Tag Archives: Obituary

Kentaro Miura Passes Away At The Age of 54

Hakusensha’s editorial department and the writer’s official Twitter account have reported that Kentaro Miura, the writer and artist of the manga Berserk, has passed away at the age of 54 of an acute aortic dissection.

Berserk, which started in 1988 and was still ongoing as of Miura’s death has been adapted into several anime series, one in 1997 adapting the Golden Age Arc (which was followed by a trilogy of films adapting that arc), and a later series in the late 2010s picking up where the Golden Age Arc left off (which has run for 3 seasons).

Miura’s work had been credited as influencing various works, from video games like Dragon’s Dogma, Dark Souls, and Monster Hunter and the design of Cloud Strife’s Buster Swordin Final Fantasy VII, to various other anime and manga series like Demon Slayer and Vagabond, as well as the Netflix Castlevania animated series.

RIP Ben Bova

The Science Fiction author passed away on November 29 at age 88 of complications from COVID-19. He authored over 120 works of sci-fi, won six Hugo Awards, and has been the president of both the National Space Society as well as the Science Fiction Writers of America.

RIP Chadwick Boseman (1977-2020)

Variety is reporting that Chadwick Boseman has died of colon cancer at the age of 43. Most recently he was best known for the role of Black Panther in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, however his earlier film roles including playing the first African-American Supreme Court Justice, Thurgood Marshall, and the first African-American man to break the color barrier and play in the MLB, Jackie Robinson, in bio-pics for both people (Marshall and 42, respectively).

Star Trek Pioneer D.C. Fontana Has Passed Away

Dorothy Catherine “D.C.” Fontana has passed away at the age of 80 after a brief illness. She wrote for a variety of TV shows, including four Star Trek series, Babylon 5, and much more. She wrote the Star Trek novel, Vulcan’s Glory, which tells of Spock’s first mission aboard the Enterprise and explored Captain Pike’s “Number One” character (played by Majel Barret in the unaired pilot, “The Cage”).

In a male-dominated industry, she hid her gender using her initials (a common practice in those days for women writers).

Fontana wrote one of (if not the best) episode of Star Trek: The Animated Series, “Yesteryear” as well as the DS9 episode “Dax” which explored the past hosts of Jadzia’s symbiote. She also wrote “Journey to Babel” for TOS, which introduced Spock’s parents, Sarek and Amanda.

Raise a glass of Romulan Ale, “To absent friends.”

RIP, Aron Eisenberg

Aron Eisenberg, best known for playing Nog on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine has passed away at the age of 50 from unknown causes. He brought us a fantastic character and, I would argue, one of the best character arcs of any character in any Star Trek. Eisenberg brought a mischievous charm to the character, taking him from juvenile thief to Starfleet Lieutenant. He was also an ardent fan of Star Trek as a whole and ran a podcast, The 7th Rule along side friend and costar Cirroc Lofton (Jake Sisko). Continue reading →

Star Trek: Reunited

Specifically, CBS and Viacom are merging back into one entity. Previously, CBS owned the TV rights to Star Trek while Viacom owned the movie rights (they split up in 2006). It’s partly what led to the JJ Abrams 2009 reboot movies, rather than a continuation of the TNG/DS9/VOY story arc. This will also mean that all of Paramount’s movies will be (theoretically) available on CBS All Access in the future.

In sadder Star Trek news, Barbara March, the actress behind the cunning and ruthless Lursa, has passed away at 65 from cancer. May she live on in Sto’Vo’Kor.

Arson at Anime Studio Kyoto Animation kills 34, hospitalizes another 34.

This past week, a 41-year-old man doused the primary office building of the anime studio Kyoto Animation with gasoline, along with people as they left the building, and set it on fire. The blaze (reportedly due to the positioning of ignition sites) raced through the building, killing 34 people (20 women, 13 men, one unknown), and badly injured another 34. The building itself has been badly damaged, with computer servers and art on the site being a total loss. The arsonist was taken into custody at the scene and confessed to the crime to law enforcement.

Kyoto Animation’s work has included several anime series that have been reviewed on the site, including Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu and Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid, and The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. Other genre series they have produced include Violet Evergarden (which is currently available on Netflix), and Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid (available on Netflix). They also received tremendous critical acclaim for the films A Silent Voice and Liz and the Blue Bird.

The staff of Bureau42 offers our condolences to the victims and families of the victims of this attack.

The names of the victims have not been officially released at this time. We ask that you refrain from speculating on the identity of the victims, and refrain from stating the name of the arsonist.