Yoshitaka Amano × HYDE Exhibition - A Miraculous Collaboration Between a Legendary Illustrator and a Popular Artist!

Yoshitaka Amano × HYDE Exhibition - A Miraculous Collaboration Between a Legendary Illustrator and a Popular Artist! 0

“Yoshitaka Amano × HYDE Exhibition Fate and Corruption (Tenmei to Haitoku) ~Nippon Evolution~” was held at Laforet Museum Harajuku, Tokyo of collaborative works between Japan’s two representative artists: illustrator Yoshitaka Amano and musician HYDE.

Amano and HYDE appeared at a presentation held for the media on Aug. 8 at Laforet Museum Harajuku prior to the opening of the exhibit. They explained how they ended up collaborating together and introduced the works on display.

Yoshitaka Amano (left), HYDE (right)

First, let’s begin with a short introduction for people who are not familiar with these two artists.

Yoshitaka Amano is a popular illustrator who drew illustrations for most of the works in the fantasy RPG series Final Fantasy. He is also a legendary artist to old school anime fans for his character designs in numerous TV anime such as Time Bokan, Yatterman, and Science Ninja Team Gatchaman, and many fans are charmed by his illustrations that are drawn with a distinctive, yet subtle touch. In recent years, other than game- and anime-related activities, he has also been involved with stage art and apparel design.

HYDE is a musician who made many hit songs as the vocalist of the rock band L’arc-en-Ciel and the rock unit Vamps. He works on solo projects using the stylization, HYDE. He is also actively performing abroad, having successfully completed a world tour of 17 live performances in 14 cities in 10 countries. Including his solo concert as the first Japanese musician performing at New York Madison Square Garden in 2012, his overseas concerts have attracted a total of 450,000 spectators. He is one of the leading figures in the modern Japanese music scene.

At the media presentation, they were first asked about the story behind their collaboration, to which Amano told the reporters, “I felt that the characters I draw have an atmosphere similar to HYDE’s.” He went on to say, “I was thinking that maybe we could do something together.” On the other hand, HYDE, who was originally a fan of Amano’s, commented, “It was an honor. I immediately replied, ‘If I could be of any use’.” And so it was decided that Amano would create illustrations based on HYDE.

“When I met Amano in person for the first time, I thought he was a bit scary, but it turned out he was a very kind and good person,” HYDE explained. Amano then talked about work for the collaboration: “These pictures of HYDE, I drew all of them within a month. So for that one month, all I had in my head was HYDE.” With a slightly embarrassed smile, HYDE then commented, “Next time, it’d be nice to drink with Amano.”

The focus of the works is on “fate and corruption.” The one who came up with these words was HYDE, and he expressed his thoughts behind the words: “I felt this was an event I didn’t want to end in Japan, but wanted to take overseas.” He continued, “I thought, if we were to take this abroad, having some Japanese in the title might sound catchier to the people there.” “Amano and tenshi (angel) contain the same kanji character, the character for “sky, heaven” and I wanted to put that in the title. I also wanted to combine words that express the antagonism of light and dark with our names,” HYDE further explained. According to HYDE, that is how the title “Fate and Corruption” (TENmei to HAItoku) was born.

When asked about their impressions on the exhibition, Amano stated that, “If a person has something special about him, images just keep popping up in your head. It felt as if the world was expanding. I’m glad I did it.” HYDE followed up with, “There are a lot of works that are so cool that I myself want to go see them. I can feel the enthusiasm from them. Please come and take a look.” The two of them were smiling during the whole presentation, and their smiles said much more than words could about their confidence in their works.

In the exhibit, pictures of angels and devils with HYDE as their motif are lined up in the display hall. Of course, all of them are drawn by Amano. With the heavy, requiem-like music in the background, holograms and figures are displayed that focus on the illustrations. The total number of works is above 100.

Amano thought he should build up a world for the exhibition that all works share, and he only started creating after he drew a fictional story in his head. The story he created is as follows:

>In 23rd century Japan, the various idiosyncrasies born as a result of a huge development in the means of information transfer created a great diversity in values. This brought on an overflowing amount of discrimination and prejudice, which resulted in physical and mental violence. One day, a man loses his life in the disarrayed Tokyo. After undergoing the trial ceremony of the seven monks who call themselves the Creators in the spiritual world, for some reason, the man was reincarnated in two different forms, two conflicting beings: an angel and a demon. The angel tries to build a stable society with rules as its cornerstone, but the demon raises doubt toward the angel’s unitary happiness, and rises up in revolt. The angel and the demon, in believing in their fates, “betray” the other, and guide Tokyo and Japan toward a new evolution...which one is “right” and which one is “wrong”? The curtains of the Apocalypse open. (extracted from the display panel “Introduction”)

This exhibition was held until Aug. 31. Since it looks like they are planning to take the exhibition abroad, we encourage fans to wait for more information on this soon.

“Yoshitaka Amano × HYDE Exhibition Fate and Corruption (Tenmei to Haitoku) ~Nippon Evolution~” Event Page

© Yoshitaka Amano × HYDE Exhibition Execution Committee. All rights reserved.

This is a Tokyo Otaku Mode original article.

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