Yoshitaka Amano

Yoshitaka Amano (February 24, 2006)

Yoshitaka Amano (天野 喜孝 Amano Yoshitaka, born July 28, 1952) is a Japanese artist, best known for his illustrations for Vampire Hunter D and for his character designs for the video game series Final Fantasy.

Biography

Early Beginnings 1960s to 1970s

Amano was born in Shizuoka City, Japan; as an adolescent, he was fascinated with drawing. In 1967, he began working for Tatsunoko Productions in the animation department were he was introduced to the early Japanese anime movement. His first paid project was for the Speed Racer anime franchise. He worked in character design for animes such as The Time Boken series, Gatchaman and the Honey Bee.

In the 1960s Amano was exposed to American and other Western art styles through comic books and their Japanese Western-influenced counter parts. Amano also was fascinated by the art styles of Psychedelic and Pop Art of the West most particularly the work of American Pop artist Peter Max.

In the 1970s Amano's intrigue led him to the study of the artworks of the late 19th century and early 20th century European movement of Art Nouveau and the ancient Japanese hand woodblock printing work of Ukiyo-e. While now doing illustration as well, he was still at Tatsunoko Productions until he left in 1982.

1980s to present

In the early 1980s he then concentrated on primarily illustrations for Science Fiction and Fantasy, while still keeping the influence of his animation and other illustration works from the 1960s and 1970s. This in turn created a unique personal style, a style taking from both modern surrealism as well and realism fluent in many classic and modern techniques.

In 1983 he was behind the illustrations for the novel Demon City Shinjuku and the first of Hideyuki Kikuchi's novel series Vampire Hunter D. This was adapted to a movie in 1985 for which Amano worked as character designer. The film was one of the first anime movies to be released outside of Japan. In interviews, though, Amano has stated that he was not pleased with the final product of the movie. More involvement in illustration had led to the creation of collections of his artwork being published, such as "Maten" in 1984.

In 1987 he was introduced to a newly developed art department with a promising future for conceptual design for video games. He joined Squaresoft Co., Ltd. (Now known as Square Enix Co., Ltd) to work on what was expected to be their last video game for the Famicom (Nintendo Entertainment System) Final Fantasy. This task opened a new realm for Amano to work in. Even though at the time video game technology was very young Amano produced striking pieces of conceptual design for the games in both traditional and computer designed artwork. Final Fantasy (the first in a still running series) was a success and brought the company Squaresoft popularity in the RPG genre in Japan, as well as modest international fame. But the series would ignite extreme international fame as the series continued.

In 1989 he had his first exhibition called "Hiten" at Yurakucho Mullion in Tokyo, Japan. He continued to work with Squaresoft and their Final Fantasy series, and in 1990 he started to work as an artist for stage theater. His first work for theater was Tamasaburo Bando's Nayotake which was in the same year. During this time while working as illustrator, character designer and set designer he had exhibitions of his becoming well known for his printing works.

In 1994, after Final Fantasy VI, he was no longer the main artist of the series, but in 1995 he started to become more well known world wide with his work at the Biennale d'Orléans in France, and then in his newly established workshop and exhibition "Think Like Amano" in New York in 1997. Which followed another exhibition in New York at the Angel Orensanz Foundation entitled "Hero".

Amano also appeared in the 1998 movie New Rose Hotel which is loosely based off the William Gibson short story with the same name, in which he played the character Hiroshi.

In 2000 Amano illustrated for comic writer and novelist Neil Gaiman on Sandman: The Dream Hunters which won several awards and was nominated for a Hugo Award, as well as having his character designs used again in another Vampire Hunter D movie entitled Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust. In 2001, Greg Rucka and Amano collaborated with another comic book tale, this time for Marvel Comics, Elektra and Wolverine: The Redeemer.

And as of 2006 he has been selected with former Square Enix video game composer Nobuo Uematsu by former designer and creator of the Final Fantasy series of Square-enix Hironobu Sakaguchi to work on video games at his company Mistwalker. He also stated in an interview in the french magazine "Japan Vibes" that he is working on artwork for Final Fantasy XIII. [1]. Finally, his series, Hero, will debut to American audiences by Boom Studios.

