Figured I'd post an announcement here for anyone who was looking forward to the up-coming Despera anime. As you may have heard, the production of it had been put on hiatus because of Nakamura Ryuutarou falling ill, but on June 29th of this year, he died of pancreatic cancer.

In case you're not familiar with his name, he's perhaps best known for directing Serial Experiments Lain. He also directed, among other things, Kino's Journey which is one of my favourite anime (I'm part way through re-watching it at the moment, it was one of the first anime I watched). Despera was also to feature character designs from ABe Yoshitoshi and writing from Konaka Chiaki, who both also worked on Serial Experiments Lain and a number of other famous, well received anime.

So yeah, really sad news. The fate of the project is now anyone's guess. Feel free to speculate ITT about whether it will continue with a new director or be disbanded. I just wanted to let anyone here know in case they hadn't heard.

R.I.P.