Yusuke Okada, Chairman of Toei Animations, Dies At 71 Years Old

Toei Animation, the proud studio behind famous anime like Dragon Ball, One Piece, and Sailor Moon, has just lost its chairman. In its long history of animation production, the Toei group has brought several manga titles to life.


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Ever since it was founded in 1948 as Japan Animated Films, it has not only animated mangas but also created various movies and TV series. The studio was renamed Toei in 1956.

Yusuke Okada, the chairman of Toei Animations, passed away on 18th November 2020. He was 71 years old and his death was due to an aortic dissection.

An aortic dissection is a tear in the inner layer of the aorta or the blood vessel branching off from the heart. The mangaka of Stalker Jokers, Hiromichi Oga, also died of an aortic dissection earlier this month.

Yusuke Okada was the son of Shigeru Okada, who also served as Toei’s chairman for 22 years.

Born in 1949, Yusuke Okada was an actor and a producer before joining Toei in 1988. He debuted as an actor in the film “Take Care, Red Riding Hood.”

Okada slowly climbed the ranks and became the CEO and President in 2002. He was also acting as the Managing Director for Toei before his death. He served as the Chairman for 18 years.

Yusuke Okada, Chairman of Toei Animations, Dies At 71 Years Old
Dragon Ball | Source: Fandom

Earlier this year, Okada became the honorary chairman of the Japan Academy. He was also previously the chairman of the Motion Pictures Productions Association of Japan.

Toei Company is the shareholder of Toei Animations. The Toei group specialises in film, video and series distribution and production and games development. It is also the owner of the Kamen Rider and Super Sentai Franchise.

About Toei Animation

Toei Animation is a Japanese animation studio that works under the Toei Company. It was founded in 1948 as Japan Animated Films.

Since then, it has been responsible for many popular anime and movies such as Sally the Witch, Gegege no Kitaro, Mazinger Z, Galaxy Express 999.

Dr. Slump, Dragon Ball, Saint Seiya, Sailor Moon, Slam Dunk, Digimon, One Piece, and the Precure series.

Source: Toei Animation

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