He has also illustrated three album covers for the Japanese power metal band Galneryus, 2003 - The Flag of Punishment, 2005 - Advance to the Fall, 2006 - Beyond the End to Despair.

Image:Gordon artwork.jpg|Ink & watercolor character design for Gordon from Final Fantasy II by Yoshitaka Amano (1988).

  Image:Leila artwork.jpg|Ink & watercolor character design for Layla from Final Fantasy II by Yoshitaka Amano (1988).

Image:Ff6 amano tina.jpg|Pencil & watercolor character design for Terra Branford from Final Fantasy VI by Yoshitaka Amano (1994). Image:Ff6 gogo.jpg|Pencil & watercolor character design for Gogo from Final Fantasy VI by Yoshitaka Amano (1994).

List of works

Illustration

Genji
Rampo
Chimera
Vampire Hunter D
Guin Saga
The Sandman: The Dream Hunters
The Heroic Legend of Arslan
Sohryuden
Elektra and Wolverine: The Redeemer
Yoshitaka Amano: The Sky (series of artwork from Final Fantasy to Final Fantasy X)
Galneryus - Flag of Punishment, Advance to the Fall, Beyond the End to Despair album art

Video Games

Game Name	First Released	System Name(s)	Amano's Role(s)
Final Fantasy I> 1987 ¦¦ NES	Character Designer & Graphic Designer
Final Fantasy II> 1988 ¦¦ NES	Character Designer & Graphic Designer
First Queen> 1988 ¦¦ PC98 & X68000s	Box cover artist
Duel> 1989 ¦¦ PC88	Box cover artist
Duel98> 1989 ¦¦ PC98	Box cover artist
Final Fantasy III> 1990 ¦¦ NES	Character Designer & Graphic Designer
First Queen 2> 1990 ¦¦ PC98	Box cover artist
Final Fantasy IV> 1991 ¦¦ SNES	Character Designer & Graphic Designer
Final Fantasy V> 1992 ¦¦ SNES	Character Designer & Graphic Designer
Kawanakajima Izuroku> 1992 ¦¦ PC98	Box cover artist
First Queen 3> 1993 ¦¦ PC98	Box cover artist
Final Fantasy VI> 1994 ¦¦ SNES	Character Designer & Graphic Designer
Front Mission> 1995 ¦¦ SNES	Character Designer
Front Mission: Gun Hazard> 1996 ¦¦ SNES	Character Designer
Final Fantasy VII> 1997 ¦¦ Playstation	Promotional Artwork & Character Artwork
Kartia: World of Fate> 1998 ¦¦ Playstation	Art Designer
Final Fantasy VIII> 1999 ¦¦ Playstation	Promotional Artwork & Character Artwork
Final Fantasy IX> 2000 ¦¦ Playstation	Character Illustration
2000-2001 ¦¦ Sega Dreamcast	Creative Director & Additional Design
Final Fantasy X> 2001 ¦¦ PlayStation 2	Promotional Artwork & Character Artwork
Final Fantasy XI> 2002 ¦¦ PC, PlayStation 2 & X-box 360	Promotional Artwork
Final Fantasy XII> 2006 ¦¦ PlayStation 2	Promotional Artwork
Final Fantasy XIII> ? ¦¦ PlayStation 3	?

Note:Tetsuya Nomura was the character designer of Final Fantasy VII, VIII, X and X-2. Akihiko Yoshida was the character designer of Final Fantasy XII''.

Animation

Kagaku Ninja Tai Gatchaman (1972)
Genesis Climber Mospeada (1983)
Okawari Boy Starzan-S (1984)
Sei Jūshi Bismarck (1984)
Tekkaman The Space Knight (1984)
Angel's Egg (1985)
Amon Saga (1986)
Casshan (1993)
Time Bokkan

References

"Amano: The Complete Prints of Yoshitaka Amano" Collins Design November 4 (2003) by Unno Hiroshi. ISBN 0060567635

External links

*Amano's World - The Art of Yoshitaka Amano (Japanese)
*Amano's World - The Art of Yoshitaka Amano (English)
*The Art of Yoshitaka Amano - fansite
*Atma's Amano Final Fantasy Gallery - fansite
*A Day in the Life of Yoshitaka Amano - videos and interview