El concepto de justicia según Yoshitaka Amano (entrevista + ilustraciones)

Los jueces de Final Fantasy XII vistos por Amano.


A continuación copio una entrevista que se le realizó en 2000, la encontré interesante.

Patrick Klepek: How long have you been drawing, both professionally and just for fun?

Yoshitaka Amano: I might have been born with pencils in my hand. I am not sure when I started drawing as a child. As a profession, I started at Tatsunoko Production when I was 15. When I have dead lines my work is considered professional, but otherwise it is just that I am having fun drawing.

Patrick Klepek: How long have you been drawing, both professionally and just for fun?

Yoshitaka Amano: I might have been born with pencils in my hand. I am not sure when I started drawing as a child. As a profession, I started at Tatsunoko Production when I was 15. When I have dead lines my work is considered professional, but otherwise it is just that I am having fun drawing.

Patrick Klepek: What do you look to for inspiration when coming up with ideas?

Yoshitaka Amano: I travel. For example, I am in NY for a particular inspiration. I go to Kyoto, Paris and other cities for the same reason. When I am in different environment, I am constantly inspired by the surroundings. Appearance of the city, the people, fashion, and food etc… The life style and the city in which I live naturally influence the way I depict images through my hands. It is like natural spring water. It depends on the kind of soil and rain the land gets, the kind of water that is created is different. Sometimes it takes months and years to digest the inspiration and make that come out in my work. Inspiration is something that accumulates in my memories. I am in search of the inspiration just so I can create images that I like.


Patrick Klepek: What other artists’ work do you admire?

Yoshitaka Amano: Right now, I like Delacroix. Actually I have always liked his work. The best 3 at the Louvre are Delacroix, Rembrandt, and DaVinci.

Patrick Klepek: Is there a particular project you’ve worked on that you could say is your favorite?

Yoshitaka Amano: Right now, they are Kotatsu, NY Salad, BATTY… the ones that I drew for fun. Cute characters. They mean a lot to me. Essentially, pictures are supposed be that way. All it matters is if I have fun creating or not. Stating about art doesn’t mean anything. My art exist in extension from my childhood fun of drawing. Whenever I work on something serious, I find myself having fun creating playful, fun and cute characters.

Patrick Klepek: What types of tools do you use when drawing?

Yoshitaka Amano: Pencils! First image is always created with a pencil. All is determined by the initial work with a pencil. I wonder what in the world I would do if there were no pencil. I think the person who invented a pencil is so great. If I were in charge, I would definitely give him a Nobel prize.

Patrick Klepek: Has there ever been a time where the ideas simply “stopped flowing”, and you were stumped on what direction to head in next?

Yoshitaka Amano: No, but it would be fun to experience that. Then I would come up with new ideas and that becomes so much fun. It is the most fun part to come up with new ideas. If I had to repeat the same things over and over again, that would be hard. Thinking, “let’s see what do I do…” is a pleasant sensation. If I lose that feeling, it would be meaningless to draw.

Patrick Klepek: How long have you been designing characters for video games?

Yoshitaka Amano: Whenever I started working on Final Fantasy.

Patrick Klepek: Does it feel strange to see the artwork you create sometimes transformed from two-dimensions to the world of 3D?

Yoshitaka Amano: Say my 2D images are 100%, 3D images would be 60%, I mean 50, or may be 40% of what I intended. The gap there is where unknown possibility is. The part that is blank and not fulfilled in the 3D works is the interesting part. I am not going to die because 3D images are not 100%, so it is OK.

Patrick Klepek: Recently, you collaborated with author Neil Gaiman on a few projects. Was there a reason you wanted to work with Gaiman, and would you like to work with him, or other authors, in the future?

Yoshitaka Amano: I feel that I have already met all the talented authors in Japan and outside of Japan, too. Plenty of them… I do not think I will meet anymore. I would need to be sensitive and passionate about getting inspiration from talented authors and I think I passed that stage. Rather, I want to meet musicians, and talents in other genres. I want to collaborate with a variety of talents. Anybody interested?

Patrick Klepek: Do you have a personal favorite design?

Yoshitaka Amano: Favorite design? Game character design? Design in general… I wonder? Well, when I like an image or something, it often turns out to be my work… I am just joking.

Patrick Klepek: Has Squaresoft asked you to work on any of their upcoming projects on the PlayStation 2?

Yoshitaka Amano: Other than Final Fantasy? I do not think so.

Patrick Klepek: What are you currently working on?

Yoshitaka Amano: As I answer this interview, I am working on BATTY. BATTY’s Christmas, I am doing this at my dining room table. I went to get Christmas candies, candles, decoration etc. for his environment yesterday. Oh, and I should seriously be working on FF10… A Japanese publisher “Digi Cube” will publish a book called something like “A Complete Guide to Final Fantasy Characters” in February, I think. It is going to be bi-lingual, Japanese and English. Editors and a photographer is coming from Tokyo next week, so I must start working on FF10, then. The book is especially meant for young artists who are interested in creating characters for games. Also I am working on new CG movies and games, called “ZAN” and “Agent 13”. “ZAN” is my original story about Samurai and the project is initially for American market. I have this original super hero called “TAKOMAN” as well. …and needless to mention, HERO!

Patrick Klepek: Thanks for answering our questions, we can’t wait to check out what you have coming down the line!

Yoshitaka Amano: My pleasure, you are welcome. Christmas is coming and soon it will be the new century. I really want to leave everything behind and start something new… I think at the end of the century, people were talking about what to leave in the history, but the new century is all about starting something innovative and I do not want to repeat the same thing. Let’s start something new!