Yoshitaka Amano is a Japanese visual artist, character designer, illustrator, a scenic designer for theatre and film, and a costume designer. He first came into prominence in the late 1960s working on the anime adaptation of Speed Racer. Amano later became the creator of iconic and influential characters such as Gatchaman, Tekkaman, Honeybee Hutch, and Casshern. In 1982 he went independent and became a freelance artist, finding success as an illustrator for numerous authors, and worked on best-selling novel series, such as The Guin Saga and Vampire Hunter D. He is also known for his commissioned illustrations for the popular video game franchise Final Fantasy.
Amano in 2006
Amano's design work for early anime series such as Gatchaman drew inspiration from Western comic books.
Amano's work on the Final Fantasy series, as with his science fiction and fantasy illustrations, is known for its wispy lines and vibrant use of color.
Tekkaman: The Space Knight
Tekkaman: The Space Knight is a Japanese anime produced by Tatsunoko Productions in 1975. A short-lived English adaptation aired in the U.S. in 1984. The first 13 episodes streamed in Japanese with English subtitles on Anime Sols as of spring 2013 exclusively in North America, but the website is now defunct. All 26 episodes were streaming on Viewster in several countries until the website went defunct in 2019. In the 1990s, it was followed by the much more popular Tekkaman Blade, which was dubbed in the U.S. by Saban as Teknoman.
Italian DVD cover of Tekkaman The Space Knight.