin (2015).

He was the art director for several other popular series as well: Inuyasha (2000), Planetes (2003), Afro Samurai (2007), Bokurano (2007), High School DxD (2012-2013, seasons 1-2), My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU (2013-2023, all works), and One-Punch Man (2015-2019, both seasons).

Recently, Ikeda has been the co-art director for every animated iteration of My Hero Academia since its first season alongside co-Atelier Musa art director Yukiko Maruyama, as well as the art director for Overlord since its first season.

Featured image:
Inuyasha, © Rumiko Takahashi, Shogakukan, Yomiuri TV, Sunrise 2000
Planetes, ©Makoto Yukimura, Kodansha/SUNRISE, BV, NEP,
Turn A Gundam, ©Sotsu, Sunrise
One Punch Man, © ONE, Yusuke Murata / SHUEISHA, Hero Association HQ