For days, Anime News Network has been bringing up-to-date information to indicate which members of Japan's animation, comic, and video game industries mangaged to survive the earthquake/tsunami disaster that took place in Sendai, Japan on March 11. Hours ago, ANN had confirmed that a member of the anime indsutry had actually kicked the bucket during that disater, and that person was Hiroshi Kakoi. However, the guy's wife is confirmed to stiil be alive and well.

In case you're not familiar with Hiroshi Kakoi, he was a production manager at AIC (short for "Anime International Company") as well as at Artland, the company with which Studio Nue had pitched the 1982 Japanese animated T.V. series "The Super Dimension Fortress Macross" (of which Kakoi himself served as a key animater for several episodes). Apart from working as a key animator of "SDF Macross", he also co-produced the 1992 OVA minseries "The Super Dimension Fortress Macross II: Lovers Again" (used by Manga Entertainment to make "Superdimensional Fortress Macross II: The Movie") and the 1993 OVA miniseries "Moldiver" and served as an animator of 1980's "Shin Tetsuwan Atom" (which like 1963's "Tetsuwan Atom", was dubbed in English under the title "Astro Boy").

2:49 PM Canada EST