The official Twitter account for Konami 's Bomberman franchise announced on Tuesday that artist Shoji Mizuno recently passed away. The account did not reveal the date of his passing. He was 58.

Mizuno is perhaps most famous for re-designing the titular character of Hudson Soft 's Bomberman series when the game was released for the NES/Famicom. The design persists even in modern iterations of the game series. He also provided the original character designs for the Beyblade , Beyblade: V-Force , and Beyblade G Revolution television anime series.

Former Hudson Soft executive Toshiyuki Takahashi (Takahashi Meijin) published a post on his blog honoring Mizuno on Sunday. Takahashi especially highlighted Mizuno's work with the Bomberman Jetters anime, saying that Mizuno worked on storyboards, world setting, and character designs for the anime.

Mizuno's family will hold a wake on Thursday, and a funeral on Friday.

Thanks to Jonathan Andrade for the news tip.

Source: Bomberman official Twitter account via Siliconera