One Piece, Dragon Ball Super Series Director Tatsuya Nagamine Dies

©Eiichiro Oda/Shueisha, Toei Animation © 2012 One Piece production committee

Composer Kōhei Tanaka and screenwriter Osamu Suzuki both reported on X/Twitter on Thursday that anime director Tatsuya Nagamine died this summer.

Tanaka stated he had attended a gathering at Toei Animation to remember Nagamine on Thursday. Suzuki stated he could not attend the gathering due to a scheduled event at the same time, but heard about the gathering from a friend who attended.

According to Suzuki, Nagamine was 53 when he died.

Nagamine has directed works in many Toei Animation franchises such as Dragon Ball, One Piece, Digimon, and Precure. He directed both the Beet the Vandel Buster and Beet the Vandel Buster Excellion anime, and directed the Dr. Slump: Dr. Mashirito Abale-chan film.

Nagamine was a series director for the One Piece anime from episode 892 (the start of the Wano Kuni arc) through episode 1122 (the end of the first part of the Egghead Island arc before the anime took a hiatus in October 2024). He was also the series director for One Piece Log: Fish-Man Island Saga, which aired while the main anime was on hiatus from November 2024 through March 2025. He directed One Piece Film Z, the One Piece: Heart of Gold special, and was the assistant director for One Piece: The Desert Princess and the Pirates: Adventure in Alabasta.

In the Dragon Ball franchise, he directed the Dragon Ball Super: Broly film, and served as a series director for Dragon Ball Super for episodes 77-131. He was an assistant director for Dragon Ball Movie 4: The Path to Power, an assistant animation director for Dragon Ball GT, and an animator for Dragon Ball Z Kai.

In the Digimon franchise, he directed the Digimon Savers the Movie - Ultimate Power! Burst Mode Invoke!! film and was the assistant director for the Digimon Adventure 02: Hurricane Touchdown film.

He directed the HappinessCharge PreCure! anime and was the series director for the Heartcatch Precure! anime. He worked as an episode director for the PreCure Splash Star, Fresh Pretty Cure, Suite Precure, Yes! Precure 5, and Yes! Precure 5 GoGo! series, and directed the Yes! Precure 5 GoGo! Okashi no Kuni no Happy Birthday and Yes! Precure 5: Kagami no Kuni no Miracle Daibōken! films.

Nagamine also was an episode director for Mo~tto! Ojamajo Doremi, Ojamajo Carnival!!, and Ojamajo Doremi DOKKAAN!. He also worked on the Ojamajo Doremi anime.

He was also a series director for Saint Seiya Omega, and an episode director for Saint Seiya: The Hades Chapter - Sanctuary.

Suzuki shared a story in his X/Twitter post about Nagamine. They met in 2010, when Suzuki was writing the script for One Piece Film Z. The first script he proposed was quickly scrapped. The script was then made based on the idea Nagamine had proposed, building upon the story of a former marine admiral named Z. Suzuki said, "At first, he didn't show me a single smile. I thought he was very stern, and I had moments where I lost heart." He added that when he finally finished the script and met with Nagamine, when he entered the conference room, Nagamine bowed deeply and said "thank you for your hard work." Suzuki said "at that moment, I almost cried." He added that Nagamine put his heart and soul into his work.

Sources: Kōhei Tanaka's X/Twitter account, Osamu Suzuki's X/Twitter account