Studio Khara announced on Wednesday that animator and director Shoichi Masuo passed away on Monday at 11:36 a.m. while under medical care for an unspecified illness. He was 57. His close relatives will hold a private wake and funeral service.

Masuo is a noted key animator who specialized in mechanical and effects animation. He started out as an animator in Studio Giants, working on such anime as Sengoku Majin Goshōgun . He was the assistant animation director for the 1984 anime film The Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love? , where he met future Gainax co-founder Hideaki Anno on the film's key animation staff. After working on Project A-Ko in 1986 as a key animator and mecha animation director, he moved to Gainax, where he worked as assistant director for Royal Space Force - The Wings of Honnêamise , and as key animator, technical director, and mechanical designer for such anime as Gunbuster , Otaku no Video , Nadia - The Secret of Blue Water , Neon Genesis Evangelion , His and Her Circumstances , and Gunbuster 2: Diebuster . He also worked on anime outside of Gainax, such as Akira and Giant Robo . He is credited for mecha design for The Irresponsible Captain Tylor , and was the animation supervisor and mechanical director for the 6 Angels film.

Masuo has directed such anime as Crimson Wolf , Countdown , Submarine 707R , and Demonbane .

When Anno left Gainax and founded Studio Khara to work on his new Evangelion anime films, Masuo followed as a key animator as well as a special effects and action director up until the third and most recent film. Among his last credits were the storyboards for the Hakuoki: Demon of the Fleeting Blossom: Wild Dance of Kyoto film and key animation for the Arpeggio of Blue Steel television anime.

Sources: Sponichi Annex, Anipages (Ben Ettinger) via Yaraon!