Yoshitaka Amano

Yoshitaka Amano (天野 喜孝) is a Japanese visual artist, character designer, illustrator, a scenic designer for theatre and film, and a costume designer.

Amano was born in Shizuoka, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan, to Yoshio Amano (1917–1962) and Kesano Amano (née Fujimoto).

He is the youngest child of four.

Amano's father was a lacquer artist, specializing in traditional Suruga lacquerware.

As a young adolescent, Yoshitaka Amano was fascinated with drawing.

He first came into prominence in the late 1960s working on the anime adaptation of Speed Racer.

Amano later became the creator of iconic and influential characters such as Gatchaman, Tekkaman, Honeybee Hutch, and Casshern.

In the 1960s, Amano was exposed to Western art styles through comic books, which he claims among his artistic roots.

He has cited Neal Adams as his favorite comic book artist, noting that he would often purchase used comics based on Adams's cover artwork, only to be disappointed that the interior artist was different.

Amano was also fascinated by the art styles of psychedelic art and pop art of the West, particularly the work of American Pop artist Peter Max.

In 1967, he began working in the animation department of Tatsunoko Productions, where he was introduced to the early Japanese anime movement.

His first paid project was for the Speed Racer anime franchise.

He was a character designer for anime shows such as Time Bokan, Gatchaman, Tekkaman, and Honeybee Hutch.

In the 1970s, Amano studied the artworks of the late 19th century and early 20th century European movement of Art Nouveau, as well as the Russian orientalists (Leon Bakst, Ivan Bilibin) and the ancient Japanese hand woodblock printing work of Ukiyo-e.

During the 1980s, Amano concentrated on illustrations for science fiction and fantasy works.

Combined with the influence of his prior experience in animation, this focus resulted in a personal style influenced by both modern surrealism and realism.

In 1982 he went independent and became a freelance artist, finding success as an illustrator for numerous authors, and worked on best-selling novel series, such as The Guin Saga and Vampire Hunter D.

He is also known for his commissioned illustrations for the popular video game franchise Final Fantasy.

Amano remained at Tatsunoko Productions until 1982.

He left Tatsunoko Production and started his activities as a freelancer in 1982.

He did illustration and cover page design of Kimaira series, written by Baku Yumemakura, from this year.

In 1983, he illustrated the novel Demon City Shinjuku and the first in Hideyuki Kikuchi's Vampire Hunter D novel series.

His illustrations begin to be published in collections such as Maten in 1984.

That year he drew the manga Amon Saga, written by Baku Yumemakura, which was later adapted into an OVA.

He also worked as a character designer on the 1985 movie adaptation of Vampire Hunter D, which was one of the first anime movies to be released outside Japan.

In interviews, however, Amano has stated that he was not pleased with the final product of the movie.

In 1987, Amano joined Square (now known as Square Enix) to work on a role-playing video game for the Nintendo Entertainment System: Final Fantasy.

Amano produced conceptual design pieces for the game in both traditional and computer designed artwork.

At this time, he also worked for another video game company, Kure Software Koubou, producing box cover illustrations as well as some character designs.

This work included designs for Kure's First Queen series.

Since the 1990s Amano has been creating and exhibiting paintings featuring his iconic retro pop icons in galleries around the world, primarily painting on aluminium box panels with acrylic and automotive paint.

Following Final Fantasy VI in 1994, he stepped down as the main character, image, and graphic designer of the series.

He continued to provide promotional and character artwork for the following games and to design their title logos.

Amano became the world's highest-earning artist in 1996, earning US$40,000,000 1996 that year from sales of silk screens, lithographs and etchings based on his book illustrations.

His work began receiving international recognition following the release of Final Fantasy VII in 1997.

He is a five-time winner of the Seiun Award, and also won the 1999 Bram Stoker Award for his collaboration with Neil Gaiman, Sandman: The Dream Hunters.

Amano's influences include early Western comic books, Orientalism, art nouveau, and Japanese woodblock prints.

In 2006, Hironobu Sakaguchi, the former designer and creator of the Final Fantasy series, recruited Amano and composer Nobuo Uematsu to work on video games at Mistwalker.

Amano and Nobuo Uematsu worked together again on videogames like Fairy Fencer F at Compile Heart.

In early 2010, he established Studio Devaloka, a film production company.