Akihiro Yamada

Infobox Artist
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name = Akihiro Yamada 山田 章博


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birthdate = 1957-02-10
location = Kōchi, Kōchi Prefecture, Japan
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nationality = Japanese
field = Manga, Illustration
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awards = 1996 Seiun Awardnihongo|Akihiro Yamada|山田 章博|Yamada Akihiro (born February 10, 1957) is a Japanese illustrator and mangaka. 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 for art.

Introduction

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 "RahXephon" as well as a variety of video games. He is currently working on concept design of the movie .

Works

Character Design

Yamada's character design credits for anime include "RahXephon". His work on video games includes "" on the Sony PlayStation, various Might and Magic and Wizardry titles for the TurboGrafx-16, both versions of "Mystic Ark", Enix's Role-playing game for the Nintendo Super Famicom and Sony 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 Dracula XX, a game in the Castlevania series and in Front Mission 3 on Sony PlayStation. Yamada has produced many anime Artbook compilations.

Manga

Yamada drew the manga in conjunction with writer Ryo Mizuno, and is currently working on an Asian-themed solo manga, "Beast of East".

Novel Illustration

Yamada attracted attention outside of Japan through his illustrations of Fuyumi Ono's long-running "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, nihongo|"The Lairs of the Secret Gods"|秘神界|Hishinkai. Yamada is drawing covers that are exclusive to the English translation.

Photo gallery

Related Links

* [http://www1.odn.ne.jp/yamada-kirakuya/ Akihiro Yamada Official Site]
* [http://www.kurodahan.com/ Kurodahan Press Website]
* [http://www.marine-e.co.jp/sakuhin/beast_of_east/index.htm Beast of East Drama CD Official Site]