Hunter Weeks: I've really enjoyed the opportunity to get to know your work.

Yoshitaka Amano: Thank you very much.

HW: I want to talk about your background. Could you briefly describe your 15-year experience at Tatsunoko productions?

YA: I was totally isolated in this room called the character room and I was painting every single day, all day long, creating images with no break at all. It was really a lot of fun, but at the same time, I was always so desperate to run away from the situation, because of all that work. It took me 15 years to finally get out of that situation.

HW: While you were there, which projects were special to you?

YA: I did so many different projects including G-Force and the Time-Bokan series, but also there are so many others I worked on that were never released and those are the ones that I really liked.

HW: You spoke about leaving Tatsunoko after 15 years. What was it that finally did compel you to go out on your own? It seems like an especially bold move to make in the Japanese culture.

YA: It may sound a little childish, but I really wanted to be out in the real world. When you work for a large company, you are protected in many ways and after a while you start questioning yourself about the environment. Also I wanted to see my images being used 100%. If you are in the production of an animation, so many people are involved, for example people that do background or the actual animation, and I wanted to see if my original paintings would be accepted in the real world.

HW: We have a lot of freelance designers and artists that go to designfreak.com frequently. One of the challenges these individuals are facing right now is marketing themselves and becoming well-known. Was that a challenge for you, did it come naturally, and do you have any advice for these individuals?

YA: I cannot really give any good advice to anybody. For me, it's always been very important to value the joy that I have always had for creating images. Since I was a child, it was simply important to value my love for painting and creating art.

HW: So, it's a matter of really pursuing what you love?

YA: Yes, I think so, but in the course of working, there are some things that I really enjoy and there are some things on which I just have to face and make myself work. For example, this morning I was working until 7:30 a.m. and didn't even notice that it was already that late, but for me it wasn't really work. It was fun and I enjoyed the work.

HW: Sounds like you need to start working for one of these dot com companies.

YA: Normally, I'm always so behind in my deadlines, but right now I'm free from deadlines. Actually I have some, but I'm ignoring them and just enjoying what I want to paint.

HW: Speaking of deadlines, how do you avoid letting deadlines take over what you are doing and prevent you from being creative?

YA: The work with deadlines and the work I do for fun are two different kinds of work and it's sort of good to work with deadlines because they usually give you specific guidelines and I just have to express what is required. I'm creating a character named Batty for my web site (www.amanosworld.com). Something like that is really fun because it's not work that's based on a deadline. I really enjoy this.

HW: That's great. I'll be excited to see more of Batty.

YA: Thank you.

HW: Let's talk a little about the Final Fantasy games. Can you highlight on some of the experiences you've had working for Square Productions?

YA: First of all, it (Final Fantasy) was my first experience with computer games. The way it started was Mr. Sakaguchi (then series producer of Final Fantasy) and other creators were just having so much fun. It looked like it would be a fun thing to be involved with.


HW: How much involvement do you have with the digital artists who turn your character designs and background designs into the ones and zeros?

YA: The production process happens simultaneously and I don't directly deal with them. I would just work on my characters and turn them into them. Sometimes there was a little bit of a gap. When I'm working on character A, somebody might be working on character C, or something like that. But, I'm creating something totally different. My images have wider and broader meanings. I think they wanted me to create a vision for the entire environment. It's not just for the game, but it's also about overall concept, the story and the development of the characters.

HW: It's exciting to see the examples of the concept work for these games. I wonder - Is it ever frustrating to see the end product? Are you ever dissatisfied with how something turned out or are you usually pleased with how the end product looks?

YA: I originally come from places like Tatsunoko Productions, where people are taking my images, using them for animations and they turn out to be something other than my original work. So, I'm probably different from other fine artists. I'm used to that kind of production work, so it has never really bothered me. And also if the game images aren't working well, I can just blame it on other people (laughter).

HW: Are there current things you are working on right now with Final Fantasy or the rest of the video game industry?

YA: I've been working on a project in Japan that SQUARE is producing. It's a book that includes all the characters and images I created for the Final Fantasy series. I would really like the book to be useful for the game creators when it's released.

HW: Is that going to be released in the US?

YA: I know it is going to be a bilingual book - so, probably.

HW: Sounds interesting.

YA: Yes. I'm also creating some new images for this book¡¦ I am working on a CAPCOM game and I have a deadline that is supposed to be towards the end of September (which had passed at the time of this interview).

HW: Obviously, you've worked with a variety of artwork and design. Are there any particular favorites that you have?

YA: Let me think. I have so many projects. I just keep creating so many characters constantly¡¦ For me to be involved in games and animation means to work on the images, but whether the actual production will do well or not has nothing to do with me. When I'm creating images, it's definitely important that I create fine art and separate myself and my original art from the actual product. That is something I wanted to mention, too.

HW: Let's talk a little about the digital design industry. If you were born 20 years later, do you think you might have a tendency to explore digital design and do some work with it?

YA: I think for me as an artist, it's always very important that I just have very creative images in my head, so if I was born maybe a 1000 years ago or something, I would still be painting. Maybe there is no paintbrush, but I'd still be doing something like that. I'm not sure about 20 years from now, but it's just a matter of different tools that I can use to create the images that are in my head.

HW: So, are you opposed at all to using computers as a paintbrush? How do you feel about this?

YA: I would use computers because they are just tools to express whatever is in my head. To be honest, creating actual work from the images in my head is work to me. It's fun, but it's still work. Sometimes, I think it would be good if the images that are in my head could automatically be 3d animated images without any work in the future.

HW: That's fascinating. So, do you see art and design as conveying what is going on in your mind?

