Actor Shu Wada has passed away at 81, due to complications caused by the novel coronavirus. The news comes via the official Facebook page for the Yoru no Ki (Tree of Night) performance troupe.

According to Oricon news, Wada was born in Kagoshima prefecture in 1938. He has appeared in multiple NHK taiga dramas (historical dramas) such as Katsu Kaishu and Musashi MUSASHI. He also performed voice work in various special effect driven tokusatsu shows, such as Himitsu Sentai Goranger.

His son Gen Urobuchi is a writer affiliated with the visual novel company Nitroplus. Urobuchi is best known for writing the 2003 visual novel Saya no Uta (Song of Saya), and writing the 2011 anime series Puella Magi Madoka Magica.

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic (also known as COVID-19 officially, or Chinese Flu to others) has affected many worldwide, from businesses to public gatherings and events. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7].

This includes the postponement of GDC, and the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, along with the cancellation of E3 2020 (including digital events), the physical event for Gamescom 2020, and Comiket 98.

We also reported on Sword Art Online: Alicization Lycoris being delayed due to the pandemic hindering development, along with EMS and Airmail shipments from Japan to the US ceasing– starting today.

The Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering are mapping the virus’ spread [1, 2]. As of this time of writing, there have been over 3.173 million total confirmed cases worldwide, and over 1.989 million active cases. There have been over 225,927 deaths, however over 959,774 people have made a “total recovery.”

Japan have had over 13,739 cases (11,446 active cases), 394 deaths, and 1,899 recoveries.

Image: Wow! Korea