The Art of Akihiro Yamada

BiogrApheY

illusTrATions

skeTches

chArAcTerDesign

references

Twelve kingDoms

mYsTic Ark

rAhXephon

BeAsT of eAsT

4

6

10

14

15

18

21

24

27

c o n T e n T s

B i o g r A p h Y

Akihiro Yamada (山田 章博), born February 10,

1957, is a Japanese illustrator and manga artist. He

was born in Kōchi, Kōchi Prefecture on the island of

Shikoku in Japan, and now resides in Kyoto. Yamada

is known for delicate images reminiscent of suiboku

and depiction of fantasy subjects. He is the 1996

Seiun Award winner in art category.

The Seiun Award (星雲賞 Seiunshō) is a Japanese

speculative fiction award for the best science fiction

published in Japan during the preceding year, as

voted by attendees of the Japan Science Fiction Con-

vention. “Seiun” is the Japanese word for “nebula”,

but the award is not related to the American Nebula

Award, and is the Japanese equivalent to the Hugo

Award.

While he has created many manga, Yamada is widely

known as a novel illustrator and as a character

designer. As an illustrator his best known works are

Fuyumi Ono’s Twelve Kingdoms series and Mizuno

Ryo’s Record of Lodoss War. His character design

credits include concepts for the anime series RahX-

ephon as well as a variety of video games. Aside from

illustration and character design he had worked as

concept designer of the movie Shinobi: Heart Under

Blade. Yamada’s character design credits for anime

include RahXephon. His work on video games in-

cludes Saiyuki: Journey West on the Sony PlaySta-

tion, various Might and Magic and Wizardry titles

for the TurboGrafx-16, both versions of Mystic

Ark, Enix’s role-playing video game for the Super

Famicom and PlayStation and character designs for

Shinkai Densetsu Meremanoid and Terra Phantastica.

Yamada also worked on a game called Chaos Gear

and a PC game, Black Rainbow.

Yamada’s designs can also be found in Castlevania:

Dracula X for the Super NES and in Front Mission

3 for the PlayStation. Yamada has produced many

anime artbook compilations

Yamada drew the manga Record of Lodoss War: The

Lady of Pharis in conjunction with writer Ryo Mizu-

no, and is currently working on an Asian-themed solo

manga, Beast of East.

Yamada attracted attention outside of Japan through

his illustrations of Fuyumi Ono’s long-running The

Twelve Kingdoms light novel series. He specially

designed the rich cover illustrations for the home

DVD releases of the anime adaptation of this series.

Within Japan he has illustrated covers for numerous

translated anthologies of Cthulhu Mythos literature,

and is currently working with Kurodahan Press on

their translation of a four-volume Japanese anthology

of Cthulhu Mythos literature, The Lairs of the Secret

Gods (秘神界 Hishinkai). Yamada is drawing covers

that are exclusive to the English translation.

i l l u s T r A T i o n s

The following illustrations shows the different styles of art that Yamada has experimented with, and has no

association with a particular anime, manga, movie, novel, or video game. These are independent works o art.

s k e T c h e s

chArAcTer Designs Twelve kingDoms

Twelve kingDoms

rAhXephon

mYsTic Ark

BeAsT of eAsT

The Twelve Kingdoms (十二国記 Jūni Kokuki?, also known as “Record of 12 Countries” or “Juuni Kokki,”) is a

Japanese series of light novels written by Fuyumi Ono and illustrated by Akihiro Yamada. Aside from being

the illustrator of the novels, Yamada was also involved in the overall art production of the anime adaptation.

mYsTic Ark

Mystic Ark was a game released in 1995 by Enix,

back when they were churning out superbly difficult

games like The 7th Saga. The game was never re-

leased outside of Japan, but has received two fan-

translations by Aeon Genesis and Dynamic Designs,

we’ll be playing the former unless someone has ob-

jections and prefers the other one. Mystic Ark follows

the main character traveling to eight different worlds,

each telling a different story with a different moral

lesson to be learned.

rAhXephon

RahXephon (ラーゼフォン Rāzefon) is a Japanese anime se-

ries about 17-year-old Ayato Kamina, his ability to control

a mecha known as the RahXephon, and his inner journey

to find a place in the world. His life as a student and artist

in Tokyo is suddenly interrupted by a mysterious stalker,

strange planes invading the city and strange machines

fighting back. The anime makes references to the Surreal-

ist artist René Magritte’s La Grande Famille, showing a sky

through the silhouette of a dove., the French Surrealism

movement, from the dreamlike sequences associated with

some Dolems, to all the references to retuning and rework-

ing the world and the desires of man. Surrealists said that

artists should express the subconscious uninhibited by

conscious thought and reason, and that the dream world

of the subconscious was more real than the real world —

surreal.

BeAsT of eAsT

Beast of East is one of the few solo mangas that Yamada’s has had published, while most were collaborations with authors

or artists. Released in 2002 and still ongoing, the story plot takes place a thousand years before Christ, the last king of an

ancient dynasty has had to sacrifice his own life, friends and allies to seal away a demon fox causing chaos in his land and

driving people to despair. During the Heian period that golden-haired nine-tailed vixen, known as Daji in China and Kayo

in India, whose malign influence led to the dramatic downfall of the governments, reappears in Japan...

POSiTiON iN:Animation Runner Kuromi (OAV) : Recording Assistant

Beast of east (manga) : Story & Art

Kekkaishi (TV) : Production Advancement

Last Continent (manga) : Story & Art

Mobile Suit Gundam UC (OAV) : Production Desk

RahXephon (OAV) : Character Design

RahXephon (TV) : Character Design, illustration (ED)

Rahxephon BiBLE 【Analysis Phase】 (Resource Book) : Character Design

RahXephon: Pluralitas Concentio (movie) : Character De-sign

Record of Lodoss War: The Lady of Pharis (manga) : Art

SHiNOBi - Heart Under Blade (live-action movie) : Charac-ter Conceptual Design

(The) Twelve Kingdoms (TV) : Original Character Design

Wolf’s Rain (TV) : Design (“Tsuki no Sho” [Book of the Moon])

Yakitate!! Japan (TV) : Production Advancement

r e f e r e n c e sWEBSiTES

Akihiro’s official Websitehttp://kirakuya-honpo.hustle.ne.jp/yamada-akihiro/

Akihiro Yamada at Anime News Network’s Encyclopediawww.theanimenetwork.com/

EXHiBiTiONS 2011

Yamada Akihiro Exhibition - Worlds from a Magic Brush - Kyoto international Manga Museum

ART BOOKS

Wikia. Manga - Anime character designers: Akemi Takada, Akihiro Yamada, Akira Toriyama, Atsuko Nakajima, Ayumi Kurashima, Fumitoshi Oizaki, Hajime Watanabe, ... Osaka, Hiroshi Kanazawa, Hiroyuki Kitazume. Memphis: Books LLC, 2012.

Yamada, Akihiro. Fantasy Art Works. Tokyo: Soft Bank Publishing, 2006.

Yamada, Akihiro. A Collection of Paintings. Tokyo: Chuouk-ouron Shin Sha, 2004.

Yamada, Akihiro. Souvenir. Tokyo: Nihon Editors, 2004.

Yamada, Akihiro. RahXephon Artworks. Tokyo: Soft Bank Publishing, 2003.

Yamada, Akihiro. Mystic Ark Art Works. Japan, 2000.