Who Was Mutsumi Inomata? Tales of RPG Series Artist Reportedly Passes Away

Mutsumi Inomata, the illustrator known for her work on the Tales series of games by Bandai Namco, has passed away at the age of 63.

By Barsha Dutta

Updated on Mar 18, 2024 | 08:30 PM IST | 40.8K

Exploring Who Mutsumi Inomata Is As Artist Reportedly Passes Away

Tales of Eternia (PC: IMDb)

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Who is Mutsumi Inomata?
Exploring Mutsumi Inomata's works

The official Twitter account for artist Mutsumi Inomata announced on Monday that Inomata died on March 10. Her family held a private funeral. The announcement added that Inomata's death was sudden, and she still had the draft for a new illustration that she had only started drawing before she died.

Who is Mutsumi Inomata?

Mutsumi Inomata was a Japanese illustrator and animator. Inomata was born in Kanagawa Prefecture on December 23, 1960. Inomata began working for Ashi Productions, working as an animator, key animation director and character designer on several anime television series.

In 1982, she joined some of the younger staff of Ashi Productions who established Kaname Productions, where she worked as an animator, animation director, and character designer on several of its series. In 1983, she also made her debut as a manga artist, with her work GB Bomber being featured in Tokuma Shoten's The Motion Comic. Later, in 1984, she left Kaname Productions and continued her work as a freelance animator.

She is noted for her work as an animator, character designer and animation director on several anime titles, including Windaria, Plawres Sanshirō, Future GPX Cyber Formula, and Brain Powerd.

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Inomata was also a prolific novel illustrator, known for her vivid watercolor paintings which often center around young women with wide, jewel-like eyes. Many of her illustrations are collected in her artbooks, which include Voice of the Stars, Dreams of the Moon, Eccelente, SAI, and numerous others. She is also noted for being the main character designer on a number of titles in Namco's Tales of series of video games.

Sadly, Inomata has passed away at the age of 63. An announcement was posted on X, with her sister saying that it happened suddenly on March 10. She also says that there are drafts she had been working on, and that she believes Mutsumi is working on them in heaven. The tweet said,

"It happened so suddenly… There were even rough sketches left unfinished, but she must be drawing them now in heaven. Surrounded by her beloved cats, she should be continuously creating characters with cute and strong eyes. We express our heartfelt gratitude to everyone who loved and supported Mutsumi Inomata. We sincerely hope for your continued love and support in the future, and hereby notify you with deep respect. The funeral was held privately with close relatives only. As per the deceased’s wishes, we respectfully decline any condolences, monetary gifts, offerings, floral tributes, or any other form of condolences.! We kindly ask for your understanding."

Kadokawa also made an announcement offering their condolences and mentioning they worked with Mutsumi since 1980s and some of the most popular works.

Tales of Eternia (IMDb)

Exploring Mutsumi Inomata's works

Mutsumi Inomata was noted for her work as an animator, character designer and animation director on several anime titles, including Windaria, Plawres Sanshirō, Future GPX Cyber Formula, and Brain Powerd. Lets dive into more of her works.

Manga: GB Bomber and Nyan no Ohanashi

Anime: