I first became aware of Yoshitaka Amano’s work when he drew THE DREAM HUNTERS, an illustrated novel for DC Comics’ SANDMAN series. I enjoyed seeing his further works with American publishers like Marvel and his own series HERO for BOOM! Comics, but didn’t realize until recently how prolific the man is. He worked on GATCHAMAN, he designed VAMPIRE HUNTER D and he produced designs many of the FINAL FANTASY games - - and those are only just a few accomplishments from an extensive body of work.
ANN reports that Amano is actually going to be directing his own anime feature for the first time, and I’m surprised that it’s taken this long for an artist with such vision and experience to get around to a project like this. I suppose he was just bidding his time… or perhaps he was too busy. Either way, the 3D film will be produced through his Studio Deva Loka (awesomely named for a phrase that means “Where gods meet) and it shall be entitled ZAN. The short synopsis of the plot is that it’s about a samurai led into another dimension to battle wicked villains. As to be expected, Amano is wearing all hats in the production by writing and doing conceptual designs in addition to directing it. He even unveiled one of those designs at the Tokyo International Anime Fair recently - - a statue of Zan’s ferocious feline companion.
-- Tom Pinchuk is the writer of UNIMAGINABLE for Arcana Comics and HYBRID BASTARDS! for Archaia. Watch out for the HYBRID BASTARDS! hardcover collection this April - - available for pre-order now on Amazon.com.
Anyone interested in his animated work should check out his collaboration with Oshii Mamoru (Ghost in the Shell), called "Angel's Egg" (probably only available via piracy, let's be honest).
He also did "1001 Nights", which, like Angel's Egg, is really all about the art. (It is basically a half-hour drug trip.)
I think Final Fantasy has suffered since he stopped doing the character designs. Although quite whimsical, his designs always seemed more grounded than Nomura's mindfucked neon fashion show parade.
Yoshitaka Amano makes an anime. Sold! He's my favourite character designer for the Final Fantasy series and his work on Vampire Hunter D is just awesome.