YA: It's usually linear images I have in my head. But, I have to admit that as I actually start moving my hand and working on the images, I get more and more ideas about the image.

HW: I'd like to talk a little about HERO now. I'm really interested in you describing how you brought various types of media together and your life's work to begin creating HERO.

YA: I think to be honest I started working on the HERO story and images and it just turned out that way - I wanted to put a project together that can be expressed in a full-length 3D computer graphics film and various different mediums.

HW: So the future of HERO is what exactly? The film? Is there more to it?

YA: I probably won't be satisfied unless I can see a full-length film in 3D. And probably when I get to that point, there will be some more things that I want to do and I won't be satisfied if these don't happen (laughs). I'm not sure what exactly that would be but I would definitely like the project to become an art catalog. And also as a painter of fine arts, I would like each image to be recognized by itself. Also, it seems that in this modern day age, all these different media are merging into each other. There's no distinct line. Merging all these different media is something nobody has done before, so it'll be interesting to make it happen. And HERO is my original work and story. I don't have any deadlines, so I think I'll have a lot of fun with no deadline.

HW: It sounds very exciting and somewhat familiar. Our company, DesignFreak is focusing on the the New Media Industry, which we feel is a convergence of all these different types of digital design, such as 3D animation, web design, interactive design and a number of these coming into one.

YA: Speaking of my specific interests about doing HERO in different mediums, I would like HERO to do some of the following: I'm planning on shooting HERO images with actual models. Other than art media, I would like to have something like a gallery show and to publish a photographic book. I'm not sure if it's going to be related to the 3D computer graphic film. But, as an art, there are so many different ways that I want to approach this project. Speaking of the fashion photography book or photographs of HERO, I would like the models to have the real jewelry that I designed and created with real silver, gold, and stones. Whatever is in my mind - I want to happen in real life. Like the Egyptian culture or Greek culture - maybe in hundreds of years, people can find actual HERO jewelry and products that I create right now. That is something I'm really interested in. I want HERO to be real, real life. Like Mona Lisa - if you look at the painting, nobody knows if she really existed or not, but just because we have that painting, she is real and that is the kind of thing I want HERO to be. Over the course of hundreds of years of history, a fantasy becomes a real story. I'm creating HERO, the story right now. Maybe in a thousand or hundred years from now, it'll be a real story to the people that find my artwork.

HW: So, it's in a sense, something you hope will leave a mark on society?

YA: I'm not going to be here hundreds of years from now, but knowing that my work will entertain people in the future is a form of motivation. When I think about the HERO project, it's something people will still experience in the future. It's fun just to think about the future of HERO.

HW: So, HERO was introduced last year in New York, correct?

YA: Yes, just about a year ago.

HW: Is that when the whole 'Think Like Amano' campaign rolled out?*

YA: No, the 'Think Like Amano' campaign was three years ago and introduced all the different kind of works I've done in the past.

HW: Are you trying to promote your work more in the US?

YA: Yes, I definitely would like to promote my work in that way.

HW: I've read a lot of positive reviews on you and Neil Gaiman's work in creating the book, The Sandman: The Dream Hunters. Can you tell us briefly how this came about and if you are working on anything else with Gaiman?

YA: The way it started was in the summer of 1998. We were approached by Jenny Lee, the editor for DC Comics. She has been big fan of my work and she went to the 'Think Like Amano' exhibition in 1997. She promised herself that eventually she would work with me on something when the time comes. (One day) her boss was talking about creating a 10th anniversary Sandman poster and she said "why don't we ask Mr. Amano?" I thought it would be a great opportunity to show my work in America, so I said yes, of course, and the poster was released and Neil was just thrilled. Although he had told Karen Berger that the Sandman series was over, he decided that he would do a new story if I was willing to do the artwork. So, I decided to do the book.

HW: Are there more plans to do anything with Neil Gaiman?

YA: Yes, actually, Neil is going to be involved in the creation of the story (HERO). He would interpret my ideas and storyboards.

HW: Can you describe how your Japanese lifestyle and background has influenced you overall?

YA: It's something about myself that I'm not conscious about that I am Japanese, so I really can't tell. I think the themes in my artwork happen naturally, just as they would for someone from another country.

HW: What types of things inspire you when you are creating art?

YA: It depends on the work, but sometimes it would be a novel or even a word, or a lot of times it is music. The other day I was listening to Bach's Cello and it was fully inspirational and I started creating a princess image and story.

HW: Are there any artists out there that inspire you?

YA: So many (laughs). I just have so many. There are different artists that I like for different aspects - I like the colors of Van Gogh, and sometimes I like the softness of Renoir and I like the serious feeling of Miro. The pursuit of reality I find in DaVinci's work. I think it's almost divine sometimes. And also I like Michelangelo. But, what I really feel right now is that I have already seen so many pieces of artwork by different artists - in the past visited so many museums, but I've come to a point of understanding that I really need to work on my own images.

HW: So, if you had to sum it all up, what is it about you that has brought on the success you've achieved and allowed you to continue producing such amazing artwork?

YA: To me it was just important to pursue the fun and enjoyment of creating images and I wanted many people to see these images and if I can make a living with that, I'd be happy. Actually when I'm here (New York) I'm spending 2/3rds of my time just painting.

HW: It sounds like you enjoy doing it and sharing it with people, which is what drives you.

YA: It is a lot of work to make it happen. (laughs)

HW: Thanks Amano. I wish you luck and continued success in the future.

YA: Thank you very much.

Amano's website can be found at www.amanosworld.com, where you can find tons of merchandise and plenty of pretty pictures to pine over.

Thanks to DesignFreak for this exclusive interview.