 Yoshitaka
Amano was born in 1952 in a small town at the foot of mount Fuji
in Shizuoka, Japan. As a child, he reveled in making unbroken loops of
drawings on the huge paper rolls that his brother brought home from his
job at a paper factory. "I don't remember a time when I wasn't making drawings,"
he recalls. While visiting a friend in Tokyo
in 1967, he boldly took his paintings to the animation studio Tatsunoko
Productions, creators of Space Ace and Mach Go Go Go. His talent was instantly
recognized, and at the age of 15, his family reluctantly moved him to a
company dormitory in the capital city. After a year of training, Amano
took part in designing characters for many of Tatsunoko's greatest cartoons,
including Gatchaman (released in the US as G-Force and Battle of the Planets),
Hutch the Honeybee, and Cashaan: Robot Hunter. Yet after fifteen
years with the animation studio, Amano began to grow restless. He tendered
his resignation at the age of 30, exchanging his established career for
the precarious life of a freelancer. "Even the tax authorities questioned
my decision," he remembers. "But once your life is too stable, your creative
dies." Amano soon gained a loyal audience through
the Japanese publication Science Fiction Magazine, which serialized his
work in their Twlight World feature. In 1984, he published his first collection
of paintings, Maten (Evil Universe) . He went on to collaborate with numerous
writers, creating close to 20 illustrated books that have sold millions
of copies. These works include Hideyuki Kikuchi's Vampire Hunter D, Kaoru
Kurimonto's Guin Saga, Yoshiki Tanaka's Arslan Chronicals, and Rasen-O
(Spiral King) and Chimera by Baku Yumemakura. At the same time, in 1984
he teamed up with director Mamoru Oshii to create the animated film Angel's
Egg, which became a cult hit in Japan. His artistic success
won him access to yet another format in the 1980s; concept illustration
for videogames. His first project, Final Fantasy, became an international
hit. He also created character designs for the games Front Mission, Gun
Hazard, Rebus (released asKartia in the US), and Emblem of Eru (to be released
in Japan by Capcom.) Amano pushed his boundaries
even farther in 1997, when he began creating work in New York City. "New
York" says Amano, "is my fantasy city, a place where I can dream freely
and without constrictions of the known." His 1997 "Think Like Amano" exhibition
in New York City's Puck Building presented a retrospective of his work,
and debuted his series of ambitious New York paintings. In the fall of
1998 the exhibit travelled to Tokyo's Uenonomori Museum, where it drew
record crowds. 1998 also saw the premiere of 1001 Nights ,
a collaborative film/music project with composer David Newman that was
commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic. The 3D computer graphic animated
film was produced by Yukio Sonoyama and premiered as the inaugural event
in the L.A. Philharmonic's innovative "Filmharmonic" series. In
the fall of 1999, Amano will present a multimedia exhibition of his new
character Hero, open from October 6th through October 31st at the Angel
Orensanz Foundation in New York City. Also in 1999, Amano has joined for
the first time with Neil Gaiman to introduce a new edition of the wildly
popular Sandman series. --Amanosworld.com |