Post by Diego Manalili

Yoshitaka Amano has a wide variety of experiences as a character designer, fine art painter, Japanese artist, theater and scenic designer, costume designer, and animator. Notable for his contributions towards the Japanese animation industry, video games, graphic novels, and the fine arts of painting. His art style revolves around western comic books, Art Noveau, and Japanese woodblock prints according to his work website, “yoshitakaamano.com”.

AMANO’S BIOGRAPHY

Yoshitaka Amano was born on March 26, 1952, and somewhere near Shizuoka, Japan. At the age of fifteen, he moved to a company dormitory to work at Tatsunoko Productions, an animation studio. He created character designs for animation shows such as Gatchaman, Hutch the Honeybee, and Cashaan: Robot Hunter.

He left Tatsunoko Productions at the age of thirty in order to work on more independent projects. When he left the studio, his employers and co-workers were skeptical about his departure, because he was throwing away his financial stability. However, in response to this, he said,”…But once your life is too stable, your creative dies”.

AMANO’S WORKS

Warning: sexual nudity

AMANO’S ART STYLE

I have previously mentioned his art style had an influence from western comic books, Art Noveau, and Japanese woodblock print.

• Art Noveau is an art style that focuses on more of a decorative and fine art aspect within designs.
• Japanese Wood Block Prints utilized flat coloring and heavy lines.

Amano’s art style heavily focuses on a variety of fantasy and sci-fi as it can be seen in his works. In 2008 at an art gallery, Gallerie Michael Jansen in Berlin, Germany, Daniel Boese, a critic on the Artforum mentions how Amano was a “superflat concept”, not figuratively but litterally. Boese says Amano’s paintings had fused with “graphic design, pop culture, and the fine arts…”