Cognition Dissemination: Mutsumi Inomata Will Be Missed, Too
It’s been less than two weeks since Akira Toriyama died as of this writing. But when it rains, it tends to pour too heavily, as we’ve lost yet another great Japanese character designer. It was reported very early Monday morning (Eastern Time) that Mutsumi Inomata passed away on March 10. The Twitter update was provided by her sister, who said she died suddenly, though didn’t disclose a cause of death. News of her passing has led to the expected, but always tragic, outpouring of love for her work, with a little insight as to who she was as a person. The tweet that stuck out to me the most is Tekken director and producer Katsuhiro Harada’s, in which he reminisced that Inomata used to come by his office at Namco/Bandai Namco to play video games with him.
Remembrance and reminiscence of Inomata’s contributions was bound to be considerably muted compared to someone like Toriyama. The latter whom made a profound impact on the manga and anime world, and video game world for several Dragon Quest and Dragon Ball games. Inomata didn’t have quite as much, though the Tales of series might still be on par with Dragon Quest in video game RPG franchise popularity outside Japan. I’m aware that continuing with this comparison would not be entirely flattering for Inomata, hardly the way to commemorate the memory of someone who recently passed. Yet, it still feels like praise for Inomata has been more muted than it should be, despite me understanding why that is.
Part of the reason here is how I was a low-key fan of Inomata for years. Her style helped define the outward aesthetic of the Tales of series from Namco, later Bandai Namco. She was first chosen for the characters designs in Tales of Destiny, and kept for several games afterward, with the last game she contributed to being 2016’s Tales of Berseria. She had a distinctive art style, with her main artwork using a watercolor technique with muted coloring, one reminiscent of older fantasy artworks. That style wasn’t always reflected in the Tales of games themselves for aesthetic appeal reasons for the audience, but her techniques still shined through. It spoke to how distinct her style was through later Tales of games prior to Tales of Arise, those that included designs from multiple artists. Her contributions through the likes of Millia Maxwell and Velvet Crowe in the Tales of Xillia games and Berseria, respectively, stood out.
Inomata also contributed guest designs to the Tekken series, another way in which she and Harada bonded. She contributed special outfits for Jin Kazama and Ling Xiaoyu in Tekken 5, for Zafina in Tekken 6, and for Jaycee in Tekken Tag Tournament 2.
Of course, she had plenty of contributions outside those. She also helped define the look of old school anime in the 1980s, even though many works she contributed primary character designs are obscure now (especially outside Japan) like Leda: The Fantastic Adventure of Yohko (previously released by Right Stuf in North America) and The Weathering Continent. Another image that’s remained in my head is from her meeting with the also-late Michael Jackson in the late 1980s, as showcased in an old issue of Newtype, to the point of drawing artwork of him.
There’s a larger reason why Dragon Quest was worth mentioning above, as Inomata made lighter contributions to the franchise. She worked with series creator Yuji Horii to provide artwork for several manga and light novel works and adaptations, and provided plenty of artwork showcasing characters from several earlier Dragon Quest installments. In fact, she provided artwork of Dragon Quest IV villain Psaro the Manslayer before he received official series art. Toriyama didn’t get around to providing his own rendition until the game was remade for PSOne.
We’ve lost a staggering number of well-known talent in the Japanese gaming industry in a little more than the last year at too young an age. Between Inomata and Toriyama, the list also includes Suikoden creator Yoshitaka Maruyama (who sadly passed months before his newest creation, spiritual successor Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes) would release and Sega’s Rieko Kodama (of Phantasy Star and Skies of Arcadia). There’s also fellow character designer Yoshitaka Tamaki, of Shining Force, Landstalker, and Alundra, who passed away from lung cancer at only 55 last summer. His death went more under the radar than Inomata’s is now, including by this blog. I’d be here all day if I delved into all those we’ve lost in gaming outside Japan, and in the animation world.
We’ve lost too many in the last year, and I can only hope that this trend of popular and semi-popular figures dying young is over for a little bit. But I know it won’t be. Inomata’s touch on the Tales of series will live on, at least.
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Geoff
News Editor | Geoff is some nerd who writes for a blog and thinks he's knowledgeable. He write a lot about video games, but is capable of writing about other subjects, too. Twitter
