“Emperor Of The Anisong World” Ichirou Mizuki Has Passed Away

The Twitter account of Ichirou Mizuki has announced that the veteran singer, also known by the nicknames “Emperor of the Anisong World” and “Aniki” (elder brother), passed away on December 6 as a result of lung cancer. He was 74.

Mizuki had revealed last April that he was suffering from vocal cord paralysis. He underwent lung cancer surgery in June and announced in July that he was slowly resuming his activities and that the 50th anniversary plans for his anisong debut were in progress. Mizuki gave his final live performance on November 27 at the Ichirou Mizuki Mitsuko Horie Futari no Anisong #19 concert.

Mizuki was born in Tokyo in 1948. His debut single, “Kimi ni Sasageru Boku no Uta,” was released two decades later in 1968. His first few anime songs came in the early 70s, starting with “Genshi Shonen Ryu wa Iku,” the opening for the 1971 anime adaptation of Genshi Shonen Ryu. Later, Mizuki sang the opening song for Astroganger, as well as the opening and ending songs for 1972’s Mazinger Z anime adaptation.

Over the decades, Mizuki performed songs like “Ore wa Great Mazinger” from Great Mazinger, “Theme of Mazinkaiser” from the Mazinkaiser OVA, “GO!! Departure” from Super Robot War Impact, “Honoo no Egao” from Gyakkou Nine, “Gatchaman No Uta” from Gatchaman ’94, and “Mazinger Z/INFINITY Version” from Mazinger Z: Infinity. The singer has over 1,200 songs attached to his name.

Sources: @aniki_z, Comic Natalie