Yoshitaka Amano, visionary artist who created the Final Fantasy logo and much more, on show in Milan

Yattaman, Tekkaman, Hurrycane Polymar, now anime classics, and then the characters of early Final Fantasy and the logo of perhaps the most famous Japanese video game saga ever, have one person in common, their designer, Yoshitaka Amano. Recognized for his pioneering contributions to the world of animation, video games, and contemporary art, Yoshitaka Amano in his career has dealt with different languages, from fashion to design to graphics. 

These aspects are significant elements of connection between the maestro and Milan, a place of intersection and contamination between design, fashion, art, graphics, and theater. Also for this reason, Lucca Comics & Games chose the Lombard capital as the perfect city to host the first extra-moenia exhibition dedicated to the art of the Japanese sensei.

In fact, the collaboration between POLI.design, a center for post-graduate education founded by the Milan Polytechnic, and Lucca Comics & Games gave birth to the project of the exhibition Amano Corpus Animae, curated by Fabio Viola and staged in the spaces of the Fabbrica del Vapore, which celebrates the fifty years of activity of the Japanese artist, with more than one hundred and thirty works that weave an articulate discourse on the relationship between art, video games and the world of animation more generally.

Conceived following a chronological path divided into five sections, Amano Corpus Animae traces Amano's career by emphasizing the versatility of his art. Visitors are greeted by the posters designed by Amano for this year's festival edition, which feature the women of Puccini, Turandot, Tosca and Madama Butterfly, and anticipate the exhibition concept. The works from his studios in Tokyo and New York have been collected with the aim of telling the story of the versatility of this master of illustration and character design, highlighting the links with Eastern but also Western culture.

Amano started his career in the 1970s with Tatsunoko Productions, working on series with landmark characters such as those already mentioned, and many others such as Gatchaman, Kyashan, Pinocchio, the Maga Bee. The first section is devoted to this part of his career, highlighting his cultural and working roots.

The path continues with his works as a freelance illustrator, like the outstanding plates he made for Kikuchi's Vampire Hunter D, and the playful visual experimentation of the animated film Angel's Egg made with Mamoru Oshii, which the artist pointed out to us as his favorite anime among his works: “As a child, I liked to watch Bambi and Lilli and the Tramp. Among the anime I worked on, [as my favorite ed] I would say Angel's Egg”.

The last three sections of the exhibition, spanning from the 1980s to the present, are titled Icons, Game Master, and Free Spirit. Icons celebrates Yoshitaka Amano's most iconic and influential works, highlighting his interactions with Western pop culture. In 1997 Amano opened his studio in New York and began to explore the new possibilities that the United States could offer him.

His collaboration with Neil Gainman, Sandman: Dream Hunters, is certainly among the most successful. An encounter that Amano described to Domus: “Working with Neil was my first project in the United States, and it was a lot of fun. What left a strong impression on me was his talent and the sense of love that flows in his works.” The episode is published in the U.S. in 1999 on Dc Comics' Vertigo label.

Western culture also comes up again in the alternative covers created for famous American comic books-such as Batman, Superman, Harley Quinn, Elektra, Wolverine, and many others – and in the prestigious collaboration with Vogue Italia in 2020, which chronicles Amano's sophisticated approach to fashion. The then editor Emanuele Farneti had involved the Japanese artist in the magazine's project aimed at reducing the environmental impact of photo shoots: the first illustrated cover of Vogue Italia is actually signed by Yoshitaka Amano.

Game Master, the section focusing on acrylic on paper plates made by Amano for Final Fantasy, is the one that will excite true videogame fans the most. From the first chapter in 1987 to Final Fantasy XVI, the evolution of the game's graphic identity is shown, with parallels between the original drawings and the final packaging of each edition.

If the Final Fantasy saga is the undisputed protagonist of this part of the exhibition, there is no shortage of special extras, such as the very rare arcade booth of Esh's Arumilla. Made with laserdisc technology, the one on display is one of the very few functioning copies in the world, and recounts Amano's debut in the world of video games in 1984. He is in fact the character designer of the Funai Gakken branded video game.

The last section, Free Spirit, celebrates Amano as a comprehensive, globally recognized artist, from his early illustrations for S-F Magazine to his iconic Candy Girls painted with automotive paints.

The exhibition layout was curated by POLI.design, whose president Anna Barbara told us about the development, emphasizing the variety of aspects considered in relation to Amano's career: his linguistic and experimental freedom, the dimension of the biographical memory of the generations that have been passionate about the maestro's characters, the figure of Puccini who instilled the idea of a musical score as a trace for the construction of the concept.

The exhibition, which can be visited until March 1, 2025 at the Fabbrica del Vapore in the Ex Cisterne space, is accompanied by a busy program of events, which in the words of Anna Barbara, “starts from the idea that true masters, and Yoshitaka Amano undoubtedly is one, are inexhaustible sources of inspiration not only within their own worlds, but also in an undisciplined way in other worlds.”

The events will address different themes and techniques, with strong artistic cross-pollinations to engage the audience of enthusiasts and creatives: from the theme of the feminine and beauty beyond aesthetics, to the super hero-super human dichotomy, to the city and the relationship between virtual and real.

Opening image: Yoshitaka Amano  © Alessandro Bremec