Yoshitaka Amano

### Affiliation

Zan, Final Fantasy, Vampire Hunter D, Speed Racer, Gatchaman, Casshan, Guin Saga

## Physical description

### Gender

Male

**Who's Yoshitaka Amano?**

(Japanese: 天野 喜孝, born March 26, 1952) is a Japanese visual artist, character designer, illustrator, a scenic designer for theatre and film, and a costume designer. 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: The Space Knight, Hutch the Honeybee, and Casshan. 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.

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. He is a 5-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 early 2010, he established Studio Devaloka, a film production company.

**Biography**

Amano was born to Yoshio Amano (1917–1962) and Kesano Amano (née Fujimoto) in Shizuoka, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. He is the youngest of four children. The father of Amano was a lacquer artist who specialized in Suruga traditional lacquerware. Yoshitaka Amano developed a fascination in drawing as a young adolescent. He started working at Tatsunoko Productions' animation division in 1967, where he first saw the early Japanese anime movement. The Speed Racer anime series served as the subject of his first professional endeavor. For anime series like Time Bokan, Gatchaman, Tekkaman, and Honeybee Hutch, he created the characters.

Comic books in the 1960s exposed Amano to Western art forms, which he credits as one of his artistic influences. Neal Adams has been named as his favorite comic book artist, and Amano has noted that he frequently bought used comics based on Adams's cover art, only to be disappointed when the interior artist was different. Amano was also enamored with the Western pop and psychedelic art movements, especially the work of American pop artist Peter Max. Amano studied early 20th-century European Art Nouveau artworks, Russian orientalists(Leon Bakst, Ivan Bilibin), and traditional Japanese Ukiyo-e hand woodblock prints in the 1970s. She also studied Russian orientalists. Till 1982, Amano stayed employed by Tatsunoko Productions.

**Studio Devaloka**

Following a brief solo art exhibition tour dubbed "Devaloka," it was revealed in 2010 that Amano had founded a film production firm called Studio Devaloka and would be helming the 3D anime Zan. Future projects would also be unveiled. The official website for the movie, which is now called Deva Zan, was released on December 15, 2010, along with details on a press conference that will take place on December 21, 2010. The about ten-minute presentation included information about the project's personnel and a brief trailer for the movie, which stylistically resembled Amano's paintings.

Dark Horse Manga announced an illustrated novel adaptation of the piece in April 2012. Amano's first book as an author will be available in January 2013 and feature over 240 original pictures. Amano claimed in an interview from October 2012 that the animation project was still in its production and fundraising stages and might instead be produced as a TV series, despite a predicted 2012 debut date. It was also claimed that a video game adaption would be possible.

Amano and the Japanese rocker Hyde (L'Arc-en-Ciel/VAMPS) worked together on the 2013 art exhibition Destiny and Decay: Nippon Evolution.

**Social Media**