Yoshitaka Amano - his universe, on paper

A portrait of Yoshitaka Amano, the character designer & illustrator legend behind the Final Fantasy series. We take a look at Amano's universe and career, his beginning as an animator for Tatsunoko Production, his shift as an illustrator and his involvement with Final Fantasy and his more recent towards the fine art scene.

Music:
Teebs - Verbena Tea with Rebekah Raff
Teebs - LSP Featuring Austin Peralta

This video was made in collaboration with French publisher Mana Books, end 2017.

#finalfantasy #illustration #documentary

[lolalola]

Oh! Fun facts!
2:45 - all those are only part of his artwork...he keeps every single piece of illustrations/char designs he makes because he says each feels like it's a child of his. Rarely has he ever given any away.

#2: he used to be somewhat of a procrastinator. When he first was hired by square to make character designs, theyd come to his house to pick up the art and he'd make them wait by serving them tea and talking to them while he rapidly made the characters. Square was delighted by his work(and impressed he could pull it out so quickly) that they didn't mind lol

[Ushiwakasama]

Seeing this interviews of people that I admire since childhood, accessible for foreigners... Thank you so much for your work <3

[hannehanneart]

After studying art in college, I’ve been having a hard time to find flow in my process. I feel better about my art then before learning about the art principles in school.

I come back to this video because Mr. Amano’s process helps me remember the feeling of that flow. There’s something raw and beautiful about his work.

[novaria]

Amano seems to have healthy boundaries towards his own art. When I listen to him it feels like he doesn't know what's happening when he draws but is still doing it with his whole heart and soul. I wish I knew how he does that.

[RobMartens]

I am unable to adequately express how much his artwork meant to my conception of Final Fantasy. The FFVI manual and strategy guide artwork, especially combined with Uematsu's music, took my 11 year old imagination to places only hinted at by those adorable character sprites. I can still barely put it into words. Glad to see he's still at it!

[johnwayneatthefirstthanksg]

“A mano” in spanish means “by hand” he was born for this :0

[jamesmunro]

Such raw talent fueled by so much passion. His artwork is like nothing else I’ve ever seen. They look like dreams on paper/canvas.

[pinkfloyd]

i'm still praying we one day get a new final fantasy that actually tries to replicate or directly translate amano's ethereal style instead of just using it as a jumping off point for general visual design.

[CyborgNinja]

To me, Amano's style has such a surreal, dreamlike quality. There's this energy and emotion to his work that's hard to describe, but it exists there, flowing freely and vividly through each of his works.

[finalbreath]

It blows my mind that this one man has single handedly inspired one of the most iconic jrpg series of all time. And he basically just does cover art and character design. His actual images aren't in most of the productions they are produced for, and yet his cover art is some of the most beautiful I've ever seen and his character designs permeate every title.
Ps. I LOVE Angel's Egg.

[crissbd]

Beautiful. He is just...basically everything an artist wants to naturally be. It seems that he was born to it. Just beautiful.

[imane]

I relate to him so much when he said that till now he doesn't know what's his style, I've been drawing for quite awhile and I don't seem to have a touch, like my illustrations keep getting different each time, but as he said drawing what we feel like it is probably more important

[thedomeguy]

I'm so glad you got Amano! He's practically the reason I started drawing. I've been in love with his art since I was 10 years old.

[yot-su]

omg so happy to see amano on this channel!

[ghostnoteCE]

great job guys Yoshitaka Amano is a legend among legends.

[ArchipelDocumentaries]

English subtitles are available under the “CC” menu. French, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish subtitles have also been made available through Community Contributions, which are open for additional language submissions. Thank you for following Archipel and if you enjoy our content and want us to keep going, please consider supporting us on Patreon: patreon.com/archipel

[roguejester]

I practically worship this guy! He's one of my absolute favorite artists.

[scarlet]

Thank you, uploader! For Westerners who want an English book of his art work, I highly recommend "Worlds of Amano" which was first published in 2007 or Fairies, as well as all the "The Sky: Art of Final Fantasy" books (there are 3 total I believe). Some of these are available to read online & purchase. Many modern games designers pay tribute to Amano's style, a good example being Ubisoft's "Child of Light" (2014) where the movement of the protagonists' flowing hair was specifically based on Amano's linework

[ukuotuscoffinowl]

Amano is one of my favorite artists, I saw his artwork firs time when finding beautiful artworks about Vampire Hunter D. His illustrations decorate the light novel book's covers and stunning ink illustrations potray scenes of the stories. His character designs and illustrations are just amazing.

[Koseiku]

ok his office is like the coolest on the planet lol