Keiko Nobumoto, the writer of such anime as Macross Plus, Cowboy Bebop, Wolf's Rain and Tokyo Godfathers, passed away on Dec. 1, allegedly due to esophageal cancer.
The news of her death was made public via a Facebook post from writer Dai Sato, who worked alongside Nobumoto on Wolf's Rain and the Shinichiro Watanabe-directed productions of Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo and Space Dandy. Sato received the news from Watanabe, who was contacted by Nobumoto's family following a memorial service on Dec. 4. In his memorial post, Sato calls Nobumoto "the person who guided me, like a master."
Nobumoto was born on March 13, 1964 in Hokkaido and became a professional screenwriter after winning the 1989 Third Fuji TV Young Scenario Grand Prix. Her early credits include 1991's Tobé! Kujira no Peek, a movie about kids saving an albino whale from the circus, the 1992 live-action film World Apartment Horror (co-written and directed by Akira's Katsuhiro Otomo, based on a story by Satoshi Kon) and the 1993 TV special Hiroshima ni Ichiban Densha ga Hashita.
The 1994 Macross Plus OVA series, set in the universe of Super Dimension Fortress Macross, began her working relationship with director Shinichiro Watanabe, with whom she'd repeatedly collaborate throughout her life. The four-episode OVA series was adapted by Nobumoto into a condensed feature film, Macross Plus: Movie Edition, in 1995. Nobumoto was in charge of series composition on Watanabe's 1998 genre-blending classic Cowboy Bebop; she wrote nine of the show's 26 episodes, including the "Jupiter Jazz" and "The Real Folk Blues" two-parters, as well as 2001's Cowboy Bebop: The Movie.
Wolf's Rain, a 2003 anime series about four wolves searching for Paradise at the end of the world, was Nobumoto's own creation; she wrote nine of the 26 TV episodes and all four of the concluding OVA episodes. Also in 2003, Nobumoto once again collaborated with Satoshi Kon for the holiday drama Tokyo Godfathers. Nobumoto is credited as a "scenario supervisor" for the original 2002 Kingdom Hearts game and received a "special thanks" for 2005's Kingdom Hearts II.
Following this burst of productivity in the early 2000s, Nobumoto slowed down, occasionally writing live-action scripts but limiting her anime work to the occasional episode for Watanabe. These episodes include the first half of the "Lullabies of the Lost" two-parter for Samurai Champloo and four episodes of Space Dandy. Her final writing credit was for the Carole & Tuesday episode "God Only Knows."
Macross Plus: Movie Edition is returning to theaters on Dec. 14.
Source: Facebook, via Anime News Network
