; born February 10, 1957, in Kōchi) is a Japanese illustrator and

manga artist A manga artist, also known as a mangaka (), is a Cartoonist, comic artist who writes and/or illustrates manga. Most manga artists study at an art college or manga school or take on an apprenticeship with another artist before entering the indus ...

. During his career, Yamada has branched out into making book covers, character design for video games, theatre

costume Costume is the distinctive style of dress and/or makeup of an individual or group that reflects class, gender, occupation, ethnicity, nationality, activity or epoch—in short, culture. The term also was traditionally used to describe typica ...

and

set design Scenic design, also known as stage design or set design, is the creation of scenery for theatrical productions including plays and musicals. The term can also be applied to film and television productions, where it may be referred to as prod ...

, concept design for live-action film, and more, though his passion continues to be working on manga. He is known for delicate images reminiscent of suiboku and depiction of fantasy subjects. His most popular work is perhaps with '' The Twelve Kingdoms'' franchise. He won the

Seiun Award The is a Japanese speculative fiction award given each year for the best science fiction works and achievements during the previous calendar year. Organized and overseen by , the awards are given at the annual Nihon SF Taikai, Japan Science Fic ...

in 1996 in the Best Artist category. He currently lives in

Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...

Early life and education

Yamada was born on February 10, 1957, in Kōchi, Japan and attended Kochi Nishi High School. He entered

Osaka University The , abbreviated as UOsaka or , is a List of national universities in Japan, national research university in Osaka, Japan. The university traces its roots back to Edo period, Edo-era institutions Tekijuku (1838) and Kaitokudō, Kaitokudo (1724), ...

to study economics and published his debut comic, ''Padan Padan'' ('), in 1981 in the magazine ''Monthly OUT''. He published ''Mermaid Changer'' (') the following year. Prior to finishing his degree, he left university to pursue a career in illustration.

Career

Yamada has produced art and character design for a wide range of media, including manga, video games, novels, and anime. Among his best known works are the art for

Fuyumi Ono is a Japanese novelist best known for writing , which was adapted into a popular anime series. She is married to Yukito Ayatsuji, the author of the horror novel '' Another''. Biography Ono is married to , a mystery novelist who writes under th ...

's '' The Twelve Kingdoms'' series and Mizuno Ryo's '' Record of Lodoss War''. He has worked on anime such as ''

RahXephon is a Japanese anime television series created and directed by Yutaka Izubuchi. The series follows 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 li ...

'' and the adaptation of ''The Twelve Kingdoms''. He designed for

PlayStation is a video gaming brand owned and produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), a division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. Its flagship products consists of a series of home video game consoles produced under the brand; it also consists ...

games '' Saiyuki: Journey West'' and '' Front Mission 3''; various ''

Might and Magic ''Might and Magic'' is a series of role-playing video games in the science fantasy genre developed by New World Computing, which in 1996 became a subsidiary of The 3DO Company. The original ''Might and Magic'' series ended with the closure of t ...

'' and ''

Wizardry Wizardry may refer to: * ''Wizardry'' (video game series), role-playing video game series, originally published by Sir-Tech ** '' Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord'', the first game of the series, released in 1981 * ''Wizardry'' (The ...

'' titles on

PC Engine The TurboGrafx-16, known in Japan as the , is a home video game console developed by Hudson Soft and manufactured by NEC. It was released in Japan in 1987 and in North America in 1989. The first console of the fourth generation, it launched ...

; and '' Mystic Ark'' and ''

Castlevania ''Castlevania'' (), known in Japan as is a gothic horror action-adventure video game series and media franchise created by Konami. The series is largely set in the castle of Count Dracula, the arch-enemy of the Belmont clan of vampire hunters. ...

'' on

Super Famicom The Super Nintendo Entertainment System, commonly shortened to Super Nintendo, Super NES or SNES, is a Fourth generation of video game consoles, 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan, 1991 in No ...

. Yamada worked on concept design for the live-action film '' Shinobi: Heart Under Blade'' and was

art director Art director is a title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, live-action and animated film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supe ...

for ''Koga Ninjutsu''. He has also created covers for English-to-Japanese translations, including for '' The Dark Tower'' by

Stephen King Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author. Dubbed the "King of Horror", he is widely known for his horror novels and has also explored other genres, among them Thriller (genre), suspense, crime fiction, crime, scienc ...

. Additionally, he did

and

for the theatre show ''

GEAR A gear or gearwheel is a rotating machine part typically used to transmit rotational motion and/or torque by means of a series of teeth that engage with compatible teeth of another gear or other part. The teeth can be integral saliences or ...

''. In 1996, he won the

for Best Artist. In the 2010s, he was a visiting professor in

Kyoto Seika University is a private university in Kyoto, Iwakura, Kyoto, Kyoto, Kyoto, Japan. The school's predecessor was founded in 1968, and it was chartered as a university in 1979. The school is noted for its faculties of manga and anime, and being involved in ...

's manga department. Yumi Tamura has cited Yamada's work as one of her inspirations.

Style

Yadama's style is heavily influenced by Chinese

gongbi ''Gongbi'' () is a careful realist technique in Chinese painting, the opposite of the interpretive and freely expressive '' xieyi'' (寫意 'sketching thoughts') style. The name is from the Chinese ''gong jin'' meaning 'tidy' (meticulous brush ...

and by the chivalry of medieval European artwork.

Phoenix Television Phoenix Television is a majority State-owned enterprise, state-owned television network that offers Standard Chinese, Mandarin and Cantonese-language channels that serve mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and other markets with substantial C ...

pointed out that his work contains elements from

Gustave Doré Paul Gustave Louis Christophe Doré ( , , ; 6January 1832 – 23January 1883) was a French printmaker, illustrator, painter, comics artist, caricaturist, and sculptor. He is best known for his prolific output of wood-engravings illustrati ...

's print lines and

Alphonse Mucha Alfons Maria Mucha (; 24 July 1860 – 14 July 1939), known internationally as Alphonse Mucha, was a Czech painter, illustrator, and graphic artist. Living in Paris during the Art Nouveau period, he was widely known for his distinctly stylized ...

's "decorative images" and describes his style as combining European swords and magic and the "delicacy of Eastern culture." In 2018,

Sohu Sohu, Inc. () is a Chinese Internet company headquartered in the Sohu Internet Plaza in Haidian District, Beijing. Sohu and its subsidiaries offer advertising, a search engine (Sogou.com), on-line multiplayer gaming (ChangYou.com) and other se ...

echoed many of these sentiments and described him as having a "unique fantasy style... with delicate brushstrokes."

Early life and education

Career

Style

Selected works

Anime

Manga and novels

Video games

References

Related links