Final Fantasy’s Yoshitaka Amano Is a Fan of American Comics
Yoshitaka Amano, known for his intricate character illustrations that have dominated the Final Fantasy franchise—as well as covers of Sandman: The Dream Hunters, Vampire Hunter D, and Guin Saga—recently spoke on his upcoming biography and art process.
“The thing about it is there are a lot of personal items and details in the biography, so that’s why it’s fine if it’s coming out in French because no one I know will read it, right?” Amano said. “After that, now it’s coming out in English. I guess it’s fine it’s coming out in different languages, just as long as it doesn’t come out in Japanese!”
“I want them to be able to look at the pictures and however they felt when they first saw an illustration of mine, they can look at it again, come back to that feeling,” he added.
“The truth is I feel I have the easy job of this,” he said of the art process. “Whatever I think up of the character, I immediately just draw it. That comes out naturally. But I feel really bad for the person who has to actually animate it because they have the job of doing different angles and making it 3D.”
“It’s like getting away with a crime,” he said, pointing to the long cape on one of his character designs. “In animation you have to see how this moves, but I just draw it. So I’ve got the easy part, actually.”
Amano, whose favorite superhero is Batman, is currently working with famous South Korean illustrator and comic book artist Kim Jung Gi.
“He’s super fast, like the Korean Michelangelo,” said Michael Gombos, Amano’s translator. “I also have a lot of respect for Neal Adams and Frank Miller,” added Amano, who recently met Miller.
“[Miller] made Batman into a kind of new hero,” Amano said, adding that he’d “love to” work with Miller on a Batman comic.