Yoshitaka Amano was born in 1952 in Shizuoka, Japan. Even as a child, he greatly enjoyed drawing on the paper rolls that his older brother brought home from work at the local factory. As he recalls, he was "always drawing."
In 1967, Amano made a bold move, traveling to Tokyo and presenting his works to the Tatsunoko Production studio, which specialized in animation. This is the studio that produced Space Age and Mach Go Go. Tatsunoko Productions immediately recognized his talent, and he was soon moved to Tokyo to live in a company dormitory. He was only fifteen years old at the time.
After tutoring with the company for a year, Amano was allowed to produce character designs for many of the Tatsunoko's films, which included Cashaan: Robot Hunter and Gatchaman, which was otherwise known as G-force.
Despite the success that Amano had, he began to desire more, and soon resigned from his stable position with the company, a move which some thought was risky. But he felt that he had lost his creative edge, and for him, becoming a freelance artist was the answer to his problem. His work soon became very popular through a Japanese science fiction magazine, and they began serializing his work.
During the early 1980s, he published his first collection of paintings which he called Maten, which translates into "evil universe." He then collaborated with many other writers, and together they produced illustrated pieces which have sold hundreds of thousands of copies. One of the most famous of thes is Vampire Hunter D. In 1984 he came into contact with Mamoru Oshii, and as a team they produced a work called Angel's Egg, and this work has huge popularity in Japan.
But Amano's success as an illustrator would take him to a whole new level. In the mid 1980s, he began work as a concept artist for video game companies. HIs has done concept for such companies as Squaresoft and Capcom. In 1997, Amano's influence to New York city, where he held his very own exhibition.
Amano also had a large exhibition at Uenonomori Museum, which drew huge crowds. He has also had an opportunity to work with music composer David Newman in a piece that was produced by the Los Angeles Philaharmonic. In 1999, he also produced an exhibition in New York City of his new creation which he named Hero at the Angel Orensanz Foundation . For thirty five years, Amano has produced works in various mediums, and he has a unique style that can be easily recognized. Here are a few other photos of his work.
