Mutsumi Inomata, who served as the main character designer for numerous mainline Tales of series titles, passed away on March 10 at age 63.
Mutsumi Inomata was best known for her designs in the Tales of series, which included the likes of Tales of Destiny and Tales of Xillia, among many others. Her sudden passing is a major blow to the industry and I am quite sad to report it.
A heartfelt announcement published on Inomata’s official X account, written by her sister, confirmed her death.
“Mutsumi Inomata passed away on March 10, 2024,” the message reads. “It happened so suddenly. She still has rough drafts, which I’m sure are still being worked on in heaven. Surrounded by her favourite cats, she’s surely creating more cute, strong-eyed characters.
“I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to all those who loved and supported Mutsumi. We hope that in the future you will continue to love her as you did.
In a separate message, she added, “It really happened so suddenly that I still can’t think of many things. I plan on keeping this account open for a while. If you could reply with a message, I’m sure it will reach my sister.”
Kadokawa made an announcement as well, offering their condolences and mentioning they have worked with Inomata since the 1980s.
Mutsumi Inomata started her career as an animator, animation director, and character designer for Kaname Productions in 1982 when she eventually worked on a multitude of series with them. In 1983, she debuted as a manga artist with her first work, GB Bomber, a manga series that would later be featured in Tokuma Shoten, a major publishing company for all things music, video game and anime related. She eventually went freelance in 1984, where she would start doing character designs for a multitude of different anime projects, which included works from the aforementioned Kadokawa.
It wasn’t until she joined Namco back in the 90s where she would eventually become the lead character designer for Tales of Destiny released initially in Japan on December 23, 1997. Tales of Destiny is one of numerous titles among the Tales of series that I and many others have come to enjoy over these past several decades. As someone who started with the franchise back in 2004 with Tales of Symphonia and has gone out of their way to play older and newer titles alike, her passing has left me a bit empty, knowing we won’t be able to see her cute and shoujo-like illustrations anymore in future titles.
The Tales of series, for anyone who doesn’t know, is a series of role-playing games released initially in Japan, starting with their first title, Tales of Phantasia, back in 1995, unlike most JRPGs, which opt for turn-based gameplay. The Tales of Games were among some of the earliest JRPGs in Japan to adopt a real-time combat system. My personal favourite variation of the system was in Tales of Grace f, which also had character designs done by Mutsumi Inomata.
The last mainline Tales of Game Inomata worked on was Tales of Berseria, which was released back in 2017. Among all the games in the series, this one was not among my favourites due to its gameplay, but I really enjoyed the story and characters, especially Eizen, who is one of the party members that joins the main character, Velvet Crowe, on a quest to get revenge for her younger brother’s death.
Over the past several years, Inomata has graced us with her stellar character designs in several anime and video game series. She will be missed by all of us who had the chance to experience them in the many projects she had worked on. May she rest in peace.
