Tomobonu Itagaki, director and producer of Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden (2004), passed at 58 years of age, announced in a pre-written message posted to Facebook earlier today. An English translation of the post can be found on the Instagram account of James Mielke, a friend of Itagaki who was entrusted with posting the English translation.

 

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The post starts with, “Final Words,” and continues with a short reflection of his life. He wrote, “My life was a constant battle. And I kept on winning. I also caused a lot of trouble along the way.” It concludes with, “That’s just how it is. So it goes.”

Itagaki’s first project at Tecmo was the Super Famicon version of Tecmo Super Bowl, followed by the Dead or Alive fighting game in 1996, for which he received renown. Itagaki was involved with all Dead or Alive games from its original release to Dead or Alive 4, after which Dead or Alive 5 and Dead or Alive 6 were completed and released without Itagaki’s involvement. He also worked on and released the off-shoot Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball series of games.

Ninja Gaiden’s 2004 video game, which revitalized the franchise, was also under Itagaki’s direction and production. He would go on to work on three more games in the Ninja Gaiden franchise: Ninja Gaiden Black, Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword, and Ninja Gaiden II.

Itagaki went on to depart from Tecmo and therefore his team, Team Ninja, over unpaid bonuses. After leaving Tecmo, he founded Valhalla Game Studios with members of Team Ninja, which dissolved after releasing Devil’s Third. In 2021, Itagaki announced Itagaki Games (which was later renamed to Itagaki Games Co., Ltd.), though the company has not yet released a game.

Larger than life, Itagaki was rarely seen without sunglasses, a look befitting his strong personality and worth ethic that, at times, resulted in butting of heads with others, such as Tekken’s Katsuhiro Karada, the two of them known for having a longstanding rivalry between their fighting game franchises, Tekken and Dead or Alive. 

In a long post on X, formerly Twitter, from back in January 2025, Harada gave a long summary of his time knowing Itagaki. I recommend those who are fans of Harada and / or Itagaki take the time to read the entire statement, though know that it’s long; as Harada himself says in the post, “If anyone dares to respond with ‘too long’ after this, they’ll be sent straight to their ancestors’ graves and permanently muted. Why? Because I specifically said, ‘Don’t read this.’” In response to the news of Itagaki’s passing, Harada made a heartfelt post on X, mourning Itagaki, a rival and friendship that was truly larger than life. Harada wrote,

It’s hard to believe, but Itagaki-san…my senior from university and my rival as a creator has passed away.

The last message I ever received from him was,

“Let’s go drinking. Let’s make some noise soon!”

To think that he’s gone at just 58 years old…

Yes, everyone dies eventually …that’s inevitable.
But you… isn’t it a bit too soon?

Didn’t you say you were going to defeat me someday?
Didn’t you come to my wedding, wearing your usual black leather jacket and sunglasses,
and call me your comrade-in-arms?
Didn’t you tell me to come to you whenever I was in trouble?

I never even got the chance to consult you about anything.

Honestly… I’m really depressed.