I'm going to be honest, I never even heard of the guy until I heard the news. And that makes me feel even worse about the ordeal. Whether or not you consider anime and manga a very large factor of your life, it's almost no doubt that everyone here will have been affected by this man's dedication and actions to some extent.
Toren Smith was one of the first people in the western world to push for expanding the anime and manga scene to the english-speaking world. Introduced to anime and manga in 1982, he banked all his efforts on moving to Japan to found one of the first, and for more than two decades, most prominent, translation companies - Studio Proteus. The company would later go on to localize titles such as Astro Boy, Akira, and Ghost in the Shell.
His living conditions in Japan were harsh, often living in small, unheated living quarters, but he endured them due to his sheer passion for anime and manga. One might argue he was the real definition of an otaku, foregoing basic living needs for his obsession - but it paid off.
He made several key connections with the rising anime studios of the time, living for several months with the animators of Studio GAINAX, familiar with them to the point there was an
homage to him in the anime Gunbuster.
A more detailed description of him can be found on
Wikipedia, and several anime news outlets have covered news of his death already.
It's really a shame - I feel like not enough people actually know his story, and the fact that he is largely the reason that an anime and manga subculture even exists in the western world today.
