Newspapers Mainichi Shimbun and Yomiuri Shimbun both reported on Thursday that film director and screenwriter Toshio Masuda died of old age on August 26. He was 98.

Masuda was born in Kobe in October 1927. He made his directorial debut in 1958 with the film Kokoro to Nikutai no Tabi while working at Nikkatsu, which he joined in 1954 after working for Shintoho. At Nikkatsu he also directed such films as Rusty Knife, Red Handkerchief, and Red Quay.

He is perhaps best known outside of Japan for co-directing the Japanese sequences of the 1970 Japanese-American war film Tora! Tora! Tora!. Some of his other famous works include High Teen Boogie, Katayoku Dake no Tenshi, and Prophecies of Nostradamus, and he was nominated for the Best Director Award at the 4th and 13th Japan Academy Film Prizes for his films The Battle of Port Arthur and Company Executives, respectively.

In anime, Masuda oversaw the scripts and supervised the 1974 Star Blazers TV series. He later directed the 1977 Space Battleship Yamato film compilation of the series. He was one of the directors and scriptwriters for the 1978 film Farewell to Space Battleship Yamato, the 1979 film Space Battleship Yamato: The New Voyage, and the 1980 film Be Forever Yamato.

Additionally he was the chief supervisor and one of the scriptwriters of the 1983 film Final Yamato, and was the general supervisor for the 2009 film Space Battleship Yamato Resurrection.

He also co-directed the Future War Year 198X film, and was the chief director and one of the screenwriters for the Odin – Starlight Mutiny film.

Masuda directed 82 total films in his career, and was praised as “a craftsman among craftsmen.” He received the Award for Distinguished Service from the Chairman at the 41st Japan Academy Prizes in 2018. He was awarded with the Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon in 1993, and with The Order of the Sacred Treasure, Gold Rays with Rosette in 1999.

The Japan Academy Film Prize Association posted its condolences on Friday.

Sources: Mainichi Shimbun, Yomiuri Shimbun via MyAnimeList

Manga creator Hiroya Oku (Gantz, Inuyashiki, GIGANT) confirmed on social media on Thursday that he created the Thunder 3 manga under the pen name Yuki Ikeda. He said that he wrote the series under a pen name in order to maintain a story surprise in the first chapter for first-time readers, a surprise that would have been lessened if readers saw the Hiroya Oku name.

Kodansha USA publishes the series in English and describes the story:

Three ordinary schoolboys come into possession of a DVD that supposedly opens a gateway to a parallel universe, but when their backs are turned Pyontaro’s little sister Futaba passes through and gets kidnapped by the aliens that have overrun that version of Earth! Discovering that their cartoonish bodies make them supermen in the hyper-realistic parallel universe, the boys set out to rescue Futaba.

Ikeda launched the series in Kodansha‘s Monthly Shonen Magazine in May 2022. The series entered its climax in January 2025, then went on hiatus in March that same year due to Ikeda’s health. The manga returned from its hiatus in February. The manga ended on June 5. Kodansha published the manga’s 10th volume on August 17. Kodansha USA shipped the eighth volume on February 10. 

The anime premiered on the +Ultra programming block on Fuji TV and other channels on July 8 at 24:45 JST (effectively July 9 at 12:45 a.m. JST). The anime is exclusively streaming worldwide on Netflix starting on July 8.

Oku announced in an interview with Courrier Japon in August that he plans to retire after he finishes his latest manga Kanrekihime (The Sweet Sixty Princess). 

Oku launched the Kanrekihime (The Sweet Sixty Princess) manga in Shogakukan‘s Big Comic Superior magazine in December 2025. Shogakukan published the manga’s first compiled book volume on May 29.

Oku’s Gantz manga ran from 2000 to 2013. The manga inspired a television anime, a CG anime film, two Japanese live-action films, and two spinoff manga. Dark Horse Comics released the manga in North America. Oku launched the GANTZ:E historical spinoff manga with artist Jin Kagetsu in January 2020. Shueisha‘s Jump TOON vertical-scrolling manga service launched a new vertical-scrolling full-color edition of the manga titled GANTZ: T in July 2025. The Deadline website reported a Hollywood live-action of the manga in November 2021.

Sources: Hiroya Oku‘s X/Twitter account, Thunder 3‘s X/Twitter account